Tension in Nuh over inter-faith marriage
 
21/08/2019 , GURUGRAM

Tension has gripped parts of Ferozepur Jhirka in neighbouring Nuh after a marriage between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man. The protesters called upon shopkeepers to keep their shutters down on Tuesday, demanding that the woman be “returned”. The protesters blocked the Gurugram-Alwar highway for several hours on Monday.

HC deletes contentious para from verdict

21/08/2019

 

“Now, there is a general feeling amongst the parents of students, especially female students that co-educational study in Christian institutions is highly unsafe for the future of their children and though they impart good education, the preach of morality will be a million dollar question. As long as a religion is practised in streets in lieu of its worship places, like temple, mosque, church etc., such devastation, as in the present case, does (sic) occur and will be mushrooming.”

The controversial lines led to an uproar with the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, Tamil Nadu Latin Bishops’ Council, All India Democratic Women’s Association, Indian Christian Association of Tamil Nadu and a section of advocates insisting that the observations be withdrawn. In the same verdict, the judge also stated that several women-centric enactments were being misused to teach a lesson to men in strained relationships.

“This is the right time to think of suitable amendments in those laws in order to safeguard the interest of the innocent masculinity (sic) too,” the judge had said and directed the High Court Registry to mark a copy of his judgment to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. These observations continue to remain a part of the order.

HC sets aside order on TRB selection process
 
21/08/2019 , Staff Reporter, Madurai

The Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to incorporate necessary amendments to the Tamil Nadu Education Subordinate Service Rules to bring it in tune with the eligibility criteria prescribed by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

The court observed that this should be done by considering the change in nomenclature of courses and their equivalence so that future recruitments would be in strict adherence with NCTE norms and free from unnecessary complications, paving way for unwanted litigations and delay.

A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and S. S. Sundar disposed of a batch of review applications and writ appeals filed against the striking down of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board’s selection process held for the selection of special teachers in the cadre of Physical Education Teacher.

The court set aside the order of a single bench that struck down the entire selection and the recruitment notification. The single bench had held that the notification calling for the recruitment to the post was not in consonance with the subsequent changes made in the field of physical education.

It took cognisance of several changes introduced and redesigned from 2004. The one-year course of Higher Grade in Physical Education was scrapped in 2004 and reintroduced as a two-year course as Certificate of Physical Education. This course was redesigned in 2006 as a two-year Diploma in Physical Education.

The Division Bench held that the single bench ought not to have scrapped the entire selection process and directed the TRB to consider the candidature of the writ petitioners based on merit.

‘A training programme is just the beginning, and not the end’

21/08/2019 , Liffy Thomas

Illustration: Sebastian Francis

Training programmes should be outcome-driven. So, a mechanism to assess the impact of a training programme should be built into it.

Jacob Jesuroon, head - People Function, Access Healthcare, points out that the assessment should be taken step-by-step, and he illustrates the idea with one of the training systems followed at his company.

Step one: The immediate response to a training programme.

When a training programme has been completed, feedback is sought from the participating employees about the trainer, training content and training environment.

Step two: The effectiveness of a training programme is gauged from how much it has improved workaday behaviour. “So, after the training is done, we have 30 days of on-the job coaching, which is essentially about observing the extent of behaviour and capability improvement of employees.

Wherever necessary, the trainer works with the participants to ensure that lessons taught during the training are reiterated,” says Jesuroon.

If the trainer had identified any specific need for the employee, 45 days of personalised coaching is provided to them. Following this, they are issued a certificate.

Jesuroon says, “It takes time to exhibit competitiveness, so we measure the overall effectiveness of a training initiative at the 120th day. We are happy seeing any improvement above 20% and a continuous learning attitude,” says Jesuroon.

Outcome metrics of an effective supervisor training programme are: managing their team, providing for a productive work environment, empowering their team, and providing employees with the right career opportunities in the organisation.

Another indicator of effective supervisor programme is the happiness quotient of the team members, measured every day through an internally developed app called “Happiness Meter.”

Jesuroon says that it is the job of line managers to support the career goals of employees.

“Line managers have to ensure their team members are upskilled from time to time and are growing internally,” says Jesuroon, adding that they insist that at least 70% of the members in a team are promoted once in two years.

SC concerned over misuse of web

21/08/2019

He said the government found it a challenge to trace the ‘originator’ of such online content. The services of social media platforms, which were used to circulate such content, was the need of the hour. “We do not have the mechanism to find out the originator... We cannot have people commit crimes.”

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal, representing social media platforms, said they had moved the Supreme Court for the sole purpose of transferring the proceedings pending in High Courts to the apex court for adjudication.

Facebook contended that there were four petitions — two in the Madras High Court and one each in the Bombay and the Madhya Pradesh High Courts — on the issue. Mr. Rohatgi said Mr. Venugopal was unnecessarily delving into the merits of the case and he should only argue on the question of transfer. The court, as the highest court in the country, and not the High Courts, should decide the issue that affected the privacy of an online user. A decision of the top court would cover the entire span of the country and would uniformly apply to all the States, he said.

There was a risk that the High Courts might arrive at conflicting decisions on the issue. It would be better to have the Supreme Court take the final call. The Tamil Nadu police were saying that Aadhaar should be used for linking user profiles, he said.

“They cannot tell us how to run our platforms. We have end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp and even we do not have access to the content. How can we tell them what is the Aadhaar number? We also have to take care of the privacy of the users,” he stated.

Mr. Sibal said a decision of the Indian courts would have global ramifications.

Both lawyers pointed out that a nine-judge Constitution Bench had declared privacy as a fundamental right associated with life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Mr. Venugopal asked why social media platforms have decided to approach the Supreme Court at this point of time.

“Why are they coming now? Eighteen hearings have already taken place [in the Madras High Court]. The proceedings are at an advanced stage. They [social media platforms] had accepted the jurisdiction of the High Courts,” he said, opposing the move to transfer the cases from the Madras High Court.

The court finally issued notice to the Centre and the States on the plea made by social media platforms for transferring the proceedings in High Courts to the apex court. It further scheduled the next hearing to September 13.

The Bench said the “hearing before the Madras High Court may go on but no effective order be passed till further orders.”

Overdose of laddoos leads to divorce plea

21/08/2019 , Indo-Asian News Service, Meerut

A resident of Uttar Pradesh’s district has sought divorce on grounds that his wife, under the influence of a tantrik (shaman), was giving him only ‘laddoos’ to eat.

The man approached a family court where he said that on the instructions of the tantrik, his wife gave him four laddoos to eat in the morning and four in the evening. He was not allowed to eat anything else.

‘NEXT groundwork in six months’ 

Target is six months though time given is a year: Minister
 
21/08/2019 , Bindu Shajan Perappadan , , NEW DELHI

-The Union Health Ministry claims to have given itself a deadline of six months for preparing the groundwork for the implementation of the common final year undergraduate medical examination (NEXT) which will come into effect in three years.

“It is going to a large exercise and we understand that multi-layer co-ordination is required to ensure that we are able to roll-out this standard exam for all our medical students and even for foreign graduates who want to work in India,’’ explained a senior health official.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the Ministry is targeting six months to prepare the ground for ensuring that the country is ready to host the exam. “We are giving ourselves six months though the time allocated for us to do the groundwork is a year,” he said.

The Minister said NEXT will set common standards for doctors nation-wide.