L-2 spouses in US may no longer need to apply for work authorisation

L-2 spouses in US may no longer need to apply for work authorisation

Lubna.Kably @timesgroup.com

09.11.2021

A lawsuit contesting that L-2 visa holders do not need a separate employment authorisation (or work permit) to be eligible for job opportunities or self-employment in the US has yielded results. In the coming days, it is likely that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will announce that L-2 visa holders no longer need to apply for an employment authorisation document (EAD). Dependants such as the spouse of an L-1 visa holder (who is in the US on an intra-company transfer) are given the L-2 visa. H-4 visas are held by dependents including the spouse of the H-1B visa holder.

The lawsuit had contended that L-2 visa holders are eligible for employment ‘incident to status’. In other words, they should be eligible to work without a separate work permit application. However, USCIS required that the L-2 holders apply for a work permit – this often resulted in a job loss, as the wait for the application to be adjudicated took 10-15 months. “We have hammered out the terms of the settlement agreement,” Jonathan Wasden, partner at Wasden Banias, who represented the 16 plaintiffs, told TOI.

These plaintiffs, majority of them Indian nationals, are holding an L-2 or H-4 dependent visa. They had contested that as the immigration agency had violated the law, they found themselves in the precious situation of being unemployed. “In response to our lawsuit (Shergill v/s Mayorkas) the immigration agency will change its policy. L-2 visa holders will no longer need to apply for an EAD. Some H-4 visa holders will be eligible for auto extension of their EAD if they had valid status that lasted longer than the EAD,” explained Wasden.

TOI had earlier reported on the filing of this lawsuit.

Malaysia gives nod to Covaxin, may soon allow Indian tourists

Malaysia gives nod to Covaxin, may soon allow Indian tourists

Aradhana Takhtani

09.11.2021

India and Malaysia seem to be set for a bumper tourism trade with both nations reopening borders, easing immigration curbs, and the latter finally announcing its acceptance of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. On Saturday, Malaysia’s health minister Khairy Jamaluddin not only gave India’s Covaxin a thumbs up, but also congratulated India “for successfully producing the homemade vaccine”. Just a week prior to reopening tourist hotspot Langkawi to foreign tourists on November 15, Malaysia’s Covaxin approval is being seen as a significant move.

India, already ahead in its tourism diplomacy, has received two chartered flights full of tourists from Malaysia since the reopening of her borders from October 15. Talking to TOI, Indian high commissioner to Malaysia, B N Reddy, said: “There’s been a 150% increase in tourist visa applications from Malaysians this week compared to mid-October 2021. We anticipate this number to increase based on queries received.” In June 2021, India had announced upto five lakh free visas for international tourists on first-come-first-basis. The Indian high commission has presented a detailed proposal to Malaysia on launching a tourism bubble arrangement between the two nations.

Pandemic pushes IAS dreams to the backburner

 Pandemic pushes IAS dreams to the backburner

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

09.11.2021

The dream of civil services of N Selvakumar, a mechanical engineering student from Tirunelveli, was put on standby in March 2020. He had just joined IAS coaching in August 2019, but the Covid-19 pandemic put a pause on his preparations. Unable to pay for food and accommodation owing to the financial crisis post pandemic, he returned home.

Nivedha, 23, from central Tamil Nadu, had to skip the IAS exam this year as her preparation was not up to the mark after physical coaching classes were suspended.

Anna Nagar, the civil service coaching hub in Chennai, which attracted students from as far as Rajasthan, Kashmir, Kerala and other states wears a deserted look now even after coaching institutes reopened for physical coaching around two months ago. The neighbourhood was home to more than 20 coaching institutes enrolling 6,000 to 7,000 students every year before the pandemic hit, now several smaller institutes have wrapped up operations as they could not afford to pay rent or employ trainers during the pandemic.

The entire industry that came up along with the coaching classes — from exclusive hostels for civil service aspirants, rental houses and catering services — are all affected. Except for a few, the majority of the hostels have less than 30% occupancy. Though some coaching centres and hostels have slashed their fees, still many are struggling to pay for the facilities after the pandemic led to economic distress in many families.

Of the 28,422 candidates who registered for the recently-held Union Public Service Commission’s civil services preliminary exam from Chennai, 53% were absent.

R K Sabarinathan, founder of Santhosh and Sabari IAS Academy in Shenoy Nagar, said enrolment in civil services coaching has come down by nearly 50% after the pandemic. “Many students default their fees due to financial stress. We cannot rent bigger halls to follow social distancing norms as the rent is high so we are conducting online classes now and hope to return to physical classes only next year,” he said.

But online classes leave gaps in learning, feels Selvakumar. “I could not clear my doubts like in physical classes with the trainers. The competitive environment for aspirants and guidance of seniors were missing in home preparation,” he said.

Nivedha, says women face a host of other issues. “Many women got married due to family pressure over the past year. The marriage age has come down to 22 again,” she said. And this socio-economic stress is being felt in the institutes that stand for an aspirational generation.

Though bigger coaching institutes like Shankar IAS Academy started physical classes, the number of enrolment is down by 40% compared to before the pandemic. “Those who adapted to the online mode of coaching before the pandemic have survived,” said S Chandru, academic head, Shankar IAS Academy in Anna Nagar. “It could take at least two years to return to normalcy,” Chandru said.

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Court directs Bar to frame rules to verify law degrees

Court directs Bar to frame rules to verify law degrees

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:09.11.2021

The Madras high court on Monday directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to consider and pass orders on a representation seeking to frame appropriate rules and guidelines to verify the genuineness of law degrees obtained by people during the enrollment process, in order to prevent those without proper qualification from enrolling as advocates.

A division bench of justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana and P Velmurugan passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by an advocate S Muthukumar from Madurai district.

In his petition, the petitioner stated that several people without any basic qualification are getting themselves enrolled as advocates and are cheating the courts as well as the people. He stated that the people who apply for law courses have started to obtain degrees without even attending the classes. Such practices would deteriorate the standards of the legal profession. Appropriate rules and guidelines should be framed by the Bar Council to verify the genuineness of the law degrees and to verify if an individual had undergone the course properly, he said.

HC quashes FIR against man for not wearing a mask

HC quashes FIR against man for not wearing a mask

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:09.11.2021

The Madras high court has quashed an FIR which was registered against a man who was seen roaming around without wearing masks during the Covid-19 lockdown at Tenkasi district in 2020. The court passed the order while hearing the petition filed by Ashik Ali, who sought to quash the FIR registered against him by the Puliyangudi police in the district.

The case of the prosecution is that when the prohibitory order under Section 144 CrPC was in effect due to Covid-19 pandemic, several people including the petitioner were seen roaming on the road without masks on April 24, 2020.

Justice G Ilangovan observed that though Section 144 CrPC was in effect during the relevant point of time, police ought to have warned the petitioner to go indoors, but instead they had registered a case. It is a trivial matter in which no offence of grievous nature is involved.

The judge observed that it is not the case of police that the petitioner was affected by Covid-19 at the time of occurrence. Therefore, the judge rejected the contention of the prosecution that the petitioner roaming in the road during the pandemic period would result in spread of the infection. Taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case and that the government has taken a decision to drop all these cases which have been registered against the public during the pandemic, the judge quashed the FIR .

Options fewer, but TN med students still go abroad

Options fewer, but TN med students still go abroad

Big Delay In NEET Results No Deterrent

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:09.11.2021

The delay in releasing National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) results and Covid-19 pandemic have limited the number of choices for students opting to study medicine in foreign universities, but many from Tamil Nadu have made light of the problems including travel restrictions and are still flying out to study medicine.

Of the 1.08 lakh students who appeared for NEET from Tamil Nadu this year, 58,922 qualified. In pre-Covid times, educational consultants say, around 5,000 students from Tamil Nadu used to go abroad every year to study medicine.

With the cut-off for medical admissions expected to remain more or less the same as last year, many have opted for universities in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh.

A Sophiya Punithan of Chennai joined All American Institute of Medical Sciences in Jamaica. “The total cost including food, accommodation and tuition fees is approximately ₹49 lakh for five years. I am awaiting a visa to travel there this month,” she said, adding though she qualified in NEET she was not able to score high marks due to Covid-19.

Aakif Abdullah of Kayalpattinam in Tuticorin, who joined Tashkent Medical Academy in Uzbekistan and plans to travel before November 25, said he did not want to waste another year in NEET preparation.

Rajkumar of Puducherry, who has enrolled his son in National Pirogov Memorial Medical University at Vinnytsya in Ukraine, said, “We finalised the university even before the NEET results as the cut-off was very high last year.”

Universities in China and Russia used to attract a large number of students from the state. While medical universities in China are yet to admit foreign students, top universities in Russia have closed admissions. “Reputed universities like Kazan State Medical University closed admissions this year following the delay in releasing NEET results. Last year, we did admissions to 25 medical universities in Russia. This year, only four universities have kept admissions open,” said C Ravichandran, managing director of Study Abroad Educational Consultants.

D Subhas Chandra Bose, managing director of St Johns Educare India Private Limited said, interest among students to join medical universities abroad has increased compared to previous year. “Countries like Uzbekistan and Jamaica are giving visas for medical aspirants.”

R Sureshkumar, managing director of Chennai-based Truematics Overseas Education Consultancy, said the current batch had fewer options like Ukraine and Malaysia due to the delay in NEET results. “Students are not preferring universities which offer courses in online mode. Many have chosen different career options due to the pandemic.”

With the cut-off for admissions expected to remain more or less the same as last year, many have opted for universities in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Uzbekistan

Principle Of Initial Date Of Appointment Valid Principle To Determine Inter-Se Seniority In Absence Of Rules To Contrary : Supreme Court

Principle Of Initial Date Of Appointment Valid Principle To Determine Inter-Se Seniority In Absence Of Rules To Contrary : Supreme Court

Srishti Ojha

5 Nov 2021 11:23 AM

The Supreme Court of India has held that the principle of initial date of appointment or continuous officiation will be the valid principle to be considered for determination of inter se seniority in the absence of any rule or guidelines to the contrary.

A Bench compromising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Abhay Oka has made the observations while delivering its judgement in appeals challenging judgments of both the Delhi and Punjab & Haryana High Court raising the same question of determination of seniority inter se of the candidates selected in their respective Command at the stage when a combined All India seniority list is to be prepared.

The present case involves candidates/applicants for post of Group 'C' personnel of Military Engineering Services who were selected and placed in the select panel dated 29th June, 1983 of the Western Command but appointed after 5 years down the line were appointed from April 1987 to April 1988.

Their seniority was determined on the basis of their date of joining. Their grievance was that as they are the candidates of the select panel of June 1983, seniority of the candidates who are selected by direct recruitment is to be determined in the order of merit regardless of their date of joining and that they are entitled to claim seniority with their counterparts who were appointed out of the 1983 select panel.

The question to be decided by the Apex Court was " In case of applicants selected in June 1983 in Western Command, whether their date of joining service at a later stage will be a guiding factor when the combined All India seniority of the five Commands is prepared or seniority will relate back to their placement assigned in the select panel of June 1983 of Western Command regardless to the fact of their joining at a later stage, anterior to the period one has taken birth in the Department."

While delivering its judgement, the Bench took note of the fact that there is no rule or guidelines issued by the respondents including Union of India which may determine the inter se seniority when a combined seniority list at the All India level is to be prepared under the Scheme of 1971 Rules.

Further, the Bench noted that the respondents were taking assistance of Office Memorandum of DoPT dated 3rd July, 1986 which deals with the determination of seniority of direct recruits who were selected and placed in one and the same select panel to be determined by the order of merit in the select list and those who are selected in the earlier selection will remain senior to such persons who were appointed in the later selection.

Taking note of the above mentioned points, the Bench therefore observed that  "We are also of the view that in the matter of adjudging seniority of the candidates selected in one and the same selection, placement in the order of merit can be adopted as a principle for determination of seniority but where the selections are held separately by different recruiting authorities, the principle of initial date of appointment/continuous officiation may be the valid principle to be considered for adjudging inter se seniority of the officers in the absence of any rule or guidelines in determining seniority to the contrary."

The Bench has upheld the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal whereby it observed that while adjudging seniority in silent in determining inter se seniority of the Commands at All India level, the only possibility and the rationale rule would be to have their seniority reckoned from the date of entering into service when he is compared to the person who belonged to yet another Command

According to the Tribunal, it would be illogical if the incumbent who was appointed earlier is pushed down below the persons who were later appointed as in the present case after almost 4 to 5 years of the select panel being published in June 1983 and has not even taken birth in the Department are allowed to claim seniority anterior to the date of joining service.

The Bench has also upheld the order of the Delhi High Court where it expressed its conformity with the view expressed by the Tribunal so far as the determination of combined inter se seniority at the All India level is concerned,

With regard to the strong observations made by the Delhi High Court regarding the procedure being followed by the authority in making appointments from the select panel of June 1983 after 5 years of the selection, the Top Court as a matter of caution, observed that the authorities must be held accountable for their arbitrary action and save the institution from uncalled for litigation.

"The appointment of individual which was made at a later stage after five years from the select panel notified on 29th June, 1983 in the Western Command cannot be countenanced by this Court but in the peculiar circumstances, we are not inclined to open the dead issue at this stage, but as a matter of caution, we would like to observe that the authorities must be held accountable for their arbitrary action and save the institution from uncalled for litigation." the Bench said

Case title: Sudhir Kumar Atrey vs Union of India & ors