Skin-to-skin contact not a must in Pocso offences: SC

Skin-to-skin contact not a must in Pocso offences: SC

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:19.11.2021

Holding that physical contact with a child with sexual intent could not be trivialised by excluding it from the ambit of sexual assault, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that skin-toskin touch is not essential and even indirect touch amounts to an offence under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. A bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi quashed two judgments of the Bombay HC which held that “skin to skin” contact was essential for proving offences under Pocso Act, and said such a narrow interpretation would defeat the purpose of the Act.

HC verdicts passed in Jan led to considerable outrage

The high court ruling had caused widespread consternation as it could have allowed offenders to exploit the “skin-to-skin” contact reference to escape the ambit of the law. “The act of touching any sexual part of the body of a child with sexual intent or any other act involving physical contact with sexual intent, could not be trivialised or held insignificant or peripheral so as to exclude such act from the purview of “sexual assault” under Section 7,” it said.

It noted use of gloves, cloth, or contact through clothes, or even use of condoms, could have been excluded in the light of the HC orders despite sexual intent. The HC verdicts passed in January led to considerable outrage and it was attorney general K K Venugopal who challenged the verdict before the Supreme Court saying the orders were outrageous and will have wider ramifications on 43,000 Pocso cases registered every year in the country.

Later on, the National Commission for Women and Maharashtra goverenment also filed an appeal against the HC verdicts. Allowing their pleas, the bench said that any narrow and pedantic interpretation of the provision which would defeat the object of the provision, cannot be accepted.

“Restricting the interpretation of the words “touch” or physical contact” to “skin to skin contact” would not only be a narrow and pedantic interpretation of the provision contained in Section 7 of the Pocso Act, but it would lead to an absurd interpretation of the said provision. “Skin to skin contact” for constituting an offence of “sexual assault” could not have been intended or contemplated by the legislature,” Justice Trivedi, who penned the judgment for herself and Justice Lalit, said.

NCW welcomes SC order in skin-to-skin case

New Delhi:

The National Commission for Women has welcomed the Supreme Court’s order setting aside the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench’s judgment that held that skin-to-skin contact was necessary for the offence of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. On February 4, NCW had filed an SLP before the Supreme Court challenging the judgment stating that it would set a dangerous precedent for women safety.

The commission while filing the SLP had raised concern that the order had far reaching ramifications for women and children, exposing them to a desensitised society. “The commission welcomes the SC verdict today and believes that the apex court’s decision in the matter will uphold the legal and constitutional safeguard for women and children,” NCW said in the statement. TNN

Tirumala caught in massive flood, flights to Tirupati hit

Tirumala caught in massive flood, flights to Tirupati hit

Amaravati\Tirupati:  19.11.2021

Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, was caught in a massive flood of unprecedented scale on Thursday, leaving hundreds of pilgrims stranded even as a heavy downpour under the influence of a depression in Bay of Bengal battered the temple-town Tirupati and many parts of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.

The four ‘maada streets’ adjoining the main temple on Tirumala Hills, remained flooded, as was the Vaikuntham queue complex (cellar). Darshan of the God was virtually stalled as pilgrims could not venture out because of the inundation. The Japali Anjaneya Swamy temple on Tirumala was inundated and idol of the God submerged. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams officials made arrangement for free food and accommodation for the pilgrims stranded on the holy hills. TTD executive officer K S Jawahar Reddy declared a holiday on Friday for the office staff in view of the situation. The two ghat roads leading to the Tirumala Hills were closed for traffic following the flood and landslides, official sources said. The pedestrian stairway leading to the temple from Alipiri was also closed down, they said.

The Tirupati International Airport at Renigunta also remained inundated, forcing the authorities to stop landing of incoming aircraft. Airport director S Suresh said two passenger flights scheduled to land in Tirupati from Hyderabad and Bengaluru were asked to return. A scheduled flight from New Delhi has been cancelled due to the prevailing weather condition, he added.

The TTD additional executive officer’s office in Tirumala remained marooned, as were many guest houses. A landslide damaged three rooms at the Narayanagiri guest house complex but nothing untoward has been reported as the rooms were unoccupied, official sources said. Pilgrims staying in other rooms in Narayanagiri and nearby S V guest house were shifted to other accommodation. In Srinivasa Mangapuram near Tirupati, two autos were washed away as the Swarnamukhi rivulet remained in spate. A bridge on the Renigunta-Kadapa highway remained in a precarious position at Anjaneyapuram. A truck was stranded on the bridge, causing a traffic jam on either side, even as police reached the spot for a rescue operation.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy spoke to Chittoor district collector M Hari Narayanan and reviewed the situation. PTI

IN DEEP WATER: Ghat roads of Tirupati which lead to Lord Venkateshwara Temple closed following heavy rainfall in AP’s temple town on Thursday

Covid test lapses by 1 min, pregnant woman & 2 others denied boarding

Covid test lapses by 1 min, pregnant woman & 2 others denied boarding

Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:19.11.2021

A family of three, including a pregnant woman, was denied boarding an Indi-Go flight to Dubai, citing that the 48-hour validity of their RT-PCR negative test reports had lapsed by one minute. They were not allowed to board the flight even though they took Rapid RT-PCR tests at the airport for ₹3,000 each.

All Indian passengers headed to the UAE must clear this pre-departure test, besides carrying RT-PCR negative reports not older than 48 hours. Rukhsar Memon, 28, husband Suhail Syed, 39, and his mother Mamtaz Munawar, 63, had come to Bengaluru for their annual holiday at their Nandidurga Road home on October 9 this year.

On Tuesday morning, the family went to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) to board the IndiGo flight 6E 95 from Bengaluru to Dubai scheduled to take off at 1.15pm. As per pre-departure requirement for UAE travellers, the three, including13-week pregnant Rukhsar, took Rapid RT-PCR tests outside KIA and secured negative reports for ₹9,000 before reaching the IndiGo check-in counter around 10am on Tuesday. Then came the shocker.

“We were denied boarding for the 1.15pm flight on Tuesday as the IndiGo ground staff said our initial RT-PCR test reports showed that our samples were collected at 1.15pm on Sunday,” recalled Suhail, who works as a sales executive with a Dubai-based health insurance firm. The airline calculates the 48-hour validity period from the time of sample collection.

The IndiGo ground staff told the family that by the time the flight takes off at 1.15pm, their RT-PCR reports will be “aged one minute over the mandated 48 hours”. “We requested the IndiGo manager at the airport to kindly consider us since we were well within the 48-hour validity when we reached the airport. My pregnant wife and my elderly mother were travelling with me. The employees were rude to us, especially the airline manager, as they dragged us for three long hours and finally denying us boarding,” said Suhail on his family’s ordeal.

Full report on www.toi.in

இந்தியா செல்லும் பெண் சுற்றுலா பயணியருக்கு அமெரிக்கா எச்சரிக்கை

இந்தியா செல்லும் பெண் சுற்றுலா பயணியருக்கு அமெரிக்கா எச்சரிக்கை

Updated : நவ 18, 2021 06:39 | Added : நவ 18, 2021 06:37 |

புதுடில்லி : 'பெண்களுக்கு எதிரான குற்றங்கள் அதிகரித்து வருவதால், பெண் சுற்றுலா பயணியர் இந்தியாவுக்கு தனியாக பயணம் மேற்கொள்ள வேண்டாம்' என, தங்கள் நாட்டு சுற்றுலா பயணியருக்கு டில்லியில் உள்ள அமெரிக்க துாதரகம் அறிவுறுத்தி உள்ளது.

டில்லியில் உள்ள அமெரிக்க துாதரகம் தங்கள் நாட்டு சுற்றுலா பயணியருக்கான பயண ஆலோசனை அறிக்கையை வெளியிட்டுள்ளது. அதன் விபரம்: இந்தியாவில் பெண்களுக்கு எதிரான பாலியல் வன்முறைகள் அதிகரித்து வருவதாக அதிகாரிகள் தெரிவிக்கின்றனர்.

சுற்றுலாதலங்கள் உட்பட பல்வேறு இடங்களில் கொடூரமான வன்முறைகள், பாலியல் பலாத்காரங்கள் அதிகரித்துள்ளன. எனவே அமெரிக்க சுற்றுலா பயணியர், குறிப்பாக பெண்கள் தனியாக இந்தியாவுக்கு பயணம் மேற்கொள்ள வேண்டாம். இவ்வாறு அதில் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது.

Unique QR Codes In Judgments/ Orders, Advocate Information Management System: New Initiatives By Madras High Court

Unique QR Codes In Judgments/ Orders, Advocate Information Management System: New Initiatives By Madras High Court: In a press release by the Registrar General of Madras High Court, several notable initiatives, including those implemented and those that will be brought in place with effect from 15th November...

MBBS graduates could need double internships to practice in India

MBBS graduates could need double internships to practice in India

By Sumi Sukanya dutta| Express News Service | Published: 16th November 2021 02:48 AM

NEW DELHI: Securing registration to practice medicine in India could get tougher for students pursuing medicine abroad as they will now be required to do double internships — once in the country where they got the MBBS and again in India — as per new norms about to be released.

About 10,000-12,000 students from the country go abroad every year to pursue MBBS.

As of now, these medical graduates, except those who get their degrees in US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are required to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination and do a mandatory one-year internship in a recognised Indian medical college before they can get their registration.

Most of them, however, do not do internships abroad and return to India after completing 4.5 years of the MBBS degree.

Aruna V Vanikar, president of the undergraduate medical education board at the National Medical Commission, told this newspaper that the process of issuing licenses to such graduates is being made more “stringent” as part of a reform push in medical education.

“As of now, there are instances of medical graduates with just 3-3.5 years from many sub-standard colleges abroad and we need to put a stop to such cases,” she said. Vanikar added that these graduates will have to spend at least 15-18 months following their degree before they can get a license to practice.

The guidelines are expected this week for public feedback before the final notification.

Starting 2023, when the National Exit Test gets implemented, all final-year medical students will need to take it in two steps. All local MBBS students will start internships in the colleges where they graduated. Foreign students successful in the NEXT step 1 exam will have internships in designated sites.

After a mentor-certified internship, they will need to appear for the NEXT step 2 exam and can get a license only after clearing it. Medical education activist Vivek Pandey said that the new proposal may make it more difficult for foreign medical graduates to pursue a career in India.

Poor scores in FMGEs

The passing percentage in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination for students who get their MBBS abroad is just 10-20% every year. The FMGE is a prerequisite to get a license for medical practice in India

Raj teachers allege bribe for transfer, leave min red-faced

Raj teachers allege bribe for transfer, leave min red-faced

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jaipur:17.11.2021

In a major embarrassment for school education minister Govind Singh Dotasra, teachers from across the state told Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday that they had to pay bribes to get a transfer.

Addressing a felicitation programme held for state teachers in Jaipur, Gehlot asked them if they had to pay money for transfers and the teachers responded with a unanimous “yes”. Gehlot looked at Dotasra, who was sitting on the dias, and reacted by saying that it was bad and promised to bring a concrete transfer policy soon, which the government employees have been demanding for decades.

When Gehlot completed his speech, Dotasra rushed to the mike and claimed that he and his staff were clean.

“Everyone sitting here knows the fact that I have never accepted one cup of tea. But we need a good transfer policy which will soon be worked out,” said Dotasra.

Education minister Govind Singh Dotasra during the felicitation programme held for state teachers

Corruption has become a new normal in the state: Poonia

Jaipur: Reacting to the allegation of corruption in transfers, BJP state president Satish Poonia said that corruption had become the basic “etiquette” in the state. "Corruption has become a new normal in the state. The state campaign 'Prashashan Ke Sang' has become 'Prashashan Risthedaro Ke Sang' and doesn't need any proof," said Poonia. He said that Congress MLAs Bharat Singh, Hemaram Choudhary and Deependra Singh Shekhawat were given evidence of corruption many times.

Taking a dig at the Gehlot government, former education minister Vasudev Devnani also tweeted that teachers alleging corruption in front of Gehlot showed the true governance in the state.

About 99 government teachers were felicitated by the government with a certificate and Rs 21,000 cash prize each. Gehlot also said that the establishment of Mahatma Gandhi English medium schools in the state was a revolutionary step in the field of education. With the opening of these schools, the dreams of children of farmers, the poor, and labourers living in villages to study in English medium has come true.

›CM hints at cabinet rejig, Dotasra may be dropped,