Suspended Anna varsity faculty seeks bail

Legal Correspondent

CHENNAI, AUGUST 09, 2018 00:00 IST



The DVAC had booked a case against the petitioner in the cash-for-marks scam.File Photo 

‘Exams were held in a fair and transparent manner’


Suspended Anna University faculty G.V. Uma, 47, has filed an anticipatory bail petition in the Madras High Court in a case booked against her by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on the charge of having taken huge amount of money as bribe from students to boost their scores during revaluation of answer scripts. The offence had allegedly been committed when she served as the Controller of Examinations last year.

The anticipatory bail plea has been listed for hearing before Justice M. Dhandapani on Thursday. In her affidavit, the petitioner said, she held the post of Controller of Examinations between March 3, 2015 and March 2, 2018.

Petitioner’s claim

During the period, she conducted the examinations for the students of the university as well as those of affiliated colleges in a fair and transparent manner without giving room for remarks from any quarters.

In 2017, it was decided to conduct central evaluation of answer scripts at Tindivanam to make it fool proof. The evaluation process was supervised by Additional Controller of Examinations, Deputy Controller of Examinations, 23 zonal coordinators and many zonal officers apart from herself. The evaluation and revaluation were done as per well laid down norms of the university and the petitioner could not bend those rules in any way.

“The petitioner can neither influence the examiners nor the officers to award favourable marks to any student. Further the respondent (DVAC) has not conducted proper enquiry and had opted to pick and choose method of arraying the petitioners in the crime. The petitioner is an innocent person and has not committed any offence or much less offence as detailed by the defacto complainant,” her affidavit read.

Nursing college puts curbs on beard

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU, AUGUST 09, 2018 00:00 IST

Principal bars four students from attending classes, cites ‘hygiene’

Four students from Jammu & Kashmir, who were enrolled in a nursing college in Bengaluru, were left in the lurch after the principal allegedly barred them from attending classes until they shaved their beards. Citing ‘hygiene’ as the reason, the principal, who had joined the college a little less than a month ago, informed the students that their internal marks would be affected if they failed to comply.

The alleged discrimination was faced by students of Adarsh College of Nursing in Mariyappana at Mallathahalli.

Three of the students are in the first year B.Sc. course while the fourth is in his second year. They told The Hindu that the principal summoned them and asked them to shave the beard if they wanted to be marked in their internals.

‘No problem at the time of admission’

“For the past week, we are being sent out of class on instructions from the principal for not shaving our beard. The management was fine with our beards when we filled the admission form. All of a sudden, the principal, who joined 20 days ago, asked us to shave. She barred us from entering class. The beards are a part of our faith,” said one student.

SC raps HP govt for bringing up judge’s wife

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:09.08.2018

In an unusual development on Wednesday, during hearing of a case relating to encroachments in Himachal Pradesh, the state’s counsel invited the Supreme Court’s ire when he pointed out that a PIL on a similar issue filed by the wife of one of the judges on the bench is pending in the high court.

The court was hearing a suo motu criminal contempt case relating to an official being shot dead while leading an anti-encroachment drive in Kasauli when the state’s counsel Abhinav Mukerji informed a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Abdul S Nazeer and Deepak Gupta informing that a writ petition filed by Punam Gupta, wife of Justice Gupta, on encroachments in forest land was pending in the Himachal Pradesh HC.

Justice Lokur asked why the state government was raising this issue and whether it had nothing better to do? He then asked Mukerji whether he had gone through the pending PIL, to which the counsel replied in the negative. Justice Lokur said it was shocking that the state government had to take this stand before the court when it would do well to concentrate on governance. The bench told Mukerji that he as a lawyer was officer of the court first and should not become the mouthpiece of the state government.

WhatsApp limits number of forwards for Indian users

Rachel.Chitra@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:09.08.2018

WhatsApp on Wednesday officially rolled out a limit of only five forwards at a time for Indian users in a bid to curb the spread of fake news and provocative content. With the rise in lynchings based on fake news, the social media platform has come in for widespread criticism.

The new limit is applicable only for its 200 million users in India. The move was announced by WhatsApp last month. “The limit has started to appear this week for people in India who are on the current version of WhatsApp. This week, WhatsApp is publishing a new video that explains the importance of the ‘forward’ label and calls users to ‘double check’ the facts when you’re not sure who created the original message,” said the company.

Now, if you try to forward a message to a sixth person at one go, the app tells you that you can only forward to five people. But a user can go back to the message and forward it again to another five contacts/ groups. So it does not stop mass forwards, but makes it more difficult for the user.

For WhatsApp, India is its largest user base with people forwarding more content than in any other country. The forwards are typically ‘good morning’ messages, funny videos, and photos. But sometimes there’s inflammatory content. On July1, TOI reported that a single WhatsApp rumour on child lifters resulted in the lynching of 22 people in 10 different states.

HC permits only advancement of DoB on school certificates

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:09.08.2018

A week after holding that a person’s date of birth (DoB) cannot be altered on school certificates after completion of school education, the Madras high court on Wednesday clarified that the restriction would apply only to postponement requests and not for advancement of the date. Justice S Vaidyanathan made the clarification while allowing a plea moved by P Poomesh seeking direction to change his DoB in his SSLC and transfer certificates from July 5, 2001 to March 5, 1999 as per the birth certificate and Aadhar card.

In the earlier instance, while ruling that date of birth cannot be postponed, the court observed that it would amount to nullifying all the educational qualifications possessed by the person.

When the present plea came up for hearing, the judge said: “Normally, the court will not grant the relief. The corporation records may show a different DoB. Only when a child completes the age of five, he/ she may be entitled to admission into the school. The parents, for admitting their child into a school, may alter the birth date by advancing it.

“At the time of completion of school education or thereafter, they approach the authorities and then the court to correct the date based on the birth certificate. If such an alteration creates a situation where the child could not have entered school at the age of five, the entire school education is void.”

However, in this case, the petitioner is handicapped and he is not seeking the postponement of the DoB but advancing. If the birth date is advanced, it certainly cannot be advantageous to him for employment.

No prejudice is going to be caused if the records are going to be changed to the detriment of the candidate, the court said.

Hence, judge said, the DoB may be corrected and advanced as prayed for by the petitioner, the judge directed the authorities concerned.

REGION DIGEST

Med counselling closing date extended
The directorate general of medical sciences has extended the last date for students allotted seats under All India Quota seats to join the medical colleges by a day to 4pm on Thursday. The New-Delhi based directorate completed second round of counselling on August 2 based on their choices. The students had to join colleges by 5pm on Wednesday. With the extension, there will be a delay in the return of seats to state–run colleges. State selection committee on Tuesday announced that the counselling for vacant AIQ seats for two days from Friday. “It was based on the schedule that we will get the number of vacant seats by Wednesday,” said selection committee secretary Dr G Selvarajan.

Even in death, Karuna beats AIADMK

Saying No To Marina Space Earns EPS Tag Of A Villain

Jayaraj Sivan & Julie Mariappan TNN

Chennai:09.08.2018

The controversy over according a beach-side burial for DMK chief M Karunanidhi has exposed Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s inexperience. He and his government stood isolated in the battle against the DMK.

The advice to deny resting space for Karunanidhi on the Marina was ill-conceived and the advisers ended up only misleading the government to commit a political blunder. In a state divided by a bipolar polity for decades, it might pass muster as it only reflects the bitter rivalry between the Dravidian majors. Many may have thought the rivalry could have ended with the demise of former chief ministers J Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi. Palaniswami may have won some brownie points with the diehard AIADMK workers, but he has earned a villain’s tag before the masses.

The Centre was keen on according the highest honour to the departed Dravidian icon. BJP national general secretary Muralidhar Rao told TOI, “Karunanidhi was a great leader. Prime Minister has conveyed a strong message by coming personally to pay floral tributes to the late leader. It is only proper that he has been given space on the Marina to rest”. Another senior BJP leader said a Union minister even called up a senior Tamil Nadu minister to convey the message that the Centre was in support of burying Karunanidhi on the Marina.

Anticipating trouble from the state government, DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi had requested for help from the Centre a few days ago. Sources said a senior Union minister assured her all help from the Centre.

Palaniswami’s initial hesitation to allocate space on the Marina was guided by the perceived sentiments of the AIADMK cadres, who would not have wanted to see a memorial for Karunanidhi by the side of Jayalalithaa’s, said a senior AIADMK leader preferring anonymity. The AIADMK cadres have not taken the DMK’s opposition to Jayalalithaa’s memorial on the Marina lightly.

But after the Madras high court order on Wednesday giving a go ahead to the DMK’s plans, the CM made a retreat and decided not to appeal against it for multiple reasons. One, he sensed the AIADMK was isolated in the fight and also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Rajaji Hall weighed heavily on his mind. A section within the AIADMK is happy about the final outcome though as all the petitions challenging Jayalalithaa’s memorial have either been withdrawn or dismissed.

Going by the tardy security arrangements put in place by police to manage the crowd near Rajaji Hall, the state government was ill-prepared to handle any serious law and order problem.

There was also a chorus for preserving Karunanidhi’s body at the party headquarters till the DMK could secure space for him on the beach front, in other words, till the DMK returned to power in the state. Had the script been played out on those lines, it would have given headache to the CM and his government.



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