Letters to the Editor

Power tussle in Judiciary

The unprecedented move by four senior-most Supreme Court judges of publicly criticizing the Chief Justice has exposed the crisis and quest for judicial independence in the world's largest democracy.

It has undoubtedly jolted the faith of the common law-abiding citizen in the apex body. It is quite unfortute to witness such dissensions among top notches of the Judiciary.

Though a section of intellectuals and media are seeeking to make the issue seem administrative in ture, but undoubtedly, there are deep rooted and long-standing institutiol forces at work, which is palpable through the concern showed by the SC judges.

Moreover, the silver lining on the issue seems to be the voice and great moral courage of the judges in taking such dire steps.

Though it is a well known fact that the CJI is the ‘Master of the Roster’ to "fix" the benches for cases, but allocating cases of tiol concern that might have far-fetching impact to certain benches of junior judges has little logic.

The high-pitched reverberations will not easily subside and will be felt for a long time to come. The Central government, rather than remain inexplicably silent, must disclose its position on the Memorandum of Procedure for judicial appointments and communicate this clearly to the Supreme Court. This would surely help ensure transparency.

Shajid Khan,

Hospital Road, Tangla-784521.

Stop child labour

Through your esteemed daily, I would like to bring to notice the malaise of child labour in the country.

It has been observed that child labour is gradually increasing in India. However, the government has not taken any robust step to stop the practice.

The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations identified in a list by the law.  Although Childline is working for the said cause, but the helpline has failed in curbing the mece in toto.  On Child Labour Day, we all take out protest rallies against the practice, but in reality nothing much has been done to stop it.  It is really shamefully that local as well as tiol media are not highlighting this serious matter. It is high time for all of us to raise our voices against child labour. It is the responsibility of government as well as every Indian not to engage any child in any sort of labour. Another important point is that we should chalk out ways to rehabilitate such poor children.

Samar Deb,

Guwahati.