Religious conversion can’t undo caste status, says HC

Religious conversion can’t undo caste status, says HC

Refuses Inter-caste Certificate To Dalit Man

Sureshkumar.k@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 26.11.2021

Conversion from one religion to another religion will not change the caste of a person which he belongs to, Madras high court has ruled, nixing a bid by a Dalit man, who embraced Christianity, to obtain an inter-caste marriage certificate to get priority in government jobs. Dalit-converts are treated as backward community (BC) members and not as SCs, as per law.

In Tamil Nadu, weddings involving a forward caste member with SC/ST, or a wedding between a BC member and an SC/ST are treated as inter-caste weddings entailing priority in government jobs.

Justice S M Subramaniam, reiterating that merely because of conversion and his consequent categorisation as a BC member, a Dalit cannot claim his marriage to another Dalit as an inter-caste marriage, said: “The petitioner admittedly belongs to Christian Adi-Dravidar community and by virtue of conversion to Christianity he was issued with the Backward Class certificate. However, by birth, the petitioner belongs to 'Adi-Dravidar' community and change of religion will not change the community. The classification of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Most Backward Classes, Backward Classes and Other castes will not change the caste.”

It was the case of S Paul Raj that he belonged to Christian Adi-Dravida possessing a Backward Class certificate. He married G Amutha, who belongs to Hindu Arunthathiyar community. Postmmarriage, Paul Raj claimed that it was an inter-caste marriage since he was now a BC member and not a Dalit. A BC member’s marriage with an SC member shall be treated as an inter-caste marriage, with all attendant benefits, he claimed. He relied on a December 28, 1976 government order which says: "Where one of the spouses belongs to SC/ ST, then inter-caste marriage certificate has to be issued in favour of the petitioner”.

He moved the high court after the Salem district officials rejected his contention, pointing out that he himself hailed from a Dalit community and that his conversion will not undo his caste status.

Upholding the finding, Justice Subramaniam said: “In the event of a converted person claiming inter-caste marriage certificate, it would pave way for the citizen to abuse the benefit granted under the inter-caste marriage quota. The repercussion will be large and, therefore, the inter-caste marriage certificate has to be issued only if any one of the spouses belongs to the Scheduled Caste and other spouse belongs to the other caste, but not otherwise.”

It was the case of S Paul Raj that he belonged to Christian Adi-Dravida possessing a BC certificate. Postmarriage, he claimed that it was an inter-caste marriage since he was now a BC member and not a Dalit.

Upset at being ‘linked to girl’s suicide’, teacher ends life

Upset at being ‘linked to girl’s suicide’, teacher ends life

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:26.11.2021

A 44-year-old private school teacher in Karur hanged himself to death on Wednesday evening after leaving a note blaming his extreme act on students who allegedly linked him to the suicide of a 17-year-old girl student a few days ago.

A Saravanan, a maths teacher, took permission from the school and went to his father-in-law’s house at Sengattupatti in Trichy where he hanged himself in a room in the upstairs. He is survived by his wife and two sons. The girl, who was a student of the same school, had ended her life at her house on November 19 after leaving a suicide note blaming sexual harassment for her action though she did not name anyone. The only daughter of her widowed mother, she was also attending NEET coaching at the school. Stating that she should be the last victim of sexual harassment, she said she was afraid of revealing the identity of the perpetrators of the crime. Vengamedu police which booked a case of suspicious death could not get any clue about her allegations.

Police said Saravanan was not taking classes for the girl as she was in another section. However, some students made insulting comments against him, stated Saravanan in his suicide note. A facebook post while regretting his action, praised Saravanan’s dedication to teaching saying several students had benefited from it. Thuraiyur police brought Saravanna’s body to the government hospital for postmortem and are investigating.

A Saravanan took permission from the school and went to his father-in-law’s house in Trichy where he died by suicide

66 fully vaccinated Dharwad medicos test +ve for Covid

66 fully vaccinated Dharwad medicos test +ve for Covid

Basavaraj.Kattimani@timesgroup.com

Hubballi:26.11.2021

Dharwad district which was reporting daily fresh Covid cases in lower single digits for three months saw a frightening surge in infections on Thursday with 66 fully vaccinated students of a medical college testing positive for coronavirus in the past 48 hours.

The infected students of SDM College of Medical Sciences, Sattur, Dharwad, have been isolated and quarantined in the college hostel. The two hostels on the campus where they were staying have been barricaded. Offline classes have been suspended till further notice.

Sources said this is a first major Covid cluster outbreak after colleges and schools were reopened n Karnataka for in-class learning a couple of months ago.

Principal Dr Ratnamala Desai told TOI that two students developed fever and were admitted to hospital after attending a college event on November17. On Monday, they tested positive for Covid. “Immediately, we tested nearly 300 students who participated in the event and 64 of them tested positive on Wednesday, taking the total to 66.”

Most of the infected students are from the third year.

(Additional inputs by Gururaj Jamkhandi)

Full report on www.toi.in

ADB approves $1.5 billion loan to India for purchase of Covid-19 vaccines

New Delhi:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion loan to help India purchase safe and effective vaccines against Covid-19.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is expected to cofinance an additional $500 million for the project, the ADB said. The loans will fund at least 667 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for an estimated 317 million people. It will support India’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan which aims to fully vaccinate 944.7 million people aged 18 years old and above, accounting for 68.9% of the population. Priority groups include healthcare and frontline workers, senior citizens, and those aged 45–59 years with comorbidities. TNN

Singapore-bound passengers in a fix over norms

Singapore-bound passengers in a fix over norms

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy/Chennai:  26.11.2021

Flying to Singapore continues to be a hassle, especially for those with permanent residency who have come to Tamil Nadu during the pandemic, as there are fewer flights from Chennai, Trichy and Madurai.

Singapore Airlines have started Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flights from Chennai from November 29 so that people who pay Singapore dollars 125 and get an approval can enter Singapore without the seven-day quarantine, if the rapid test on arrival is negative. However, passengers flying from Trichy and Madurai by other flights have to undergo the quarantine which is inconveniencing.

Arul Lazaran of United Travels said people from other cities are requesting to be booked on the flight from Chennai because they can avoid the quarantine which is expensive. As demand is high, the oneway fare to Singapore is ₹19,000 from Chennai for travel in the first week of December on the Singapore Airlines flight.. The fare was ₹5,000 in the pre-Covid days.

However, travellers, especially those from towns like Trichy, which has more diaspora presence, have demanded for more flights between airports in the state and Singapore as vaccinated travel lane flights are available only from metros.

The Trichy international airport which handled around 80,000 passengers for Singapore – in both directions, during this pandemic has not been included in the list. Trichy has handled around 60,000 outbound passengers and around 25,000 inbound travellers during this pandemic period from and to Singapore respectively, the highest when compared to other airports.

As of now, the Air India Express has been operating four flights on a weekly basis between the Trichy-Singapore sector. According to airport sources, Scoot Air is going to resume its weekly five services and IndiGo Air a daily service in this sector shortly.

CM writes to Centre for more flights

Chennai:

Chief minister M K Stalin has urged the Union government to have more flights to Singapore and Malaysia as Tamils with permanent residency are struggling to return after arriving in the state during the pandemic.

In a letter to the civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Stalin has urged the union government “to make a temporary air transport bubble agreement with Singapore and Malaysia at the earliest for providing temporary airline services and resolve the difficulties faced by the Tamil diaspora in Singapore and Malaysia.”

He also said that “they have to travel through Dubai, Doha and Colombo which is causing serious inconvenience and financial burden as they have to pay more air charges and travel long distances due to the detour.” TNN

Govt doctor kills self at city hotel

Govt doctor kills self at city hotel

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:26.11.2021

A government doctor ended his life on Thursday by administering himself a lethal injection, police said.

A Maheshwaran, 34, a native of Cuddalore, who was working as a general practitioner in Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH), was found dead at a star hotel on Dr Radhakrishnan Salai in Mylapore.

Maheshwaran left a suicide note stating that no one was responsible for his death, and that he was taking his own life due to stress, police said.

The doctor, a resident of Krishnapuram in Maduravoyal, had been working at the GRH for the past three years as a surgeon. On Wednesday, he booked a room in the hotel. While on the way to the hotel, he asked his driver, Karthik, to stop the car near a medical store on Royapettah High Road and bought some medicines.

As Maheshwaran didn't turn up for work on Thursday morning, his friend Vinod tried to contact him. His phone was switched off.

His friend went to the hotel and found the room locked from inside. The staff used a master key to open it and found Maheshwaran lying dead on a bed. There were five empty vials and an intravenous kit, police said, adding that a needle was found in his vein.

The body wa sent for postmortem. Maheshwaran is survived by his wife, Nandhini, a doctor, and a five-year-old daughter.

Anna university can fill 400 engg seats

Anna university can fill 400 engg seats

State Allows Counselling Again After Neet Results

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:26.11.2021

The state government has allowed a second phase of counselling to fill 400 engineering seats on Anna University's four campuses that fell vacant as the selected students opted for MBBS.

Usually, these seats (700 last year) in reputable colleges remain vacant. For the first time, the higher education department on Thursday allowed counselling to fill them. "The huge vacancies affected Anna University's NIRF ranking 2021 in which it slipped by four ranks in engineering and university categories compared to 2020. Now, the second phase will give the opportunity to meritorious students to study at the university's four campuses. It will improve the university's ranking and rating points in NAAC accreditation," an official from Anna University said.

"This second phase of counselling can be done after giving a reasonable time to pool vacancies in colleges," said higher education secretary D Karthikeyan in the order permitting it.

The government asked the director of technical education to conduct second phase counselling for students already registered and admitted to fill these vacancies and to conduct subsequent phases of counselling if the need arises.

Sources said the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions committee is likely to conduct at least two rounds during the second phase, first to fill the existing vacancies and the second round to fill new vacancies. As per AICTE's revised academic calendar, the last date to admit new students is November 30.

"Those who have already registered and enrolled alone will participate in the second phase counselling. So, the last date won't apply to this counselling," a source in the higher education department said.

Of 95,000 students who got allotment in Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions 2021 counselling, around 10,000 have not joined the colleges, the source added.

Top colleges said it's a good move as they would get a larger pool of candidates to fill vacancies.

"As per the usual practice, the self-financing colleges were allowed to fill lapsed seats from their applicants. In this second phase of counselling, top colleges may get better candidates from the larger pool," said V E Annamalai, principal of SSN College of Engineering in Chennai.

Meanwhile, engineering colleges are worried that internal counselling will leave more vacant seats in tier-2 and tier-3 colleges.

"If the second phase counselling allows fresh students also to apply, it would boost the admissions. Giving upward movement will affect even top colleges as students will prefer government institutions over private colleges. Tier-2 and tier-3 colleges may have more vacancies as students want to move to tier-1 colleges," said P Selvaraj, secretary, Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu.

Hundreds of seats in reputable engineering colleges fall vacant every year as students who joined leave once they get admission to MBBS and BDS courses

We’ll revisit ₹8L EWS quota criteria: Centre

We’ll revisit ₹8L EWS quota criteria: Centre

Decision In 4 Weeks, Govt Tells The SC

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:26.11.2021

After facing a barrage of questions from the Supreme Court over fixing an annual income limit of ₹8 lakh for determining economically weaker sections (EWS), the Centre on Thursday agreed to “revisit” the criteria for the “economically backward among forwards” to get reservation benefits in government jobs and educational institutions.

Appearing before a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said he had been instructed to make a statement before the bench that the government has decided to revisit the criteria, adding that a committee will be set up to examine the issue and sought four weeks time to take a final decision.

An immediate fallout of the decision to re-examine the criteria for determination of EWS is that counselling process for PG admissions would have to be deferred — at least for the month-long period sought by the Centre — till a decision on EWS eligibility is taken. “The Solicitor General states that a period of four weeks would be required for this exercise and pending its conclusion, the date for counselling shall stand postponed in view of the assurance which was tendered at an earlier stage of these proceedings. In view of the above position, the hearing of the proceedings shall be listed on January 6, 2022,” the bench said.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by MBBS doctors challenging Centre’s decision to implement 27% reservation for OBCs and 10% reservation for EWS in admission in PG courses in medical colleges in All India Quota.

Panel to see if NEET question is correct

The NTA has agreed before the SC to set up a panel of three experts to decide the correctness of a physics question in the Hindi version of NEET(UG) question paper after a discrepancy was pointed out by some students. In the Hindi version of the question, words “amplitude of current” had been omitted, students said. P 12

‘Govt should take a decision on EWS in 2 weeks’

Though the litigation pertains to admission in PG medical courses, admission process in all governmentrun institutions and recruitment of government jobs will be affected.

When the matter was being argued in court in October, the apex court expressed displeasure over Centre not adequately explaining the basis for fixing income limit of ₹8 lakh for granting reservation to EWS, and directed it to file an affidavit to disclose whether any exercise was done and what was the rationale behind fixing the limit. The court had also questioned the uniform income criteria adopted for the entire country and suggested cost of living or per capita income be considered.

The Centre has referred to the Sinho commission recommendations for fixing the income limit and argued that it would not be easy or practicable to consider differentiated criteria given disparities in urban and rural settings.

The court asked how ₹8 lakh could be fixed for both EWS and OBC category to be eligible for reservation. It had said there was a social and educational backwardness attached with OBC category and it was presumed that their backwardness comes to an end with economic advancement. It had said the EWS category was different with no social and educational backwardness as a constitutional criteria and fixing the same income limit for both categories looked unreasonable.

Agreeing to examine the concern raised by the bench, the Centre has now sought four weeks time to re-examine the criteria and to take a final decision.

As the admission process for PG courses is getting delayed, senior advocate Arvind Datar contended that the government should implement its decision to enforce OBC and EWS reservation in All India Quota from next academic year or government should take a decision on EWS criteria within two weeks.