Edu official nabbed for issuing fake job letters

Edu official nabbed for issuing fake job letters

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow:25.10.2021

The UP STF on Sunday arrested a suspended accounts officer in the education department who was accused of issuing fake appointment letters to teachers. The accused, Jagdish Prasad Srivastava, was on the run and carried a bounty of Rs 25,000.

STF said three FIRs were lodged against Jagdish in Deoria since 2018. Till now, 30 fake teachers have been arrested.

The STF took up the case on July 19, after senior block education officer, Birbal Ram, lodged an FIR regarding missing record books of 1987-1989 and 2010-11. He claimed that pages were missing from the record books of 2015-16. Ram had claimed in the FIR that he had lodged a complaint about the appointment of teachers through fraudulent means in two aided government schools in the district.

Inspector (STF) Satya Prakash Singh, who led the operation, said Jagdish was arrested from traffic trisection in Gorakhpur in the wee hours of Sunday.

Jagdish accused of tampering with record books, says STF

Inspector (STF) Satya Prakash Singh said Jagdish was employed in the BSA office in Deoria since 2010.

“Jagdish is accused of tampering with the record books. He used to tear the pages of records and then fed wrong entries on those missing pages,” said Singh. Soon after Jagdish’s name surfaced in internal probe, he was suspended. The record books contain details of all teachers deployed in a district. Sources in the STF said Jagdish made Rs 4 crore by issuing fake appointment letters.

Both divorced parents equally responsible for child’s education: Bombay high court

Both divorced parents equally responsible for child’s education: Bombay high court

Vaibhav.Ganjapure@timesgroup.com

Nagpur:25.10.2021

Both parents should be equally responsible for taking care of their children’s education expenses, ruled the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court after an18-year-old approached it, as he was finding it difficult to pay fees at IIT Dhanbad, where he has secured admission in the mechanical branch.

Dismissing the father’s contention that he is unable to raise the maintenance amount, as he has to look after his old mother, divorced sister and her daughter, the bench also held that “children must be the first priority of a parent in the matter of maintenance”. “Before the petitioner’s birth in 2001, his parents had separated and he has been residing with mother. Both of his parents are serving as teachers, each earning a salary of over Rs 48,000. It is, therefore, apparent that both are equally responsible to share maintenance as well as education expenses of their son,” a division bench comprising Justice Atul Chandurkar and Justice GN Sanap said.

“Even if it is assumed, for the sake of argument, that there are some other persons dependent on the father, the child must be his first priority in the matter of maintenance. If he fails to share the maintenance and expenses, then the mother would be required to bear the unnecessary burden,” the bench added, while asking the father to enhance the monthly maintenance to Rs 7,500 from Rs 5,000, with effect from October 27, 2015, the date on which the student had filed the petition.

The youngster, scoring 93% in Class X exam, had moved the HC after he was finding it difficult to pay the fees of the course at IIT Dhanbad. Till now, his education and other expenses were shouldered by his mother, while his father used to pay him Rs 5,000 a month, as fixed by a court. The petitioner had prayed for enhancing the maintenance to Rs 15,000, so that he could pay the college fees.

“It is seen that the petitioner, who happens to be a meritorious child, has been made to face this unfortunate situation. Considering his plight and needs, he was constrained to knock the judiciary’s doors,” the judges observed. The parents were granted divorce on July 21, 2009, through mutual consent. The petitioner contended that his father, teacher at a zilla parishad school, did not bother to maintain him nor took care of his well-being, after his birth. On the other hand, his mother faced difficulties while bringing him up with her meagre salary, the petition said.

Dismissing the father’s contention that he is unable to raise the maintenance amount, the bench also held that ‘children must be the first priority of a parent in the matter of maintenance’

HC directs AIIMS to pay ₹50 lakh to illegally terminated employee

HC directs AIIMS to pay ₹50 lakh to illegally terminated employee

New Delhi:25.10.2021

Delhi High Court has directed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to pay over Rs 50 lakh to a former employee, who was illegally terminated from service, noting that the man has been running from pillar to post for the last several years.

Raj Singh, who was appointed as a driver by AIIMS sometime in the 1980s, will also be paid Rs 19,900 as pension every month.

According to the petitioner, he was illegally terminated after which he approached the labour court. The labour court in December 1998 held that the termination of service was an unfair practice, Singh said in his petition.

The labour court’s order was challenged before various forums and finally the special leave petition (SLP), filed by AIIMS, was dismissed by the Supreme Court on June 3, 2016.

Singh, represented through advocate B T Kaul, served a legal notice to AIIMS authorities seeking compliance of the award and payment of the amount, but it was not paid. Thereafter, he approached the high court.

Justice Prathiba M Singh directed that the man be paid Rs 50,49,079 towards salary for the period from December 4, 1998, which is the date of award, and the date of superannuation, which is October 31, 2016, his leave encashment and his gratuity.

This amount was calculated by the authorities and the court was informed about it. However, the basis for the computation has still not been explained.

“However, considering that the petitioner has been running from pillar to post since 2016 when the Supreme Court dismissed the SLP till date, the respondents (authorities) are directed to pay the amounts in terms of order dated March 9, 2021, on or before October 30, 2021, to the petitioner,” the high court said in its October 12 order.

The court was also told by advocate Sonali Malhotra, representing AIIMS, that Singh was also required to deposit Rs 30,000 as a lifetime validation amount for being enrolled under the employees health scheme.

To this, the court said that in view of the long duration for which Singh has been fighting the present litigation, the amount of Rs 30,000 shall now be deposited on his behalf by AIIMS itself, in lieu of costs for the long-drawn litigation. PTI

Several hospitals reopen Covid-19 wards after uptick in number of cases

Several hospitals reopen Covid-19 wards after uptick in number of cases

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:25.10.2021

Even as the overall Covid situation remains stable, after the onset of the ongoing festival season, some hospitals have already started reporting an uptick in the number of cases.

While the absolute number of patients still remains low, many hospitals have reopened their Covid wards with some seeing even 20-25% more patients this week, as against a week ago. A doctor reported that while there were five cases in his hospital in the past two months, the previous week saw the same number. Some rise in infections is expected as mobility increases and a slackness creeps in, but cases are being watched carefully, the doctor said.

Most doctors maintain that vaccination has helped to keep the situation remain under control and serious cases are few. However, the next two-three weeks will be crucial and actual manifestation of the infection will begin after that, they say. “We are seeing a sudden increase in cases and have reopened the Covid ward this week, which we had to shut down earlier as there were hardly any cases and instead we were witnessing a rush of dengue cases,” says Dr Charu Dutt Arora, consultant physician and Covid-care expert at Asian Institute of Medical Sciences. Doctors also recommend increase in testing to assess the exact situation and keep a watch on any possible mutation. “Delhi is still largely stable but in last one week it has begun to trickle as there is a slight increase in number of cases,” says Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant (internal medicine) at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.

Pilots land flight on ‘wrong’ end of runway, get de-rostered

Pilots land flight on ‘wrong’ end of runway, get de-rostered

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:25.10.2021

Two SpiceJet pilots have been de-rostered after they landed a Hyderabad-Belgaum flight on the wrong end of the runway at the destination on Sunday. Aviation authorities have taken a stern view of this lapse as the crew allegedly did not report this and operated the DASH8 Q400 back to Hyderabad.

It was only when Airports Authority of India (AAI) reported this “serious incident” that SpiceJet informed the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) about the same, investigators probing the matter said. However, by then crucial cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recording at the time of this incident was gone as CVR records in a loop, keeping only the last two hours of conversation in the flight deck, they added. “Air traffic control had cleared SpiceJet DASH8 Q400 aircraft (VT-SQC) operating SG-3733 to land on runway 26 at Belgaum. However, the pilots landed on runway 08 (meaning, it touched down on the other end of the runway instead of the designated end),” said a senior official.

The aircraft landed at 11.30am on the unassigned runway. “While this was serious enough, the pilots committed an even bigger mistake by not informing about the same. They flew back to Hyderabad and went home. Only after AAI informed about this, did SpiceJet inform AAIB at 3.37pm (four hours after the wrong landing),” said a senior investigator. Belgaum-Hyderabad journey time is 1 hour and 40 minutes. Operating the return flight meant that the CVR recording at the time of wrong landing may have “washed out as the tape can record up to two hours only”.

The incident has been categorised as a serious one and AAIB will probe this. “Spice-Jet chief pilot spoke to AAIB officials and the latter have asked the crew of this flight to appear for investigation on Monday,” said a source.

Full report on www.toi.in

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‘Exercise of sexual choices does not give partner right to exploit woman’

‘Exercise of sexual choices does not give partner right to exploit woman’

New Delhi:25.10.2021

A woman exercising sexual autonomy through consent cannot be presumed to have also given consent to violate her reproductive rights, a Delhi court has said while denying bail to a man. The man was accused of raping a woman several times and forcing her to abort her pregnancy.

The court further said that the exercise of sexual choices does not vest any corresponding right in the partner to exploit a woman sexually, and she does not forsake her other rights, including reproductive rights, when she enters into a sexual relationship with a partner.

“While parties in a consensual relationship may be on an even keel when sexual relations are of a consistent and long duration, the act of contravening reproductive autonomy through multiple pregnancies and abortions takes away the element of consent, which may have been given for the sexual act itself,” said additional sessions judge Vishal Gogne in the order.

The court said that this was a “flawed construction” of the concept of bodily/sexual autonomy of a person/female. “The exercise of sexual choices by a woman does not vest any corresponding right in the partner to sexually exploit her. The woman does not forsake her other rights, including reproductive rights either, when she enters into a sexual relationship with a partner,” it added. TNN