Forging bail papers lands Coimbatore doctors, lawyer in the soup

The judge then ordered the police to take action against the lawyer and the doctors involved in misinforming the court.

Published: 22nd September 2018 03:20 AM 

For representational purposes (File |EPS)

By Express News Service

COIMBATORE: The Crime Branch wing of the Coimbatore City police has booked six people, including three doctors and a lawyer, for producing false documents to get bail for a man who was arrested on charges of stealing opioid drugs from the city.

While two of the doctors — Dr S Usha, senior civil surgeon and Dr Mansoor — are from the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) and the other, TCR Ramakrishnan, owns a clinic at New Siddhapudur. The lawyer involved is M Zackaria. The two others who have been booked are Peer Mohammed, office assistant at CMCH, and Mohammed Shahib, elder brother of Shikas alias Mohammed Shikas, who was arrested, along with some others, for alleged theft of opioid drugs.

All the six have been booked under various IPC sections including 420(cheating) and 468 (forgery for cheating). The Crime Branch is conducting further investigations.

The case dates back to July 24, 2016, when the City police arrested D Joy Immanuel (28), a native of Bengaluru, A Shikas alias Mohammed Shikas (22) of Saibaba Colony, Jilby alias Jilby Khan Ali (24) of Kuniyamuthur and Anaf alias Mohammed Anaf (22) of Ukkadam for stealing and supplying drugs to college students in the city. All four were booked under IPC sections 193, 196, 199, 200, 468, 471, 420 and 109 and remanded.

Subsequently, the lawyer Zackaria filed a bail petition on behalf of Shikas, claiming that Shikas was an epilepsy patient. The defence counsel also produced doctors’ certificates in support of the claim. However, Judge C Sanjai Baba of the Essential Commodities Act Court, suspected the originality of the doctors’ certificates and ordered a probe to verify their credibility.

The probe revealed that the certificates produced before the court were false and that a medical certificate showed a date after the remand of Shikas in judicial custody. The judge then ordered the police to take action against the lawyer and the doctors involved in misinforming the court.

Based on the order, Essential Commodities Act Court head clerk R Vasantha Kumari lodged a complaint against the six with the Crime Branch of the City police, who then registered a case against them.

Government letter cannot override government order: Madras High Court while allowing teacher's re-employment

Justice J Nisha Banu passed the order on a petition filed by P Thamilarasi, who was a Graduate Assistant (Zoology) in the Government Higher Secondary School, at Samuthirapatti in Dindigul.

Published: 22nd September 2018 03:01 AM |

By Express News Service

MADURAI: “A government letter cannot override a Government Order,” observed the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court while disposing of a retired teacher’s petition seeking direction to be reemployed. Though the teacher was eligible for reemployment as per a G.O., her claim was rejected based on a government letter, which declared her ineligible.

Justice J Nisha Banu passed the order on a petition filed by P Thamilarasi, who was a Graduate Assistant (Zoology) in the Government Higher Secondary School, at Samuthirapatti in Dindigul.

The judge stated, “A statutory provision will prevail over administrative instructions; administrative instructions issued in the name of the Governor will prevail over any administrative orders issued by the government, and not in the name of the Governor.” Relating this with the present petition, justice Banu held that the petitioner fulfilled the conditions drawn in the G.O. (passed on February 13, 1981) issued in the name of the Governor. Hence, the petitioner cannot be rejected citing a subsequent government letter (dated August 13, 2008), which was not passed in the name of the Governor, she stated.

With the above observation, the judge upheld the interim order passed by the Court in favour of the petitioner, based on which she had been allowed to be reemployed till the end of the academic year for a period of 11 months. Further, taking into account that the petitioner has not yet been paid salary for her work during the above period despite a lapse of more than five years, justice Banu directed the school education department to disburse the pending salary of the petitioner with interest within a period of eight weeks.

SRM students get over 3,000 job offers
The total offers by Infosys were 1,185.

Published: 22nd September 2018 02:13 AM |

By Express News Service

The 2019 placement season at SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRM IST) was held recently where recruiters TCS, Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro made over 3,000 offers on campus. Under the category of ‘dream offers’, TCS Digital offered jobs to 62 students and Infosys offered jobs to 64 students.

The total offers by Infosys were 1,185. For the first time, 15 Taiwanese companies also participated. It was facilitated by Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA ).

Some of the ‘Super Dream’ recruiters who made offers on campus were Microsoft, who recruited a student with a package of `38.5 lakh per annum; Amazon, who picked 16 software development engineers; UDAAN.com, a Bengaluru-based start-up that hired three students with an offer of `18.5 lakh per annum for each; Nutanix, based in Bengaluru, hired two system reliability engineers with an annual package of `18.1 lakh each and SAP Labs offered one MTech student a pay package of `17 lakh per annum. Given the number of students in SRM IST, the placement season will spread over months allowing students to pursue their dream job on campus.

IIT Madras, Nanyang Technological University to offer joint doctoral degree

Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has joined hands with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, to offer a joint Ph.D program, a release from the institute said on Friday.

Published: 22nd September 2018 03:30 AM |

IIT Madras (File Photo) (Image for representation purpose)
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has joined hands with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, to offer a joint Ph.D program, a release from the institute said on Friday.

Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, a distinguished alumnus of the institute, will sponsor five IIT-Madras students annually for travel to and stay at NTU for up to 18 months as part of this program, the release said adding that IIT-M alumni community in Singapore is strong and active and will provide various forms of support.

Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-M, exchanged the MoU for the program with NTU on June 1 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The NTU president Subra Suresh, is also an alumnus of IIT-M, the release said.

Infosys co-founder to sponsor scholars
Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, an alumnus of IIT-Madras, will sponsor five students from the institute annually for travel and stay at NTU for up to 18 months as part of this program, the release said. It added that the IIT-M alumni community in Singapore will provide various forms of support

Refrain from selling banned FDC medicines: chemists’ association

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

RAMANATHAPURAM, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 00:00 IST

Says the Supreme Court has banned the drugs


The Ramanathapuram District Chemists and Druggists Association has urged the pharmacies and hospital attached pharmacies in the district to refrain from selling 323 fixed dose combination (FDC) medicines banned by the Supreme Court.

The association’s appeal comes in the wake of reports that most of the more than 600 pharmacies in the district continued to sell the prohibited FDC drugs despite the ban order. “All the pharmaceutical retail outlets should stop selling of the drugs forthwith in the interest of patients”, a spokesman of the association said.

He said the Supreme Court had banned the FDC medicines based on the recommendations of the sub-committee of the Drugs Technical Advisory Board as FDC medicine with the combination of two or three therapeutic drugs packed in a single dose proved harmful to the patients, he added.

Soon after the apex court prohibited the sale of these medicines, officials had issued pamphlets and asked the retail outlets to immediately stop the sale of the prohibited drugs. Enquiries, however, revealed that the sales continued unabated in several parts of the district and neighbouring Sivaganga district.

The officials had asked the retail outlets to return the FDC drugs to the distributors, stockists and manufacturers but a leading distributor in the district said that he had not received any return so far.

The retail outlets were supposed to return the drugs and get reimbursements but “we have not received any return,” he said.

Most of the prohibited drugs, especially antibiotics – oral and injections were available in the retail outlets, especially those located in remote areas, the sources said. People also consumed them due to lack of awareness, they said. Medical practitioners also prescribed the prohibited medicines, they said.

Official sources said they have issued strict instructions to the retail outlets against the sale of the prohibited medicines and asked all the retail outlets to return the medicines back to the distributors, stockists and manufacturing firms. “We are keeping a close vigil,” they said and warned stern action against violators, they said.

Meanwhile, the association said pharmacies would down shutters in the district on September 28 and join the all India strike against the move to make available medicines ‘online.’

High Court allows petition seeking MBBS admission

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 00:00 IST

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday allowed a petition moved by the father of a candidate with visual impairment of 75 % who sought a direction to allow his son to pursue MBBS course.

Justice V. Parthiban, hearing the plea of M. Jabakar from Tirunelveli, who sought a direction for his son J. Vibin to pursue MBBS course, allowed the petition.

However, a detailed order in the case will be passed on September 24.

Mr. Jabakar, in his petition ,claimed that his son had passed NEET and got the 285th rank in all-India quota under the special category. He was allotted a seat in Pudukottai Medical College.

\The candidate was asked to get an allotment order and a disability certificate from the Madras Medical College. However, to their dismay, the certificate said the candidate had 90 %, contrary to the 75 % disability indicated by the certificate issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Subsequently, his admission was turned down.

The father moved the High Court Bench claiming that had his son’s visual impairment been 90%, he would not have filled up OMR sheets for NEET.

High Court seeks details of rules to regulate clinical establishments

Legal Correspondent

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 00:00 IST

Directs government to submit them in court at the earliest

Directing the State government to submit in court the statutory rules framed under the Tamil Nadu Private Clinical Establishments (Regulation) Act of 1997, the Madras High Court has warned that it would be constrained to summon the Health Secretary if the rules were not submitted at the earliest.

Justice N. Kirubakaran passed the order on a writ petition pending since 2016. The petition had been filed by a hair transplant clinic, whose premises at Nungambakkam was locked and sealed after one of its customers died in a suspicious manner within two days after undergoing hair transplantation procedure.

When the judge wanted to know what the regulations in place were to regulate such clinics, he was told that Parliament had enacted The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act of 2010, but only Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim had adopted the enactment.

The court was also informed that though the Tamil Nadu Private Clinical Establishments (Regulation) Act was passed way back in 1997, it had not come into force for want of framing of statutory rules. Therefore, the hair transplant clinic had not been registered either under the Central Act or the State legislation. The judge was shocked to note that the clinic was functioning by registering itself under Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act of 1947 and obtaining a licence under Chennai Metropolitan Corporation Act of 1919. However, the death in Tamil Nadu had led to enactment of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act in that State.

Hence, the judge directed a Special Government Pleader to make sure that the statutory rules were framed at the earliest and submit them in court.