Apex court upholds Majithia Wage Board recommendations

A Bench led by CJI P Sathasivam said the revised pay should be given to the employees with effect from November 11, 2011 when the Centre notified the recommendations of the Board.

The Supreme Court Friday ratified the constitution and recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board for journalists and non-journalists on their pay structure.

A Bench led by CJI P Sathasivam said the revised pay should be given to the employees with effect from November 11, 2011 when the Centre notified the recommendations of the Board. It said new pay structure would be given from April 2014 and the employer will have to pay arrears since 2011 within a year, in four equal installments.

“We hold that the recommendations are valid…we are fully satisfied that the procedure adopted by the Board is legitimate and no decision was taken unilaterally and arbitrarily,” said the Bench.

While upholding the validity of the Board, the court dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by various newspaper managements, challenging the validity of the Board’s constitution and recommendations.

The 6th (Majithia) Wage Board was constituted by the   Labour Ministry in 2007. It announced an ad hoc interim relief of 30 per cent of basic pay with effect from January 2008. This was implemented by the industry. The Board submitted its final recommendations on December 31, 2010, which were notified by the Centre with certain modifications, a year later.

Under the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955, the Union government through the ministry of labour in November 2011 notified recommendations increasing the salaries paid to all staff.

The latest Majithia wage board recommended that salaries be increased, in some cases to 200% of prevailing levels, causing an uproar from publishers and prompting many newspaper firms to challenge the implementation of the wage board in the Supreme Court.

The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) welcomed the judgement. “It is a step in the right direction. We hope that the INS and all other news publications are helpful in implementing this judgement. We call for vigilance by all state unions for the same,” said S.K Pandey, general secretary of DUJ.

Supreme Court says prospective parents, irrespective of religious background, have the right to adopt children

HRLN welcomes the Supreme Court judgement on the Right to Adopt. In a notable judgement on the petition of the clients of Human Rights Law Network, 'Shabnam Hashmi vs the Union Of India', the Supreme Court has decreed that prospective parents irrespective of their religious background are free to adopt children after the prescribed procedure. The court in it's order said that 'personal beliefs and faiths, though must be honoured, cannot dictate the operation of the provisions of an enabling statute."

When Racism is normal fun

Reingamphi Awungshi was found dead in her rented flat in a south Delhi neighbourhood on 29 May 2013. She was 21 from Manipur. It has been less than a year since her death, and it would have been forgotten, the case closed, if it wasn’t forGolmei, an activist and founder-member of Burma Centre Delhi and Human Rights Law Network. The police were refusing to file a first information report (FIR). The same night even before the post-mortem was completed, the police announced that it was a suicide and the injuries to her face, legs, and feet were caused by rats after her death. The next day after the post-mortem the police told Reingamphi’s relatives and friends to take her body from the mortuary, and that the case was closed.

The protesters didn’t budge until the case was transferred to the crime branch, and on 3 June, an FIR was finally registered for murder. The Human Rights Law Network is fighting the case for free. The latest test reports conclude that no drugs or poison were found in her body, and that there was semen on her clothes, though the cause of death is still not clear.

The court has ordered a DNA test to see if the semen matches that of Reingamphi’s landlord and his brother-in-law, both of whom had access to her house from a back door which was found open when her body was discovered,” says Amiy Shukla, the lawyer who is handling the case.

SC commutes death penalty of Rajiv Gandhi killers to life imprisonment

The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassins to life imprisonment. The death sentence has been commuted on grounds of delay in deciding their mercy plea.

The judgement was delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, which had reserved its verdict on the plea of three convicts - Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan - on February 4. The court has pronounced that the three will stay in the jail till the end of their life.

The bench cited 11-years delay on the part of the Centre in deciding their mercy plea. The court has rejected the Centre's contention that delay in deciding the mercy plea of convicts Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan did not result in agony.
"We implore government to render advice in reasonable time to the President for taking a decision on mercy pleas," the bench said. "We are confident that the mercy plea can be decided much faster than what is being done now," the bench observed.

DMK chief M Karunanidhi asks for death penalty to be abolished

DMK chief M Karunanidhi has appealed for the death penalty to be abolished. Earlier this month, Afzal Guru from Kashmir was hanged for his role in 2001's deadly attack on Parliament. In November, Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab was executed for the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

The hangings have provoked criticism from human rights groups.

Mr Karunanidhi's party is a senior member of the Prime Minister's ruling coalition.

His request comes as four men from Karnataka have appealed against the death sentence. The Supreme Court will hear their case on Wednesday. The men, all members of the gang led by notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, were convicted for the deaths of 22 policemen in 1993.

In a letter to party workers, Mr Karunanidhi said the Centre and legal experts should look at "removing hanging from law books in the interest of human rights and humanity."

"Had this opinion (of abolition of death penalty), which is being stressed for a long time given due consideration, death penalties which are continuously being implemented now could have been prevented," he said.

The mercy petition of Veerappan's associates was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee last week, nine years after they asked for their sentence to be commuted. Their lawyers argue that the "inordinate delay" merits a removal of the death penalty.

The same argument was made by another three death row prisoners from Tamil Nadu, who have been convicted for their role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Their case is also being heard by the Supreme Court. Last year, the Tamil Nadu assembly unanimously passed a resolution, urging the President to review their death sentence.

Delhi government files affidavit against Bhullar's death penalty in SC

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Friday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing terror attack convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar's death penalty. "The government is opposed to giving death penalty to Bhullar as he is suffering from mental illness," the affidavit read.
The Delhi government added that the judgement given by the apex court on January 21, 2014 commuting death penalty of 15 convicts applies to Bhullar as well.

Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August 25, 2001 for plotting terror attacks on Punjab Senior Superintendent of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and Youth Congress leader MS Bitta in 1993, in which nine people were killed.

The Supreme Court had commuted death penalty of 15 convicts on the grounds of inordinate and inexplicable delay and mental illness in deciding the mercy plea of the convicts.

While the death penalty of 13 convicts had been commuted to life on the ground of inordinate delay on part of the President to decide their mercy pleas, two others were given life sentence after they became mentally ill after several years on death row. Over 20 death row convicts had approached the Supreme Court seeking an authoritative ruling on the matter.

The apex court had said schizophrenia, insanity and mental illness can be reasons for commuting death penalty and the convicts should be given adequate medical treatment and legal aid. The order also said that solitary confinement of a death row convict and other prisoners is unconstitutional.
The court had also ruled that a death row convict must be hanged within 14 days after dismissal of his/ her mercy petition.
Ruling that death row convicts and their families must be informed after their mercy plea is rejected by the President or the Governor, the apex court said, "Once the mercy plea has been rejected, it should be communicated in writing."

UP opposes CBI probe into Muzaffarnagar riots

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday opposed a plea for a CBI probe into the Muzaffarnagar riots, and told the Supreme Court that it did everything to contain the violence that broke out in September 2013.

On an intervention by counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for one of the petitioners, the court asked Lalit to explain why there were differences in the grant of compensation. 

Gonsalves told the court that while the family of a news channel correspondent who was killed during the riots was given Rs 15 lakh compensation, other victims were given Rs 10 lakh only.