BCI ASKS LAW SCHOOLS TO FALL IN LINE

The regulator of legal education in Bar Council of India has cracked the whip and asked over 930 law colleges across the country to either conform to the educational standards laid down by it or be barred from admitting students after 2011.

This ultimatum was sounded by BCI chairman and Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who expressed serious concern over the manner in which the standards of legal education have fallen in many law collges, especially those in the hinterland.

The first and foremost task of BCI was to improve the faculty situation in a majority of the colleges. Talent could only be attracted to law colleges if they start paying the University Grants Commission approved pay-scale, Subramaniam told.

Secondly, all colleges must revise their educational curriculum and conform to the modern standards defined and laid down by BCI, he said. "All must conform to these standards by 2011 and those who do not will be barred from admitting students," the BCI chairman said.

Speaking on the innovative idea of making law graduates clear an entrance test before being permitted to practice in courts, Subramaniam said the idea had received support from the rural students who were upbeat that it will allow them to compete with their counterparts from national law schools.

"This entrance test is going to be a great homogenising effect. If a student from a rural law college passes this entrance test and qualifies to become an advocate along with a graduate from a prestigeous national law school, it will have a great balancing effect and remove disparity in attitude," he said.

Most of the law firms have also welcomed the entrance test, he said, adding the BCI was considering a proposal to conduct this examination two or three times a year so as to allow people adequate number of chances to become an advocate.

The Supreme Court had time and again suggested that young law graduates needed to be screened with some sort of a test before being allowed to practice in the courts.

JUST DISMISS THE CORRUPT


The Supreme Court has held that dismissal is the only form of punishment for those involved in corruption and misappropriation of public money,even if the embezzled amount is meagre.

SURROGACY NORMS TO BE REVISED Having emerged as the hottest destination for surrogacy, it is but natural for India to take the lead in evolving a law that safeguards the interests of all the parties concerned, including the child born through assisted reproductive technology (ART). There is no precedent to the proposal under consideration that foreigners or NRIs seeking to rent a womb in India be made to give evidence that their country of residence recognized surrogacy and would give citizenship to a child born through agreement. Both conditions are reasonable as they are designed to deal with the legal uncertainties thrown up by a couple of surrogacy cases that did not pan out in the agreed manner. In the Manji Yamada case, the baby was embroiled in litigation as the commissioning Japanese parents had divorced by the time it was born in India. And in the subsequent case involving German parents, the twins found themselves in a no-man’s-land as their country did not recognize surrogacy as a means of parenthood. The bill drafted by an ICMR expert committee is in keeping with the recommendations made by the Law Commission in August 2009. There is no way the surrogacy agreements will be enforceable unless the commissioning parents are in a position to take the child back to their country and it is accorded citizenship, which it would have automatically received had it been born to them in the natural course. Correspondingly, the proposed law will recognise the surrogate child as the legitimate child of the commissioning parents, without there being any need for adoption or even declaration of guardianship. Such an enabling provision cannothowever be enforced unilaterally. So, the government cannot just go by the word of the commissioning parents. The safeguards of the child’s interests need to have official imprimatur in the form of certificates from the foreign government concerned. As a corollary, the legislation also provides that the birth certificate of the surrogate child given by the Indian government will have names of only the commissioning parents. In a bid to prevent abuse of the child, the government is also considering provisions stipulating that at least one of the commissioning parents needs to be a donor of the sperm or the egg. This is based on the assumption that a biological link between the commissioning parents and the surrogate child would reduce chances of abuse. Under the scheme of the proposed law, surrogacy cannot be misused for sex selection and it will be governed by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act to prevent unauthorized abortions. It also seeks to provide a measure of privacy to the commissioning and surrogate parents

AGE CAP FOR HC JUDGES TO BE REVISED?

The law ministry has dusted out an old proposal and given it a major modification to suggest to the government an amendment to the Constitution to put the retirement age of high court judges on a par with that of the Supreme Court judges -- 65 years.

The fresh proposal has scissored out a part of the earlier proposal, which suggested increasing the retirement age of Supreme Court judges proportionally, that is, from the present 65 years to 68 years.

But, any increase in the retirement age of the HC judges would require an amendment to Article 217 of the Constitution. So, this proposal would require support from most of the political parties before being brought in as a Constitutional Amendment Bill.

The move aims to end the embarrassing situation faced by the Chief Justice of India and the collegium of judges in the face of strong lobbying by high court judges and chief justices for elevation to the SC prior to their retirement at the age of 62 years. Appointment of an HC judge or a CJ to the SC means another three years on the Bench.

Secondly, the law ministry headed by M Veerappa Moily feels that once the retirement age of HC judges is increased and put on a par with that of the SC judges, it would eliminate the lure for the extra three years and along with it the rush for appointment to the SC.

At present as against a sanctioned strength of 895, there are around 650 HC judges and at any given time there are at least 20 to 30 judges aspiring to fill two to three vacancies in the Supreme Court.

In the last three years, several judges appointed to the Supreme Court had just three or four years of tenure before attaining the age of superannuation at 65 years. This means, the HC judges or chief justices were elevated to the SC just prior to retiring at the age of 62 years. This recent phenomenon has made the law ministry to dust out an old proposal to increase the retirement age of HC judges from 62 to 65 years.

Nearly seven years ago, the Justice Venkatachaliah-headed Committee to Review the Working of the Constitution had suggested increasing the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to 68 years and that of HC judges to 65 years.

NALSA COMING THE RURAL LEGAL ENLIGHTENMENT WAY

For long, villagers have been at the wrong ends of justice being unaware of the functioning of courts and also sent on a merry-go-round while trying to procure a document -- be it a ration card, birth or caste certificate -- from panchayat or block offices.

No more, for the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) is forging ahead with its plan to set up legal aid clinics (LACs) of permanent nature at the taluka level whose function would be akin to that of primary health centres (PHCs) and will meet the basic legal requirements of villagers.

In fact, these LACs, to be manned for 12 hours a day -- from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening -- by a trained lawyer deputed by the district legal service authority concerned, will function in close proximity to the PHCs.

Panchayats and block offices have been requested to give some office space to the LACs to enable villagers to seek unhindered guidance from the deputed lawyer to help solve their disputes and other requirements like writing an application for a ration card, Antyodaya Anna Yojana card (BPL card) etc, says NALSA member-secretary U Sarath Chandra.

At present there is one PHC covering about 30,000 (20,000 in hilly, desert and difficult terrains) or more population. Many rural dispensaries have been upgraded to create these PHCs. Each PHC has one medical officer, two health assistants (one male and one female), and health workers and supporting staff.

Chandra says the basic motto of NALSA, as defined by its executive chairman and Supreme Court judge Altamas Kabir, is to deliver justice at the rural folk’s doorstep and these LACs would help make people confident about seeking from the authorities what is their due.

The basic purpose of the LACs would be to encourage villagers to settle their inter-personal disputes amicably and not to litigate, he says. As the rural folk have a a lot of inhibition to get in touch with babus in the panchayat and block offices, the lawyer manning the LAC would also help them write applications and suggest ways and means to get the required documents from these offices.

And the free legal advise would be available to one and all, irrespective of their financial status. In the urban areas, the free legal aid under the NALSA and State Legal Aid Authority (SALSA) is limited only to poor people.

"We presume that most of the villagers are poor or handicapped by distance to get proper legal advice. So LACs have been advised to cater to all segments of population in the villages," Chandra says.

But, finances have been a real difficulty in making LACs operational on a daily basis, says Chandra. So, to start with, the lawyer deputed to hold LAC would go to the taluka office once a week. Gradually the frequency would be increased, he adds

QUESTION PAPER LEAKED! SWITCH TO RE-EXAMINATION

At a time when leakage of question papers continue to mar examinations, the Supreme Court has ruled that re-examination is a must in such situations to keep the sanctity of the selection process intact.

An examination gets botched up not only when there is largescale copying or leakage of the entire question paper. "Even a minute leakage of question paper would be sufficient to besmirch the written test," said a Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and K S Radhakrishnan in a recent judgment.

And it firmly ruled that the only option available with the examination authorities was "to go for a re-test so as to achieve the utlimate object of fair selection", it said.

The apex court was dealing with a petition filed by the chairman of the All Indian Railway Recruitment Board challenging a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which had faulted the Board’s decision to hold a re-test for recruitment of candidates for Group-D posts at Secunderabad in 2003 after allegations of various irregularities, including leakage of question papers.

Pursuant to the advertisement, over 10 lakh persons applied but only 5.86 lakh candidates were called to appear for the written test. From them, 2,690 were selected to appear in the physical efficiency test (PET) in February 2004. But, several complaints were received alleging that leakage of question papers and that the candidates indulged in mass copying in some centres.

An inquiry by the vigilance department found prima facie evidence of leakage of question papers, mass copying and impersonation of candidates in the written test. On the basis of the vigilance report, the Board ordered a fresh written test for the candidates.

Those who figured in the 2,690 selected candidates moved the HC saying the re-test should be confined to them. The HC had found merit in their argument and said the "decision taken to conduct a re-test was arbitrary, illegal and unreasonable."

Allowing the appeal by the Board, the apex court Bench said: "The HC was in error in holding that the materials available relating to leakage of question papers was limited and had no reasonable nexus to the alleged largescale irregularity." It upheld the Board’s decision to conduct the second written test.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT NOT GENDER SPECIFIC- GOI

The UPA government says the Domestic Violence Act enacted with a view to protect women can also be used to prosecute women.

Backing the recent decision of some courts in Delhi to invoke the civil law against women, a women and child development ministry’s affidavit in the Delhi high court says that “the main purpose of the act is to protect women from domestic violence but not solely protect them from males... right of the victim against domestic violence can’t be guided by the gender of the perpetrator.’’

The Centre’s stand came in response to a petition by a widow questioning the invocation of the act against women by a few courts in the capital. Varsha Kapoor through her lawyer Arvind Jain had urged the court to strike down a section in the act that allowed courts to sanction prosecution of women.

Justifying the stand of the government, the affidavit said, “The main purpose of society and lawmaker is to provide certain protection to women so that they can live with honour... the legislature never wanted to exempt women from prosecution... if any crime is committed by any woman in that case, she is liable to be prosecuted irrespective of the gender.’’

In her petition, Kapoor, who has been booked under the Domestic Violence Act on the complaint filed by her estranged daughter-in-law, has also challenged a lower court’s order against her.

“The DV Act is a benevolent piece of legislation aimed to provide effective protection of rights of women under the Constitution who are victims of violence of any kind within the family,’’ the petition argued, pointing out that such a law can’t be allowed to be misused against women. Saying the provision has generated a lot of confusion due to the conflicting verdicts of several high courts, Jain argued that the high court needs to clarify the law so that the same can be applied by lower courts in the capital. “The above stated conflicting, confusing, absurd and unconstitutional provisions have created such a mess and chaos that interests of justice/ends of justice are not available to the petitioner to rescue her basic dignity and honour,’’ the petition said. The high court will now consider the petition when it comes up for hearing later this month.