HC gets 4 new judges; women judges a record 14

HC gets 4 new judges; women judges a record 14

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:05.09.2021

The Madras high court is set to get four new judges, taking the sitting strength to 60 against the sanctioned strength of 75. With the induction of S Srimathi, the number of women judges in the court will go up to a record 14, highest in the country.

D Bharatha Chakravarthy, R Vijayakumar and Mohammed Shaffiq are the other three advocates recommended for elevation by the Supreme Court collegium.

Born on December 22, 1970, Vijayakumar was enrolled as an advocate on October 13, 1993. In 28 years of practising law, Vijayakumar specialised in civil, criminal, constitutional and service laws. He is a second-generation judge. His father Justice A Ramamurthy had been elevated to the high court from the subordinate judiciary in the state. Though he initially practised before the principal bench of the high court in Chennai, since August 2004, he shifted his practice to the Madurai bench of the court.

Bharatha Chakravarthy, enrolled as an advocate on July 15, 1993. He specialised in the original, appellate and criminal sides of the high court. In his 27 years of practice, he had also served as a public prosecutor for the Union territory of Puducherry for the high court.

This apart, he represented public sector undertakings such as the Puducherry Slum Clearance Board, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Sciences, Puducherry, and Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company Limited. He is also an accredited mediator and trainer empanelled with the Mediation & Conciliation Project Committee, Supreme Court of India.

Mohammed Shaffiq is a taxation law specialist who had served as government pleader for taxes.

Srimathi is also a Trichy Government Law College product, and enrolled as advocate in October 1989.

(Clockwise from top left): S Srimathi, R Vijayakumar, D Bharatha Chakravarthy

New IT rules to check fake news: Centre to Madras HC

New IT rules to check fake news: Centre to Madras HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:05.09.2021

The Union government about its new Information Technology Rules said they were necessitated by fake messages that go viral, resulting in riots, lynching and other heinous crimes.

In its counter-affidavit, which is identical to those filed in other high courts, the Central gocernment said the rules would also empower ordinary users of digital platforms to seek redressal for their grievance and command accountability in case of infringement of their right.

It said the new rules would help curb crime against dignity of women and sexual abuse of children.

The counter-affidavit is in response to a batch of PILs filed in various courts, including Madras high court, challenging the validity of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

In Madras high court, the pleas were moved by Carnatic vocalist T M Krishna and Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA).

270kg stale fish seized, destroyed; 13 samples sent for toxicity test

270kg stale fish seized, destroyed; 13 samples sent for toxicity test

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:05.09.2021

Food safety officials have seized more than 275 kg of stale fish from vendors and warehouses at the Kasimedu and Chintadripet markets. The fish were taken away in trucks and destroyed as per bio-medical waste norms, Chennai food safety designated officer Dr Satish said.

In addition, at least 13 samples were picked from vendors – big and small – as they were suspected to be laced with toxic preservatives such as formalin. The Tamil Nadu Food Safety Commissionerate had recently ordered inspection of fish markets following complaints from various sources including CM’s cells and collectorate about sale of stale fish and use of harmful preservatives, officials said. On Saturday, city teams inspected three major city markets in Kasimedu, Chintadripet and Nochikuppam. “Over 200kg of fish in Chitradripet storage units and another 75kg in Kasimedu stored in deep freezers or heaps of ice were found to be stale,” Dr Satish said.

Most of these fish varieties came from states such as Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal by trains to Chennai. “Fish have a short shelf life and must be stored in the right temperature during transport. Since they are expensive, vendors use excess amounts of chemicals such as formalin,” Dr Satish said.

Public health experts warn that formalin, a derivative of formaldehyde, called “human carcinogen” is used to preserve bodies. When food laced with formalin is eaten, it triggers a metabolic process and produces toxins. While in the short term it can cause digestive problems, it may eventually cause diseases such as cancer.

Schools to keep complaint box for girls

Schools to keep complaint box for girls

Allow Boys Also To Report Sexual Abuse, Say Activists

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:05.09.2021

Following recommendations from the Madras high court, the school education department has directed all schools to keep complaint boxes to receive complaints about sexual offences from girl students. However, child rights activists say boys are also affected by such offences and should be allowed to drop complaints in those boxes.

"While confirming an order of a Mahila court sentencing a pastor to five years of rigorous imprisonment under the Pocso Act for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 2019, the court opined that the female students were deterred from tendering complaints against teachers or school management regarding sexual offences considering future studies. The court recommended the state government to form a committee comprising of the district social welfare officer, secretary of the district legal services authority, a woman police officer not below the rank of superintendent of police, district educational officer, a woman psychiatrist and physician from government hospital," a letter from K Jeyalalitha, deputy secretary of the school education department, to the commissioner of school education said. It was forwarded to all the chief educational officers and district educational officers for taking action.

The court also directed to keep a complaint box regarding sexual offences in every educational institution and the key of the box should be kept under the control of the secretary, district legal services authority. "The box shall be inspected by the district legal services authority and district social welfare officer, once in a week and inquiry in the same, if prima-facie reveals any sexual offence, and forward it to the police station concerned," the letter further said.

"Apart from the above, it is suggested that the phone numbers of the jurisdictional all women police stations may also be displayed in the notice board of the educational institutions to create awareness and also seek police assistance, if required," it added.

It requested to take necessary action on the above directions of the high court of Madras and to form a committee to prevent sexual offences against girl students. The action taken report may be sent to the government at the earliest, the letter said.

Activists said the recommendations are not practical as it is not possible for district level officers to open the complaint boxes once a week in schools.

"We need a protection mechanism at schools. However, the complaint boxes should be gender neutral as boys are also equally affected. The boxes should be put up in a place where there are no CCTV cameras and accessible to children inside the school campus," said A Devaneyan, a child rights activist. He said children are facing different types of abuses including physical, emotional, sexual, neglect and online abuse. He said creating a child protection committee at school level will be a solution.

J Shyam Sundar, director of Institute of Social Education. said the complaint boxes may not encourage children to notify the sexual offence. "We need to empower the children to share their issues inside and outside the school freely at regular intervals. It will encourage children to share their issues rather than complaint boxes," he said.

TN to use 2,000kg temple jewels to generate income

TN to use 2,000kg temple jewels to generate income

Times of India Chennai

05.09.2021

TN will use 2,000kg of jewellery offered to temples over the past 10 years to generate funds for welfare schemes, reports Shanmughasundaram J. Gems and precious stones would be removed from small jewels and gold would be taken to government refinery in Mumbai for being converted into bars. The gold bars will then be deposited with banks to generate interest, HR & CE minister P K Sekar Babu said on Saturday. Big jewels will be retained for adorning deities. Three panels, headed by retired HC judges, will supervise the exercise. 

With Covid test stopover, Indian tourists can fly to Canada from Tuesday

With Covid test stopover, Indian tourists can fly to Canada from Tuesday

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai:05.09.2021

Fully vaccinated tourists from India can fly to Canada from September 7 as long as they stop in a third country to undergo an RT-PCR test. What has come to the rescue of passengers from India is that certain destinations in Middle East opened up to Indian tourists, so they can now transit from places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Turkey too relaxed entry norms and did away with 14-day mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated passengers from India.

“In the past several months, Middle Eastern airports too were shut to Indians. So the only option before students travelling to Canada was to transit via countries like Egypt and Mexico, where they underwent an RT-PCR test. With Canada open to tourists from India as well, a holiday travel itinerary with a short stop in Dubai or Abu Dhabi could be planned,’’ said Anoop Kanuga from Bathija Travels.

Fares for travel to Canada with a transit halt in a third country were comparatively cheap too. For travel this month-end and return in mid-October, the return fare on offer on the Mumbai-Toronto route was a transit halt in, say, London was priced at ₹80,000- ₹90,000. For a transit halt in Middle East, the economical options were available only 3-4 weeks down the line.

In case of Canada and Turkey, entry has been permitted only to passengers who have taken both doses of Covishield, at least 14 days before arrival. To enter Canada, passengers have to undergo a pre-arrival RT-PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before their arrival in the country.

Full report on www.toi.in

Some await vax certificate, others get incorrect ones

Some await vax certificate, others get incorrect ones

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Chennai:05.09.2021

Radhika got the first dose of the Covishield vaccine at Alwarpet in June, but didn’t get her certificate. Now, the Cowin portal says the 21-year-old hasn’t been vaccinated at all.

Several others are in a similar situation. One had to get vaccinated a third time because staff at a Greater Chennai Corporation centre didn’t enter his details into the portal while administering the first dose. Another person was given a Covishield certificate after taking a Covaxin shot. The civic body has been getting at least 50 such complaints almost daily since the vaccination drive began, said an official.

Reasons are aplenty. Lack of trained data entry operators, problems with network and Wi-Fi, website traffic and lack of adequate staff. “Even if the website isn’t working, the staff may ask the person to get vaccinated and may forget to upload the details on the portal later. Sometimes, they aren’t registered at all. And wrong entries by staff are common,” said a corporation official, adding that efforts are made to try and help those with grievances.

Residents say there should be a common portal or a specific grievance mechanism. Umanath V of Mogappair completed both doses of vaccination, but the portal didn’t accept the second dose because his age was entered wrongly. “I have been asked to go to Ripon Buildings for correction. Why are we faced with so much hassle for their mistake,” he asked. Bharath Ragunathan of Kodambakkam got a Covaxin shot with his Aadhaar card but a Covishield certificate and was asked for his PAN card to change it.

As per the Cowin portal, until September 3, 50.8 lakh people in Chennai have been vaccinated so far, but the corporation figure is 40.4 lakh.

Such wrong entries won’t affect actual numbers, said deputy commissioner (revenue and finance) Vishu Mahajan, adding that the Cowin portal was only for registration and while the actual numbers were entered on the e-win portal. “Our numbers may not match Cowin numbers until properly reconciled,” he said. A health department official said residents can get errors rectified at the vaccination centres concerned. “The state is helping us as we are sending details of all the wrong entries and corrections daily.”

Lack of trained data entry operators, problems with network and Wi-Fi, website traffic and lack of adequate staff among the reasons cited