12

NATIONAL

No urgent
hearing on
Sahara chiefs
bail plea
Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The Supreme

Court refused on Friday an

urgent hearing for granting
bail to the jailed Sahara
Group chief, Subrata Roy, to
attend the funeral of his
aunt.
The application seeking 15
days time to attend the cremation and rites was moved
at the residence of Chief
Justice of India H.L. Dattu.
However, the Chief Justice said the matter would
come up for hearing in the
regular court.
Mr. Roys aunt died in
Lucknow on Thursday.
On Wednesday, he was
sent back to his cell in the
Tihar jail on lapse of the
time granted by the court to
stay in an air-conditioned facility in the complex to negotiate the sale of his overseas
luxury hotels to raise Rs.
10,000 crore for his bail. Mr.
Roy and two of his group directors were allowed to use
the jails conference room
for the negotiations.

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Employees cannot be treated

differently for age of retirement
SC dismisses plea against Armed Forces Tribunal order
J. Venkatesan
NEW DELHI: It is trite law that
equals shall be treated as
equals and in its application
to public service, this simply
means that once several persons have become members
of one service, whether by
promotion or length of service, they stand as equals
and cannot, thereafter, be
invidiously differentiated
for purposes of salary, seniority, promotion or retirement, the Supreme Court
has held.
Giving this ruling, a Bench
of Justices T.S. Thakur and
C. Nagappan said: Birthmarks of public servants are
obliterated on entry into a
common pool and our coun-

try does not believe in official casteism or blue blood as

assuring preferential treatment in the future career.
In the Air Force the Centre xed the retirement age
of Group Captains (Time
Scale) in ground duty at 52
years and in ying duty at 54
years but the retirement age
for Group Captains (Select)
in ground duty was xed at
54 and in ying duty at 57.
The Armed Forces Tribunal
quashed this discrimination
and the present appeal is directed
against
this
judgment.
The Bench dismissing an
appeal from the Union of India against this order said:
the classication made by
the Government for purpos-

cers too are more perceptional than real. Merely

because the sources of
recruitment are different,
there cannot be apartheidisation within the common
service.
It said the difference in
employability of Group Captains (TS) is not borne out to
justify the classication
made by the Government. It
is evident from the particulars given by the respondents that several Group
Captains (TS) have held appointments which are also
held by Group Captains (Select). If that be so, the difference in the employability of
Time Scale officers vis--vis
Select officers appears to be
more illusory than real.

Rail users criticise dynamic pricing scheme

Sandeep Dikshit

Industrialist
N. Mahalingam
passes away

es of different retirement
age for Time Scale Officers
and Select Officers does not
stand scrutiny on the touchstone of Articles 14 and 16 of
the Constitution as rightly
held by the Tribunal.
Writing the judgment,
Justice Thakur said: Suffice
it to say that the basis for
classication in question for
purposes of age of superannuation which the appellant
has projected is much too
tenuous to be accepted as a
valid basis for giving to the
Time Scale Officers a treatment different from the one
given to the Select Officers.
We are also of the view that
concerns arising from a parity in the retirement age of
Time Scale and Select Offi-

Officials admitted that

with the onset of the festival
NEW DELHI: The Railways season, the tickets earhave made half of the Tatkal marked for the dynamic
tickets on 80 most popular pricing scheme will be
trains costlier with effect bought immediately. But
from October 1. This trig- most rail users including
gered a backlash from users those on the Google Circles
who have complained that did not take kindly to this
efforts should instead have explanation.
been made to curb touts who
The move by the Railmanage to corner most of ways to shift 50 per cent of
these tickets.
Taktal quota to Premier Tat-

kal quota needs to be withdrawn. Why force a

passenger to pay dynamic
fare price, whose working
and pricing structure is
opaque and susceptible to be
manipulated? commented
Mahendra Nahata.
But Tensing Rodrigues advised caution. It is too early
to criticise Premium Tatkal.
Let us see how it works, because in principle it makes a

lot of sense. Just to discard it

because it means paying
more is silly. Let us give this
sort of populist mentality a
rest; it will not take us anywhere, he observed.
A railway official denied
there was any intention to
inconvenience passengers.
But the Railways cannot increase the number of trains
because of line capacity limitations.

Dalits throng Nagpur on Dhammachakra Pravartan Din

Pavan Dahat

N. Mahalingam
COIMBATORE: N. Mahalingam,

Chairman of the Coimbatore-based Sakthi Group of

Companies, passed away in
Chennai on Thursday. He
was 91.
According to sources, Mr.
Mahalingam had been organising the Gandhi Vallalar
Vizha for the last 49 years. He
was at the event in Chennai
on Thursday evening when
he collapsed. He was rushed
to a private hospital but declared dead.
Born on March 21, 1923 into an agricultural family at
Somanthurai Chittoor, Pollachi, Mr. Mahalingam completed B.Sc. in physics at
Loyola College, Chennai. He
joined the College of Engineering, Guindy, and obtained
a
diploma
in
Mechanical Engineering in
1945.
He was a member of the
Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 1952 to 1967. He
was instrumental in the implementation of the Parambikulam Aliyar Project,
which was inaugurated when
he was a legislator. He had
been actively campaigning
for the linking of rivers. A
Gandhian, educationist and
philanthropist, he received
the Padma Bhushan in 2007.
As an industrialist, he focused on agro-based industries, a family source said.
He is survived by his wife,
three sons and a daughter.

CM
YK

NAGPUR: Manisha Kursunge,

21, a student of BSW (Bachelor of Social Work) from
Gondia district of Maharashtra, is astounded to see the
huge crowd gathered at the
Deekshabhoomi here on
Friday.
I have come here for a
eld assignment. Its amazing to see so many people and
I am trying to understand
what motivates them to gath-

er here every year, said

Manisha.
Every year on the day of
Ashoka Vijayadashami, Dalits from across the country
gather at Deekshabhoomi
(the place where Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar converted to
Buddhism with his followers
in 1956) to celebrate the
Dhammachakra Pravartan
Din the day on which he
converted to Buddhism.
Lakhs of people thronged
Nagpur to celebrate the 58th

Dhammachakra Pravartan
Din. Babasaheb [Ambedkar]
gave us new life. Before him
we were not even being considered humans. I come here
every year to thank him,
claimed Rahul Bagade, a deputy engineer in the Public
Works Department from
Amravati.
According to Sanjay Bele,
an activist from Nagpur, at
every other place in the
world, people either gather
for religious purpose or ritu-

als. But at Deekshabhoomi,

people come to buy books
and to remember their
emancipator. Although it had
a religious background initially, the yearly event now
does not have any religious
connection, Mr. Bele said.
When asked about the political divisions among Dalits, he said, The community
seems to be divided on different lines politically but they
come here for the bond they
share with Dr. Ambedkar.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014

Victims kin can be witnesses: SC

Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI: Trial courts can-

not discredit the testimony

of the relative of a murder
victim merely on the presumption that the witness
will be naturally prejudiced against the killer, the
Supreme Court has held.
A Bench comprising Justices Fakkir Mohamed
Ibrahim Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh said an accused on trial for murder
could not ask the court to
discard evidence given by
the victims relative solely
on the ground that the latter would be interested
in seeing the undertrial
punished.
The court was hearing a
case in which the witnesses
to a murder that took place
14 years ago were the victims wife and two children. Surender was beaten
to death in front of them in
their house.
A trial court found the
four men guilty of murder

The court dismisses

presumption
that they will be
prejudiced against
the accused
and sentenced them to life
imprisonment in 2002.
However, the Rajasthan
High Court set aside the
verdict, prompting the
State to approach the Supreme Court.
The accused argued that
the victims family could
not be counted as independent witnesses. That
being the case, their conviction ew in the face of the
basic tenet of criminal jurisprudence that a persons
guilt had to be proven beyond all reasonable doubt.
Dismissing their claims,
Justice Kalifulla, in a recent judgment, said there
was no legal bar on examining family members.
The court said often it

Meerut village tense

after youths killing
Staff Reporter
Tensions prevailed at Jaroda village in
Meerut after a youth, Fariyad, died of bullet injuries on Thursday.
The police said unidentied persons from other
community shot at Fariyad.
Mohammad Yasin, cleric from the nearby
mosque who came to his
rescue, also sustained bullet injuries.

MEERUT:

Though a property
dispute led to the
firing, the death of
the youth led to
tensions

tion but was unable to

take possession of it.
The assailants were
Singhs relatives.
Noorjahan had been
trying to get possession of
the land.
Jaipal Singh wanted to
Land dispute
teach her a lesson beThough a property dis- cause she had started
pute led to the ring, the farming on the land on
death of the youth led to Thursday morning. Some
tensions.
time in the afternoon, ve
Senior Superintendent relatives of Jaipal Singh
of Police, Meerut, Omkar reached Jaroda village
Singh
said
Fariyads where Fariyad was premother, Noorjahan Be- sent and started ring at
gum, had bought a piece of him, Mr. Omkar Singh
agricultural land from Ar- said.
vind Gupta.
Though the situation
The land originally be- is tense, it is under conlonged to Jaipal Singh of trol. Two platoons of the
Chichoi and Mr. Gupta PAC have been deployed,
had bought it in an auc- he added.

was the family members

who ended up as witnesses
to a crime as they came to
the rescue of the person
attacked.
Those alone are the people who take the risk of sustaining injuries by jumping
into such a quarrel and trying to defuse the crisis, the
judgment said adding that
this was especially true if
both attackers and victim
were related.
Justice Kalifulla said
courts could independently verify the truth of a
witness.
When the statement of
witnesses who are relatives
is credible, reliable, trustworthy, admissible, in accordance with the law and
corroborated by other witnesses or documentary evidence of the prosecution,
there would hardly be any
reason for the court to reject such evidence merely
on the ground that the witness was a family member,
the judgment observed.

Rs. 30 lakh each

for U.P. Asian
Games stars

Priyanka
Pawar

Danish
Mujtaba

Special Correspondent
Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav has announced a
cash award of Rs. 30 lakh
each to Priyanka Pawar
and Danish Mujtaba for
winning the gold for India
in the Incheon Asian
Games.
Ms. Priyanka from Muzaffarnagar was in the
4X400-metre relay team
and Mr. Mujtaba from Allahabad was in the Indian
hockey team which defeated Pakistan in the nals on
Thursday.
Mr. Yadav said in a statement that they had
brought laurels to the
country and the State
through hard work.

LUCKNOW:

Four killed as bus

plunges into valley
Staff Reporter
MUMBAI: A speeding State

transport bus plunged into a

50-feet valley on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway near
Lonavala on Friday evening.
According to preliminary
reports, four people were
killed and nine injured.

The Highway traffic control room said the bus was

heading towards Mumbai
from Satara, when the driver lost control.
Till last reports came in,
ve ambulances and four
cranes had reached the spot.
The number of casualties is
likely to increase.

ND-ND