At 5 minutes per case, Delhi high court clears 94,000 in 2 years

Abhinav Garg, TNN May 30, 2012

NEW DELHI: It's a trade-off between the time spent on hearing each case and the mounting arrears. So, having devoted just over five minutes on an average on each case, the Delhi high court disposed of up to 94,000 cases in 2008-10- more than the fresh cases filed in these two years.

This trend has emerged from the high court's biennial report for 2008-10, released on Tuesday. It shows that a bench spends over five minutes on an average on each case which costs the exchequer Rs 14,658 per minute of court time. Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri called it "the report card of the high court", adding, "public confidence in our courts is essential to the administration of justice".

Tuesday's report comes nearly three years after the release of the 2006-08 report when then Chief Justice A P Shah had admitted the court was so much up to its neck in arrears that it would take 466 years to clear the gigantic backlog. An attempt to work towards reducing pendency is evident from the latest biennial report that says the 2008-10 period saw a significant reduction in arrears. It also points out the first attempt to define what constitutes arrears - one year for a writ petition and five years for suits.

The number of cases assigned to each bench rose from 11,573 cases in 2008-09 to 12,276 cases in 2009-10 , while the average number of cases that landed before every bench daily went up from 57 to 59 in the same timeframe. The report also shows that while the court is handling almost 1.5 lakh cases per year, it has managed to bring down the backlog from 74,749 main cases as on April 01, 2008, to 60,709 by 31 March 2010.

Sikri added, "Publication of such reports is a significant step in our ongoing effort to improve public trust and confidence."

Giving a detailed analysis of pendency , the report shows a fall of 3.7% for 2008-09 and 1.16% for 2009-10 . This was largely because the high court disposed of nearly 50,000 cases even as pending cases in 2008-09 numbered 66,529, in addition to the 41,448 fresh cases filed. In 2009-10 , the pendency was 60,709 cases, in addition to 37,345 fresh cases. A bench strength of 43 judges managed to dispose of 44,000 cases.

In a first, the report makes a comparative analysis of statistics on filing disposal and pendency of main cases for between 2004 and 2010 that saw pendency fall from 71,122 in 2004 to 60,709 in 2010.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-30/delhi/31899492_1_pendency-fresh-cases-bench

Lokayukta jails Karnataka MLA Y Sampangi for bribe

Rajiv Kalkod & Madhusoodan MK, TNN Jun 3, 2012

BANGALORE: For the first time in Karnataka, the special Lokayukta court on Saturday sent a sitting MLA to jail on charge of accepting a bribe. Kolar Gold Fields MLA Y Sampangi was led into Parappana Agrahara prison after Lokayukta court judge NK Sudhindra Rao sentenced him to three and a half years' rigorous imprisonment for accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh.

The judge also slapped on Sampangi a fine of Rs 40,000; if he doesn't pay up, he will have to undergo 6 months' additional rigorous imprisonment. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 30,000. He has been convicted on three counts under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Jail officials shifted Sampangi to a VIP cell after he entered the jail at around 4pm. Around 6pm, he was shifted to the observation cell, where new inmates are kept. Once they get used to the harsh reality of their arrest, they are shifted to the barracks. As per rules, doctors checked Sampangi at the jail hospital. "He was tense, anxious and depressed. He silently signed the papers and was moved to the cell," sources said.

Sampangi, who earned Rs 6,667 per day as an MLA - (Rs 2 lakh a month) - will now earn Rs 30 a day as a convict. As per jail rules, convicts undergoing rigorous imprisonment should do jobs like carpentry, gardening, tailoring and weaving. Unlike VIP inmates like G Janardhana Reddy, Sampangi is not allowed home food.

For his jail stay, Sampangi was given a white shirt and shorts. However, in the evening, he was seen in maroon pyjamas and a white shirt. He was also given a pillow, two towels and a blanket. He will have to share an Indian-style toilet with 30 other convicts.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-03/india/32005383_1_jail-rigorous-imprisonment-lokayukta-court

Man gets death penalty for rape, murder of 7-year-old

TNN Jun 3, 2012

NEW DELHI: A trial court has sentenced a person to death for raping a seven-year-old girl before killing her, as it stressed the need for courts to have zero tolerance for crimes against children.

Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Kamini Lau handed out the death penalty to Sanjay Kumar Valmiki, a resident of Haiderpur in north Delhi, saying there was only one sentence for a person convicted of raping and killing a child. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,61,000 on the convict stipulating that, if recovered, Rs 1 lakh should be given as compensation to the victim's family.

Valmiki had raped and murdered the minor last year at the NDPL office in the capital when the girl had gone there in search of water. The matter came to light when the victim's decomposed body was found from the NDPL office's switch gear room after two days.

The court said there was a public outcry after the incident, and that if Valmiki had fallen into the hands of the mob, he would have been lynched. "This court cannot ignore the loud cry for justice by society in this case involving a heinous crime of rape on an innocent child and her grotesque killing, and will respond by imposition of proper sentence lest people loose faith in the judicial system and take law into their hands," the judge said.

While expressing anguish over such heinous crime, Lau said a message should be sent to society that the judicial system in the country has "zero tolerance" for those "who mess with children" and "a single moment of madness can lead them to gallows".

"In a country of Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, governed by faith believing in sacredness of all living creatures, urging the avoidance of harm and violence and practicing ahimsa, the convict without a moment of remorse and regret even for once murdered the child and it is hence that the case falls in the category of rarest of rare cases," the judge said.

The court said the convict committed an unthinkable act of ravaging the child's body, which even an animal won't do. "The injures on the body of the child, as many as 15 in number, speak volumes of the brutality and force with which the innocent child had been battered to death," Lau said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-03/delhi/32005688_1_death-penalty-valmiki-convict

Court acquits midwife after 15 years of trial

Press Trust of India / New Delhi June 21, 2012

A woman, facing trial for last 15 years for causing death by negligence to a pregnant woman while assisting her in childbirth, has been acquitted of the charges with the court saying that the offence cannot be presumed against her merely because she was not formally trained as midwife.

Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Agarwal acquitted the woman taking into account the fact that due to low penetration of medical services in the country, midwives have been a help since "thousands of years."

"This court cannot be oblivious of the fact that since thousand of years, in our country children have been delivered with the help of local midwives like accused and this practice still prevails in larger part of country specially in rural areas. The apparent reason for the same is low penetration of medical services in most of the areas.

"Therefore, only because a death occurred in one such delivery, it cannot be presumed that the midwife who helped in such delivery was rash and negligent, simply for the reason that she was not medically qualified to do so," the court said.

"Even otherwise, the prosecution has failed to bring on record as to what special skills or qualifications are required for a person to act as a midwife," the court said while acquitting Delhi resident Premwati.

City resident Raju had lodged a complaint with the police in September 1996 that Premwati, who worked as a midwife "despite not being medically qualified," had helped his wife during the childbirth, but caused her death due to negligence.

He alleged that a part of placenta was retained in the body of his wife due to "mismanagement" by Premwati, leading to his wife's death. The police, however, had registered the FIR in the case in 1997.

http://www.business-standard.com/generalnews/news/court-acquits-midwife-after-15-yearstrial/23207/

HC erases divorced woman’s ‘impotent’ tag after 18 years

Rosy Sequeira, TNN Jul 24, 2012

MUMBAI: Nearly 18 years after a family court granted divorce to a man on the ground that his wife was "impotent", the Bombay high court on Monday quashed the order and said the lower court had made an "error" to equate infertility with impotency.

A division bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and A R Joshi said no evidence was presented before the court to prove the woman was impotent and directed the man to pay Rs 10,000 as costs to his wife immediately.

The court verdict came on a petition filed by Pramila Ghante challenging the Pune family court's October 31, 1994 order granting divorce to her husband Shankar Ghante on grounds of impotency, cruelty and desertion. The couple had married on March 25, 1976.

Pramila, now 63 years of age, retired as a Pune Municipal Corporation school teacher, while Shankar, who is 61, retired as an inspector with the state excise department. The bench pointed out that the appeal was filed in the high court when Pramila was 45 years old and Shankar 42, and said such a long delay for the appeal to reach a final hearing is a "rather disturbing state of affairs".

Pramila's advocate Y S Bhate argued that the impotency charge was levelled by Shankar to regularize his second marriage, from which he has two children. But Shankar's advocate countered it by saying Pramila has relative impotency as the sexual relations between the couple were not satisfactory.

The judges said under section 12 (1) (a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, impotency is a ground for nullity of marriage but not infertility and there is a marked difference between the two. "In the absence of material on record showing the impotency, or to be more specific, frigidity of the wife, so as to render the consummation of the marriage impossible, it cannot be said that the provision of the section is attracted," Justice Joshi wrote for the bench.

The family court in its "crystal clear" conclusion said that Pramila was impotent as she did not bear a child after 16 years of marriage, was unable to leave her job and join Shankar at his places of work to give him every satisfaction and she was unable to conceive even after taking medical treatment. But the bench stated, "We must say that the family court had definitely committed an error in arriving at such a conclusion—thus treating impotency and infertility at par, ignoring various (court) decisions on this aspect. The pleading and evidence at best would support the fact that the wife was incapable of giving birth to a child."

The judges also noted that from September 4, 1981 to July 7, 1982 the couple resided together every weekend—Saturdays and Sundays. They said this was substantive evidence that was presented before the family court and established the fact that there was consummation of marriage at least for some period and even two years prior to alleged separation. So, the case did not attract grounds of desertion.

"In our considered view, though for most of the period after marriage the spouses were staying at their respective places of service, they had definitely cohabited/consummated the marriage, though unfortunately the wife could not give birth to any child out of such cohabitation," they said.

The judges said evidence suggests that the wife was given treatment for "birth of child and not for the problem of relative impotency. Indisputably, even after the unsuccessful medical treatment given to the wife, the parties continued their relationship," the judges said.

Infertility no ground for divorce 

Impotency is defined as physical incapacity of accomplishing the sexual act, while infertility means inability to conceive a child. In law, infertility is no ground for getting a divorce while impotency is ground for annulling the marriage. Section 12 (1) (a) of the Hindu Marriage Act provides for annulling the marriage on the ground that 'that the marriage has not been consummated owing to the impotence of the respondent (either husband or wife)'. Even judgments delivered so far speak of non-consummation of the marriage due to impotency.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-24/mumbai/32826874_1_impotency-high-court-hindu-marriage-act

Woman gang-raped in UP police station

PTI Jul 23, 2012

Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh): A woman was allegedly gang-raped within the premises of a police station in Khadda area here, police said today.

The woman was taken to the police station on July 17 by a man Vijay Verma of her village Gainahi promising her help in getting a job but she was forcibly given liquor and a number of policemen allegedly raped her in a room, the woman said in her complaint yesterday.

"On the complaint of the woman, an FIR has been registered against Verma and sub-inspector Virendra Kumar. The woman will be sent for medical examination today," Circle Officer Vinod Kumar said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-23/lucknow/32803426_1_police-station-woman-gang

8-year jail term for robbery

TNN Jul 11, 2012

NEW DELHI: A trial court has sentenced a man to eight years rigorous imprisonment for robbing an NSG commando's wife of her gold chain and gravely injuring him at the New Delhi railway station last year.

Terming chain snatching as a "serious offence", additional sessions judge Pawan Kumar Jain sentenced 22-year-old Sheikh Munna, convicting him on charges of attempt to murder and robbery. "Snatching of belongings of a female finding her alone is quite serious offence, it creates an atmosphere of insecurity among female members of the society," the court said.

As the judge pronounced the sentence on Monday, the 22-year-old youth turned violent and began abusing. He even picked up a chair in the courtroom and banged it on the floor, said eyewitnesses to the court proceeding, adding that the court subsequently had to requisition police to contain the violent behaviour of the convict.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-11/delhi/32631634_1_jail-term-gold-chain-sessions-judge