Editorial of LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 4: Part 1, 15 May 2008, No. 9 issue

LAW ANIMATED WORLD
A world law fortnightly published from Hyderabad, India.
Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma
ADVISORS: Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal (INA Colonel), V.R. Krishna Iyer (Former Judge, SC), B.P. Jeevan Reddy (Former Judge, SC), P.A. Choudary (Former Judge, APHC), Surendra Mohan (Ex-MP), Prof. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao (Politics), Umesh Chandra (Senior Advocate, Lucknow), Ravi Kiran Jain (Senior Advocate, Allahabad), Colin Gonsalves (Senior Advocate, Delhi), K. Subba Rao (Senior Advocate, Bangalore), K.G. Kannabiran (Senior Advocate & National President, PUCL), Ms. Chandan Ramamurthi (Advocate, Delhi).
Volume 4: Part 1 15 May 2008 No. 9
C O N T E N T S
1. May Day Message 1
2. Law News: $1.4 trillion Indian ‘Black Money’ in Swiss Banks 2
3. Lakshmi Bai: Rani of Jhansi 3-4,by I. Mallikarjuna Sharma 73-74
4. Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. 5-32,Union of India (IND-SC) 45-72
5. RTA v. Grand [AUS-HC] 33-44
6. May Day: Made in America 75
7. May Day Poems Walter Crane and Alfred Hayes 76
Pictures: Left to right: 1. May Flowers; 2. Militant worker; 3. Labour Armed.
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MAY DAY MESSAGE

It is not only a jolly holiday for workpersons all over the world but is also their fighting day and as rightly stated by Old Al, it is the workingman’s New Year’s Day. It is also a day for dedication of all democracy and liberty lovers to the cause of labour and the general welfare of the masses. However, we find that the situation of the working classes in our country is quite bleak and though we have a high-sounding Constitution and some labour welfare statutes too, in reality there are no proper institutional safeguards and remedy mechanisms to quickly resolve their disputes. So much so that while the better placed, status-holding government employees walk away with several monetary, statutory and other benefits from time to time, the ordinary workpersons are deprived of even the basic remedy of knocking a labour court directly, except in cases of unjust termination. The superior courts are also not paying due attention to their weals and woes, and in these days of fast progressing LPG economy, they are prone to lend more attentive ears to the employers. Writ petitions by needy employees in various High Courts lie pending for years together without even minimum interim reliefs granted. The cosy airconditioned environment perhaps makes them forget the blistering conditions of the working people for whom the ultimate justice may be too late when, if at all, it reaches. We are not able to understand why workmen should be barred from directly going to a labour court for the many grievances they have, when the more comfortably placed Government employees can directly approach an Administrative Tribunal for all and sundry causes. Needless to say, it is only a militant upsurge of the working classes for quick remedial justice that can win them their just rights but are the Indian workers in a position to rise up and agitate? §§§

Yearning for Independence - Editorial in 30 April 2008 issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD

YEARNING FOR INDEPENDENCE






was quite evident among the Tibetan diaspora all over the world, when, following the bloody demonstrations inside Tibet in March this year, spirited demonstrations were held in various cities of the world to stall the march of the Beijing Olympics Torch. Though Tibet is recognized as an integral part of China by many countries of the world, including India, several European countries and even USA, it is also true that there has been widespread sympathy among democracy lovers in the world towards the Tibetan national movement, mainly emanating from Dalai Lama, the spiritual cum temporal head of that community, taking refuge in India since 1956. Although it is also true that China has more valid claim to the ‘title of Tibet’ than India has for Kashmir or Nagaland, the scenarios are different in the two countries. Unlike in our relatively open democratic setup, in the closed state socialist, or state capitalist, system of China it becomes extremely difficult to gauze the actual situation in the contentious territory. No title deed however valid can hold against the express aspirations of the inhabiting communities of a territory. It seems that this time the protests inside Tibet have been far more widespread, and the Tibetan national sentiment more acute and articulate than ever in the past. Up to the Eighties the Chinese themselves used to stress that “Countries want independece; nations want liberation and people want revolution,” which saying may be more true nowadays. As such it would behove well for the Chinese regime to quickly take remedial steps to protect the Tibetan national identity and also for some real devolution of power to assure their autonomy. And for that the Chinese should immediately start negotiating with Dalai Lama and other leaders of the Tibetan national movement §§§

Once again Notice and Warning and intimation of another e-mail address for correspondence

Earlier this notice and warning was posted. We repeat it here:
NOTICE AND WARNING
All the readers of and correspondents to LAW ANIMATED WORLD are hereby informed that the e-mail account malliksharma@yahoo.com which we have been using till now has been hacked by some miscreants and we are not able to open it even. Moreover, fraudulent messages that this editor, namely MALLIKARJUNA SHARMA, had gone to Nigeria, lost all his belongings and even his mobile and requests confidentially the recepient of the message to send 3000 dollars are being sent to each and every earlier mail recepient from that e-mail account. So many friends and well-wishers have anxiously enquired from this editor the real state of things and were shocked to know about this fraud. It seems some coterie among Yahoo employees who operate or use the servers or some other very versatile miscreants are behind this fraud. We do not know for what other dirty purposes too they may be using this e-mail account now. So we have decided to trash that e-mail account since all our efforts to at least open it once to at least copy the erstwhile address book in it have miserably failed and our earlier complaints to Yahoo Administrators have gone futile. As such each and every one of the readers, well wishers and acquaintances of the LAW ANIMATED WORLD and its editor are hereby warned not to use that e-mail account ever again. We will not be responsible for any anxiety, tension or loss that may incur such persons who disregard our warning or who have already unwittingly done so. We will intimate our next e-mail account through this blog and also print it on the next issue of the journal but till then the readers, acquaintances etc. may use the account mksharma55@gmail.com to correspond with us through the net. Sorry for the trouble and thank one and all.I. MALLIKARJUNA SHARMA, Editor, LAW ANIMATED WORLD.

So none may henceforth use the hacked and discarded-by-us e-mail address (malliksharma@yahoo.com) but use this gmail address (mksharma55@gmail.com) only. Further we have printed another new e-mail account on the front and back title pages of the journal in recent issues - mani.bal44@gmail.com - which may also be used by readers of the journal or this blog for correspondence with us. Thank you - I.M. Sharma.

Victory for Republican Democracy - Editorial in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 April 2008 issue

Victory for Republican Democracy

The curtain is almost down on the historic Constituent Assembly elections 2064 B.S. in Nepal and by all indications it is the cause of socialist republican democracy that ultimately triumphed there. Belying all adverse psephological prognoses the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led by Prachanda and Bhattarai has registered a resounding victory and would have even gained comfortable majority in the CA but for its own earlier insistence (a correct and proper one though) for proportional representation system. However, a point for exultation is that the combined vote of the different communist parties and groups, undoubtedly the more progressive sections among the populace, exceeds even 55% of the total. Viewed in the light of the general pragmatism and flexibility displayed by the communist movement in Nepal which at one time rallied unitedly around the late Comrade Manmohan Adhikari, the Bhisma Pitamaha of Nepal politics, in the wake of the 1990 Jana Andolan that spelt the doom of absolute monarchy and brought the beginning of constitutional democracy, it may not be unrealistic to expect similar statesmanship now from the tested leader Prachanda, who is talking and acting sensibly and we hope his commitment to mutiparty democracy and people’s welfare would get better over any narrow sectional (rigid party) interests. The need of the hour is to work for the immediate abolition of the monarchy, to wage a concerted war on poverty, health afflictions and illiteracy to overcome the acute backwardness, guard against the usurpations of the LPG economy, establish friendly relations with neighbouring countries while continuing the special relationship with India, and catapult the country into the comity of fast developing nations in the world §§§

Editorial LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Martyrs Memorial Special issue, 15-31 March 2008

A world law fortnightly published from Hyderabad, India.
Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma
ADVISORS: Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal (INA Colonel), V.R. Krishna Iyer (Former Judge, SC), B.P. Jeevan Reddy (Former Judge, SC), P.A. Choudary (Former Judge, APHC), Surendra Mohan (Ex-MP), Prof. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao (Politics), Umesh Chandra (Senior Advocate, Lucknow), Ravi Kiran Jain (Senior Advocate, Allahabad), Colin Gonsalves (Senior Advocate, Delhi), K. Subba Rao (Senior Advocate, Bangalore), K.G. Kannabiran (Senior Advocate & National President, PUCL), Ms. Chandan Ramamurthi (Advocate, Delhi).
Volume 4: Part 1 15-31 March 2008 No. 5-6
C O N T E N T S
1. Justice: Socio-politico-economical 3
2. LAW NEWS: History, Fiction and Queens, by Jaishree Misra 4
3. Lakshmi Bai: Rani of Jhansi by I. Mallikarjuna Sharma 5-8
4. Bhagat Singh and the GhadarMovement by Harish K. Puri 9-17
5. People’s Access to JudicialProcess, V.R. Krishna Iyer 18-19
6. On Freedom of Religion… in India, Dr. Asma Jahangir 20-22
7. Justice H.R. Khanna, KGK 23-24
8. Fallouts of ‘Secularism’ under Indian Constitution, RK Jain 25-26
9. Stoll v. Switzerland [ECHR] 27-66
10. Medellin v. Texas [US-SC] 67-106
11. Divine Retreat Centre v. State of Kerala (IND-SC) 107-124
12. NHRC v. State of Gujarat and others (IND-SC) 124-128
13. M/s Parakh Foods Ltd. v. State of A.P. … (IND-SC) 129-130
14. For Abolition of Death Penalty, Srikanth Hariharan 131-134
15. October Revolution and the Democratic Idea by RVR 135-146
16. Advertisements 2, 147
17. Poems, Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ 148
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Justice: Socio-Politico-Economical
is a lofty ideal ‘we, the people of India’ set to achieve on gaining independence wading through floods of ‘blood and tears’ and by the supreme sacrifices of innumerable martyrs and freedom fighters. We proclaimed our country as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic and also committed ourselves to secure liberty, equality and fraternity – all this for the general welfare and prosperity of the country as also of entire humanity. As such it would be apt for us to, from time to time, do some review of our progress towards the achievement of the objectives and some introspection about the failures occurring and mistakes made in this regard. We could not achieve enough progress in forging fraternity among the diverse peoples inhabiting this country. Communal, linguistic and regional chauvinisms abound and are even sanctified in the name of ethnic and cultural identities. At one extreme we find advocates of a steamroller centralization, admired as the only alternative to the present fissiparous tendencies, doing serious damage to whatever federal structure and spirit embodied in our Constitution and in turn giving further fillip to these very deleterious trends. At the other end are various divisive and parochial tendencies – ravings of the Shiv Sainiks, rantings of Kannadiga and Tamil chauvinists, insurgencies in the North-East and the ever-burning pyre (Ravanasura kaashtha) of Jammu and Kashmir, etc. – challenging the very existence of fraternity in our country. This again is telling on our ability to achieve sufficient justice in social, economic and political spheres. So-called high economic growth and the fast running Liberalization-Privatization-Globalization processes of recent years have not really helped the people to any significant extent but are resulting in further immiserisation – always relative, but at times absolute even – of the masses. The crying need is to build up a vast infrastructure of basic public facilities accessible freely or at low cost to the common man by pumping huge public investments and relegate the competitive mechanisms to any further improvements in the socio-economic systems. Basic necessities assured, people would be largely content and, hopefully, tend to be rational and progressive in thinking about their further needs. We are lagging very much in this respect, compared to even avowedly capitalist systems, and once we improve such basic necessities and also develop sufficient fraternity, certainly our ideal will not remain a mere mirage §§§

LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 FEBRUARY 2008 issue

Open this link for the complete issue of LAW, 15 February 2008.

LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 29 February 2008 issue EDITORIAL

INTOLERANT INDIANS
One may claim India to be one nation or view it as one country of many nationalities and/or sub-nationalities. Interpretations are variegated, even conflicting. Despite all this, there is also a longstanding emphasis on the ‘unity in diversity’ that exists, and that ought to exist, in this land of many communities, languages, religions and cultural entities. As long as outside invasions and foreign rulers were there, some common causes and basic bonds between the divergent communities existed. Even Indian nationalism originated in such confluence of necessities coupled with the ‘divine dispensation’ of the British imperialist rule. Our protracted struggle for independence had fostered the ideal and spirit of a casteless, classless, secular, socialist, or at least social welfarist, democratic society enveloping all the different nationalities and communities in a fraternal embrace. But now that the British are ‘out’, it seems the divisions and conflicts are rushing ‘in’ and, instead of unity and fraternity, wild passions of jingoism, parochialism, communalism and bigotry are gaining upper hand. Optimists may see in these developments mere though inevitable side-effects of the long-suppressed ethnic, linguistic, regional, religious, etc. identities bursting out in a freer climate after the ouster of the alien rulers; and pessimists may rue them as an indication of the eventual ‘balkanization’ of the country with few benefits if any for ‘we the people’ at large. But the point is that intolerance and hatred buttressed by mobocracy are becoming the order of the day as exemplified in the recent Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sainik attacks on the ‘outsiders’ in Maharashtra, the Taslima-hunt by communal bigots and a sulky state with the acquiescence of even some so-called leftists, tirades against films like Jodhaa Akbar, flare-ups on criticism of the ‘founding fathers’, etc. etc. Beware, all this would only give rise to the glee of diehard reactionaries and to the subversion of whatever sublime that lies in our constitution and polity §§§