India Legal - 07 October 2019

NDIA EGALL STORIES THAT COUNT
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October7, 2019
RadicalReformTheSupremeCourt’sdecisiontocreateapermanentConstitutionBenchandsingle
benchesislongoverduebutquestionsremain.Ananalysis
Indore: The VIP
Honey Trap
Whistleblower Scandal:
Can Trump be impeached?

HE unanimous decision by the highest
court in the United Kingdom to enforce
the supremacy of parliament and dec-
lare Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
decision to prorogue parliament as null
and void is a resounding and timely lesson for all
parliamentary democracies. It re-established the
presence and importance of checks and balances,
so vital for the lifeblood of a democracy. More
crucially, it highlighted issues such as the separa-
tion of powers and the role of the Supreme Court
in defining the limits to the power of the Execu-
tive. Writing in The Indian Express, internation-
ally-known legal scholar and regular contributor
to this magazine Professor Upendra Baxi called it
a “Kesavananda Bharati moment”. The judgment
he was referring to was a landmark decision of
the Supreme Court in India that outlined the
basic structure doctrine of the Constitution.
Back in 1973, a 13-judge Constitution bench of
the Supreme Court deliberated on the limitations,
if any, of the powers of the elected representatives
of the people and the nature of fundamental
rights of an individual. The apex court held that
while Parliament has wide “powers”, it did not
have the power to destroy or emasculate the basic
elements or fundamental features of the Consti-
tution. The Kesavananda case revealed the under-
lying apprehension of the majority bench that
elected representatives could not be trusted to act
responsibly. This was dramatically proved when
Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency in 1975.
In Indira Nehru Gandhi vs Raj Narain, a Con-
stitution Bench of the Supreme Court used the
basic structure doctrine to pave the way for resto-
ration of democracy. It also reaffirmed the con-
cept of separation of powers as a model for the
governance of a democracy. The typical division
is divided into three branches—a legislature, an
executive and a judiciary, which is called the trias
politica model. The system of checks and balan-
ces rests on the principle that each of the branch-
es has the power to limit or check the other two.
It is often a delicate balance. The essential
principle is to protect the people from govern-
ment abuse.
India follows a constitutional democracy
which offers a clear separation of powers. The
judiciary is fairly independent of the other two
branches with the power to interpret the Consti-
tution. All three branches have checks and bal-
ances over one another to maintain the balance of
power and not exceed constitutional limits. Under
this, the president of India can set aside a law
passed by the legislative which is deemed to be
inconsistent with the Constitution. Even if the
president accepts a law passed duly by the legisla-
tive, it can be repealed by the Supreme Court if it
is against “the basic structure of the Constitution”.
Similarly, Parliament has the power to impeach a
president for any unconstitutional decision/deci-
sions he/she may make, while the judiciary, equal-
ly, has the power to ask a president to step down
if any of his/her orders are seen as unconstitu-
tional. As a counter, Parliament has the power to
impeach judges of the Supreme Court and High
Courts for incompetence and intentions that are
viewed as mala fide, or in bad faith.
However, occasional transgressions on the sep-
aration of powers have been generally seen as
pro-people—the Vishakha case where guidelines
on sexual harassment were issued by the apex
court, and the decriminalisation of homosexuality
declaring Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to
be unconstitutional. In 1983 when Justice PN
Bhagwati introduced Public Interest Litigation
(PIL) in India, Justice RS Pathak in the same
judgment warned against the “temptation of
crossing into territory which properly pertains to
the Legislature or to the Executive Government”.
In that sense, the judgment by Britain’s highest
court is not being seen as judicial overreach but
as a timely reminder that heads of government
cannot ride roughshod over established constitu-
tional norms and take ad hoc decisions that not
only undermine parliament but also the will of
the people. It is a decision that will echo around
the democratic world.
THEBALANCEOFPOWER
T
Thejudgmentby
Britain’shighest
courtisnotbeing
seenasjudicial
overreachbutasa
timelyreminder
thatheads
ofgovernment
cannotride
roughshodover
established
constitutional
normsandtakead
hocdecisions
thatnotonly
undermineparlia-
mentbutalsothe
willofthepeople.
Letter from the Editor
| INDIA LEGAL | October 7, 2019 3
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com

SUPREMECOURT
12Setting a Wrong Precedent
The apex court has lambasted the UP government for allowing private claims on forest lands in
contravention of its order and sitting on the issue for 26 years
ContentsVOLUME XII ISSUE47
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LEAD
8Landmark Reform
The Supreme Court’s decision to create a permanent Constitution Bench and single
benches is appealing as it could cut delays but much depends on how these are
conceived and the CJI’s discretion
4 October 7, 2019
COURTS
14
Will They
Fall in Line?
Parking at malls, multiplexes and
other commercial establishments
has been a contentious issue and
the matter has now gone up to the
apex court

Followuson
Facebook.com/indialegalmedia
Twitter:@indialegalmedia
Website:www.indialegallive.com
Contact:editor@indialegallive.com
Cover Design:
ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Parliamentary Standing Committees were formed in order to ensure
greater accountability of the government to Parliament
Checks and Balances 20
Is the centre’s move to set up foreign varsities an attempt to create
a global secretariat class? Education is not treated as a culture of
learning but as a way to quick and instrumental certification
The Balkanisation of Education 16
Missing Stickers
To stem air pollution, a scheme was introduced for NCR states to have colour-
coded stickers on all vehicles by October 2018. Delhi is yet to fix the gaps
36COLUMN
As the global demand for meat increases, not labelling livestock
as antibiotic-treated is fraud and violation of fundamental rights
28
FOCUS
Check Your Platter
In a bid to woo panches and
sarpanches in J&K, the centre
has given them sops. Will this
win the hearts of the people?
New Zeal 30
GLOBALTRENDS
No Effect on Boris
After UK PM Boris Johnson shut down Parliament, it was left to the SC to rule
that he had broken the law. But Johnson continues to indulge in bluff and bluster
38
Fresh Trouble for Trump
US President Donald Trump’s alleged call to his Ukraine counterpart to
probe his rival, Joe Biden, has led to calls for his impeachment
40
In a noteworthy endeavour, a
court in Auraiya gave a judgment
in a record nine days from the
date of filing of the charge sheet
in a rape case. This shows that
the judiciary can triumph over
proverbial delays
Justice
That Heals 22
With most economic indicators plunging, the government needs
to kick in reforms signalling it is serious about economic growth
24
MYSPACE
Tackling Recession
While the release of whopping sums for afforestation is a welcome
step, there is still no effective mechanism to monitor their use
Money Down the Drain?
ENVIRONMENT
34
SPOTLIGHT
STATES
Threat to Tigers
In a scathing indictment, a Supreme
Court-appointed Central Empowered
Committee has said that the Ken-Betwa
project could also threaten the Panna
Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh
Dream Homes Shattered
More than 2,000 residents in 334 apartments in Kerala stare at a bleak future as
the SC stays firm on demolition of structures built in violation of CRZ rules
44
REGULARS
Ringside............................6
Courts ...............................7
International Briefs..........33
Media Watch ..................41
Satire ..............................50
Road Anxiety
The softening of some of the stringent penal
provisions of the amended Motor Vehicles Act
in Gujarat is linked to public outrage as well
as intra-BJP politics at the top level
48
Honey Trapped
A sex racket involving high-profile call girls in Madhya Pradesh may expose
several politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. Will they be brought to book?
46
42

6 October 7, 2019
Anthony Lawrence
RINGSIDE
“Wow, Elvis!”
Modi in Houston

Courts
—Compiled by India Legal Team
While coming down hard on lawyers re-
sorting to strikes or boycotting courts
in the state, the Uttarakhand High Court war-
ned that they could face disciplinary action
from the State Bar Council. The Court’s res-
ponse came after it was told that lawyers of
the District Bar Association of Dehradun,
Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar were not
attending court on every working Saturday
for the past 35 years as their demand for a
separate bench of the Allahabad High Court
in Dehradun or Haridwar had not been met.
A two-judge bench headed by Chief
Justice Ramesh Ranganathan said that such
strikes were illegal and a misconduct on the
part of lawyers while pointing out that judicial
work could not be allowed to suffer as a
result of lawyers resorting to strikes.
The ruling came on a PIL wherein the
petitioner's case was getting inordinately
delayed in the Dehradun district court due to
lawyers’ strikes and he wanted the Court
to intervene.
The bench in its order instructed the dis-
trict bar associations of Dehradun, Haridwar
and Udham Singh Nagar to attend court “on
all working Saturdays” with immediate effect.
It also asked the district bar associations in
Uttarakhand not to be absent from courts for
any other reason whatsoever.
“In case they do not start attending
Courts, as directed, the District Judges con-
cerned shall submit their respective reports
to the High Court for it to consider whether
action should be initiated against the errant
advocates under the Contempt of Courts
Act,” the order said.
The Court also said that the Uttarakhand
State Bar Council must take disciplinary
action within four weeks against office-bear-
ers of the District Bar Associations for calling
illegal strikes and boycotting courts on
Saturdays in Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham
Singh Nagar. It asked the district judges to
see that normal work goes on unhindered in
all courts on Saturdays.
No absolute rights
for minority
institutions: SC
The rights granted to minority
institutions are not absolute
and can be regulated, the
Supreme Court said. The Court
was referring to the freedom
granted to these institutions to
admit students as per their
choice. The observations from
the top court came as a result of
a plea challenging two rules of
the Andhra Pradesh government.
One, candidates could claim
minority status only on the basis
of Secondary School Certificates
or Transfer Certificates produced
from the school in which they
had studied, for admission to
B.Ed courses in minority institu-
tions. Two, minority institutions
must admit students from non-
minority category, only on merit,
in vacant seats under the man-
agement quota.
The minority institutions
objected to the rules, claiming
that these violated the rights
given to them under Article 30
(1) of the Constitution. The
Court, however, turned down
their plea, saying that the rules
were limited to admission for
B.Ed course and would check
the misuse of the preference
that candidates got due to their
minority tag. It noted that a large
number of admissions had taken
place on the basis of conversion
certificates and the interests of
the “genuine minority students”
needed to be protected.
The police have no legal authority to
attach, seize or seal any immovable
property merely on doubt that an offence
had been committed while probing a crimi-
nal case under Section 102, CrPC, the
Supreme Court ruled. Section 102 deals
with the power of an investigating officer to
seize any property suspected to be part of a
crime. A three-judge bench of the Court
said that “Section 102 of the CrPC is not a
general provision which enables and autho-
rises a police officer to seize immovable
property for being able to be produced in a
criminal court during trial”. The bench,
however, made it clear that the concerned
police officer can freeze movable properties
of the accused under the Section. Earlier the
Bombay High Court had ruled that the
police did not have any power to seize prop-
erty during the course of investigation. The
Maharashtra government had challenged the
verdict in the apex court.
Police can’t seize immovable property: SC
Lawyers’ strike
illegal, says
Uttarakhand HC

TACKLING LARGER ISSUES
The Ayodhya case is being heard by a
Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice
of India Ranjan Gogoi (centre) and (from
left) Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud,
Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer.
Lead/ Supreme Court/ New Benches
N September 17, the
Supreme Court, through a
gazette notification,
amended the Supreme
Court Rules, 2013, to
enable a judge sitting
singly, nominated by the chief justice, to
hear and dispose of certain categories of
matters. These include special leave
petitions (SLPs) arising out of grant,
dismissal or rejection of a bail or antici-
patory bail application involving
offences punishable with a sentence up
to seven years’ imprisonment. Another
category is applications for transfer of
cases and appeals from one High Court
to another or from a criminal court sub-
ordinate to one High Court to another
criminal court of equal or superior juris-
diction subordinate to another High
Court. The third category includes
applications of an urgent nature for
transfer of cases under Section 25 of the
Code of Civil Procedure, which enables
the Court to transfer any suit, appeal or
other proceeding from a High Court or
another civil court in one state to a High
Court or another civil court in any other
state. The fourth category includes cases
notified by the chief justice of India
(CJI) from time to time.
But the crucial reform which the CJI,
Ranjan Gogoi, sought to achieve with-
out amending the rules is to create a
TheCourt’sdecisiontocreateapermanentConstitutionBenchandsinglebenchesisappealingasit
couldcutdelays,butmuchdependsonhowtheseareconceivedandtheCJI’sdiscretion
By Venkatasubramanian
O
Welcome Reform,
Uncertain Future

permanent Constitution Bench of five
judges to hear and decide key cases,
raising substantial questions of law and
the Constitution. This became possible
with the Supreme Court’s strength rising
from 31 to 34 and the Court functioning
with its full sanctioned strength, thanks
to the timely filling up of vacancies.
The Supreme Court, in its initial
years, comprised only eight judges and
all of them used to sit en banc to hear
most cases, lending it a greater degree of
coherence, which may be missing when
the Court sits in division benches of two
or three judges. The sanctioned strength
of judges, however, kept rising from
eight to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in
1978, 26 in 1986 and 31 in 2008.
During the framing of India’s
Constitution, a proposal to enable the
Court to sit en banc to decide all cases
was mooted by the eminent United
States Supreme Court judge, Felix
Frankfurter, when India’s constitutional
adviser, BN Rau, met him seeking his
suggestions. But Justice Frankfurter’s
advice was ignored as India saw merit in
increasing the judges’ strength to ans-
wer the growing pendency of cases in
the Supreme Court.
The result has been that the Supreme
Court departed further from the
framers’ ideal of a Court exclusively
dealing with substantial questions of
law and the Constitution rather than
functioning merely as an appellate
court. The indiscriminate admission of
SLPs in the Supreme Court by the divi-
sion benches, even in cases not raising
substantial questions of law and the
Constitution, made the Court lose its
direction and significance amidst its
unmanageable docket explosion.
Therefore, by increasing the strength
of Supreme Court judges, the CJI might
think that with more Justices, it would
be possible to have the luxury of a per-
manent Constitution Bench. The Court
has often been deterred from setting up
such a bench because of the huge rise
in pendency of cases to be dealt with by
benches of smaller strength of two or
three judges.
Indeed, the Supreme Court’s
Constitution Bench had held in Bihar
Legal Society v Chief Justice of India
(1986) that the Court was never intend-
ed to be a regular court of appeal
against orders made by High Courts. It
was created as an apex court for the
purpose of laying down the law for the
entire country. Extraordinary jurisdic-
tion for granting special leave was con-
ferred upon it under Article 136 of the
Constitution, only to enable it to inter-
fere in exceptional cases when the law
was not correctly enunciated by lower
courts or tribunals and it was necessary
to pronounce the correct law on the sub-
ject. In other words, this jurisdiction is
to be exercised by the apex court only to
correct grave miscarriage of justice.
Not every error of High Courts was
supposed to be corrected by the
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is
infallible because it is final. It is not
final because it is infallible. Review and
curative jurisdictions are meant to
enable the Supreme Court to correct its
own errors. High Courts as Consti-
tutional Courts are not inferior in our
justice delivery system. Therefore, the
tendency to consider the Supreme Court
as the sole appellate authority for all
cases must be resisted to enable it to
perform its role as the interpreter of the
Constitution far more effectively than it
can at present. The plea to create
National Courts of Appeal in the four
regions of the country, which the
Supreme Court has referred to a
Constitution Bench, aims to address this
dilemma. This will allow the Supreme
Court, with a smaller strength, to con-
fine itself to cases of constitutional
importance.
The Supreme Court currently has
553 Constitution Bench matters to be
heard and decided. If similar cases are
grouped together, this figure could come
down to 56. Of these, 46 are five-judge
bench matters, while five each are
seven- and nine-judge bench matters.
It is important that Constitution
Bench matters are heard and decided
expeditiously. Early decisions in such
matters help reduce pendency of cases
as well as contribute to the smooth
functioning of democracy without fric-
tion between various constitutional
functionaries and units.
W
hen Constitution Benches are
not constituted for want of
sufficient judges, cases in due
course become infructuous or enable
one party in the dispute to gain undue
advantage due to the delay. In recent
history, petitions challenging the consti-
tutionality of demonetisation are likely
to become infructuous because the
Supreme Court could not constitute a
Constitution Bench in time to hear
and decide them. Petitions challeng-
Anil Shakya
ThethenChiefJusticeofIndiaDipak
Misra-ledfive-judgebenchheardand
disposedofseveralcases.However,
theexclusionofseniorjudges,who
disagreedwithhisstyleofleadership,
mademanyquestionwhetherit
wastherightapproach.

ing the constitutionality of Aadhaar too
suffered because initially the Court kept
them pending for long for want of a
sufficient number of judges to consti-
tute a nine-judge bench to decide
whether the right to privacy is a funda-
mental right. When the Court did con-
stitute a nine-judge bench to hear the
matter, it was too late, as in the mean-
time, the centre made Aadhaar a fait
accompli, ignoring the Court’s interim
directions to limit its scope. A five-
judge bench, which heard the matter
much later, found no inconsistency
between the right to privacy and the
mandatory requirement of Aadhaar by
the state for distributing benefits and
services.
T
he idea of a permanent Consti-
tution Bench is, therefore,
appealing because it could do
away with unintentional delay in hear-
ing important matters before they
become infructuous. But the composi-
tion of the bench could become contro-
versial as the experience during the
term of former CJI Dipak Misra shows.
The CJI-led five-judge bench heard
and disposed of several cases during his
tenure. However, the exclusion of senior
judges who disagreed with the style of
leadership of the CJI from that bench
made many question whether it was the
right approach. As the administrative
head of the Supreme Court, the CJI
enjoys certain discretion in allocating
cases to judges and in choos-
ing judges to sit on
Constitution Benches. Studies
have shown that in recent his-
tory, the chief justices sitting
on Constitution Benches were
mostly on the side of the
majority in case of a split.
Thus, the question whether
the CJIs choose judges to sit
on the benches keeping a
“desirable result” in mind
arises.
Much, therefore, depends on how a
permanent Constitution Bench is con-
ceived of, what its size would be and
whether its composition does not undu-
ly depend on the discretion of the CJI,
etc. Short of a rational criterion in these
aspects, the idea of a permanent
Constitution Bench, even if appealing
to many, may not yield satisfactory
results. It is also not clear whether
benches of smaller strength could refer
cases to be heard by a permanent
Constitution Bench or whether the lat-
ter could independently decide which
cases to hear after hearing the litigants
directly at the threshold. Coming to the
move to create single-judge benches in
the Supreme Court, it has provoked
sharp criticism from the Supreme Court
Bar Association (SCBA). In a letter to
the CJI, the SCBA expressed shock that
amendment to Order VI Rule 1 of the
Supreme Court Rules 2013 to provide
for single-judge benches was brought
without consultations with it. The
SCBA, declaring itself as the major
stakeholder in the process of dispensa-
tion of justice in the Supreme Court,
requested the CJI not to put this
amended rule into force but take
urgent steps to recall it.
Sources close to the SCBA claim that
the rule creating single-judge benches
has been opposed because it is believed
that judges sitting singly would not be
able to decide complex issues that could
arise in cases meant for them. Another
uncertainty is whether instances of con-
flicting decisions of different benches of
the Court could multiply if judges sit
singly, leaving the Court to speak in dif-
ferent voices and rendering it more
incoherent than what it is today. If sin-
gle judges interpret precedents differ-
ently and render inconsistent judg-
ments, their rulings are likely to be list-
ed for resolution before division bench-
es of two or more judges, adding to
wastage of the Court’s time and leading
to a backlog.
It remains to be seen how these two
decisions pan out.
UNI
Lead/ Supreme Court/ New Benches
10 October 7, 2019
A few recent cases
handled by a
Constitution Bench
A five-judge Constitution Bench of
the Supreme Court, headed by Chief
Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, was
set up for the Ayodhya temple-
mosque case.
A five-judge bench, headed by
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, was set
up to hear the validity of various pro-
visions of the Land Acquisition Act.
A Constitution Bench headed by
Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra
was set up to hear petitions that
challenged the traditional ban on the
entry of women between 10 and 50
years of age in the famous
Sabarimala temple. It delivered its
verdict in September 2018.
A nine-judge Constitution Bench
examined whether right to privacy is
a fundamental right, and the validity
of the Aadhaar programme. The
Bench struck down several provi-
sions in the Aadhaar Act in
September 2018.
A five-judge Constitution Bench of
the Supreme Court, in September
2018, unanimously decriminalised
part of the 158-year-old colonial law
under Section 377 of the IPC which
criminalised consensual unnatural
sex, saying it violated the right to
equality.
HISTORIC VERDICT
LGBT supporters celebrate the Supreme
Court’s verdict, in New Delhi

Supreme Court/ UP Forest Rights
12 October 7, 2019
INING versus rights of
tribals over forest land
has been a familiar story
in Mirzapur district
where unscrupulous for-
est officials allowed mi-
ning leases in the reserved forest areas.
Recently, the Supreme Court repriman-
ded the UP government for not having
“any disciplinary control over” its forest
officers in spite of its order fixing 1994
as the cut-off year for the process.
The dispute dates back to the 1980s
when the UP government declared
Dudhi and Robertsganj, two tehsils of
Mirzapur district, as reserved forest
land, affecting tribals who had been liv-
ing there for decades. The Court had re-
gistered a writ petition on a letter writ-
ten by an NGO, Banwasi Sewa Ashram,
under Article 32, regarding the claims of
tribals to the land in these tehsils.
On December 15, 1983, the Supreme
Court gave directions for the appoint-
ment of a high-powered committee “for
the purpose of adjudicating upon the
claims of the persons belonging to
Scheduled Castes and backward classes
of their land entitlements as also to
examine the hereditary and customary
rights of farmers in those tehsils and to
adjudicate the claims of tribals of their
customary rights with respect to fodder,
fuel, wood, small timber…flower, fruits
and minor forest produce”. The commit-
tee found that “roughly one lakh eighty
thousand acres” of land was in unautho-
rised occupation. The panel identified
“433 villages lying south of Kaimur
Range of the Mirzapur District to be rel-
evant for the present dispute. Of these,
299 were in Dudhi tehsil and the
remaining 134 in Robertsganj tehsil.
Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who
appeared for UP, said that even after the
Supreme Court ordering in 1986 that no
claims would be settled after July 18,
1994, the forest settlement officer was
still settling “illegal” claims “in favour of
people who were not even residents of
the state”. In some cases, he said, claims
were settled for lands where these had
already been settled. Mehta sought qua-
shing of all such cases. The state govern-
ment reportedly sought that orders of
“the forest settlement officers and the
district judge which declared the land to
be jungle, bushes, river and to be part of
proposed reserve forest but have been
illegally declared as banjar (barren) and
thereafter pattas given in favour of third
parties” should be set aside.
Refusing to pass an order without
hearing the parties in whose favour the
claims had been settled, a bench of
Justices Arun Mishra, MR Shah and BR
Gavai said: “This has been going on
since 1994 and now after 26 years you
have come. You were sleeping for 26
years and now you are asking us to
remove everyone.” The Court said that
Not Caring Two Hoots
Inascathing
indictmentofthestate
governmentfor
allowingprivateclaims
onforestlandsin
contraventionofits
order,theapexcourt
askedifithadbeen
sleepingfor26years
By Atul Chandra
in Lucknow
NO CLAIM OVER FORESTS
An NTPC thermal power plant is also one of
the beneficiaries of flouting of rules
M
jayadev13/commons.wikimedia.org

industries might have invested crores in
the area so it would not be proper to
pass any ex parte order. “Before we
declare the allotments as void, we would
like to hear them. There are NTPC, UP
Electricity Board and others. We simply
can’t remove them who are there for
over 20 years,” the judges said. They also
wanted to know if the forest settlement
officer was still settling claims.
A
lthough the 1994 order said that
no third party or industry could
be allotted land in these reserved
forest areas, according to Mehta, there
may be over 1,000 beneficiaries of the
illegalities done by forest settlement offi-
cers. Some of the beneficiaries include
public sector units like National Ther-
mal Power Corporation (NTPC), Nor-
thern Coalfields Limited (NCL), Uttar
Pradesh Electricity Board and others.
They were now claiming ownership to
the reserved forest land.
“What were you doing all these
years? Do you not have any disciplinary
control over these forest officers?” the
bench asked.
The judgment in this case came in
1986 and said that the “question that
required detailed consideration was
relating to the claims of Adivasis living
within Dudhi and Robertsganj Tehsils…
to land and related rights”.
The 1986 judgment was cited by the
National Green Tribunal in its 2016 or-
der in another case pertaining to Mak-
ribari, Panari, Markundi and Kota vil-
lages in Mirzapur district. A large part
of the land in these villages was declared
reserved forest through notifications iss-
ued by the UP government between
1969 and 1977 under Section 4 of the
Forest Act.
The land became contentious after
the UP Cement Corporation Limited
(UPCCL), which had mining rights in
the area, turned sick in 1992. Following
its closure on the recommendations of
the Board for Industrial and Financial
Reconstruction (BIFR), Jai Prakash
Associates Limited (JAL) emerged as
the highest bidder for UPCCL.
JAL filed a civil suit in the Allahabad
High Court to seek renewal of UPCCL’s
mining leases in their favour. The Court
ruled in JAL’s favour and found unsus-
tainable “the objection of the state gov-
ernment for renewal of the mining leas-
es in respect of 1,033.66 hectares out of
2,168 hectares, the area covered under
the mining leases but included within
the Notification issued under Section 4
of the Forest Act”.
Quoting from the Supreme Court’s
judgment of 1986, the NGT said that the
demarcation pillars were to be raised by
the forest department to identify the
reserve forest land. The apex court also
directed that all villages and gram sab-
has be informed about the demarcation
so that people who were likely to be
affected could decide if they needed to
file any claim. Just as in the case of
Dudhi and Robertsganj, the forest set-
tlement officer, after “elaborate settle-
ment of rights”, transferred the land in
Kota and Panari villages, which includ-
ed mining lease areas of UPCCL and UP
State Mineral Development Corporation
(UPSMDC), to Jai Prakash Associates
via auction. Subsequently, a Supreme
Court-appointed Central Empowered
Committee (CEC) in a letter dated Sept-
ember 8, 2008, told the principal chief
conservator of forests, UP, “to ensure
that no land notified under Section 4 of
the Forest Act is allowed to be used/
leased for mining and other non-forest
uses” without first obtaining approval
under the Forest Act, 1980, and the per-
mission of the Supreme Court.
The CEC in its recommendation
before the Supreme Court made two
important points. The first recommen-
dation said that the “orders passed by
the Forest Settlement Officer for exclu-
sion of 1083.23 ha of area notified un-
der Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act,
from the reserved forest should be set
aside. All these areas should be included
in the reserved forest”.
It also said that renewal/transfer of
mining leases in favour of JAL should be
allowed only after obtaining approval
under the Forest (Conservation) Act for
the above areas.
The second recommendation was
that “all permissions granted for
grant/renewal of the mining leases and
other non-forestry activities on areas
notified under Section 4 of the Indian
Forest Act and for which settlement of
rights was done as per the … Supreme
Court judgment dated 20.11.1986…
should immediately be revoked by the
UP government”.
What is more important, the right of
tribals over forest land or those of over
1,000 companies which were allowed to
invest in the region in contravention
of law?
The ball is in the Supreme Court.
Refusingtopassanorderwithouthearingthepartiesinwhosefavourtheclaimshad
beensettled,aSupremeCourtbenchof(fromleft)JusticesArunMishra,MRShah
andBRGavaisaiditcouldnotsimplydeclaretheallotmentsnullandvoid.

On July 10, 2019, the Gujarat High
Court put a stop to these charges but the
owners of these establishments were not
ready to take its verdict lying down and
approached the Supreme Court. The
apex court has issued a notice to the
Gujarat government to file its reply by
October 15.
The story unfolded in July 2018
when the Ahmedabad, Vadodara and
Surat police commissioners imposed a
ban on malls, multiplexes and commer-
Courts/ Vehicle Charges
14 October 7, 2019
cial establishments levying parking
charges on visitors after PILs were filed
on the issues of road quality, traffic and
parking. The owners of malls and multi-
plexes approached a single-judge bench
of the Gujarat High Court against the
notifications.
In their petition, mall owners ques-
tioned the notifications of the police
chiefs and asserted that collecting park-
ing fees from visitors was their right.
Also, under no law did the police autho-
rities have powers to stop them from
collecting such charges. The authorities,
at best, can insist on keeping enough
parking space in their complexes, but
cannot restrain them from charging
parking fees.
The state government supported its
police chiefs contending that it was the
responsibility of commercial establish-
ments to provide free parking to visitors.
The police chiefs told the Court that
levying of parking fees by these estab-
lishments constituted an offence under
Section 339 of the Indian Penal Code
for wrongful restraint. The contention of
T just takes an ant to bring down
an elephant. The insignificant
Indian, coerced to cough up cash at
every point, has cause for some
cheer. This is because a small issue
which touches a myriad lives has
now reached the Supreme Court after
exhausting itself in the courtrooms
of Gujarat.
Malls, multiplexes and commercial
establishments countrywide have been
charging for vehicle parking every day
over the last few years, turning it into a
virtual scam. The lack of a clear-cut pol-
icy on this has caused large-scale consu-
mer exploitation. But no longer.
I
Thishasbeenacontentiousissuewithmallsandcommercial
establishmentsandthematterhasnowgoneuptotheapexcourt
By RK Misra in Ahmedabad
whatshot.in
A VIRTUAL SCAM?
Malls and multiplexes charging high parking
fees are now under the scanner
Parking Perils

the malls was that municipal corpora-
tions were already collecting parking
charges and therefore commercial
establishments cannot be restricted
from doing so as the parking lots were
their property.
Justice Bela Trivedi in her judgment
on October 17, 2018, ruled that commer-
cial establishments would have to
provide free parking to visitors for the
first hour but could charge a parking
fee of a maximum of `10 per day from
two-wheelers and `30 per day from
four-wheelers. The Court, however,
quashed the notices and orders of the
police authorities, but directed the
urban development department of the
Gujarat government to take a decision
on the parking policy at the earliest to
rationalise and regulate the fees levied
by these establishments. It also directed
the state government to amend the
General Development Control Regu-
lations (GDCR) in this regard. It, how-
ever, clarified that government agencies
may continue with their drive against
encroachments and illegal parking on
public roads. Apparently, in the absence
of any specific rules, the single-judge
bench ruled in favour of the malls, but
issued multiple directions to them.
The aggrieved commercial establish-
ments were soon back at the Gujarat
High Court, this time before a division
bench. This bench in November 2018
stayed the verdict of the single-judge
bench. It also stayed the Court order
directing the state government to for-
mulate a comprehensive parking policy
if it wished to control the parking char-
ges levied by the commercial establish-
ments. Nevertheless, it was made clear
that the government was free to formu-
late such a policy if it so desired. The
counsel for the petitioners had contend-
ed that as per the Supreme Court,
courts cannot direct the government to
frame policies as it is the prerogative of
the latter.
The final verdict of the bench, led by
acting chief justice AS Dave on July 10,
2019, however, struck down the single-
judge order and said these establish-
ments cannot levy parking charges. It
upheld the state government’s argument
that the GDCR does not permit it. In
fact, the GDCR mandates that commer-
cial complexes allocate parking spaces
for visitors commensurate with the size
and kind of commercial activities taking
place therein.
The division bench ruled: “The pro-
visions of the comprehensive General
Development Control Regulation
(GDCR), 2017, or the Gujarat provincial
Municipal Corporations Act,1948, and
the Gujarat Town Planning and Urban
Development Act,1976, do not contem-
plate parking fee” or “parking-charges”
to be levied from the visitors of a mer-
cantile or malls or multiplexes or com-
mercial complexes. The bench also qua-
shed the single-judge direction to the
government to form a parking policy
stating that it was the exclusive domain
of the legislature.
T
his is not the first time that the
issue has figured in a High Court.
Years earlier, the High Court in
Hyderabad had ruled similarly. Justice
Madan Mohan had clearly stated in his
judgment then that “parking fees is an
illegal amount collected from consumers
and violates state laws”. Sources said
that while it was implemented in Hyder-
abad and other parts of Telangana,
establishments in Andhra Pradesh did
not follow the Court verdict.
However in February this year, the
Vijayawada Consumer Forum fined a
mall `5 lakh after a visitor approached it
saying that he had been charged `40 as
parking charges for four hours. Justice
Madhava Rao, who gave the order, also
directed the mall to return the parking
fees to the complainant and pay him
`5,000, including his legal expenses.
Incidentally, in June this year, the city
improvement committee of Pune
Municipal Corporation also passed a
resolution for free parking at malls
and multiplexes.
Such judgments are the way to go
and the citizenry would definitely be
rooting for them. In some malls in
Delhi, the parking fees are even hiked
during weekends to cash in on the high-
er footfalls. Parking has also been a con-
tentious issue in private hospitals where
parking is charged from family mem-
bers of the patient and visitors and can
burn quite a hole in the pocket during
such constrained circumstances.
All eyes are now on the apex court
for a final answer.
TheGujaratHighCourtdivisionbench
headedbyJusticeASDave(below)inits
finalorderonJuly10,2019,saidmalls,
multiplexesandothercommercialestab-
lishmentscannotlevyparkingcharges.

because what he created in India, in the
presidency towns of Bombay, Madras
and Calcutta, was the London Univer-
sity of the time, a dour examination sys-
tem, a conglomerate of colleges commit-
ted to certification. London University
was intellectually distant from Germa-
nic universities of the time which com-
bined the functions of teaching and re-
search. One has to read Gandhi’s autobi-
Column/ Foreign University Bill Shiv Visvanathan
16 October 7, 2019
ography to understand the inanity of
London as a system. What was profound
was the way India mimicked it, creating
the kunji as a catechism of knowledge.
If one uses Macaulay as genealogy, then
the university was always a site for the
secondary and the imitative, an annex to
the imperial apparatus. Macaulay creat-
ed the colonial imprimatur in education.
To look at Macaulay critically one has
to examine the nationalist dream of
education. For this, one has read the
essays of Patrick Geddes (a noted Scots
educationist, sociologist and town plan-
ner), Rabindranath Tagore and JC Bose.
Geddes, in his town planning report on
Indore, read the university as a cosmo-
politan system always in dialogue with
the dissenting academies. Tagore read
the university as a dialogue between the
city university of the West, hostile to
nature and the forest universities. This
is where the mind of India goes back to
the sage in the forest who lived in har-
mony with nature. The nationalist
dream of a dialogic university always
incorporates the other, while it retained
a sense of its plural creative self.
Before we discuss the BJP bill on
foreign education, one has to make a
choice of creation myths. Is the ancestor
of the university the Macaulayite build-
ing in the presidency towns of Calcutta,
Madras and Bombay or is it the unful-
filled dream of a post-Germanic univer-
sity which Tagore, Geddes worked on?
Sadly, the BJP seems to have taken the
Macaulayite root to genealogy. It seeks
competence through mimicry and it for-
goes the attempt to indigenise or trans-
NIVERSITIES in India
have been read within a
genealogical context. We
always date the creation
myth of the university to
Lord Thomas Macaulay,
who was desperate to create the Indian
mind as a clerical system. Looking back,
I find it odd that the origins of the uni-
versity system go back to Macaulay
U
Isthecentre’smovetosetupforeignvarsitiesanattempttocreateaglobalsecretariatclass?Education
isnottreatedasacultureoflearningbutasawaytoquickandinstrumentalcertification
Amitava Sen
The Balkanisation
of Education

late knowledge. For years, while the
Congress was in power, the BJP preten-
ded that the university was the Trojan
Horse to power. If one wishes to colo-
nise a country, all one needs to control is
the syllabus of a university. When the
BJP was in Opposition, it used culture
as a weapon. Yet, as the BJP was domes-
ticated in power, it seems to yield to the
same Macaulayite sensibilities.
The regime seeks to turn middle
class India into a huge secretariat of glo-
bal capitalism. If it turned India into an
electronic secretariat, the foreign uni-
versities bill will create in India a global
secretariat class, an extension counter of
the global regime. The BJP, for all its
talk of culture, seems to approve of such
cultural secondariness.
One has to try to understand the
mindset of the BJP in creating the bill
inviting foreign universities to set up
base. Foreign education will create new
gated communities of knowledge. The
comparison used is the idea of Special
Economic Zones where the general nor-
ms of governance are suspended, creat-
ing a “some as more equal than others”
syndrome. There is a battle implicit
between economics and culture. The
regime feels that such universities will
create employment and competence.
There is a tacit sense that this move has
received the approval of the elite which
would love to see its children employed
in these special enclaves. Present in all
this is a dream of privatisation. The pri-
vatisation of education, medicine and
agriculture has been part of the regime’s
policy. The establishment of universities
such as Jindal, Premji and Krea was the
first step. These institutions were creat-
ed as private expressions of the public
good. The foreign university bill is the
next step in this process.
H
ow does one read such a pro-
cess? One can dismiss it as a
short-term economic move, a
set of satellite creations to help the crisis
of education. But there is a sense of am-
nesia here and schizophrenia. Let us be-
gin with Amit Shah’s proposal to intro-
duce Hindi. Does one see a hierarchisa-
tion of languages as a hierarchisation of
the universities and of opportunities?
The elite would not bother about pop-
ulist moves like Shah’s when it realises it
can access foreign enclaves in India. In a
way, one is sensing not the pluralisation
of education but its balkanisation. Edu-
cation is not treated as a culture of lear-
ning but as a way to quick and instru-
mental certification.
The question of culture, the dialogue
of cultures that Tagore spoke about is
deeper. Tagore saw culture as play and
dreamt of a creative university where
cultures of knowledge and learning en-
countered each other. Education added
to the imagination of culture without
directly instrumentalising it. At one
time, under scientists like CV Raman
and Meghnad Saha, we dreamt of na-
tional institutes designing their own sets
of problems. Today, India is content to
let the West define the syllabus and
intellectual context as it plays a willing
periphery. The emphasis is no longer on
cultural autonomy and intellectual
imagination. It is on productivity, an
idea that banalises creativity.
There is a civilisational question
which our narrow nationalists do not
understand. India seems to accept deve-
lopment as defined by the West as the
dominant discourse. It is almost signal-
ling an abandonment of the search
LOOKING AT INDIA
Students get together at Oxford University
in the UK
Onehastotrytounderstandthemindset
oftheBJPincreatingthebillinviting
foreignuniversitiestosetupbase.
Foreigneducationwillcreatenewgated
communitiesofknowledge.
ox.ac.uk

instrumentalisation but it has lost the
vision of education as autonomy, immu-
nity and peer group decision-making.
The decline of internal democracy, the
idea of foreign universities as gated
communities is something we need to
discuss. The demands of pluralism can-
not be met with the balkanisation of
institutions or the fragmentation of the
vision of education.
One wishes the bill had been more
experimental and playful, looking to cre-
ate hybridities, making hyphens across
projects which evoked a planetary ra-
ther than a global consciousness. Issues
like the Anthropocene can be treated in
a more challenging way with the univer-
sity becoming a commons for such prob-
lems. One can invite civil society to par-
ticipate in these problems and articulate
its dreams and anxieties into research
problems.
One almost senses the new ministry
of education is a bit like Kafka’s castle.
An ordinary academic or citizen has lit-
tle say in what is happening. Worse, the
absence of debate, of side bets on educa-
tion, makes the prospect dismal. It is al-
most as if India prefers to colonise itself
into enclaves rather than admit that it
lacks the political and intellectual will
and the ethical creativity to create an
institutional blend of imagination and
justice. Education is treated more as a
law and order problem than a challenge
to the creativity of democracy.
To end on a more constructive note,
before we hypothecate education in part
to foreign universities, let us, as dissent-
ing academics, propose an experiment.
Firstly, even if the bill is a fait accompli,
let us debate and let the academic pro-
vide a report on it. This should include
an ombudsman for each enclave, not as
a policing model but as feedback for dis-
sent, debate and alternatives. Secondly,
let us improvise a cost-benefit beyond
skilling and certification and evaluate
these enclaves in terms of intellectual
standards. Three, let us have a dialogue
with these groups on issues of the aca-
demics of the future. Let us hopefully
introduce a plurality of styles instead of
a redundancy of liberal arts, tedium and
management. A debate is critical and
critiques are essential. One is not asking
for more from a regime which is hostile
to academic life in an academic sense.
—The writer is a member of the
Compost Heap, a commons of ideas
exploring alternative imaginations
for alternatives, of a different future. It
is in line with the BJP sense of culture
which problematises the past but has
ceded the future to the foreign universi-
ty. Education now appears like a 3-in-1
ice-cream where each strata can have its
own lick.
T
here is also a wider issue of de-
mocracy. I am talking of the in-
ternal democracy of the acade-
mie. Look at the pattern of decisions
from the dismemberment of the UGC,
the Kasturirangan report which frac-
tionalises education into skill and the
rise of private universities as a prelude
to the foreign universities bill. The aca-
demic as agent, as discussant, is miss-
ing. He is no role player in the future of
his own world; he is a mere employee
and hardly a participant. Discussions
are reduced to governmentality without
democratic or intellectual content. This
bureaucratisation of education empha-
sises goals like control, productivity and
Column/ Foreign University Bill/ Shiv Visvanathan
18 October 7, 2019
HIDDEN AGENDA?
The establishment of universities such as OP
Jindal (top) and Azim Premji is part of the
privatisation dream of the BJP
Onewishesthatthebillhadbeenmore
experimentalandplayful,lookingto
createhybridities,makinghyphens
acrossprojectswhichevokedaplanetary
ratherthanaglobalconsciousness.
vidyaxpert.com

NDIA EGALL STORIES THAT COUNT
` 100
I
August19, 2019
THELEGAL
QUESTIONThreePILshavebeenfiledintheSupremeCourtchallenging
theCentre’smovetoabrogateArticles370and35Arelating
to J&K and reducing the state to a Union Territory. Since
there are other states in India which enjoy special rights,
howcredibleisthelegalchallenge?
Car Thefts: The
Microdot answer
CSR and India Inc:
Threat of imprisonment
NO HOLDS BARRED
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TTSSu
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to
wh
ge?
NDIA EGALEEL STORIES THAT COUNT
` 100
NI
August26, 2019
ARoyalChallengeAquestionasked“justoutofcuriosity”bytheSupremeCourthasledtoseveralpeoplestaking
claimtoLordRam’slineage.Theseclaimshavebrieflyovershadowedthelanddisputecasein
whichthelegalargumentshaveraisedsomeotherintriguingquestions.
PlusBookExtract:Canreligionbeseparatedfrompolitics?
J&K: Winning global
support
Real Estate: Amendments
to Insolvency Act
BABRI MASJID-RAM JANMBHOOMI DISPUTE
e
GAL
dtdtdt
ed
uin
po
PU
` 100
NI
September2, 2019
ArbitrationandMediationThesetwoformsofalternativedisputeresolutionareimportantforthejudiciarystrugglingto
tacklependency.Thebestoflegalmindsdiscussedhowtomakethemmorepopular
Legal Leadership Conclave
P Chidambaram: In the firing line
GAL
edthth
ke
`100
NDIA
`````100100100
EGALEEL
NI
WHERETHEBEST
LEGALMINDS
CONVERGE
LEGAL
LEADERSHIP
CONCLAVE
NDIA EGAE
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NNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDIA EGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAE
S P E C I A L I S S U E
LE
LEAD
AL
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CON ERG
September 9, 2019
G
BBB
D
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` 100
NI
September23, 2019
TheLegendLivesOnApoignanttributetothelateRamJethmalanibyasenioradvocatewhoknewhimwell
revealsexactlywhyhewassoreveredandrespected.Plus,anexplosiveinterviewhegave
toIndia Legalin2016.
Ayodhya Hearings:
Twists and turns
UK Crisis: 10
Drowning Street
GGAALL
veettcatt
pl
` 100
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September30, 2019
Regulating
Online
ContentSomepetitionsbeforethe
SupremeCourtseeking
regulationofsocialmediahave
givenrisetoconcernsoverfree
speech.Howhaveother
countrieshandledthis
sensitiveissue?
Resignations in
Bureaucracy: Moral stand
J&K: Apex court’s
healing touch

Column/ Parliamentary Standing Committees Vivek K Agnihotri
20 October 7, 2019
routine annual ritual in
the Indian parliamentary
system has suddenly acq-
uired the dimensions of a
debate. And soon enough,
in a politically surcharged
atmosphere, it reached a flashpoint of
sorts. The seeds of the controversy were
sown during the first session of the 17th
Lok Sabha itself—June-August 2019—
when a large number of bills were
passed by both Houses without ostensi-
ble reference to the Parliamentary
Standing Committees.
First, there was a hue and cry about
delay in constituting Department-relat-
ed Parliamentary Standing Committees
(DRSCs). They were finally notified on
September 14, 2019, i.e. approximately
three and a half months after the 17th
Lok Sabha was formed. This was fol-
lowed by muted protests about the
Congress, the largest Opposition party,
being denied the traditional chairman-
ship of some key Standing Committees
such as finance and external affairs.
The questions that arise are: What
are these DRSCs? What are their func-
tions? How are they constituted? How
are their chairpersons appointed?
The need for ensuring greater acc-
ountability of the government to Par-
liament was being felt in India for a
long time. Several proposals in this re-
gard were considered from time to time.
One such proposal was to further
strengthen the Committee system in or-
der to make parliamentary scrutiny
more extensive and effective. Accor-
dingly, three subject-based commit-
tees—on agriculture, science and tech-
nology and environment and forests—
were created in 1989. They were man-
dated to examine the activities of the
concerned ministries. The success of
these Committees led to expansion of
the system. In April 1993, 17 DRSCs
came into being, covering under their
jurisdiction all the central ministries. In
July 2004, the number of DRSCs was
increased from 17 to 24.
Successive governments have sought
to ensure that all members of the Lok
Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, excluding
ministers, are accommodated in one or
the other Committee. Thus, originally,
when the number of Committees was 17,
each one of them had 45 members.
When the number of Committees in-
creased to 24, the number of members
in each was reduced to 31. Further, as
the ratio of total number of members in
the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is
approximately 2:1, each committee has
21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10
from the Rajya Sabha. Apart from the
ministers, who are ineligible to be app-
ointed members of these Committees,
occasionally some of the senior mem-
bers of certain political parties choose to
abstain from being nominated to these
Committees due to multifarious engage-
ments, indifferent health, etc. Occa-
sionally, some members do double duty
A Well-oiled Machine
InordertoensuregreateraccountabilityofthegovernmenttoParliament,subject-based
committeeswereformedthreedecadesbacktoexaminetheactivitiesofvariousministries
A
MEANINGFUL EXCHANGE
A meeting of a parliamentary committee.
These panels monitor government action
iihr.res.in

arrived at through behind the scene par-
leys among major parties. Hence, the
question of a party being denied mem-
bership or chairmanship of a particular
committee is not really material.
A
s regards the functions of these
DRSCs, the Rules of Procedure
and Conduct of Business in the
Lok Sabha and the Rules of Procedure
and Conduct of Business in the Council
of States (Rajya Sabha) make identical
provisions. The main functions of these
Committees are considering the De-
mands for Grants of the concerned min-
istries/departments and to examine
some of their Bills referred to them by
the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Spea-
ker, Lok Sabha, as the case may be.
While these Committees are free to look
into various aspects of the functioning
of the ministries/departments allocated
to them, they cannot consider matters of
their day-to-day administration.
As far as consideration of Demands
for Grants is concerned, after the gener-
al discussion on the budget in the Hou-
ses is over, the Houses are adjourned for
a period of about four weeks in order to
and sit on more than one Committee.
The term of the members is one year.
DRSCs are, therefore, notionally recon-
stituted every year. But a mini overhaul
takes place after the Rajya Sabha bien-
nial elections and a major reconstitution
after every Lok Sabha election. Recons-
titution after the Lok Sabha polls is a
long-drawn-out consultative process
with political parties in Parliament to
provide them proportional representa-
tion and choice of ministry/department,
as far as possible.
Out of the 24 committees, eight are
serviced by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat
and 16 by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Accordingly, eight committees are
chaired by members of the Rajya Sabha
and 16 by members of the Lok Sabha.
The chairpersons of these committees
are appointed by the Chairman, Rajya
Sabha and the Speaker, Lok Sabha, as
the case may be. The process of nomi-
nating members and deciding on the
allotment of chairmanship of commit-
tees gets complicated on account of the
large number of parties. For this pur-
pose, the minister for parliamentary
affairs holds informal consultations with
the leaders of major political parties.
The entire exercise takes up to three
months or more.
Thus the whole exercise of nomina-
tion of members on these committees as
well as appointment of their chairper-
sons is based on a broad consensus,
enable the Committees to consider the
Demands for Grants of the concerned
ministries/departments. The delibera-
tions of the Committees are held on the
basis of the questions sent by them to
the concerned ministries/departments
and the replies received thereto as well
as the oral evidence of the officers. It is
an iterative exercise. With regard to exa-
mination of the Bills, Committees con-
sider only such Bills introduced in either
of the Houses as are referred to them by
the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Spea-
ker, Lok Sabha, as the case may be.
Every matter considered by a DRSC
ends with a report, which is placed in
both the Houses. The reports in respect
of Demands for Grants form the basis
for the detailed discussion on the budget
proposals of the ministries/departments,
which are taken up for consideration in
the Lok Sabha after the recess.
However, according to the Rules of
Procedure and Conduct of Business of
both the Houses, these reports “have a
persuasive value” and are “treated as
considered advice given by the Commi-
ttee”. This is particularly so in respect of
the reports relating to the Bills. Thus,
there have been instances when after a
Bill was reported by a DRSC, it was re-
ferred to a Select Committee of the
Rajya Sabha for further consideration.
For example: The Trade Marks Bill,
1995 and the Lok Pal and Lokayuktas
Bill, 2011.
The Committee system of the Indian
Parliament does not begin or end with
DRSCs. There are a large number of
other Standing Committees, some of
which are joint committees of the two
Houses, while others are independent
committees of the two Houses. In addi-
tion, there are ad hoc committees too.
The wheels of Parliament may move
slowly, but they grind fine.
—The writer is former Secretary-General
of the Rajya Sabha
Duringthefirstsessionofthe17thLok
Sabha—June-August2019—alarge
numberofbillswerepassedbyboth
Houseswithoutbeingreferredtothe
ParliamentaryStandingCommittees.

Column/ POCSO Trials Prof Upendra Baxi
22 October 7, 2019
T is normal human tendency to
paint the world black. We all know
the maxim that bad news travels
fast whereas good news slowly
sinks in. But we rarely realise that
good news matters a great deal,
especially for violated victims and the
perpetrators of violent crimes against
vulnerable sections of society who are
globally increasing.
The good news is that the Protection
of Children from Sexual Offences
(POCSO) Act, enacted in 2012, with the
efforts of law reformers, civil society
campaigns, activist justices, progressive
public opinion, enlightened governance
institutions and Parliament, has actually
made a difference. In fact, a special
court in Auraiya (UP) awarded a convic-
tion and sentence under the POCSO Act
and remarkably, the police submitted a
charge sheet within 20 days of the com-
plaint whereas the Act grants an outer
limit of one year from the date of cog-
nizance to completion of trial. This goes
to prove that where there is a will, there
can always be a way to do a good deed.
Under POCSO, for the first time in
India, specific offences against the child
(defined as a person under the age of 18)
were enunciated: Penetrative sexual
assault (Section 3), aggravated penetra-
tive sexual assault (Section 5), sexual
assault (Section 7), aggravated sexual
assault (Section 9), sexual harassment
of the child (Section 11) and the use of a
child for pornographic purposes (Sec-
tion 13). These multiple aggressions
are precisely delineated and extend to
a wide variety of individual and collec-
tive activities.
Under the Act, an offence is aggra-
vated when committed by a person in
a position of trust or authority such as
the police/army/security personnel, pub-
lic servants or family members, persons
in management or staff of educational,
medical or religious institutions and
those in the management of staff of jails,
remand homes, protection homes,
observation homes or any other place of
custody, care or protection. In other
words, institutions and instructions of
captivity are no longer beyond the con-
stitutional gaze.
Offences against the child (under 12
years of age) are also declared “aggravat-
ed” in situations of gang assault, griev-
ous hurt, taking advantage of a child’s
mental or physical disability and such
offences committed more than once
under this or any other law. Equally
noteworthy is the creation of an offence
committed in the course of communal
or sectarian violence. Most crucial is the
fact that the burden of proof shifted on
the accused in case of serious offences
(Section 3, 5, 7 and 9).
It is good news, indeed, that further
amendments providing enhanced pun-
ishments stood enacted in 2019, though
there is much debate (even among the
abolitionists) as to whether capital pun-
ishment should have been introduced
for such offences.
It is also good news that academic
research has contributed somewhat to
better enforcement of POCSO justice. A
National Law University, Delhi, (NLU-
D) report in 2016 explicitly adopted the
The Ways Are Not Wanting
Inanastonishingendeavour,acourtinAuraiya,UP, gaveajudgmentinarecordninedays
fromthedateoffilingofthechargesheetinarapecase.Thisshowsthatthejudiciary
cantriumphoverproverbialdelays
I
BREAKING THE SILENCE
A girl holds a placard during a protest against
the rape of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua
UNI

definition of “child-friendly justice”
which the Guidelines of the Committee
of Ministers of the Council of Europe
(2015) stipulated—“the ingredients of
child-friendly justice before, during and
after judicial proceedings”. The
Guidelines, in particular, summoned
justice that is “accessible, age appropri-
ate, speedy, diligent, adapted to and
focused on the needs and rights of the
child, respecting the rights of the child
including the rights to due process, to
participate in and to understand the
proceedings, to respect for private and
family life and to integrity and dignity”.
The NLU-D report rightly stresses
that the POCSO Act, in effect, crystallis-
es the obligations of “speedy trial as well
as modified procedures to cater to the
special needs of children”, though it “is
left to individual judges to ensure that
children are dealt with and questioned
in an age-appropriate manner”. It makes
a series of recommendations to improve
the realisation of child-friendly justice
process and delivery. And it is well-
known that Justice Gita Mittal (then in
the Delhi High Court) implemented
and herself urged several measures in
this direction.
B
ut it was left for the Supreme
Court to add to this POCSO leg-
islative hurricane some new
directions for better implementation of
the Act. Chief Justice Dipak Misra
(along with Justices AM Khanwilkar
and DY Chandrachud), asked all High
Courts in 2018 to ensure that cases of
sexual assault of children are fast-
tracked and decided by special courts.
It also asked them to ensure that the
proceedings in such cases are conducted
in a “child-friendly” atmosphere in
courts. The bench further directed the
High Courts to set up a three-judge
committee to monitor and regulate the
trial of cases under the POCSO Act. The
directions proved judicially inevitable as
1,12,628 cases under the POCSO Act
were pending before trial courts across
the country, with Uttar Pradesh leading
the list at 30,883.
Much has been said about proverbial
judicial delays that a great credibility
gap arises when judicial expedition hap-
pens. It does more often, but is rarely
and sadly considered newsworthy in a
news and views culture that regards
only the abnormal as newsworthy.
But Live Law, fortunately, found it
newsworthy to report a judgment (in
Hindi) of a special court in Auraiya
which awarded a conviction and sen-
tence under the POCSO Act that was
truly swift—the police submitted a
charge sheet within 20 days of the com-
plaint whereas the Act grants an outer
limit of one year from the date of the
cognizance to completion of the trial. In
a learned judgment, Judge Rajesh
Chaudhary, examining all points raised
by the defence, ruled that the four-year
girl was a competent witness, that her
evidence alone may be considered suffi-
ciently reliable to convict the accused as
the statutes, codes and criminal law, as
frequently reiterated by the Supreme
Court, do not prescribe a determinate
number of witnesses in sexual assault
cases. Nor was there any proof for other
motives produced by way of direct testi-
mony of witnesses, and the indictment
of a conspiracy to frame the accused was
duly dismissed.
In sentencing, the judge noted the
young age (19 years) and avocation
(farm-labourer) of the accused and reg-
istered all the arguments for a minimal
sentence. But relying on the Deepak Rai
(2013) decision of the apex court, it
declined the minimal sentence argu-
ment and followed Najab Kahn (2013)
where the Supreme Court held that the
sentencing court should bear in mind
two factors, transcending the individual
conduct—the societal impact and
“restoration of social equilibrium”.
What may happen in terms of miti-
gation of sentence at the High Court or
the Supreme Court level or later how
may the convict get the benefit of parole
or remission is a matter not focused in
this article. Obviously, those engaged
with reformative aspects may find the
punishment in this case too harsh, but
those concentrating on the harm done
to the victim and society may take a dif-
ferent view.
The simple fact to be highlighted
here is that while attending carefully to
the various arguments, pro and con, a
reasoned judgment was delivered in a
record nine days’ time from the date of
filing the charge sheet. This is a truly
astonishing endeavour at child friendly
justice. It shows that a will to justice can
flourish even within a legal system
accustomed to leisurely and lengthy pro-
ceedings and arguments, prolix adjourn-
ments and much delayed outcomes.
There is also a larger message: coordi-
nated efforts of the state, civil society,
and judiciary can find ways to triumph
over the proverbial delays in the admin-
istration of justice. As the old saying
goes: “Where there is a will, there is a
way.” Or to put it somewhat differently:
for a person that wills, “ways are not
wanting”.
—The author is an internationally
renowned law scholar, an acclaimed
teacher and a well-known writer
ChiefJusticeDipakMisra(alongwith
JusticesAMKhanwilkarandDYChand-
rachud),askedallHCsin2018toensure
thatcasesofsexualassaultofchildren
arefast-trackedbyspecialcourts.

My Space/ Tackling Recession Sanjiv Bhatia
24 October 7, 2019
HE Indian economy is
going through a sharp
slowdown. Most major
economic indicators are at
record lows. Unemploy-
ment is at a 45-year high,
business investment at a 13-year low,
corporate profits to GDP at a 15-year
low, capacity utilisation at a 10-year low,
agricultural growth at a 16-year low,
household savings at a 20-year low,
GDP at a 5-year low, and significant sec-
tors like automotive and real estate face
historic declines in sales volume.
To pretend that this is just a cyclical
or temporary downturn is living in a
fool’s paradise. In a previous article
titled “India’s lost decade” (https://con-
tractwithindia.com/indias-wasted-
decade/), I documented a decline in
most major economic indicators starting
around 2010-11, and worsening in the
last five years. These issues cannot be
fixed with just monetary policy (RBI
lowering rates) or fiscal policy (reducing
marginal tax rates). They require smart
and well-thought-out structural
reforms. The 1991 liberalisation reforms
served the country well and moved 440
million people out of poverty, but they
have run their course, and it is time for
a new round of bold reforms.
The Modi government can turn on
the animal spirits of investment and
spending and revive the economy by
announcing a set of reforms outlined
below. These reforms will not get imple-
mented overnight, but by signalling its
understanding of the problem and its
intent to implement a new generation of
structural reforms, the government can
bring about a behavioural change and
replace fear with optimism and change
both spending and investment behav-
iour and help revive the economy.
INCREASING LIQUIDITY
A growing economy needs money. As
individuals consume more, they need
more money to conduct transactions.
There is clear evidence of a significant
drop in liquidity and credit in the econ-
omy over the past decade. This has
affected both consumer spending and
business activity. A measure of the
amount of money supply in the econo-
my is “broad money” and includes cur-
rency in circulation plus current account
and savings deposits in commercial ban-
ks. The graph (facing page, top) shows a
continual decline in the annual growth
in money supply over the last decade.
What makes it worse is that this
deceleration in money supply growth is
accompanied by a sharp drop in the
income velocity of money, which indi-
cates a slowdown in the circulation of
money. Money circulation is vital for
economic growth—the more rapidly and
the more times each rupee circulates,
Turn On the Animal Spirits
Withmosteconomicindicatorsonadownturn,thegovernmentneedstokickinasetof
reformsthatwouldsignalthatitisseriousabouteconomicgrowth,therebychanging
spendingandinvestmentbehaviour
EYE ON REVENUE
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently
announced corporate tax cuts
T
UNI

the greater the liquidity in the system.
The graph (above) shows a substan-
tial and continual decline in the velocity
of money. People are hoarding cash at
an increasing rate. Consumer deposits
in banks grew at an annual rate of 17
percent from 2004 to 2014, but have
since declined sharply to 4.8 percent per
year—a 12 percent drop in deposit
growth is substantial and problematic.
Household savings have also dropped
from their peak of 25.2 percent in 2009-
10 to 16.3 percent. Clearly, liquidity has
been sucked out of the financial system.
Restoring liquidity in the system is
the first step to reviving the economy,
and the onus falls on the RBI. At the
end of World War II, Japanese banks
held worthless loans of destroyed facto-
ries and could not lend money. The
Bank of Japan bought all the bad loans
from the banks at face value. This
allowed them to start lending again and
immediately injected liquidity into the
system. In 2008, the US Federal
Reserve injected liquidity into the sys-
tem by buying bad mortgage loans from
the banks. The RBI should do the same:
buy all the NPAs from the commercial
banks at face value and inject liquidity
into the system. With the bad loans off
their books, banks can start lending
again. Inflationary pressures can be con-
trolled by requiring banks to lend these
funds for long-dated projects or by
offering zero-interest loans to the gov-
ernment for investment in infrastruc-
ture, education and retraining.
The current RBI policy of small rate
cuts has a minimal effect on liquidity
because the financial system is not
broad enough to transmit these rate
reductions into the real economy.
Banks have a near-monopoly on cred-
it, evident from the fact that India’s cost
of financial intermediation (difference
between lending rates and deposit rates)
at 5.6 percent is the highest in the world.
Due to this monopoly in credit markets,
banks are hesitant to pass any rate cuts
into the real economy. The seven rate
cuts between 2015 and 2018 brought the
repo rate from 8 percent to 6 percent but
did little to affect growth because only 25
basis points of it were transmitted into
the credit market. What the economy
needs is not a cut in the price of money
(rates) but an increase in the supply of
money (liquidity).
REFORM OF THE
FINANCIAL SECTOR
A country cannot sustain economic
development if its financial system is in
a crisis. India’s financial system is bro-
ken. It is one-dimensional, almost
entirely dependent on a banking system
dominated by inefficient state-run
banks. Short-term deposits of household
savings are used to finance long-term,
capital-intensive projects, resulting in a
liquidity and maturity mismatch that
eventually leads to economic fragility.
The IL&FS disaster and the crisis in the
shadow banking sector (non-banking
financial companies) are largely the
results of mismatched maturities in an
inefficient financial system.
Continualdeclineinvelocityofmoney
Source:RBI
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Continualdeclineingrowthinmoneysupply
Source:RBI
Increasedtaxrevenueistheresultof
economicgrowthandnotthecauseofit.
Theeconomicvariablethatthegovern-
mentshouldattempttomaximiseiseco-
nomicgrowthandnottaxcollection.

My Space/ Tackling Recession / Sanjiv Bhatia
26 October 7, 2019
Eighty-five percent of bank deposits
have a maturity of less than five years,
with the vast majority (44 percent) in
the one to two-year maturity. On the
loan side, banks are urged by the gov-
ernment to lend for long-dated corpo-
rate investments in government-deter-
mined priority sectors. Eighty-three per-
cent of all loans to industry were given
to large companies, and only 17 percent
to small and medium-sized companies.
An efficient financial system provides
multiple investment opportunities for
consumers and a wide range of credit
sources for borrowers. This competition
ensures the efficient allocation of capital
and a market-determined price for cred-
it. Investors interested in longer-term
maturities get matched with borrowers
with long-maturity liabilities. Investors
interested in higher returns get matched
with high-risk projects. But that is not
the case in India’s bank-dominated sys-
tem. The country needs to build a
robust credit market with a wide range
of credit instruments from corporate
bonds, municipal bonds, asset-based
securities, supply-chain credit instru-
ments and so on. Immediate steps are
required to liberalise the financial sector
starting with a revamp of the Securities
Exchange Board of India and the bur-
densome regulations it places on both
investors and corporate borrowers.
India needs a large number of small
community banks that will lend at the
local level. The US, with 6,800 banks,
and Germany, with 2,000 banks, have
built successful credit systems through a
large network of small community
banks. These local banks have familiari-
ty with their immediate ecosystem and
are better positioned to lend money to
good locally-owned businesses in their
communities. India too has a network of
regional rural and cooperative banks,
but it needs to be expanded ten-fold.
The recently proposed loan “fairs” could
be used to launch the growth of local
community banks in every district of
the country.
INDEPENDENT BUDGET OFFICE
Most developed economies have an
independent budget evaluation office to
provide policy makers with non-partisan
facts on the true cost of government
projects, including their hidden oppor-
tunity costs. Such an institution, often
called the Parliamentary Budget Office,
exists in many developed economies.
The US has the Office of Management
and Budget, which is responsible for
evaluating the quality of proposed gov-
ernment programmes and policies. An
institution like this, run by trained pro-
fessionals, can provide hard facts on the
efficacy of government programmes.
This will allow policy makers to under-
stand the real cost of proposed pro-
grammes. A body like this is an impera-
tive in India where most parliamentari-
ans, and the bureaucrats who advise
them are not trained in economics and
finance and are, therefore, unable to
evaluate the effectiveness of proposed
government programmes.
FISCAL REFORM
There is a myth, perpetrated by the gov-
ernment that higher tax collection will
create economic growth. The problem is
that they’ve got the causality wrong. Inc-
reased tax revenue is the result of econo-
mic growth and not the cause of it. The
economic variable that the government
should, therefore, attempt to maximise
is economic growth and not tax collec-
TheRBIshouldbuy
allNPAsfromcom-
mercialbanksat
facevalueand
injectliquidityinto
thesystem....
Localbanks(right)
havebetter
familiaritywith
theirimmediate
ecosystem.
justdial.com

tion. Some of the current economic cri-
sis can be attributed to the Robin Hood-
style politics of collecting taxes from
those who create wealth and giving it to
the freeloaders of society. One must first
create wealth before it is distributed.
Taxation is like a hole in a bucket
which takes water (money) out of a larg-
er bucket (private sector) into a smaller
bucket (government). This transfer does
not increase the amount of water. Esse-
ntially, no new wealth is created from
the tax system.
The government’s recent steps to cut
corporate tax are a welcome move. I ha-
ve advocated abolishing all existing tax-
es—income, corporate, capital gain, etc.,
and putting in place a simple consump-
tion tax of around 10 percent on all go-
ods and services consumed by the citiz-
ens. Like GST, the tax is passed through
to the consumer and imputed into the
final price of the item consumed. Such a
tax would be easy to administer, would
be broad-based and fair and unleash the
animal spirits of growth like never
before witnessed in economic history.
INCREASED ECONOMIC
FREEDOM
At its core, India is still a socialist econ-
omy where the government controls
most means of production. Through its
state-run banks, the government con-
trols 70 percent of the country’s capital,
and through the RBI, it controls the
international movement of capital.
State-run monopolies control major
industries like petroleum, coal, power
distribution, utilities, transport, rail-
ways, defence and water resources.
Sixty percent of the labour force in the
formal sector is employed in the public
sector, and private companies with
more than 100 employees require the
government’s permission to fire
employees.
The government owns large land
banks, directly and through public
sector companies that make it difficult
for companies to acquire land without
governmental clearance. And with
52 ministries, 24 more than any other
country, the central government
ensures that it controls large swathes
of economic activity in the country.
For India to reach its economic
potential, it has to become a free-market
and competitive economy, relying on
the innovation and entrepreneurship of
the private sector to propel this growth.
This would require the political leader-
ship to accept the reality that its role is
secondary to that of the private
sector. For the economy to perform to
its potential, the government must
reform itself and reduce its control
over the factors of production, especially
capital. Such changes could include a
reduction in the number of ministries,
massive deregulation, wholesale reduc-
tion, retraining and reemployment of
government employees, decontrol of
state-run monopolies and privatisation
of the banking sector.
It is remarkable that Estonia, a
country that got its independence from
communist Soviet Union in 1991, is
ranked sixth in the 2017 Economic
Freedom Rankings. India is ranked
143rd out of 180 countries.
How did Estonia get there so
quickly? Its reforms included wholesale
privatisation of state enterprises,
removal of all tariffs to free trade, a
simplified tax system with flat rates and
low indirect taxation, an independent
judiciary, a competitive banking sector
that operates with minimal state inter-
vention and above all a revitalised effort
to move toward limited government
and greater economic freedom.
If the Modi government is serious
about putting the economy on a
trajectory of double-digit growth, it
should take a page from Estonia’s book.
It must announce carefully thought-out
policies to minimise government
intervention in the capital, labour and
goods markets and a rapid move
to replace politics-based economic
activity with market-based economic
activity.
—The writer is a financial economist
and founder, contractwithindia.com
Immediatestepsarerequiredto
liberalisethefinancialsectorstarting
witharevampoftheSecurities
ExchangeBoardofIndiaandits
burdensomeregulations.

resistant infections, not just in animals
but also in humans.
The study identified 901-point sur-
veys from LMICs reporting AMR rates
in animals for common indicator patho-
gens, such as Escherichia coli, Campylo-
bacter spp., nontyphoidal Salmonella
spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. From
2000 to 2018, the proportion of anti-
microbial compounds with resistance
higher than 50 per cent (P50) increased
from 0.15 to 0.41 in chickens and from
0.13 to 0.34 in pigs and plateaued
between 0.12 and 0.23 in cattle.
Global maps of AMR show hotspots
of resistance in north-eastern India,
north-eastern China, northern Pakistan,
Iran, eastern Turkey, the south coast of
Brazil, Egypt, the Red River delta in
Vietnam, and the areas surrounding
Mexico City and Johannesburg. Resis-
Focus/ Livestock Feed
28 October 7, 2019
tance is just emerging in Kenya, Moro-
cco, Uruguay, southern Brazil, central
India, and southern China. Dense geo-
graphical coverage of point prevalence
surveys did not systematically correlate
with the presence of hotspots of AMR,
such as in Ethiopia, Thailand, Chhattis-
garh (India), and Rio Grande do Sul
(Brazil). The highest resistance rates
were observed with the most commonly
used classes of anti-microbials in animal
production—tetracyclines, sulphona-
mides and penicillin. The regions affect-
ed by the highest levels of AMR should
take immediate action to preserve the
efficacy of anti-microbials essential in
human medicine by restricting their use
in animal production.
In some middle-income countries,
particularly South America, surveillance
must be scaled up to match that of low-
Antibiotics on your plate
N livestock production, antibiotics
are given to animals for a number
of reasons—therapeutic treatment,
disease prophylaxis and growth
promotion. The administration of
antibiotics to control or kill bacte-
ria also leads to the emergence of anti-
biotic-resistance bacteria, which can
spread from one organism to another.
So the question arises: Does the use of
antibiotics in animals pose a threat to
human health? In particular, the worry
is that the antibiotic-resistant bacteria
may even spread from animals and/or
the environment (groundwater/surface
water/soil) to human beings.
India and China are among the major
hotspots for anti-microbial resistance
(AMR) in livestock. AMR is the ability of
any micro organism and parasite to
stop an anti-microbial (like antibiotics,
etc) from working against it. Therefore,
standard treatments are rendered inef-
fective, infections continue and may
spread to others. According to a study
done by the journal, Science, there is an
increase in AMR in chickens and pigs.
Since 2000, meat production has
plateaued in high-income countries but
has grown by 68 per cent, 64 per cent
and 40 per cent in Asia, Africa and
South America, respectively. The transi-
tion to high-protein diets in low- and
middle-income countries (LMICs) has
been facilitated by the global expansion
of intensive animal production systems
in which anti-microbials are used rou-
tinely to maintain health and productiv-
ity. Globally, 73 per cent of all anti-mic-
robials sold are used in animals raised
for food. A growing body of evidence has
linked this to the rise of anti-microbial-
I
Astheglobaldemandformeatincreases,theuseofantibioticsonanimalsforslaughterisalso
spiralling.Notlabellingthemasantibiotic-treatedisfraudandaviolationoffundamentalrights
By Dr KK Aggarwal
Lembi Kh

income African countries that are cur-
rently outperforming them despite more
limited resources. Policymakers coordi-
nating the international response to
AMR may consider sparing African
countries from the most aggressive mea-
sures to restrict access to veterinary
drugs, which may undermine livestock-
based economic development and right-
fully be perceived as unfair. However, in
regions where resistance is starting to
emerge, there is a window of opportuni-
ty to limit the rise of resistance by
encouraging a transition to sustainable
animal farming practices.
High-income countries, where anti-
microbials have been used on farms
since the 1950s, should support this
transition—for example, through a glob-
al fund to subsidise improvement in
farm-level bio-safety and bio-security.
I
n India, antibiotics are used widely
in food animals as growth promot-
ers and to prevent and treat infec-
tion. Non-therapeutic use of antibiotics
has been especially common in poultry
production. However, there is no regula-
tory provision regarding the use of
antibiotics in livestock.
Recognising that antibiotic resis-
tance poses a serious health threat, the
European Union (EU) has banned the
use of growth-promoting antibiotics
(especially those which are also used in
human medicine) in animal feed. In
December 1997, the EU banned the
Animal Growth-Promoter (AGP) avo-
parcin in all its member states. Altho-
ugh the United States is yet to pass such
a far-reaching policy decision about the
use of antibiotics in livestock produc-
tion, the Food & Drug Administration
did ban one class of antibiotics used
in poultry.
The Prevention of Food Adulteration
Rules, 1995—part XVIII: Antibiotic and
other Pharmacologically Active Subs-
tances regulates the use of antibiotics
and other pharmacologically active sub-
stances. According to the Rules, the am-
ount of antibiotics for sea foods, includ-
ing shrimps, prawns or any other variety
of fish and fishery products, shall not
exceed the prescribed tolerance limit
(mg/kg[ppm) as mentioned below:
(a) Tetracycline (0.1)
(b) Oxytetracycline (0.1)
(c) Trimethoprim (0.05)
(d) Oxolinic acid (0.3)
Further, the use of any of the follow-
ing antibiotics and other pharmacologi-
cally active substances shall be prohibit-
ed in any unit processing sea foods: All
Nitrofurans, Chloramphenicol, Neomy-
cin, Nalidixic Acid, Sulphamethoxazole,
Aristolochia spp. and preparations
thereof, Chloroform, Chlorpromazine,
Colchicine, Dapsone, Dimetridazole,
Metronidazole, 38 Ronidazole, Iproni-
dazole, other Nitroimidazoles, Clenbu-
terol, Diethylstilbistrol, Sulphonamide
drugs, Fluoroquinolones and Glyco-
peptides. India has established an inter-
sectoral coordination committee to
frame rules and regulations.
The only legal provisions in this
regard applicable to animals are Sec-
tions 428 and 429, IPC. Section 428
which deals with mischief by killing or
maiming animals of the value of `10,
says: “Whoever commits mischief by
killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering
useless any animal or animals of the
value of ten rupees or upwards, shall be
punished with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend
to two years, or with fine, or with both.”
Section 429 which deals with mischief
by killing or maiming cattle, etc., of any
value or any animal of the value of `50,
says: “Whoever commits mischief by
killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering
useless, any elephant, camel, horse,
mule, buffalo, bull, cow or ox, whatever
may be the value thereof, or any other
animal of the value of fifty rupees or
upwards, shall be punished with impris-
onment of either description for a term
which may extend to five years, or with
fine, or with both.”
Giving unnecessary antibiotics know-
ing that it may cause anti-bacterial re-
sistance is a matter of debate. But not
labelling a livestock grown under the
influence of antibiotics may be fraud
and violation of fundamental rights.
—The writer is President,
Confederation of Medical Associations of
Asia and Oceania, and Heart Care
Foundation of India
UNI
HEALTH HAZARD
(Facing page and above) The chicken we
eat is often pumped with more than the
permissible dose of antibiotics

that it can turn the tide through the
panches and sarpanches, given their
large numbers and reach. It is not
entirely misplaced. Both are in direct
touch with their small electorate, per-
sonally knowing everyone in their
wards. That makes them effective
bridges between the government’s poli-
cies and welfare schemes and the mass-
es at large. This is an enviable role pro-
vided that there is a normal situation.
This is a big “if” as far as Kashmir Valley
is concerned. This alone can determine
the success or failure of any experiment
that the government undertakes now
onwards, including using insurance
cover as a tonic to restore peace.
The Valley has been under unprece-
dented lockdown and communications
blockade for nearly two months in
protest against the abrogation of the
state’s special status and bifurcation.
Panches too are feeling the pinch. One
Spotlight/ Insurance Cover for J&K Sarpanches
30 October 7, 2019
young sarpanch, Zubaiur Butt from
Harwan on the outskirts of Srinagar, has
gone on record pointing to the difficul-
ties being faced by the masses because
of restrictions on movement and com-
munication as a result of which the sup-
ply of essential items is also affected.
Privately, they admit, they are recipients
of the people’s fury.
The BJP, as the ruling party, needs a
buffer. It is seriously handicapped
because it has no presence in the Valley
and has further alienated itself by sub-
jecting other mainstream parties to
ignominy with leaders of the National
Conference (NC), People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) and even the Congress,
which has some pockets of influence, in
detention. Actually, the trust deficit
between the BJP and the local popula-
tion is complete and seemingly
unbridgeable at the moment. The BJP’s
obvious calculation is that by roping in
AN the proposed insur-
ance cover of `4 lakh for
each panch and sarpanch
in J&K achieve its intend-
ed objective in the absence
of a proper political envi-
ronment? On the face of it, it is a good
idea to provide an incentive to grass-
roots functionaries to step out in a mili-
tancy-infested milieu to discharge their
responsibilities. Besides facing risks to
their lives in the Valley, they also
encounter fresh tension in the hills of
Jammu in the wake of the Union gov-
ernment’s August 5 decision to abolish
the state’s special status and bifurcate
it into two Union Territories.
How are they expected to deliver
results in isolation when political activi-
ty has virtually come to a halt after the
detention of all popular and important
mainstream leaders?
The government’s calculation may be
C
Inabidtowoothegrassroots
functionarieswhoworkina
hostile,militancy-infested
environment,thecentrehas
giventhemsomesops.Butwill
thisbeenoughtowinthe
heartsofthepeople?
By Pushp Saraf Photos: UNI
ATonicto
Restore
Peace

panches and sarpanches, it can create an
instrumentality to act on its behalf. In
the process, it has asserted on numerous
occasions that funds for development
would not be a problem. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi himself has said in
Maharashtra on September 19 and to a
Kashmiri Pandit delegation in Houston
on September 22: “...We have to build a
Naya (New) Kashmir. We have to once
again build a paradise...”
“Naya Kashmir” has a serious conno-
tation in the context of united J&K. It is
the title of a manifesto that represents
the policy and programmes of the NC,
the premier political outfit of the state,
for creating a welfare state with a con-
stitutional democracy and a detailed
economic plan. Modi’s “Naya Kashmir”
does not make any reference to its his-
torical context and, going by his govern-
ment’s actions and utterances so far, it
also has a development component and
seeks to break new ground with the help
of outside investors.
It was on September 19 that an
unnamed Union home ministry official
was widely quoted as saying that they
“are examining the proposal to provide
insurance cover of `4 lakh to all panches
and sarpanches in J&K”. There were no
reasons to disbelieve this as on Sept-
ember 3, a delegation of sarpanches had
met Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi
and come back claiming that they had
been given an assurance of insurance
cover of `2 lakh each for them and
panches. This was in addition to signifi-
cantly enhanced monthly emoluments
for them and compensation for con-
struction work carried out by panchay-
ats as they had to function in the face of
terrorist threats.
I
t was Shah’s first meeting with them
after scrapping of the state’s special
status. Shah called them “leaders” of
the state. He said it would be their
responsibility to ensure that the benefits
of various government schemes reached
the correct beneficiaries and that an
atmosphere of peace and prosperity was
maintained. He informed them that
“henceforth” the provisions of the 73rd
constitutional amendment (imparting
“certainty, continuity and strength” to
panchayati raj institutions providing,
among other things, direct elections “at
all levels” and prescribing a detailed
procedure for constituting them) and
74th amendment (ensuring regular elec-
tions and defining devolution of powers
and functions of municipal bodies to
perform effectively as vibrant democrat-
ic units of self-government) would be
applicable to J&K and “this would serve
to empower local governance and
Panchayati Raj institutions”.
Indeed, it would be a major break-
through if the BJP is able to fruitfully
utilise panches and sarpanches and
NEW ZEAL
Home Minister Amit Shah at a meet with
representatives from the Valley, in New Delhi
TheBJPishandicapped
becauseithasalienated
itselfbysubjecting
leaderslikeMehbooba
Mufti(left)ofthe
People’sDemocratic
PartyandFarooq
AbdullahoftheNational
Conferencetodetention.

India Legal - 07 October 2019

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India Legal - 07 October 2019