Cellphone fight with mom ends in suicide

Cellphone fight with mom ends in suicide

Monotosh Chakraborty & Tamaghna Banerjee

Kolkata:19.11.2021

A Class-X student of a Budge Budge school was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room at Balurghata on Thursday after her mother had reportedly stopped her from taking her cellphone to school.

The eldest among three siblings, the girl used to attend her online classes on her mother’s cellphone as the parents would leave the phone with her when they went out to work. However, since the physical classes began from Tuesday, the mother insisted on taking her cellphone to work and didn’t allow the girl to keep it with her any more. This apparently led to a bitter fight with her mother on Wednesday.

The mother took away the cell phone from her on Wednesday and on Thursday she took the cellphone to her workplace. The 14-year-old girl was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room by her younger brother after both the parents had left their home.

“My daughter had become addicted to the cellphone. As Madhyamik exam was due shortly and since the physical classes had begun, my wife had rebuked her on Wednesday for being hooked on to the cellphone and took it away from her. On Thursday, both of us had left for work by 6.15am. My son found her hanging around 7am,” said the father, who works at a local jute mill.

The incident has brought to focus the dangers associated with over-dependence on electronic gadgets, which children had been forced into since the start of the pandemic. “It was pretty much expected that once the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions ease down, the dangers of over-reliance on digital media will turn out to be a serious concern and tackling the withdrawal symptoms will become a major challenge. The entire problem has been triggered by unrestrained screen addiction,” said child psychologist Devika De.

Psychiatrist Siladitya Ray pointed out that the incident proves two things — how increased screen time along with phone addiction can create mental instability leading to impulsive behaviour and how modern technologies of distraction can tear apart the cohesive fabric of human society.

“The most reliable way to tackle this crisis is to teach children and help them to develop an insight into the core issue that excessive screen time leads to addictive behaviour which eventually might go out of hand and generate frustration and disgruntlement. However, parents need to be patient, said Ray.

Woman to fly home on AI flight on Monday

TIMES IMPACT

Woman to fly home on AI flight on Monday

Ashish.Mehta@timesgroup.com

Jaipur:19.11.2021

The 85-year-old woman who was denied boarding the Air India Flight from San Francisco to New Delhi connecting Jodhpur on Monday would finally be able to travel to her home town. Air India has arranged for her tickets for the same destination for November 22.

TOI on November 17 had carried a story narrating the plight of the woman and her family.

As the matter has been resolved, the family is happy.

“On the day she was to board the flight, the seat on which she was supposed to travel had a snag. Since it was a 14-hour-long flight, the airlines seeing that the woman was an elderly woman, did not allow her to board. We objected to it,” said Sanjay Bhandari while talking to TOI from San Francisco.

“Now, I must appreciate the way issue was taken up. Air India authorities started looking up for better viable and available options. They have now booked my mother on an Air India flight from San Francisco to New Delhi connecting Jodhpur. The airport manager named Anju Sahani was very apologetic on what happened. She has been cooperative since we were waiting for the flight and she has now arranged for it. She has promised that she will follow up the issue until my mother reaches Jodhpur,” Bhandari added.

“I must thank Times of India for narrating our plight,” he said.

Pension A Deferred Compensation, Hard Earned Benefit For Employee' : Supreme Court Grants Relief To Widow

Pension A Deferred Compensation, Hard Earned Benefit For Employee' : Supreme Court Grants Relief To Widow

LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK 19 Nov 2021 4:06 PM

The Supreme Court directed to disburse pension to a deceased employee's widow who has been litigating for over a decade.

"Pension as is well known, is the deferred portion of the compensation for rendering long years of service. It is a hard-earned benefit accruing to an employee, in the nature of property,", the bench comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and Hrishikesh Roy observed.

Following the employee's death on 12.01.2011, as per the Pension Scheme, 1998 the widow of the pensioner made claim for a sum equivalent to 100 times the full monthly pension of her husband. Vide letter dated 30.09.2012, she applied for payment of the lump sum amount in pursuance of para 15(1)(b) read with para 15(2) of the Coal Mines Pension Scheme, 1998.

As her representation was rejected, she approached the High Court by filing a writ petition. This petition was dismissed by the High court on the ground that no cause of action arose within the territorial jurisdiction of the High Court of Patna. It was observed that the services rendered by the pensioner were outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Patna High Court and hence the writ petition filed by the widow of the pensioner was not maintainable.

In appeal, the bench noted that that the Coal Mines Pension Scheme, 1998 was framed as a measure of social security for ensuring socio-economic justice for the employees in the coal sector under the powers conferred by Section 3-E of the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1948.

Nevertheless, for over a decade, the widow of the employee is forced to litigate to secure the pension benefits, the court said.

"While considering the appellant's case, the High Court did not however consider her entitlement on merit, but had dismissed both the Writ Petition and the LPA, citing want of territorial jurisdiction. The employment of the appellant's husband with the respondent employer is however not in dispute. Nevertheless, for over a decade, the widow of the employee is forced to litigate to secure the pension benefits".

The court disposed the appeal by observing thus:

"In the above peculiar circumstances of this case, without commenting on the legality of the decision to discontinue the said provision in the pension scheme by the employer, as the pensioner was not alive on the date of discontinuance, we consider it appropriate to pass necessary orders in her favor in this proceeding itself. Resultantly, the sum due and payable under the Pension scheme be computed and the same is ordered to be disbursed to the appellant. The amount earlier refunded to the appellant be adjusted suitably during the remittance process. The respondent/ employer should do the needful in terms of this order, within 8 weeks from today."

Semester exams in all state colleges postponed to give students more time

Semester exams in all state colleges postponed to give students more time

Exams Will Begin After January 20

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.11.2021

Semester exams in all engineering, arts and science colleges and polytechnics in the state have been postponed to give more time to students to prepare for offline mode. The semester exams will begin only after January 20, 2022, higher education minister K Ponmudi said on Friday.

A section of students had been protesting over the past few days demanding that the semester exams be conducted online.

The higher education department, along with controllers of examinations from state universities, discussed with 11 student organisations, including the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students Federation (AISF) regarding their opposition to offline exams.

“The representatives of student organisations also wanted offline mode exams. However, they wanted more time to prepare for the exams. They said students have been attending offline classes only for the last two and half months. They have asked for a month’s time to prepare for the exams. We have decided to give them two months time,” Ponmudi told reporters.

The state government would withdraw the cases filed against protesting students, he added.

He also said the universities and colleges would finish the syllabus before the start of the semester exams and conduct model exams before the semester exams from January 20.

City colleges also welcomed the decision saying it would give them more time to complete the syllabus after the physical classes were affected by the rain holidays.

"Due to the prolonged rain holidays, we will be able to complete the syllabus only in the second or third week of December. Students will get more time to prepare for semester exams," a principal from a city college said. Another principal said arts and science colleges would be able to finish the syllabus for first year students too before the start of the semester exams.

Earlier, University of Madras planned to conduct semester exams from December 20 and Anna University from December 27.

Class 11 boy runs away with ₹33L cash after parents scold him for gaming

Class 11 boy runs away with ₹33L cash after parents scold him for gaming

Chennai: 20.11.2021

A Class 11 boy, who left his house in Washermenpet with ₹33 lakh in cash and 213 sovereigns of gold ornaments after his parents restricted him from playing online games, was traced to Tambaram within 24 hours by the city police on Thursday. The 15-year-old was planning to run away to Nepal with the stolen booty.

Police said Prakash (name changed), son of a metro water contractor Venkat Kumar from Mottai Thottam in Washermenpet used to spend several hours playing online games. He was addicted to these games and used his parents’ smartphones even during the online classes.

After noticing this, his mother who works as a professor at a women's college in Vallalar Nagar, scolded him and restricted his screen time.

On Wednesday, Prakash left his house did not return for over two hours. His worried parents searched for him in the entire neighbourhood and inquired with all his friends. At home, they found the cash and gold ornaments worth ₹75 lakh gone from the safe. They immediately contacted the Washermenpet deputy commissioner of police Shiva Prasad and filed a missing complaint. The police worked in special teams and tracked Prakash using his phone with the help of cyber crime sleuths. He was traced to a lodge near Tambaram, where a police team was rushed to rescue him.

Initial inquiries revealed that the boy was getting ready to pledge a portion of the gold in a pawn shop and had already booked a flight ticket to Kathmandu in Nepal.

The police team managed to bring the boy back to Washermenpet and reunited him with the family along with the valuables.

39,500 from state clear NEET UG, to vie for 12,700 seats

39,500 from state clear NEET UG, to vie for 12,700 seats

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:19.11.2021

Of the 68,000 candidates who took the NEET UG 2021 exam from Gujarat, 39,570 have qualified.

They will now compete for the 12,707 seats at medical, dental, ayurveda and homeopathy colleges in the state.

“In the general category, 9,521 candidates qualified while 7,303 have cleared from the EWS category. In the OBC category, 15,706 candidates cleared NEET UG while 4,043 qualified in the SC category 4,043 and 3,096 in the ST category,” said a source in the admission committee.

Tha admission committee has started online registration for medical, dental, homeopathy and ayurveda seats from November 17.

There are 30 medical colleges in the state with 5,550 MBBS seats,12 dental colleges with 1,255 seats, 2,242 seats at 33 ayurveda colleges and 36 homeopathy colleges having a total capacity of 3,710 seats.

In all there are 12,707 seats for which the Admission Committee for Professional Under Graduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUGMEC) will conduct admissions this year.

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