Supreme Court Weekly Round Up

Supreme Court Weekly Round Up: Week Commencing September 28 to October 4, 2020

'CLAT 2020 Is Erroneous, Faulty, Defective And Discriminatory': Plea In SC Seeks CLAT Retest [Read Petition]

'CLAT 2020 Is Erroneous, Faulty, Defective And Discriminatory': Plea In SC Seeks CLAT Retest [Read Petition]: A writ Petition has been filed in Supreme Court seeking a direction to National Law School Consortium to re-conduct the Common Law Admission Test 2020.The Petition filed by Five CLAT 2020

‘Choose Hindi or English’: Woman asks where is Tamil on IRCTC portal

‘Choose Hindi or English’: Woman asks where is Tamil on IRCTC portal

Southern Railway officials said that while the matter does not come under their purview, it has, however, been 'flagged' with IRCTC, the authorised e-ticketing agency.

Published: 04th October 2020 03:58 PM 

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Rail passengers and several politicians in Tamil Nadu have urged the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and the Indian Railways to introduce a Tamil language option for the passengers within the State to receive text alerts in their language while booking tickets.

At present, the passengers can choose whether to receive text alerts regarding bookings in English or Hindi. On October 2, L Muthulakshmi booked a ticket for Madurai to Chennai journey, and received all alerts in Hindi.

“I neither understand Hindi or English. There should be an option to receive text alerts in Tamil,” she demanded. Subsequently, DMK MPs Kanimozhi and Thamizhachi Thangapandian, and PMK founder S Ramadoss condemned the Indian Railways for allegedly imposing Hindi in the State.

Thangapandian urged the railways to upgrade the system to send text alerts in local languages of the respective States. Kanimozhi pointed out that most people in the State could not read Hindi, and she also warned of serious consequences if such incidents repeated. 

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, whose party is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre, alleged that SMSes for e- tickets in Tamil Nadu are "being sent in Hindi for the last two days."

"This is a planned imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people. The Railways should stop this," he said in a tweet.

He demanded action against those behind this and urged that all Central government related announcements in Tamil Nadu must be released only in Tamil and English.

Southern Railway officials said that while the matter does not come under their purview, it has, however, been 'flagged' with IRCTC, the authorised e-ticketing agency.

Clarifying on the issue, Southern Railway said that the passenger had chosen ‘Hindi’ language option while registering in IRCTC portal on September 30. “She received system generated messages in Hindi as the passenger’s preferred language was indicated as Hindi,” it added.

(With PTI inputs)

Government doctors in Tamil Nadu revive pay hike demand

Government doctors in Tamil Nadu revive pay hike demand

Government doctors in the State have revived their demand for a pay hike on par with that of Central government doctors.

Published: 05th October 2020 04:07 AM |

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Government doctors in the State have revived their demand for a pay hike on par with that of Central government doctors. The doctors under Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) had last year staged a massive protest with several demands including the implementation of Government Order (G.O.) 354, which envisages pay hike.

They withdrew the strike following the intervention of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and Chief Minister Palaniswami. Now, they have revived the demand after the government recently entitled all retired chief secretaries and additional chief secretaries of the State government to employ a servant at home by paying a salary of Rs 10,000 per month.

“The IAS Officers Association requested for such allowance for retired IAS officers after the Karnataka government granted it to the officers there. The Tamil Nadu government immediately accepted their demand and issued a G.O. We request the government to do the same with the request of government doctors here. We have been demanding a pay hike on par with that of Central government doctors for the last three years,” said Dr S Perumal Pillai, DME Secretary, Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association.

Pillai added the special payout of a month’s salary to doctors along with others on Covid duty in government hospitals, announced by the CM, had also not been received. Meanwhile, Dr G Ravindranath, General Secretary, Doctors Association for Social Equality said, “Tamil Nadu government doctors are lauded for saving lives and for the best Covid treatment. But they are not being appreciated with fulfilling their long-pending demand.

The government has also not paid Rs 2 lakh for doctors infected with Covid.” The Health Minister had then said the State government doctors could not compare their salary with that of Central government doctors as the latter were not allowed to do private practice. However, the doctors here said that they were ready to stop private practice of their salary was raised.

‘Corona tablet’ costs bus passenger her gold chain in Tamil Nadu

‘Corona tablet’ costs bus passenger her gold chain in Tamil Nadu

Panic spread by coronavirus has become a fertile ground for a few miscreants to prey on unsuspecting people.

Published: 05th October 2020 04:13 AM 

By Vignesh V

Express News Service

MADURAI: Panic spread by coronavirus has become a fertile ground for a few miscreants to prey on unsuspecting people. The plight of this elderly woman, who lost her gold chain weighing 2.5 sovereigns, during a bus journey testifies this.

Rajammal was on the way to her daughter’s house in Austinpatti in a government bus on Friday when a co-passenger allegedly drugged her and robbed her gold chain. The woman was given a tablet by the man claiming that it would help fight off Covid infection.

Police said that the 65-year-old woman, staying with her son in Balan Nagar of Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram, boarded the bus to Puliyankulam in Austinpatti from MGR bus stand on Friday. “While on the way, the co-passenger befriended her and told her to keep the gold chain, she was wearing, in her bag before giving her a tablet,” they said. 

A little while after taking the tablet, the woman started feeling sick. Taking advantage of the situation, the co-passenger asked her to get down at Thirunagar 3rd bus stop, three stops ahead of her destination and bought her a cup tea. Later, he also helped her board another bus to Puliyankulam.

Special Sub Inspector of Police of Austinpatti, Gopalakrishnan, said that the man could have stolen the gold chain when they got down at Thirunagar. “It took the woman more than 12 hours to get back to normal condition,” he said.

The woman lodged a complaint with Austinpatti police on Saturday. Though the incident happened in the city limit, the district police registered a case under Section 420 Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Austinpatti. “The case will be transferred to the city police later,” sources added.

TN law University wins Nani Palkhivala moot court competition

TN law University wins Nani Palkhivala moot court competition

The entire event was organised online involving over 50 judges, and 200 students from 16 teams as participants and organisers.

Published: 05th October 2020 04:15 AM 

Justice M M Sundresh, (top left) on Sunday addressing the session | Express

By Express News Service

THANJAVUR: The team from Tamil Nadu National Law University, Tiruchy won the 16th Nani Palkhivala moot court competition organised by SASTRA Law School through video conference. The team bettered Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab.

The entire event was organised online involving over 50 judges, and 200 students from 16 teams as participants and organisers. The moot was watched by over 1,000 people. A five-bench jury headed by Justice M M Sundresh, Judge of Madras High Court and comprising former judge R V Easwar, Additional Solicitor Generals of India N Venkataraman, Vikramjit Banerjee and AAG of Tamil Nadu Arvindh Pandian adjudged the winners and runners.

The winning and runner-up teams were awarded trophies, certificates and cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and `Rs 50,000 respectively. Student participants were presented a copy of the book Nani Palkhivala - Courtroom Genius, published by SASTRA which is celebrating Nani Palkhivala Centenary Year.

Ashwani Nag , Sridatta Charan of Symbiosis Law School Pune were presented the best speaker and researcher awards respectively. Justice M M Sundresh in his address said “understanding tax law is akin to understanding economy which is to be understood from a society’s underlying structure.”

COVID-19 spike in Chennai as 12 of 15 corporation zones record positive case growth

COVID-19 spike in Chennai as 12 of 15 corporation zones record positive case growth

Currently, 761 streets in Chennai have active positive cases and in this, there are only ten containment zones.

Published: 04th October 2020 07:30 PM 

A medic collects samples from a woman for COVID-19 test. (File Photo | PTI)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: After slowing down its infectious march through the city for a brief period, the coronavirus seems to be charging ahead once again. The city has been recording more than 1,200 cases daily for over a week, with 12 out of the 15 corporation zones reporting a positive case growth.

It may be noted that the city had reported fewer than 1,000 cases daily for almost three consecutive weeks in September, before the daily count breached the 1,000-mark in the last week of that month. Corporation officials, citing the relaxations in lockdown measures, termed the surge as “natural”. “Now the whole city is almost opened up for economic activities.

People commute by buses and visit places of worship. Restaurants too are functioning. So, cases will naturally go up,’’ an official said. In the last seven days, Thiruvottiyur, which had recorded fewer cases at the end of August, has been witnessing the highest daily case growth of 9.6 per cent among all zones, followed by Tondiarpet with 5.4 per cent growth.

Similarly, Madhavaram and Alandur, too, are recording daily case growth of 5.4 and 5.3 per cent respectively. Incidently, Alandur is the only zone to have percentage of active cases in double digits (10 per cent). After a brief fall in new cases, almost all zones in North Chennai are recording a surge. Against the 80 active cases at the end of August, Manali currently has 250 active cases, while the figure has risen from 500 to 800 in Tondiarpet.

Only 7% of Chennai’s total caseload now active

The corporation official said that from now on, measuring the mortality rate is the key to assess how well the containment strategies and the public health system are working. “We trace symptomatic cases early and send them for treatment. Asymptomatic people too are tested at fever camps. The healthcare intervention is strong,’’ a corporation health department official said.

Allowing inter-district travel and removing e-pass system could have accelerated the infections, suspected the official. “Now, thousands of people are commuting to Chennai for work on a daily basis. It is hard to keep track of the infection in this scenario,’’ added the official. On the bright side, only 7 per cent of city’s total caseload is active while as much as 91 per cent of the patients have been recovered. The mortality rate in the city remains just below 2 per cent.

Six victims had no co-morbid conditions

Among the deceased, six didn’t have co-morbid conditions. A 33-year-old man from Salem was the youngest to die without co-morbidities on the day. The patient was admitted on September 26 in  Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital, Salem. He tested positive and died on due to Covid Pneumonia, respiratory failure, the bulletin said. 

Royapuram too now has close to 1,000 cases.

Corporation officials say that the reflection in the positive case growth is natural. “Now, the whole city is almost opened for economic activities. People commute by buses and places of worship, restaurants too are functioning. So, cases may naturally go up," the official said.

The official added that measuring the mortality rate is the key to assess the containment strategies and how the public health system works.

“We trace symptomatic patients early and send them for treatment. Asymptomatics too are tested for COVID in fever camp nowadays. The healthcare intervention is strong," the Corporation health department official said.

Officials also say that the inter-district travel and removal of the pass system may have accelerated positive cases in the city.

“Thousands of people commute to Chennai now for work on a daily basis. It is hard to track the infection spread in such a case. People may have been too cautious," added the official.

While 91 per cent people have recovered in Chennai, the active cases are at seven per cent, as a steady number of people over a thousand are getting discharged every day. Meanwhile, the mortality rate is just below two per cent.

Currently, 761 streets in Chennai have active positive cases and in this, there are only ten containment zones.