The Brave Pedestrian

Ever wondered how cigarette and bidi adverts would look if genuine users endorsed them? Well here are some specimens. These are adverts made with real people -- real tobacco users who were, not surprisingly, patients at Tata Memorial Hospital back in 2012. Some of these people are alive, while others have passed on. Image: http://tinyurl.com/Malegaon-ka-superrman In October 2012, I interviewed almost all of the people in these ads -- with the sole exception of "Malegaon Ka Superrman" lead actor Shafique Shaikh (who had already died). And these guys told me, up close and personal, how much they had enjoyed chewing and smoking tobacco -- up until the point that it ravaged their bodies. Image: http://tinyurl.com/Gutka-barons Some of these people are still alive, but their bodies have been ravaged by radiation-therapy, surgery and chemotherapy. Some who were diagnosed with oral cancer have had half their lower or upper jaw removed, along wit...

Amazing how easily our courts grant stay orders, even to known criminals and offenders. if the right senior counsels appear, stay orders may be had for the asking! In this way, higher judiciary plays a big role in OBSTRUCTING IMPLEMENTATION of laws, rules etc, and enabling offenders to evade law enforcement agencies, "under cover of the judiciary's robe". Bravo, Milords! Why does Indian judges have such lax moral standards for granting a stay? Crooks take advantage of it!

30th May, 2015 Dear Shri Narendra Modi, Pranaam. Advance greetings from the widows of five former smokers and tobacco users on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day (31st May). We feel it is apt to greet you on this great occasion as the government is a major shareholder in the tobacco industry. Our late husbands have contributed considerable amounts to your government's massive tax income from the tobacco industries, and also to the profits of Life Insurance Corporation, financial institutions, mutual funds etc, who hold about 35% shares in ITC and other tobacco companies. We are writing to you also because, although state after state has banned chewing-tobacco Gutka, there is only one state where gutka is manufactured: Gujarat. It is the only state in entire India that continues to manufacture gutka. From there, it is smuggled to all other states of India, in violation of the bans. Surely you know this? Mr Prime Minister, Sir, we beg to introduce ourselves and ...

Indian judiciary is NOT acting like a justice delivery system of a democratic country. It is acting like a colonial ruler, an absolute power over Indian citizens. Whatever our courts are delivering cannot be called JUSTICE --    they can only be called "orders" or "judgments". For there to be justice, there must necessarily be timeliness, uniform application of laws and availability to all sections of society. http://tinyurl.com/Indian-judge-scales Krishnaraj Rao 9821588114

Our nation is in the midst of judiciary's summer vacation -- an entire organ of State closed for five to seven weeks (except for a tiny number of vacation-judges -- a loincloth-like shred of judiciary). Because of these summer vacations, courts give long dates to undertrials -- even those who are being held in judicial custody. Dates are not always given given immediately after summer vacations, so the delay is not only of a few weeks. With lakhs of people being held in judicial custody without a trial for months and even years, doesn't this make our judiciary the biggest human-rights violator in India and abroad? Think about the needless suffering that common people and their families undergo, while our judges and lawyers insist on their right to take it easy. Judges don't think it is a big deal to hold an accused in prison for a few extra weeks or months. For them, it is just business-as-usual!  http://tinyurl.com/Courts-Summer-Vacation Regards, ...

Do you & I have anything to do with FARMER SUICIDES? Are we responsible in any way? I would say a firm NO. Still, think about the question a little. The commoners and even Lords and ladies of Britain one century ago would have believed that they were not responsible the enslavement of cotton farmers in India. They would have said that they had nothing to do with the pricing policy for cotton imported from India and the textiles manufactured in the mills of Manchester. The British soldiers would have said exactly the same thing... because they were not the policymakers. Even individual MPs and who knows, the British Prime Minister and even King George or Queen Victoria might have said that they were not responsible for the chronic poverty and exploitation of Indian farmers. http://tinyurl.com/farmer-suicide Today, with the benefit of hindsight, I feel that all the people in Britain benefited from the Indian farmers' helplessness... and therefore, they were responsibl...

If pendency of cases were under control and appellants got a fair hearing, Supreme Court's six-week summer vacations could possibly have been justified. But such is emphatically not the case. Supreme Court judges dismiss a majority of the appeals instantly, not even giving a few second to appellants -- although appellants struggle for months, travel thousands of kilometres many times, and suffer great financial hardships to get a hearing in supreme court. Many of the Supreme Court judges are known to contemptuously THROW THE APPELLANT'S FILES on the floor after a couple of seconds of inattentive hearing, showing callous disregard for the litigants and the appeal process! Despite such hurried methods, the queue of pending cases before SC is growing longer every year. And, year after year, these high-and-mighty Supreme Court judges have the shamelessness to go on lengthy vacations, en masse! If this is not contempt of court by them, I don't know what is. ...

Seasoned lawyers charge clients large amounts because of their ability to manipulate hearing of specific matters by judges with known political and social beliefs, and habits. In this way, they control the outcome of cases by using the known personal biases of judges, rather than with genuine law points. Indian judiciary has been functioning in this way for decades. Regards, Krishnaraj Rao 9821588114

The Chief Justice of India needs to break his sphinx-like silence and speak up. Is Justice Karnan an RTI activist and whistleblower who has exposed a major fraud by Justice Dhanapalan, and also exposed a flaw in the judicial selection system? Or is he a quarrelsome and cantankerous person who has lost his sense of judgment? C S Karnan recently asked CBI to inquire into the educational qualificati ons Justice V Dhanapalan -- a brother-judge in Madras High Court. In a signed letter addressed to the joint director of CBI in Chennai, Justice Karnan alleged that bogus qualifications were shown by Justice Dhanapalan. He is supposed to have studied at Dr Ambedkar Government Law College from 1980 to 1983, enrolled as an advocate in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, and obtained a master's degree in law from University of Madras in 1987. These facts are “bogus“, Justice Karnan said in the letter. Karnan argues that Dhanapalan was working in the P&T department as a permanent telegraphist b...

Decade after decade, people are becoming more and more convinced that the judiciary does NOT exist to maintain Rule Of Law. People are gradually losing faith in concepts of Law and Justice. Tareekh pe tareekh and arbitrary judgments are like knives being stabbed into the collective heart of Indians. In the face of this treachery with India -- the India that belongs to our children -- how can we remain silent? Our silence regarding the judiciary's failures endanger's our children's future. http://tinyurl.com/Judiciary- creeping-danger Regards, Krish 9821588114

16th May 2015, Mumbai: Senior Counsel Harish Salve, who flew in from Delhi to help Salman Khan avoid spending a couple of nights in jail, was himself involved in a road accident that killed a man in May 2014 -- just over one year ago. Barely any media group highlighted this news (except DNA, which withdrew the news item hastily). The accident took place in May 2014. Harish Salve’s car was i nvolved in an accident at the Rajpath-Mansingh Road crossing leaving the driver of the other vehicle, Mr. Joginder, seriously injured. Joginder was admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after the accident, and expired on 2 May, 2014. Joginder was an employee of the Le Meridien hotel. It is to be noted that Salve himself did not approach the police. Rather it was an unknown caller who informed police about the accident. Joginder died on the day of accident itself in the ICU of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. Here is the shocking part: On Harish Salve’s instruc...

Justice CR Kumaraswamy excelled himself in the Jayalalitha disproportionate assets case, by “miscalculating” Rs 10.67 cr loans as 24.17 cr on page 852 of the judgment. As a result of this miscalculation, he could then show that her assets were not disporportionate compared to her known sources of income, as her balance loan (after deducting income) was Rs 18.17 cr... whereas actually, the balance  loan is only 4.67 cr. So, although there is no explanation for Amma’s assets worth 13.5 cr, Justice Kumaraswamy takes the help of his arithmetic error to say that there is! His judgment says: Pg. 901 – “The immovable properties were acquired by borrowing huge loan from the Nationalised Banks. It is difficult to infer that the properties were acquired by means of ill-gotten money. Therefore, in my view, confiscation of the properties by the Trial Court is not sustainable in law.“ Pg 909: "The case of the prosecution that Accused No.1 amassed wealth and acquired agricultural lands, si...

Have you experienced frustration while explaining an obvious point to a judge, who just can't get it? For instance, you keep pin-pointing a self-evident document, but the judge just refuses to see the obvious! Many litigants and their advocates are familiar with this situation.  On the other side, some people are delighted when a judge misinterprets the facts in their favour despite all evidence  to the contrary -- because they get an undeservedly favourable judgment without even struggling for it! The other party is left tearing out its hair in sheer frustration, while you go home smiling! Of course such things happen because of corruption among judges, and the face-value of senior counsels -- but it also happens because of the outright insanity of some judges. Because of simple statistical probabilities and the natural aging process, some percentage of our judges become borderline-insane. A bit soft in the head. Slightly senile. Or have over-inflated egos because of all ...

Although bail was a right of every individual, it was largely available only to the rich", says Colin Gonsalves of Human Rights Law Network. "When it comes to rich people, the court has double standards. Rich even get anticipatory bail. Salman Khan's case is a shocking case of miscarriage of justice and consideration based on class. First, it's a fit case where he should have got 10 years in jail. Two, why should his bail plea be heard expeditiously when there are hundreds such ap plications pending in the high courts. Why should he be allowed to jump queue? It sets a bad precedent," he told TOI. But that's not the only problem. Courts have also been terribly slow in disposing of cases (Salman's itself took over 12 years). Courts have 84.8% pendency in criminal cases while on an average over 60% cases take more than a year for trial to be completed. As many as 41,670 cases take more than 10 years while 1.7 lakh cases take between five to 10 years f...

While Salman Khan secured bail in barely three hours after his conviction, over 60% of undertrials spend more than three months in jail before they can secure release. The prolonged incarceration is due to their inability to get bail. Government data shows that roughly 1.75 lakh of 2.78 lakh people facing criminal charges are unable to secure bail before three months. Over 40% (1.1 lakh) of undertrials take more than six months to secure bail, over 64,000 spend more than one  year in jail before they are released on bail, while over 30,000 spend more than two years in jail. And further to this, thousands of convicts are detained months or even years AFTER COMPLETION OF THEIR SENTENCES due to non-payment of fines. These are inmates who remain in jail even after completion of their jail sentences because they are unable to pay the fine amount! At the end of 2013, there were 3000 such prisoners. Of these, 1375 prisoners, or 45.2% had been in jail less than six months after comp...

Thousands of convicts are detained for months or even years AFTER COMPLETION OF THEIR SENTENCES due to non-payment of fines. What right to Life & Liberty are we talking about? The common man has no real right to life and liberty! That's right, there are thousands of inmates who remain in jail even after completion of their jail sentences because they are unable to pay the fine amount! At the end of 2013, there were 3000 such prisoners. Of these, 1375 prisoners, or 45.2% had been in jail less than six months after completion of their sentences. On the other extreme, 240 were still languishing in jail for more than five years after their jail sentences had ended. (Thank you TOI for in-depth coverage of this issue.) Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

The Logical Indian  added  2 new photos . May be we have been taught a lie all along. May be honesty is not the best policy after all. Look at what happened to constable Ravinder Patil just because he  was honest. The night Salman Khan ran over the people on that pavement, it was Patil who filed the initial complaint. While every other witness turned hostile under pressure or threats, it was Patil who continued to hold his ground, just because truth was on his side. But what did Patil gain out of it except more pressure from Salman Khan's lawyers and even alleged harassment from within the police force. During the course of the trial, Patil had to go into hiding as he feared for his own safety. In 2006 he was arrested for failing to appear as a witness and in the same year he was sacked from the police force - all because he was an honest man who stood for the truth. He was found on the streets of Mumbai in 2007 with advanced TB because his famil...

On December 12 2013, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “If friends in Mumbai are to be believed, it seems the only people who don’t know who was driving the fancy Aston Martin (worth Rs 4.5 crore) are the Mumbai police.” He was hinting at Akash Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani) Probably that’s when the limelight hit the spot. During the wee hours of Sunday, December 8 2013, a black Ashton Martin Rapide (registration # MH 01 BK 99) belonging to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Por ts, crashed into an Audi and a Hyundai Elantra, at Pedder Road, Mumbai. The crash killed two people. There was NDTV coverage, Business Standard articles and other ambiguous reports informed about some details of the car crash; More recently, some news pieces made the rounds on how the Mumbai police was not keen on arresting one of Reliance’s driver, Mr. Bhansilal Joshi – who, as per Reliance, was driving the car at that time. But Joshi wasn’t arrested even after a full confession. ...

डरने की क्या बात है, सल्लूभाई? यह भारतीय अदालत है, भगवान का न्यायलय थोड़ी न है? यहाँ देर और अंधेर दोनों हैं. तारीख पे तारीख लेते रहो, और मज़े करो, यार ! Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share