Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Teacher's Risks

It is unfortunate that students are becoming more violent. This is a contagion from countries like the USA. It is not only that violence is more common, attacking teachers is held as a badge of honour by the immature students. As it is, quality teachers are few and far between. This new development makes teaching even less attractive. The other day, a teacher was telling me that the only 'gurudakshina' he seeks from students is that they should abstain from killing him. How pathetic! Please read two recent reports:

1)  "A class 12 student on Saturday (January 20) allegedly killed his school principal by firing four shots with a .32 bore gun in Haryana’s Yamunanagar, news agency PTI reported. “The accused student fired four shots at Swami Vivekanand School principal Ritu Chhabra, who was in her office, with a .32 bore gun and critically injured her,” the police said.
The student, police sources said, was upset over being rusticated from the school.
“47-year-old Chhabra  was rushed to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries,” PTI quoted Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Desh Raj as saying.
The four bullets hit her in the chest, stomach and shoulder, Yamunanagar Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kalia told PTI. The SP said, “After shooting the school principal, the 18-year-old commerce student tried to flee. However, a couple of parents, who were present for the parents-teachers meet in the school premises, caught hold him of with the help of locals.”
During preliminary investigation, the accused student told the police that he was upset with the school principal for allegedly reprimanding him a couple of times.
“He had a grudge against the school principal for reprimanding him few times in front of his class mates on the complaint of teachers,” the SP said adding that he was not attending school for the past few days.
The SP said the police were also investigating whether the accused was taking drugs.
“He was supposed to attend his tutions today. But rather than going to tutions, he went to the school,” the officer said.
As he was a school student, he was allowed to meet the school principal, SP Kalia said.
“He talked to the Principal for some time and then came out. He then again entered the principal’s room and opened fire at her with the revolver,” said the SP.
During investigation, it came to light that the student stole his father’s licensed revolver by breaking the wooden Almirah at his home. He took the revolver without the knowledge of his parents, Kalia said.
The accused student’s father is a financier and a landlord in Yamunanagar, he said.
The SP said, “He has confessed to his crime and weapon has also been recovered. He will be presented before the court the tomorrow.”
The accused student has been booked for murder under section 302 of the IPC, said the police.
The incident happened between 11:30 am and 12 noon and and triggered panic and horror among the school staff, teachers and students.
(With input from Agencies)"

2) Class 12 student gunned down his school principal on Monday (January 22) over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan’s restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.
The incident took place within the premises of privately-run Islamia College in Charsadda district.
Sareer Khan was killed by Fahim Ashraf who was later arrested with a gun, district police chief Zahoor Afridi said.
“The student was raising slogans at the time of his arrest that he killed a blasphemer but so far no evidence of blasphemy has been found against the victim,” Afridi said.
Sources in the college contradicted blasphemy claims, saying the principal had Masters of Arts (MA) degree in Islamic Studies and was also a Hafiz-e-Quran, meaning he had memorised the entire Holy Quran.
Ashraf was angry at the principal who marked him absent when he missed classes for three consecutive days in November last year to attend a protest by religious groups, they said.
He also had an argument with the principal over the issue some days ago.
Afridi said an investigation was being carried out and facts would be made public.
Meanwhile, college students and relatives of the accused blocked a road and disrupted traffic but the district administration pacified them.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan and people have been killed in the past on mere suspicion.
Mashal Khan, a university student, was lynched last year by a mob of fellow students in Charsadda over alleged blasphemy, which was never proved by the police.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Unlettered rebellion

On November 12, 2017, we wrote under the caption 'Supreme Court' as follows:

"We can expect more fireworks from the Supreme Court in the near future. A recent cartoon regarding the American Congress says that what was meant to be an institution of checks and balances has become an institution of only checks (cheques). It is hoped that our Supreme Court will not reduce itself to be similarly portrayed. " We took exception to the Chief Justice taking administrative decision in a case that potentially involves him.

It is our misfortune that we have been proved correct. Four judges of the Collegium of the Supreme Court  have publicly questioned the administrative style of the Chief Justice.

Legalservicesindia.com says,

"As far as possible a Judge should keep off the media. He should refrain from expressing his views in media on matters either pending before him or likely to appear for judicial consideration. Else he may be accused of prejudging the issue and his neutrality may be questioned thereby. Lord Widgery, Lord Chief Justice of England since 1971 to 1980, said that “the best judge is the man who should not court publicity and should work in such a way that they don’t catch the eyes of the newsmen”. Lord Hailsham said that the “best judges are those who do not find their names in the The Daily Mail and still, who abhor it” (quoted from David Pannick QC, 'Judges')"

Judges are after all human beings. But problem arises when they want to prove this time and again by their behaviour. We sorrowfully witnessed the case of Justice Karnan who egregiously ran his brother judges down and because he was only a High Court judge, he ran into trouble. What the four judges have done in convening a press meet and distributing copies of a letter they had earlier  written to the Chief Justice is karnanesque plus . These four deserve the treatment that was meted out to Karnan with greater force. 

If these recalcitrant judges are treated with kid gloves, such acts of infamy will become frequent. If judges in various High Courts rise in revolt against their Chief Justices, will the Supreme Court have any moral authority to discipline them?

Why did these eminent judges call for a press meet? If the purpose was only to ensure correction of deviant administrative practices, it could be pardoned. The purpose as it turned out was much less noble. As Justice Chelameswar unknowingly admitted, "We don't want some wise men in future accuse us of having sold our souls." They only want to be beyond personal criticism. Their primary intent is not protection of judicial propriety. They have let down judicial dignity trying to promote their public image.

The foursome did not discuss the administrative problem with other judges of the Supreme Court probably because they thought that the Collegium judges were a class apart and it was infra dig to confabulate with their 'juniors'. They claimed in their letter that the Chief Justice was only the first among equals. They failed to realise that puisne judges (there are 20 judges in the Supreme Court junior to the Collegium five) were as eminent as them in their legal expertise and were equally capable of judging cases of 'national importance'. A false sense of superiority misled the four to throw the time-honoured principle of judicial restraint to the winds.

Chelameswar's conduct has been abominable. Immediately after the avoidable press meet, he committed the cardinal indiscretion of meeting a politician, D.Raja. Raja meeting the judge is bad enough. But Raja has gone on record that the suggestion for meeting was made by the judge during a phone conversation. So, Chelameswar took the initiative for a personal meeting with a politician. Far from abjuring politics which a judge is supposed to do, Chelameswar has become incestuous with politics. 

Chelameswar is respected as a judge who maintains judicial integrity. If he himself denigrates judiciary in this manner, we can only fearfully imagine what other judges are up to. We desperately need a renaissance in our legal system with a rules-based legislation on judges' responsibility and duties to keep Karnans and Chelameswars at bay.

The word 'unlettered' also means unenlightened. That is why we call this rebellion unlettered though a letter is the pivot of this controversy.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Thuglak's 48th annual meeting

January 14th saw the 48th annual meeting of Thuglak readers at the Music Academy, Chennai. The editor, S.Gurumurthy, said the next annual meeting is likely in Coimbatore.

As usual, the meeting started sharp at 6.30 p.m. though Arun Jaitley, the chief guest arrived 10 minutes late. Gurumurthy referred to punctilious punctuality of great people like Morarji Desai. Relative to Cho, Gurumurthy is dour. Yet, the magazine's readership has not dwindled proving the strength of the editorial team. The Academy was overflowing with people even one hour before the scheduled start of the meeting. Video clips of Cho's speeches in earlier annual meets were shown. Cho had prophetically declared that no one would be found guilty in the 2G- scam. Cho's sarcasm on Manmohan Singh and P.Chidambaram was a delight to experience once more.

Responding to readers' queries, Gurumurthy condemned the press meet of four judges of the Supreme Court wondering what would happen if the High Court judges also followed suit. In his view, the four judges need to apologise for their errant behaviour. He was all praise for Rajanikanth and his proposed style of spiritual politics.

G.Viswanathan, the educationist,  sought consistent and more punitive measures against corruption. He supported simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. GV was one of the confidants of Cho.

Jaitley had come with a prepared lecture. But after listening to various readers and partly understanding their views, he decided to dump his prepared text and focused on where the country is headed. He lamented that the Congress party has lost its moorings and only adopts the agenda of other forces. He blamed this sorry state of affairs on over-reliance on a family. In his view, a family-dominated political party can succeed only if the family members are great leaders themselves. Inevitably, he compared the present generation in the family with Pandit Nehru and hinted at the chalk and cheese difference. Admiring Indira Gandhi's nationalism, he pitied Rahul Gandhi's support to divisive forces. (Arun Jaitley was also imprisoned during the emergency.) Joint effort by jihadi and left elements to bring about chaos in the country was pointed out by him. Predictably, he referred favourably to bold steps taken by Narendra Modi, be it demonetisation or GST or anti-benami legislation.

Coimbatore will be luckier than Chennai next January 14th.

Tuesday, January 09, 2018

IOB's controversial proposal

Indian Overseas Bank was promoted by a business community (Chettiars) that is known for its conservatism and adherence to laws in letter and spirit. It is therefore ironic that IOB has now proposed to appropriate Share Premium Account to set off whopping accumulated losses. It is true that post-nationalisation, the character of banks has changed drastically. But nobody would have expected a laid-back bank like IOB to come up with a financial engineering masterpiece as it has done now.

The bank has convened an Extraordinary General Meeting of its shareholders on January 30th ( Martyrs' Day !) Is the bank making its shareholders martyrs? The move is controversial because as the bank has rightly mentioned in its notice convening the meeting, the use of Share Premium Account to set off Accumulated Losses is not envisaged in Banking Companies Act or Banking Regulation Act. As the bank conveniently states, "it is neither permitted nor prohibited". IOB's pragmatic view is stated as follows:

"The Bank is of the view that this is the most practical
and economically efficient option available to the
Bank in the present scenario so as to present a true
and fair view of the financial position of the Bank."

Does dubious deletion of Accumulated Losses by utilising funds from Share Premium Account present a true and fair view of the financial position of the bank? Since banking-related Acts are silent on this aspect of financial engineering, we can draw lessons from the Companies Act.

The Companies Act permits appropriation from Securities Premium only for five purposes. 1) to write off preliminary expenses, 2) to write off discount on issue of securities, 3) to provide for premium on redemption of securities, 4) to issue bonus shares, 5) to enable buy-back of share capital.

Therefore, a non-banking company can not do what IOB proposes to do. Banks are expected to be more conservative and are not supposed to adopt expedient measures to whitewash their financial statements. IOB's notice to shareholders hints that RBI's approval for this innovative move has been obtained. According to Banking Regulation Act (Sec 17 (2) ) and RBI's reiteration in 2006, any appropriation from Share Premium Account by a bank should be notified to RBI within 21 days with proper justification.

This proposed move will set a precedent for other banks to follow. A larger bank like ICICI Bank which is indubitably smarter in presentation of financial statements may be waiting in the wings to appropriate from Securities Premium Account to bolster its Profit and Loss Account whenever a future contingency arises. Such future contingencies are more likely than not.