Wedding called off as ‘bride is always on WhatsApp’

Nazar Abbas@timesgroup.com

Amroha:11.09.2018

A family in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha called off the wedding of their son, alleging that the bride uses too much time on WhatsApp. According to a police complaint filed by the bride’s father, the groom’s father called up the family on Wednesday, the day of the wedding, and told them about their decision.

“We had no inkling about what was coming to us. My daughter was in the middle of preparationsfor her wedding and was very excited. We were waiting for the baraat and all the guests were present inside the house. Suddenly, the groom’s father called me up and said they were cancelling the wedding,” the bride’s father told TOI.

He alleged that the groom’s father had also demanded ₹70 lakh in dowry, a demand which they could not fulfill.

Amroha superintendent of police Vipin Tada said, “The bride’s father had approached the Naugawan Sadat police station with the complaint that the groom’s father had called off the wedding saying the girl uses too much WhatsApp. He also alleged that the groom’s family demanded ₹70 lakh in dowry.”

Woman wins 41-yr fight over ₹312 fee 13 years after death

Binay.Singh@timesgroup.com

Varanasi 11.09.2018

: Ganga Devi was always a fighter. So when the Mirzapur district magistrate served a property attachment notice on her after a dispute in 1975, she protested vehemently. Then 37, she challenged the action before the civil judge and won the case two years later in 1977.

Fate though had another, harder battle in store for her. During the course of the trial, the judge had asked Ganga to pay a court fee of ₹312, which she did. But just as she was ready to get the final copy of the order that was in her favour, someone noticed that Ganga hadn’t attached a receipt of the ₹312 that she had already shelled out. The “vital” document was missing.

It being her wont, Ganga refused to pay up again. The case hanged in court for 41 years as Ganga wouldn’t budge. The suit, filed in 1975, was finally disposed by Mirzapur civil judge (senior division) Lovely Jaiswal on August 31, 2018. Again in her favour. Ganga, of course, wasn’t there to witness the momentous occasion. She died in 2005. “Ganga Devi just didn’t want to pay the court fee of ₹312 for the second time,” a lawyer involved in the proceedings said.

Case continued due to an error in the file, says judge

Requesting anonymity, the lawyer added,“One must remember that Rs 312 four decades ago wasn’t such a small amount. She protested but her plea was not accepted and a case of ‘non-payment of court fee’ continued against her for the next 41 years. The file went through 11 judges, but Ganga Devi remained unheard.”

By the time the matter came up before Jaiswal, who detected the anomaly and after fresh probes found that the fee had indeed been deposited on April 9, 1977, Ganga’s family had given up on justice.

In her judgment, Jaiswal observed that no court fee was pending. “It seemed that the case continued due to an error in the file. Hence, the case is fit for disposal,” the civil judge pronounced. Nobody from Ganga’s family was present in court to celebrate. One of her family members received a copy of the order through speed post last week.

By the time the matter came up before the civil judge, the family had given up on justice

AIADMK to launch its own television channel, News J

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:11.09.2018

The ruling AIADMK will soon boast of its own brand new television channel. Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam will launch the logo, mobile application and the web portal of the channel, News J, on Wednesday at an event in Kalaivanar Arangam in Chennai.

Funded by senior members of the cabinet, the company will launch a bouquet of three channels - beginning with a dedicated news channel to take the government’s achievements and programmes to the masses. “There is a need to counter the opposition’s criticism in the digital space. With Sasikala clan owning Jaya TV, we are left with no option but to go in for one of our own,” said a senior minister.

The trial run of the channel is likely to be completed in a month and a grand event is being planned in the city for the mega launch. A general entertainment channel (GEC) and one for music is also planned, post launch of the news channel.

Earlier, the party launched Namadhu Amma, a Tamil daily in February on the sidelines of Jayalalithaa’s birthday.

Interestingly, the party has roped in Hansraj Saxena, a former close aide of Sun Network’s chairman Kalanithi Maran, and that organisation’s chief operating officer. With kith and kin of the senior ministers occupying the higher posts in the channel, it will be a news channel with a difference with plans to do away debates, sources said.

“As the opposition parties are taking on the government for deteriorating law and order situation, the channel will boast successful cracking of cases by the police,” an insider said. The party is facing the heat of corruption charges against CM, deputy CM and ministers like S P Velumani and C Vijayabaskar. The I-T and CBI searches have been latest embarrassment.

The channel comes in the wake of leaders complaining that the achievements, including Cauvery Water Management Authority, have been overshadowed by the opposition allegations. The management has deployed correspondents and stringers in all districts going by the soaring popularity of Tamil news channels in the last two decades.

Funded by senior members of the cabinet, the company will launch of a bouquet of three channels - beginning with a dedicated news channel

Med student turns farmhand to bail out family

Balajee.CR@timesgroup.com

Trichy: 11.09.2018

The hands that train with scalpels through the week pluck weeds on weekends. P Kanimozhi’s impoverished family to mortgaged or sold everything it had to fund her MBBS course at a private college and she is now making sure it doesn’t starve.

During weekends, Kanimozhi, who belongs to the Arunthathiyar community, works on a farm for a meagre ₹150 a day to supplement what her father P Pichaimani, 45, a farmer at Veppanthattai in Permabalur, makes.

The 21-year-old, who in 2014 managed to secure a government quota seat at Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College at Siruvachur in Perambalur, fears she will have to discontinue her studies in the final year if she is not able to pay the fees.

The annual fee, Kanimozhi said, was around ₹5 lakh, of which around ₹3 lakh was provided by the state government as scholarship under the scheme for scheduled castes. But the scholarship is only for 4 years and 6 months.

Kanimozhi’s paltry earnings can only pay for her family’s daily expenses. “Along with my mother, I go to farms and do various types of work like removing weeds. My family has been struggling with poverty and meeting the medical expenses of my sister, who has a hearing impairment,” she said.

N Selvaraj, at whose farm Kanimozhi has been working from 7am to 1pm a day during the past few weekends, said: “In Veppanthattai, dailywagers go to farms wherever required. As far as I know, Kanimozhi has been doing this work for over two years and in recent weekends she has been working at my farm. Though I have advised her not to do such work as she’s an MBBS student, she said that she was doing it so that she could help her family.”

Her father said he had mortgaged all he could to pay ₹8,80,000 as fees so far and he had nothing left. “I was a daily-wage worker in Dubai for a few years, but after suffering an accident I returned home and have been farming on a one-acre plot of land. I sold my wife’s jewellery and mortgaged my farming land to pay Kanimozhi’s fees. My only dream is to make sure my daughter finishes her MBBS course,” he said.

College sources said the due date for Kanimozhi to pay the pending fee was in February. They said that knowing her situation, at no point did they compel her to pay the fee or ask her not to attend classes. “We always understand when a student is struggling financially. She’s regularly coming to college. If she had brought up the issue straight to us, we would’ve seen what could be done,” the source added.

SUPHILL BATTLE: P Kanimozhi works on a farm on weekends for just ₹150 a day so that her family does not starve

TN made its own interpretation

Jayaraj Sivan & Julie Mariappan | TNN  11.09.2018

The Tamil Nadu cabinet’s decision to release all the seven convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and the debates surrounding the issue turn out to be a case of the political class in the state making much sound and fury about the Supreme Court observation in the A G Perarivalan case.

The September 6 observation of the apex court - which states that Tamil Nadu governor is naturally “at liberty to decide” on Perarivalan’s application filed before him under Article 161 of the Constitution “as deemed fit” – is not an adjudicatory judgment and does not make any marked difference in the earlier stated position regarding the jurisdictional aspects of the case.

While considering the state government’s remission power under Section 435 of CrPC, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the SC, on December 2, 2015, had ruled that states could not remit sentences of convicts in cases investigated by central agencies under any central law. The Constitution Bench made it amply clear that the Centre’s concurrence was mandatory for states to decide on remission in cases involving heinous crimes, especially when national interest was at stake. Now, Tamil Nadu government is invoking Article 161 of the Constitution, arguing that it can decide on the remission of not only Perarivalan, but the remaining six people as well.

Following the cabinet decision, the government on Monday sent individual case files of all the seven convicts to governor Banwarilal Purohit, seeking their release. The government has also enclosed the legal opinion provided by its advocate general Vijay Narayan to drive home its argument.

The opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK and the PMK, jumped the gun to celebrate the SC order following incorrect reporting by a section of media. Perhaps, sensing that the issue lends itself for some political mileage, the state government has sought to play it to the gallery. “In this case, TN government has kept the political reasoning to the fore, pushing the law around the case to the back seat,” said senior advocate K M Vijayan.

Law minister C V Shanmugam said the convicts had completed a quarter century in prison. “The government is very firm. After the SC order, we wasted no time in adhering to it,” he said, expressing hope that Purohit also would act fast.

“The Supreme Court has specifically given the liberty to the governor to consider the application of Perarivalan under Article 161 of the Constitution. My opinion goes on to say that what transpires in the case of Perarivalan will apply to all since they have also made similar applications to the state. That is logical,” Narayan told TOI. His argument is that since the only sentence they serve now is under Section 302 of IPC, which falls in the state list, Tamil Nadu government is well within its rights to decide their release. Given the Centre’s objection, the governor may not play ball though.

DECISION AWAITS

Guv’s options range from traditional to adventurous

All Eyes On Governor’s Next Move On The Issue Of Rajiv Murder Convicts

A.Subramani and B Sivakumar | TNN  11.10.2018

Now that the Tamil Nadu cabinet’s decision to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case is fait accompli, there are at least three theoretical possibilities. The options open to the Tamil Nadu governor range from the conventional to the adventurous, irrespective of the legal and political advice he gets.

One, he can sit on the cabinet recommendation endlessly, as Article 161 of the Constitution does not prescribe any time limit for him to take a decision on the cabinet resolution. Two, he can return the resolution to the cabinet for clarification or reconsideration. The third option, which could be the most adventurous, is he can reject the resolution prompting the stake-holders to take the issue to courts, where it will be a time-consuming process. Former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap said under Article 161, the governor did not have any time limit for giving his decision. “He can consult the Centre, legal experts or just sit on it for whatever time he wants to. The Article does not mention any provision for the governor to act on an assembly or cabinet resolution,” said Kashyap. Justice D Hariparanthaman, former judge of the Madras high court, while conceding that there was no constitutional deadline for the governor to take a decision, said if there was inordinate delay, people could go to court for a direction for early disposal. “There is no bar as the governor too is a constitutional creature,” he said. As for the ‘theoretical third possibility’ of returning to the state cabinet for reconsideration or for clarification, Justice Hariparanthaman said: “In my experience I have not seen a precedent where the decision of a state cabinet decision was rejected by the governor. It will be against constitutional scheme of things.”

In 1999, governor of Tamil Nadu Fatima Beevi returned the proposal to commute the death sentence of Nalini Sriharan into one of imprisonment for life only because the state government had first merely forwarded the advocate-general’s opinion to the government. After the high court held that the opinion could not replace the procedure of getting advice from the council of ministers, the Tamil Nadu cabinet sent a duly adopted resolution to the governor, leading to Nalini escaping the gallows.

Former solicitor general of India Mohan Parasaran said now it was for the Centre to apply its mind and take a decision. “Though the SC has clearly said the state government has powers to decide on releasing the convicts and has turned down the Centre’s argument on the issue, the governor has the option of getting opinions, legal or otherwise,” said Parasaran. Asked whether the case will once again go to the SC, the constitution expert said it was too early for the case to be once again heard by the SC.

Giant plane with 53 tonnes cargo lands at airport

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:11.10.2018

A giant Antonov AN-124 aircraft operated by Russian freight company Volga-Dnepr Airlines landed at Chennai airport on Sunday. The plane landed with 53.46 tonnes of machinery including windmill components from Xi’an Xianyang in China. The whole freight was unloaded and had to be carried on 13 trucks.

This is first time an AN-124 aircraft is landing here with a considerable amount of payload. Since Chennai airport is a major gateway to south India, such hauls are expected to be a regular occurrence in future, a press release said.

AN-124 aircraft is designed for long-range delivery and air dropping of heavy and large cargo. It has a payload capacity of up to 150 tonne. The aircraft is currently at Bay 104 and is expected to leave the airport at 11:30am on Tuesday. “It is a plane that falls into the category of A380 aircraft in terms of size. We have only one bay for such planes,” a senior Airports Authority of India official said. The wingspan of the plane is too wide that it cannot be brought anywhere near the terminals.

Unloading was a challenge. The plane comes with a huge crane that can be used to unload the cargo. “Antonov planes bring cargo of unusual size. Trailer trucks had to be driven along the road that runs along the perimeter and had to cover 7km to reach the plane,” said another official.

The Antonov AN-124, which has a payload capacity of up to 150 tonnes, is currently at Bay 104