Bombay high court questions early release of women jailed for murder

Bombay high court questions early release of women jailed for murder

MUMBAI: Can a person sentenced to life imprisonment for murder face less punishment just because she is a woman? The Bombay high court on Tuesday questioned the gender discrimination in the state government's new prison rules.

"This is a dangerous trend," a division bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice Gautam Patel said. "Reservations [for women] can be understood, but showing leniency in punishment on the basis of gender cannot be accepted."

The court asked advocate general Darius Khambata to assist the court on the matter when it hears the case on September 19. The court was hearing a plea for early release from prison by a woman convicted of murdering her husband on the basis of the rules introduced by the government in 2010.

While a woman murder convict sent to prison for life faces minimum imprisonment of between 18 years and 20 years in jail with remissions, men face 20 years to 30 years, depending on the gravity of the crime. Remissions are extra days credited for each day spent in jail.

"Prima facie, we do not see any positive discrimination [in the rules to benefit female convicts] which either improves the dignity or status of women in society," the judges said.

The court pointed out that they had observed many reports in newspapers about women committing serious crimes, including being involved in sexual assault cases. "While the new rules introduce stringent punishment for crimes against women, in the same breath someone who has wronged another woman can get off lightly because of her gender," the judges said.

The court questioned the state on the justification for such a classification on the basis of gender.

"A case-to-case-basis decision on the prison term can be taken by going into the circumstances, but a classification solely on the basis of gender is a dangerous trend," the court said. "The rules do not meet the purpose that they will not be encouraged to commit crimes. Instead, it gives a licence to women that because of their DNA they can get off easily even if they commit a serious crime."

In 2010, the state government had introduced changes to the guidelines for premature release of prisoners under the 14-year rule. According to law, a punishment of life imprisonment awarded to an accused means jail till death. Yet, depending on the severity of the crime, the rules allow a person to be released early from prison once he completes 14 years of actual imprisonment.

The new rules created a new category for women convicts. Those who had committed murder were eligible for release from jail once they had served 18 years, including remissions. If the murder was premeditated, they could be released after 20 years with remissions. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Bombay-high-court-questions-early-release-of-women-jailed-for-murder/articleshow/22304543.cms 

‘There’s a lack of positive space for men’

‘There’s a lack of positive space for men’

A family court has said that if a wife insults her husband in the presence of his friends or in the presence of her friends and relatives, it amounts to cruelty. dna gets one man talking

Amit Deshpande

There is no help for a man if the wife is abusive. The judgment where the court granted divorce to a man who accused his wife of mental cruelty, citing her abusive behaviour towards him, his friends and his relatives needs to be supported. In a marital set-up, if a wife keeps on humiliating her husband for whatever reasons — financial or sexual incompetence — the man is bound to feel a loss of dignity and it is in no way different than the loss of dignity of a wife for any reason. We should see this in the same view of a man humiliating his wife by attacking her womanhood — when she is unable to bear a child — or even if he taunts her for her looks. As a progressive and just society, we should discourage any form of humiliation based upon gender roles. The Supreme Court has given many judgments in which it has granted divorce when the wife has been abusive towards her husband and insulted him in public. Today, men have no place to go to for help if they have an abusive wife or one who shows signs of compulsive obsessive disorder. Men do not even ask for help and continue to suffer in abusive relationships as it is considered unmanly to seek help. The real problem lies in the fact that society functions by creating competition among men. Unfortunately, in the patriarchal social mindset, a man has to earn his manhood to gain respect and survive. The emotions of a man are not respected in the same way as the emotions of a woman are. With the increasing focus on women’s issues, there is a lack of positive space for men in society. Many a time it is found that men turn violent towards themselves and take the extreme step. Every year, over 63,000 married men commit suicide in India. These men are mostly those who have proven their manhood and have become eligible for marriage, including many professionals. According to the principles of natural justice, this judgment seems a step in the right direction. ‘Humiliating hubby is cruelty’, p5

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=51372&boxid=30566&ed_date=2013-09-05&ed_code=820009&ed_page=3

AAM LOG -Talaq aur kanoon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7hh5U6PcOA&list=HL1378296365&feature=mh_lolz

PURUSHAVAKASA SAMRAKSHANA SAMITHI

Rajya Sabha passes marriage laws amendment bill

New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha Monday passed a bill to amend marriage laws which seeks to provide for irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce, subject to certain safeguards to the wife and affected children.
The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was passed by voice vote. It seeks to amend the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Special Marriages Act, 1954.
Replying to the brief debate, Law Minister Kapil Sibal said there was need to protect women's rights as the society was still patriarchal.
"So let's be clear. Legislations are a message that MPs are on the side of women in a patriarchal society. With this intent we bring this bill," he said.
Speaking on the amendments, Sibal said the share of wife in husband's self-acquired property will be decided by court. He said the wife also has a share in the movable property of her husband.
He said the wife does not have share in inherited property but its value will be taken into account while fixing the amount of alimony to her.
He said either husband or wife can cite irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground of divorce.
There have been concerns that provisions of earlier marriage acts were inadequate in cases of irretrievable breakdown of marriage.

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2013/08/26/340--Rajya-Sabha-passes-marriage-laws-amendment-bill-.html 

Supreme Court: Karunanidhi's wife need not come to Delhi court, can be questioned in Chennai

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked a court investigating the 2G spectrum scam to appoint a commission to question DMK leader M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal at her home in Chennai, on medical grounds.

The court acted on a report submitted by the AIIMS hospital, after Dayalu Ammal's daughter petitioned that she was too unwell to step out of her home.

Dayalu Ammal has been summoned by a special CBI court as a witness in the telecom case linked to the allocation of valuable 2G spectrum to ineligible companies at throwaway prices.

Her daughter Selvi had sought an exemption and told the Supreme Court that Dayalu Ammal could not respond to the summons, she had been diagnosed with behavioral problems and was losing her ability to even recognize close relatives.

Dayalu Ammal, Karunanidhi's second wife, was a director in Kalaignar TV Private Limited, which allegedly received a bribe of over Rs. 200 crore from a firm that bagged licences for spectrum at dirt-cheap prices when DMK's A Raja was Telecom Minister.

Karunanidhi's daughter and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi is also an accused in the case.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/supreme-court-karunanidhi-s-wife-need-not-come-to-delhi-court-can-be-questioned-in-chennai-408959 

HC notice on Pascal’s plea for visitation rights to his mother to see his children

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday ordered issue of notice to Suja Jones Mazurier on a petition filed by her husband Pascal Mazurier, Consular Attaché to the Consulate General of France, Bangalore, and accused in a case of raping his minor daughter.

Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the order on Mr. Pascal’s petition, in which he has challenged the Family Court’s order refusing to allow his mother, who had come from France, to periodically meet his three children, who are in the custody of his wife.

IN the petition he also said his wife had violated an order of the Family Court to bring the children to the Bangalore Mediation Centre between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on July 24 to for meeting his mother, and children’s grandmother, Jacqueline Maillé. The Family Court had only twice permitted Jacqueline Maillé to meet the children since February 2013 and that too only for an hour on each occasion.

“The Family Court ought to have permitted the petitioner’s [Pascal’s] mother to have constant periodical contact with her grandchildren so that some member of the petitioner’s family can be in touch with the children,” it has been contended in the petition.

In matters relating to the guardianship and custody of minor children, especially of those children who have multi-cultural and multi-national identities, the Family Court ought to bear in mind the various provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which came into force in September 1990 and to which India is a signatory, the petitioner claimed.

The petition further stated: “The children are completely cut off from their paternal relations and this is not in the interest of their emotional and psychological welfare and wellbeing as the petitioner was always close to the children during the time he lived in the marital home…” It has been alleged in the petition that his wife was depriving the children of contact with his family members.

Mr.Mazurier was arrested in June 2012 on the complaint filed by his wife, and the High Court in October 2012 had granted him bail while observing that “the materials on record, including the DNA report, and the statements of witnesses at this stage are in favour of the accused [Pascal]”. 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/hc-notice-on-pascals-plea-for-visitation-rights-to-his-mother-to-see-his-children/article5019767.ece?homepage=true 

Tamil Nadu tops country in cases of domestic violence

Tamil Nadu tops country in cases of domestic violence

CHENNAI: Disturbing statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that domestic violence is much more prevalent in Tamil Nadu than any other state in the country.
The NCRB data shows the state registered 3,838 cases of domestic violence in 2012 — or 84% of all complaints (4,567) of domestic violence recorded across the country.

Tamil Nadu recorded the most cases of domestic violence in the country, 3,983, last year too, a finding cited by minister for women and child development Krishna Tirath on August 14.
Experts offer several reasons for the high numbers in the state. These include greater awareness about the law in Tamil Nadu and due to an increase in education among women. Police officers, however, say tolerance levels are plunging among young couples, and this has led to a spurt in complaints.
Most complainants are women from middle-class and upper middle-class families.
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was enacted by the Union government in 2005 to protect women from violence at home.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-19/india/41424743_1_domestic-violence-act-tamil-nadu-ncrb 

UP accounts for over 80% of illegal arrests in India

UP accounts for over 80% of illegal arrests in India

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh's high-handedness is not just reflected in the arbitrary transfer of officers such as Durga Sakthi Nagpal and slapping of bogus cases against dissenters (as in the case of Dalit scholar Kanwal Bharti), it can also be seen in the massive number of illegal arrests made by the UP police.

According to National Human Rights Commission data, UP records an overwhelming majority of illegal arrests in the country, accounting for more than 80% of all such cases. In fact, it tips its nearest competitor, Delhi, by over 3,000% almost year after year.

In the past three years (April 2010 to July 2013), UP accounted for 3,397 illegal arrests out of 3,950 such cases recorded across India by NHRC. The count for the rest of the 27 states and seven union territories put together was just 553.

"What do you expect from a state where many politicians themselves are criminals? How do you expect them to have any respect for law and order or human rights?" says Colin Gonsalves of Human Rights Law Network.

From April 2012 to March 2013, NHRC recorded 703 cases of illegal arrests in all. As many as 589 of these were against the UP police. UP accounts for 161 of 192 illegal arrests in '13

Its closest rivals in this dubious distinction, Uttarakhand and Delhi, were way behind with 14 cases each. Data for this period shows only two other states where the number of illegal arrests had crossed double figures — Karnataka (12) and Andhra Pradesh (10).

In 2013 too (April 1 to July 20), UP accounted for 161 such cases of the total of 192 recorded by NHRC in the entire country. Its closest rival, Delhi, was again was behind with only five cases.

Year 2011 was the worse for UP, with the state police being at the wrong end of the law 1,101 times of the total of 1,249 cases registered by NHRC. Delhi again took the second spot with 38 cases. In 2010 too UP recorded 1,546 such cases of the total of 1,716. These are cases that were brought to NHRC's notice. The real figures for both UP and other states are bound to be higher as many complainants go to state human rights commissions instead of knocking at NHRC's doors.

Conversely, sources say, UP being closer to Delhi, more people may tend to approach NHRC in the capital. But if that was true, neighbouring Haryana would also show a high number of illegal arrests. However,Haryana's figures for many years have remained in single digits.  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/UP-accounts-for-over-80-of-illegal-arrests-in-India/articleshow/21853340.cms 

Woman cop held taking bribe

Amendments in Marriage law necessary to prevent Misuse

Domestic violence on Senior Citizens : Kanpur

498a misuse - 4

498a misuse - 2

498a Misuse - 1