Defence staff can’t quit job at will as it affects preparedness of forces: SC

Holds IAF Man Guilty For Applying For Bank Job Without Telling Authorities

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:04.07.2019

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said defence force personnel cannot be allowed to quit job at will in the middle of service, saying it will adversely impact operational preparedness of the armed forces and held an airman in IAF guilty of breaking rules by applying for a bank job without informing the authorities.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta rejected the plea of the IAF personnel who contended that the Constitution has given him a fundamental right to practise any profession and his right cannot be infringed upon by Air Force rules.

“A person who has been enrolled as a member of the Air Force does not have an unqualified right to depart from service at his or her will during the term of engagement. Such a construction, as urged on behalf of the appellant, will seriously impinge upon manning levels and operational preparedness of the armed forces. With the rapid advancement of technology, particularly in its application to military operations, there has been a reconfiguration of human and technological requirements of a fighting force. The interests of the service are of paramount importance,” the bench said.

The court passed the order on an appeal filed by Amit Kumar Roy challenging IAF’s decision not to issue ‘No Objection’ certificate to him to join as probationary officer in a bank. He joined the force in 2004 and applied for the bank job in 2010 and appeared for written exam and interview without taking mandatory permission from IAF. After selection for the job, he approached Armed Force Tribunal which directed IAF to issue provisional NOC and subsequently he joined the bank.

In 2012 Air Headquarters cancelled the provisional NOC and he was directed to join the force. after which he approached the apex court.

The court came to the conclusion that there was no illegality in cancellation of NOC as he violated Air Force rules but said that no purpose would be solved to direct him to join the force after eight years and asked him to pay ₹3 lakh to the government within two months for violating the rules.

“No purpose will be served in directing reinduction of the appellant into the IAF save and except to subject him to disciplinary action. Having regard to the facts and circumstances which we have noted above, we are of the view that the ends of justice would be met by directing that a final NOC and discharge be issued to him no later than within a period of three months of the receipt of a copy of this order,” the bench said.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta rejected the plea of the IAF personnel who contended that the Constitution has given him a fundamental right to practise any profession and his right cannot be infringed upon by Air Force rules

HC pulls up officials for stopping pension of elderly woman

K.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Madurai:04.07.2019

Pulling up the revenue department officials for their recklessness, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court has directed the authorities to disperse pending arrears and compensation to an elderly woman for whom the old age pension (OAP) was stopped based on false information that she was dead though she was alive.

On Wednesday, justice R Suresh Kumar gave the direction on the petition filed by K Sundarammal, a resident of T Vallakulam village at Kamuthi taluk in Ramanathapuram district. She had sought the continuation of OAP after it was stopped based on false information.

The judge observed that the tahsildar of Kamuthi in his counter had stated that the reason for the erroneous deletion of the petitioner’s name was made by an outsourced computer operator.

The judge observed, “This is a classic case where the government authorities have recklessly acted in providing welfare schemes to the needy people as per the policy of the state government. Expressing its anguish, the court wants to give remedial action for the loss sustained by the petitioner for her sufferings.”

Hence, the judge directed the officials to calculate and disperse the pending arrears of OAP to the petitioner with an interest rate of 6% and also distribute a compensation of ₹50,000 to the petitioner within two weeks.

The judge also directed the authorities to submit a compliance report in this regard on July 24. In her petition, Sundarammal stated that she is a destitute woman and does not have any legal heir to take care of her. She further stated that as she does not have any permanent job she is unable to fulfil her daily needs. She said that after she submitted a representation, the officials started distributing OAP from November 24, 2006. However, it was stopped from July 21, 2015.

900 students at Madras univ college learn in fear in crumbling buildings

Staff Worried About Ceilings Falling Down

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:04.07.2019

More than 900 students and 30 staff members of a constituent college of University of Madras in Thiruvottiyur are in constant fear of ceilings of dilapidated buildings that are more than 40 years old falling on their head.

The college operates from a corporation school on Poonthottam Road where it began functioning seven years ago as a temporary arrangement. A unitary complex with an anganwadi centre, a corporation primary school, a special tahsildar’s office and a park function out of the same campus. What’s more, there are only four toilets each for men and women. “We are in constant fear. One of the staff members had a narrow escape recently as a chunk of concrete fell a feet away from him. Almost, all the buildings are in a bad shape,” a staff member said. “Despite the fund crunch, the university has promised financial help to plaster the ceilings and undertake some maintenance work. The college could not find a piece of land to have another building,” said a syndicate member of the university.

The college offers five under-graduate programmes – BA Tamil, BA English, BCom (general), BCom (computer applications) and BCA. It’s a co-ed college with girls constituting more than 70% of the students. None of the 30-odd teaching staff is a full-time employee. The college has 15 guest lecturers and 15 part-time guest lecturers. Against a requirement of 15 classrooms, the college has only eight rooms and classes are being conducted in two sessions to accommodate the students. The first session functions from 8.10 am to 12.45 pm and the second from 1pm to 5.35pm. The college caters to the needs of children from poor background from Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Kavarapettai and Ponneri. “With better facilities, the college could get up to 3,000 students,” said a faculty member.

“In Tiruvottiyur, there is no vacant land to build a college,” said K Kuppan, a former MLA who played a key role in opening the college. “The government has allotted a piece of land near Ernavur flyover, but the land was mortgaged by a government agency for a loan. The government has also allocated ₹20 crore for a building, but we decided to construct a new structure, locals who use the playground opposed it.”

The government has allotted three acres of land near CPCL in Manali. “Considering pollution and access issues, the proposal was kept pending. If there is no other land, then we may have to settle on that one,” said Kuppan.


COMING APART: University of Madras Arts and Science College (constituent college) functioning from an old corporation school premises on Poonthottam Road in Thiruvottiyur; (right) a broken wall on the campus

Dharmapuri girl tops rank list for veterinary courses
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:4.7.2019

The Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas) on Wednesday released the rank list for admissions into undergraduate courses BVSc & AH and BTech.

S Swathi of Dharmapuri topped the rank list with 199.5 marks out of 200.

A Jane Sylvia of Tuticorin and M Harsha of Kanyakumari got 199.25 and 199 marks respectively and secured second and third places on the rank list. The admission into veterinary courses is based on Class XII marks. Candidates may verify their ranks on Tanuvas’s official website www.tanuvas.ac.in. There has been a surge in applications for the BVSc and AH course, compared to last year. While Tanuvas received 12,000 applications for the BVSc & AH course in 2018, this year the number has gone up to 15,476. The applications for BTech courses also witnessed a rise this year.

“There was a 29% increase in applications for BVSc and AH compared to last year. For BTech courses, the number of applications has increased by 14.64%,” animal husbandry minister Udumalai K Radhakrishnan told media representatives after releasing the rank list. Of 18,438 applicants, 17,122 were found eligible.

As many as 360 seats are available for the BVSc and AH course at four veterinary colleges, while 100 seats are available for the BTech courses (food technology, poultry technology and dairy technology). “We plan to start new veterinary colleges,” the minister said.

Tanuvas vice-chancellor C Balachandran said counselling will be held in the third week of July. “The schedule along with details of candidates called for counselling, their marks and rank will be released on our official website,” he told the media.

Last year, the OC cut-off for BVSc and AH was 196 out of 200 marks. This year the cut-off is likely to come down due to poor performance of Class XII state board students.

K Gopal, secretary of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, and P Tensingh Gnanaraj, registrar of Tanuvas, also participated in the event.

FIRST RANK: S Swathi

While Tanuvas received 12,000 applications for the BVSc & AH course in 2018, this year the number has gone up to 15,476

MBBS entry rank list delayed again

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:4.7.2019

The state selection committee will not release the rank list for MBBS and BDS admissions on Thursday. The list is likely to be released on July 6 or July 8, officials said.

The committee which was scheduled to release the list on Tuesday had earlier postponed it to July 4. The policy decision on quota for economically weaker section will be taken after an all-party meeting. If the state adopts the quota, the medical seats in government quota will increase by 25%. “They are trying to delay the list so they get time to take a decision. But they don’t understand the difficulty of students and parents,” said Arul Kumar, a parent.

The selection committee said it has asked nearly 3,000 candidates to hand over the original form for verification. “It can be verified after we release the rank list too but we wanted to make sure we have the documents,” said selection committee secretary G Selvarajan.

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