Letters to the Editor: Jurisdiction

We all know that each department has its own jurisdiction or Laxman Rekha. Judiciary is no exception. I, as law abiding and peace loving citizen, was rudely shocked to go through an observation made by the District & Sessions Judge of Barpeta, about police encounters in the State. Judge Chakravarty, while making this observation, may not be aware of the massive upsurge of crimes committed daily by people of doubtful nationality in the State and the proper measures have been taken by our police. We also know that in the ensuing encounters our policemen were also injured. Delivering verdicts on cases relating to crime is the judiciary's domain and nabbing culprits after committing any crimes in the police's job, which we as bona fide citizens understand very well. The District & Sessions Judge's comment on Police Raj was made in reference to his verdict where he granted bail to one so-called Congress lawmaker from Gujarat for passing derogatory remarks against a duly elected Prime Minister of a nation, does not seem to have any relevance, as has been rightly pointed out by the Gauhati High Court recently. We prefer police raj to mafia raj.

Lanu Dutt Chowdhury,

Guwahati.

Majuli Bridge

Only construction of piers of Majuli Bridge over mighty Brahmaputra is in progress. There are many miles to go to see a long-cherished Majuli bridge! In fact, piers are the mainstays of a bridge. Of late, it hogged the headlines when visual pictures of defects in constructions of piers were shown in the public domain. Notwithstanding, I don't want to go into the nitty-gritty of matter without delving into the whole issue. However, I want to put a few things in perspective. If UP Bridge Construction Company is entrusted with the total responsibility like design, procurement of construction materials, equipment, inspection, quality control, construction supervision and engaging sub-contractors as well, then there is a serious cause for concern. From my own experience of working across the country and abroad (while being a member of mega project implementation team), one thing I can say for sure that even 'the best out of bests' contractors can't produce quality product in the absence of a very reputed third party/consultant to oversee the jobs. The reasons are obvious. Construction of any bridge over the Brahmaputra is not a child's play. As such, the Government of Assam must give a serious thought to this.

Prafulla Dowarah,

Guwahati

Undertrial prisoners

While inaugurating the joint conference of the Chief Ministers of States and Chief Justices of High Courts, our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the fate of detainees as undertrial prisoners in different jails of India. He said that human sensitivity has to be at the heart of these things. He said, there are over 3.5 lakh prisoners today in India who are under trial. Majority of these are poor or from ordinary families. He appealed to the States to release them on bail when possible. He also appealed to all Chief Justices of the High Courts to prioritize undertrial cases on the basis of humanitarian grounds and the law. I deeply appreciate and greatly value the appeal of our Prime Minister, who has given serious thought to the issue of undertrial prisoners and the detention year after year in connection with delayed trials, which have taken even 5 to 6 years. In India, bail petitions are not considered under the pretext of charge sheets and heinous crime, but my experience says that after 5 to 6 years detention, the accused persons are acquitted of the charges. In such circumstance, "who will return their valuable years"? It ought to be mentioned that the Supreme Court in a series of decisions opined that after filing of charge sheet, too, bail can be granted, but seldom has the judiciary honoured this opinion. I hope and trust that the appeal of our Prime Minister shall be considered with all importance, keeping in mind the human sensitivity at its heart.

Subhash Chandra Biswas,

(scbiswasadvocate@gmail.com)

Infrastructure or Nature?

'Global warming' is the biggest threat not only for human beings but also for all living creatures on earth. As we know, deforestation is one of the prime causes of heat waves. We all know about Jadav Payeng, who is known as the Forest Man of India and is the pride of Assam. We are thankful for his great initiative for the environment. Without any publicity, he became popular across the world. But nowadays some environmentalists in the State plant trees just for a publicity stunt and it is a common thing to gain popularity for them in social media. But their motive is not to save the environment. Now the shameful thing for us is that there are some environmentalists who did not raise their voices against the mass deforestation in NH-37 Guwahati, where thousands of trees have been cut down without any concern about the environment.

Now the question is whether people want only 'Infrastructure' or 'Infrastructure with Nature'?

If we want only infrastructure, then we should not cry about global warming. If we want infrastructure with Nature then the Government and environmentalists should come forward to save the environment. Now I want to ask those environmentalists who are planting trees in meetings or other programmes and taking photographs: Is it the way to save the environment?

Dimpu Barman,

Bajali.

Sometimes we find news that a department has taken disciplinary action against an employee who had concealed his criminality on joining the job. Now the Supreme Court had delivered a verdict that on the basis of suppressing the criminality, Government cannot sack an employee. The Supreme court observed that suppression by an employee while joining a service of a criminal case in which a person was falsely implicated and honourably acquitted, cannot be a ground for termination of job by the employer. A Bench of two judges said that mere suppression of material or giving false information regarding a criminal case cannot be a ground of termination of job and sacking should depend on the nature and seriousness of the charge and also whether it resulted in conviction or acquittal. Suppression of a case which is trivial in nature would not justify termination. Referring to several Supreme Court judgments, the Bench said: "What emerges from the exposition as laid down by this court is that by mere suppression of material/false information regardless of the fact whether there is a conviction or acquittal has been recorded, the employee/recruit is not to be discharged/terminated axiomatically from service just by a stroke of pen.

"At the same time, the effect of suppression of material/false information involving in a criminal case, if any, is left for the employer to consider all the relevant facts and circumstances available as to antecedents and keeping in view the objective criteria and the relevant service rules into consideration, while taking appropriate decision regarding continuance/suitability of the employee into service. What being noticed by this court is that mere suppression of material/false information in a given case does not mean that the employer can arbitrarily discharge/terminate the employee from service," it said. The Bench said all matters cannot be put in a straitjacket and a degree of flexibility and discretion vests with authorities and must be exercised with care and caution taking all the facts and circumstances into consideration, including the nature and type of lapse This decision will be useful for employees who have faced this type of harassment by the employing department.

Yash Pal Ralhan,

Jalandhar -144003.

Two sides of LIC IPO

There are two different perspectives on the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of insurance giant LIC. While on the one side it raises concerns, since in a country a very small percentage access the share market, and unlocking a big value of a colossal financial organization for the purpose of retail investment will debilitate the interests of 130-crore people. On the other hand, if viewed optimistically, the Union Government has offloaded only a minor stake of 3.5 percent due to market conditions, expecting to rake in huge crores. And who knows, the market may grant a huge trust premium to the LIC. If managed well, the insurance behemoth can lay golden eggs for the Government for long. Regardless of how things will shape, LIC continues to be the dominant life insurer even in the liberalized scenario of Indian insurance. For well over six decades since its establishment, LIC has crossed many milestones and has set unprecedented performance records in various aspects of life insurance business. Interestingly, LIC's slogan in Sanskrit, Yogakshemam Vahamyaham (your welfare is our responsibility) has been obtained from the 22nd verse of the Bhagavad Gita's 9th chapter.

Ranganathan Sivakumar,

Chennai – 600 091.