Chennai: Courier firm to pay man Rs 10,000 damages 

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Dec 1, 2018, 3:51 am IST

Tendering an apology, a customer relation representative stated that the consignment was not sent as a result of an operational error. 


 
The firm had not committed any deficiency in service and FedEx was not liable for damages.

Chennai: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Tiruvallur, directed an American based multinational courier firm to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to a person for failure to deliver a package to his son in the US three years ago. He had planned to send an Apple mobile phone in a parcel.

In the petition, Z.Ashok Zachariah of Korattur submitted that he planned to send an Apple mobile phone in a parcel to his son residing in the United States of America. When he contacted customer care staff of M/s.FedEx Express, they informed him that the parcel would be delivered in three days. On April 20, 2015, the pickup man from FedEx Express, Padi came to his residence and collected the parcel. He paid freight charges of Rs 3,693. He also submitted a copy of the mobile bill, ID proof and a letter declaring the contents of the parcel and its value.

On April 22, when he tracked the movement of the parcel on the internet he found that the parcel was in Bengaluru, and on April 25 it returned to Chennai. Later, a staffer informed him that the parcel could not be sent to the US. It was returned to him five days after he booked it.

Tendering an apology, a customer relation representative stated that the consignment was not sent as a result of an operational error. However, the firm did not refund the freight charges. He said that act of the firm caused him mental agony and hardship and sought a compensation of Rs 1 lakh along with refund.

In its reply M/s.FedEx represented by its manager, Andheri East, Mumba, submitted that the complaint was false. The consignment could not be delivered due to customs and regulatory related clearances. Consequently the  consignment had to be returned to the sender. The firm had not committed any deficiency in service and FedEx was not liable for damages.

The bench comprising president S.Pandian and member R. Baskarkumaravel said that it was crystal clear that FedEx had committed deficiency in service. The bench directed FedEx to refund Rs 3,693 along with 9 per cent interest per annum and also pay him Rs 5,000 for causing mental agony and hardships and a cost of `2,000.

Madras HC sets aside transfer order to differently-abled headmistress 

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Nov 30, 2018, 6:18 am IST

The judge directed the authorities to post the petitioner within a week, as headmistress in the Thazhancheri HC, which is situated near her residence. 


Madras High Court

Chennai: The Madras high court has set aside an order of the authorities transferring a differently-abled headmistress to a far away school.

“When the law is so concerned for the disabled persons and makes provision, it is the obligation of the law executing authorities to ensure implementation in quite promptitude”, said Justice S. Vimala while disposing of a petition from R.Thamaraiselvi, a differently-abled woman.

The judge directed the authorities to post the petitioner within a week, as headmistress in the Thazhancheri high court, which is situated near her residence.

According to Thamaraiselvi, she was appointed as a teacher and posted in a high school in Korkai in 1997. Subsequent to her promotion as headmistress in 2018, despite her 50 percent disability and request to post her in a high school in Thazhancheri, which was just 10 km away from her residence, she was offered the high school in Periathumbur, which was 104 km away, during counseling. Therefore, she filed the present petition, she added. The judge said the transport system and the population using it were alarming and accidents were escalating each day. The population traveling over the top of the bus cannot be forgotten while considering the transfer request of a disabled person. Normally, place of posting was left to the discretion of the administrators, but in this case, this court did not have the hope that the administrators would take care of the interest of the differently abled person namely the petitioner, the judge added and gave the above directive.

US proposes changes to H1B visas, to target most skilled, top paid workers 

PTI

Published Dec 1, 2018, 8:55 am IST

Under proposed rule, firms hiring foreign workers would have to electronically register with USCIS during designated period. 


The H1-B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. (Photo: File)

Washington: The Trump administration on Friday proposed major changes to the H-1B application process with the aim of awarding the visa to the most skilled and highest paid foreign workers.

Under a new proposed merit-based rule, a notice for which was issued on Friday, companies employing foreign workers on the H-1B visa – under the Congressional mandated annual caps -- would have to electronically register with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) during a designated registration period.

The H1-B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress.

The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the cap.

The USCIS would also reverse the order allowing it to select H-1B petitions under the H-1B cap and the advanced degree exemption. This is likely to increase the number of foreign workers with a master's or higher degree from a US institution of higher education to be selected for an H-1B cap number. As such the proposed rule will be introducing a more meritorious selection of beneficiaries, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement. The DHS said public comments on the proposed rule can be submitted from December 3 to January 2.

"Currently, in years when the H-1B cap and the advanced degree exemption are both reached within the first five days that H-1B cap petitions may be filed, the advanced degree exemption is selected prior to the H-1B cap. The proposed rule would reverse the selection order and count all registrations or petitions towards the number projected as needed to reach the H-1B cap first," the DHS said.

Once a sufficient number of registrations or petitions have been selected for the H-1B cap, the USCIS would then select registrations or petitions towards the advanced degree exemption.

“This proposed change would increase the chances that beneficiaries with a master's or higher degree from a US institution of higher education would be selected under the H-1B cap and that H-1B visas would be awarded to the most-skilled and highest-paid beneficiaries,” it said.

The proposed process would result in an estimated increase of up to 16 per cent (or 5,340 workers) in the number of selected H-1B beneficiaries with a master's degree or higher from a US institution of higher education, the DHS said.

The USCIS said it expects that shifting to electronic registration would reduce overall costs for petitioners and create a more efficient and cost-effective H-1B cap petition process for the agency.

The proposed rule would help alleviate massive administrative burdens on USCIS since the agency would no longer need to physically receive and handle hundreds of thousands of H-1B petitions and supporting documentation before conducting the cap selection process, it said.

“This would help reduce wait times for cap selection notifications. The proposed rule also limits the filing of H-1B cap-subject petitions to the beneficiary named on the original selected registration, which would protect the integrity of this registration system,” USCIS said.

Chennai: Government notifies Lokayukta rules, inquiries to be held ‘in-camera’ 

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Dec 1, 2018, 3:29 am IST

DMK president M.K. Stalin has demanded in a tweet that the secrecy provision be rescinded. 


 
Even when the TN Assembly passed the Lokayukta Bill in July, the opposition had dubbed it as "toothless".

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has notified rules under the Lokayukta Act providing for inquiries to be held in-camera and precluding disclosure of the identities of the complainant as well as the public functionary under scrutiny. Predictably, opposition parties and leaders have slammed these provisions and demanded they be scrapped.

Throwing a thick blanket of secrecy over the Lokayukta proceedings, the government said these cannot be disclosed to the media or to the general public. Reacting sharply, the main opposition party DMK alleged that the TN rules for Lokayukta would only end up facilitating corruption rather than curtail it. The rules must be struck down, the DMK said.

Even when the TN Assembly passed the Lokayukta Bill in July, the opposition had dubbed it as "toothless". "Every inquiry shall be conducted in private and in particular the identity of the complainant and of the public functionary affected by the inquiry shall not be disclosed to the public or the press or published in any manner whether before, during or after the inquiry," Section 26 of the rules says.

The rules notified in a state government's gazette recently, however, make it clear that the norm of in-camera proceedings will be "subject to the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005". The RTI Act promotes transparency and access to information under public authorities and it is not clear which aspects of the Lokayukta inquiry or proceedings will be covered under the transparency law.

Justifiably, DMK president M.K. Stalin has demanded in a tweet that the secrecy provision be rescinded. The institution of Lokayukta envisaged by the government is "without power", he said.

Madras High Court refuses to stall SIT probe into Madurai Kamaraj University sex scandal

The bench also directed the university to file a report on the proper implementation of the Act in its institutions.

  Published: 30th November 2018 01:08 PM |

 

 By PTI

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has made it clear that it cannot stall the probe by the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Tamil Nadu Governor into the alleged sex scandal at Madurai Kamaraj University in the state.

A division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam said Thursday, "We cannot stay the probe by SIT, all we can do is only ask the university whether it has implemented the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act."

The bench also directed the university to file a report on the proper implementation of the Act in its institutions.

The direction came on a plea by Revolutionary Students Youth Front seeking to stall the probe conducted by the SIT and constitute a new team headed by a woman official to investigate the scandal in which assistant professor Nirmala Devi allegedly tried to lure college girls to offer sexual favours to higher officials.

When the plea came up for hearing, the Advocate General filed a status report, which said the professor "voluntarily" confessed during custodial interrogation that she tried to lure girl students of her college only to offer sexual favours to other two accused in the case Murugan and Karuppasamy.

It was further submitted that with the assistance of cyber crime cell the call data records (CDR) of Nirmala Devi, Karuppasamy and Murugan were obtained from Mobile Service Providers (MSPs). The report said the records were analysed and relevant evidence of conspiracy was established.

"The calls made and received by the accused were analysed, and the concerned were summoned, examined and statements recorded. The calls among the three were corroborated based on the voluntary confession and the facts were verified," it was submitted.

The seizure of all digital evidences was done after following due legal procedure, the report added. Nirmala Devi, assistant professor at Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai, was arrested on April 16, a day after an audio clip went viral on the social media, in which she purportedly sought to persuade girls to consider extending sexual favours to senior officials of MKU, to which the college is affiliated.

Madurai Kamaraj University scandal: Copy of CB-CID report sought 

She sought for a stay of all further proceedings on the final report and sought a direction to transfer the case to CBI for fresh investigation under a special investigation team. 

  Published: 29th November 2018 08:56 AM 

 

Madurai Kamaraj University

By Express News Service

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench directed the Srivilliputhur Mahila Court to produce the copy of the final report filed by the CB-CID in the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) sex scandal case in a sealed cover before December 3.

The direction came in response to a petition filed by the General Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association P Suganthi seeking transfer of the investigation of the case to CBI. Suganthi submitted that the entire final report in the said case is totally flawed and stands on inadmissible confessions without any independent witnesses to corroborate the averments.

Though the audio conversation, which is the prime evidence in the case that had set the law in motion, included soliciting sexual favours from girl students and sexual gratification for higher officials of MKU, the latter part has been completely abandoned during the investigation, Suganthi stated. Even the statement of the Vice Chancellor of MKU has not recorded been recorded by CB-CID, she added.

Suganthi further pointed out CB-CID had added two higher officials of MKU namely Distance Education Director Viajayadurai and Director of Human Resource Development Centre Kalaiselvan, as witnesses in the case instead of accused, even though the officials, according to the prime accused Professor Nirmala Devi’s confession and their own statements, seem to have aided her in the crime directly and indirectly.

She sought for a stay of all further proceedings on the final report and sought a direction to transfer the case to CBI for fresh investigation under a special investigation team.

Quality, credible journals to get UGC's CARE

Based on special cells’ reports, CARE will maintain a dynamic ‘Reference List of Quality Journals’. 

  Published: 30th November 2018 05:31 AM 

 

UGC head office. (PTI)

By Express News Service

COIMBATORE: With the aim of promoting credible and quality academic journals in India in all academic disciples, the University Grants Commission has decided to establish the Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE).

CARE, to be chaired by the UGC vice chairman, will include representatives of the Association of Indian Universities, relevant statutory councils and government bodies concerning the sciences, medicine, agriculture and engineering, as well as the social science, humanities, arts and fine arts.

The UGC’s INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network) Centre, which will also be a CARE member, will act as a supporting agency, according to a public notice from UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain. CARE members will prepare a list of quality journals in their respective disciplines and these will be critically   analysed using ‘defined criteria’ by special cells at certain ‘entrusted institutions’ with proven track record in journal analysis and publication ethics. The cells will be guided by an empowered UGC-appointed committee.

Based on special cells’ reports, CARE will maintain a dynamic ‘Reference List of Quality Journals’. In the science and technology disciplines, it will also consider journals indexed by globally accepted databases like Scopus and Web of Science.

The number of research articles published in reputed journals is a globally accepted indicator for matters like institutional ranking, appointment and promotion of faculty members and award of research degrees, Jain pointed out. Credibility of research publications is extremely important as it reflects individual, institutional and national image. Publications in dubious, substandard journals, besides bringing a poor image, cause long-term academic damage.

These have, in fact, become a matter of concern all over the world. The percentage of research articles published in such journals is reported to be high In India, adversely affecting the country’s image. High quality, reputable journals and research papers are thus necessary to achieve higher global rankings   for our institutions and improve our quality of education, he said.