Issue provisional degree certificate to medical student: HC

DELAYED CONVOCATION

Issue provisional degree certificate to medical student: HC

Vasanth.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:08.11.2020

Because of the ‘conspiracy of circumstances’ such as the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become difficult to maintain the regularity and periodicity of convocation ceremonies. Universities have to devise viable alternatives to mitigate the likely hardships their students/alumni are put to.

The high court made this observation while coming to the rescue of Lanson Brijesh Colaco, a medical student from Kurunji Venkataramana Gowda Medical College and Hospital, Sullia, Dakshina Kannada.

“Aggrieved students can’t be asked to wait in silence for an indefinite period since it will have many repercussions like time bar for admission to a course, non-compliance of conditions of recruitment and age bar for employment,” Justice Krishna S Dixit pointed out.

The judge directed Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to issue a provisional degree certificate for MBBS to the petitioner within two weeks. It must contain a specific certification that it should be treated on a par with the awarding of degree, for all practical purposes. In his petition, Lanson had claimed there’s a delay in awarding degree certificates as the RGUHS convocation is being deferred, and the same is affecting his study as well as employment prospects.

During the hearing, the panel advocate for RGUHS informed the court there’s a provision in the statute of the health university for providing graduates a provisional degree certificate, followed by awarding of degree in the convocation. He added a specific text will be introduced in the certificate or by way of an annexure to the effect that it should be treated on a par with awarding of degree.

The court expressed hope that university authorities, when requested by students/ alumni like the petitioner, address appropriate communication to other varsities/employers for easing difficulties.

If RGUHS fails to comply within two weeks, it will have to pay Rs 5,000 per week as cost to the petitioner, which should be recovered from the erring officers, the judge said

Nurse who would be doctor!

Nurse who would be doctor!

TRAINED AT CIVIL, POISED TO FINISH PHD IN GERMANY

Parth.Shastri@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:  08.11.2020 

Come 2021, and Krupali Patel, a native of Vadodara, who was trained as a nurse at Civil Hospital, will receive her doctoral degree from University of Bonn in Germany! Krupali is currently working on her thesis on zoonotic diseases and understanding the transmission of superbugs such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from animals to humans and vice versa.

Patel, the daughter of a lab technician and homemaker in Vadodara, recently connected with students and researchers at her alma mater, Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar (IIPHG), in a webinar, sharing her experiences.

“I got interested in the healthcare sector and pursued a diploma in nursing, followed by a BSc degree,” recounts Krupali. “But I wanted to go beyond the routine and got an opportunity to work on a project linking WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) with maternal mortality rate (MMR) in India and Bangladesh.”

The project got her interested in public health and she enrolled in the Master in Public Health (MPH) course at IIPH-G. Her interest in zoonotic diseases (diseases spread from animals to humans) and drug-resistant bacteria continued even after her graduation, as she got selected in a very competitive process for a doctoral study at the Centre for Development Research at University of Bonn.

“My focus is on MRSA and factors affecting it such as weather conditions. I collected the samples from 300 households in Ahmedabad keeping cattle in different seasons and studied the distribution pattern,” she said. “The data analysis is on, and I am hopeful of submitting my findings soon.”

Deepak Saxena, a professor at IIPH-G and mentor to Patel, said that she’s working in a field less explored. “In India and elsewhere, the superbug study model is primarily hospital-based. But she has taken the community health approach where she has taken samples from animals and humans to understand the spread pattern of the drug-resistant bacteria,” he said. “I am sure it would add a new dimension to how we look at the subject in the context of India.”

Krupali Patel

Change student’s name, it’s his right, HC tells DU

Change student’s name, it’s his right, HC tells DU

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  08.11.2020 

Delhi High Court underscored that to have a name and to express the same in the manner one wishes is a part of the right to freedom of speech and expression and liberty under the Constitution of India.

The high court’s observation came while directing Delhi University to change the name of one of its students without insisting on a change in his CBSE records. The high court said such a requirement amounted to “asking for the impossible” as “the right to change a name is a protected right.”

Justice Jayant Nath said the student passed Class XII in 2018 and was seeking a change in his name in 2019, while he was studying in the university. “Asking him to first get the CBSE records changed was ‘a misplaced requirement’ and cannot be accepted”, the court noted.

The bench was hearing a plea by Rayaan Singh, who sought change of name to Rayaan Chawla in the university records. He challenged Delhi University’s notification of 2015, which mandates that for change of name in the varsity records, it has to be first effected in the certificate issued by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

According to the plea, after his parents separated in 2007 and got divorced in 2015, Rayaan wanted to adopt his mother’s surname as he “never enjoyed a constructive relationship” with his father. He had already published a declaration regarding the change of name in two newspapers and the Gazette of India.

Delhi University had opposed the plea on the grounds that he had adequate time to get his name changed after his parents’ divorce, as he passed Class XII only in 2018. But the court did not agree.

“When CBSE issued the documents, the petitioner had the original name Rayaan Singh. The same cannot be changed now, as in 2018, when the petitioner completed his Class XII, he was known as Rayaan Singh,” it observed. It added that since the change of name was with effect from August/ September 2019, i.e., much after the Class X and XII certificates issued by CBSE, Delhi University could not in these peculiar facts and circumstances insist that he should also get the name changed in the records of CBSE.

“It would be appropriate that respondent No.1/ University of Delhi may change the name of the petitioner in its records/in the degree that may be given in the future to the petitioner....Such a course of action will avoid any confusion in the two names, which will be seen on the records of CBSE and of University of Delhi/appropriate documents issued by the said entities,” the court observed.

DELHI HIGH COURT SAYS

It would be appropriate that University of Delhi may change the name of the petitioner in the degree that may be given in the future to the petitioner... Such a course of action will avoid confusion in the two names, which will be seen on the records of CBSE and of DU

FASTags must for 4-wheelers from next year

FASTags must for 4-wheelers from next year

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:08.11.2020  

The road transport ministry has made it mandatory for all four wheelers and bigger vehicles to have a valid FASTag for renewal of third party insurance from April 1.

Moreover, the FASTag has also been made mandatory for all commercial vehicles — cars and above — for renewal of fitness certificate from January 1. Violation of this can attract a penalty of ₹300 to ₹500.

While all four wheelers and above sold after December 2017 come with factory fitted tags from the dealers, a large number of vehicles sold earlier don’t have these.

The ministry in a statement said the notification would be a major step in ensuring that the payment of user fees reaches 100% at toll plazas through electronic means and vehicles pass seamlessly.

However, there are still reports from different parts of the country where vehicles having FASTags are facing congestion at toll plazas despite having exclusive lanes.

At 81, man bags engg doctorate

At 81, man bags engg doctorate

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:08.11.2020 

Among those who received their doctorate degrees at the NIT convocation was an 81-year-old physician and general medical practitioner who sought to blend medicine and engineering through his work. The oldest candidate to receive a PhD from NIT Trichy, Dr G Ganapathy’s research involved developing detection models for breast cancer and low back pain. “Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers among women. Low back pain affects the quality of life irrespective of the gender and it is heavily influenced by age and activity factors,” Dr Ganapathy told TOI.

Family living inside temple tower finally evicted

Family living inside temple tower finally evicted

Gokul.rajendran@timesgroup.com

Trichy:08.11.2020

Imagine an ancient, intricately carved temple rajagopuram for a roof for your house! A family has been residing inside the rajagopuram of Thopparankatti Vinayagar templein Thanjavur by converting it into a house for several decades before public protests forced the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department to evict them andset right a wrong they committed by permitting it.

Thopparankatti Pillaiyar temple was one of the several temples coming under the Thanjavur Big Temple administration. About 60 years ago, the administration rented out approximately 430square feet of the mandapam in the rajagopuram to a temple employee named Sabapathi Pillai through a tenancy agreement. Pillai’s son Jayaraman, 75, and his wife Shyamala, 70, were the last tenants residing in the ‘house’.

There is no trace of the temple at the place now and only Shyamala was living in what looked like a house every bit inside the rajagopuram. Legally however, the family could not have been called encroachers till January 2019 when they were handed out the eviction order by the HR & CE officials after local people raked up the matter.

“They remained tenants until the order of termination of tenancy was issued by HR&CE, after which they were considered as encroachers,” said HR&CE department advocate V Chandrasekar. Asked how temple premises could have been rented out to an individual, Chandrasekar said, “It happened nearly 60 years ago, when the temple trustees took decisions without consulting the executive officers of the temple. Now, the issue was taken up seriously and the solution was found by evicting them.”

Big Temple executive officer S Madhavan told TOI they had asked the family to vacate the place, but they stayed put. Acting on the eviction order dated October 20 from the joint commissioner of HR&CE department, Thanjavur division, G Thennarasu, a team of officials carried out the anti-encroachment drive.

Thennarasu said the door frame (Nilai) put up at the entrance of the rajagopuram as the main door of the house was removed by the tenant Shyamala herself as she was evicted.

BACK WITH HR&CE: The family, which had been living in the rajagopuram of Thopparankatti Vinayagar temple in Thanjavur for 60 years, had even built a door frame at the house’s entrance (seen in photo on left)

I-T dept raids city firm, unearths unaccounted ₹1k cr

I-T dept raids city firm, unearths unaccounted ₹1k cr

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:08.11.2020  

The income tax department searched five locations in Chennai and Madurai on November 4 in a case pertaining to a Chennaibased IT infrastructure group. Unaccounted income to the tune of ₹1,000 crore was found, an official release by the income tax department stated.

The I-T department said it unearthed evidence relating to investments in a Singapore-registered company. The shareholding of the particular company is held by two others. One of them is the group which was raided while the other is a subsidiary of a major infrastructure development and financing group. The I-T department said the company raided had a 72% shareholding despite investing a nominal amount. The rest was held by the infrastructure major. “This resulted in benefit of almost seven crore Singapore dollars or ₹200 crore and wasn’t disclosed,” it said.

“Proceedings will be initiated under Black Money Act, 2015. The present value of the investment exceeds ₹354 crore,” the I-T department said. It also stated that five shell companies had been acquired by the group which were used to siphon off ₹337 crore from the main group company by raising bogus bills. The I-T department said it found evidence regarding allotmentof preference shares worth ₹150 crorein 2009 in the group company bypassing accounting entries to project inflated capital to obtain funds from banks. Allotment of another ₹150 crore worth preference shares in 2015 from funds from group companies, who in turn took loans/entries, is being examined.

During the search, officials found the group borrowed from banks on interest and diverted them to other group firms free of interest for investments in properties. The total interest disallowance on this count was about₹423 crore, the release said.

The search also revealed the group had purchased about 800 acres of land, in the names of various shell companies from the funds providedby the main group.Applicability of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 to these transactions is being examine