UBC to observe Friday as protest day

Dehradun, January 16
Chairman, Uttarakhand Bar Council, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, decided to observe Friday as protest day to support the call given by Bar Council of India (BCI) against the move to bring proposed Higher Education and Research Bill in the Lok Sabha by the Government of India.
While speaking at a press conference convened at the office of the Bar Association, Dehradun, Chauhan said the Bill was against the provisions of the Advocate Act, 1961. “The state government was deliberately bringing in this Bill to wrest the powers from the State Bar Councils (SBC) and BCI. By giving licence to foreign law firms to fight legal cases in the country, it was severely affecting the interests of advocates
and applicants. With this Bill, the way to affordable and easy justice would be blocked. The foreign law firms will work in autocratic manner. The BCI and SBCs would exercise no control over them. Therefore, we will observe Friday as protest day and also the chairpersons of all the SBCs and BCI will prepare a strategy to deal with this challenge and put pressure on the Union government on this day in New Delhi,” added Chauhan.

Now, Ombudsman for higher education institutions in India

To be covered

n Central universities, the IITs, IIMs and NITsn All technical and management institutions recognised by the UGC, AICTE and the National Council for Teacher Educationn Deemed universities recognised by the Centren Non-degree granting institutions approved by academic regulators

New Delhi, January 16
Students attending higher education institutions run by the Centre and recognised by academic regulators will now have a platform to register their grievances and seek redress.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development today passed an executive order to mandate all central higher educational institutions like the central universities, the IITs, IIMs and NITs, among others, to appoint an ombudsman to redress grievances of students by the start of the next academic session.
The order will be equally applicable to all technical and management institutions recognised by regulators such as the UGC, the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education. It will also apply to deemed universities recognised by the Centre and the non-degree granting institutions approved by the academic regulators.
The move comes in the wake of persistent resistance that the ministry’s ambitious Bill on establishment of educational tribunals met with in the Rajya Sabha where the Bill remains in a limbo.
“We can’t keep waiting. We have to move,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today said, adding that the ombudsman would be responsible for addressing students’ grievances related to denial of admission, non-observance of declared merit in admissions, non-observance of applicable regulations for reservation, withholding of documents and non-refund of fees in case of withdrawal of admission, discrimination and matters concerning students in pursuit of studies in the institution.
In matters concerning weaker sections such as SCs, STs, OBCs or minorities, the ombudsman can co-opt a person of eminence of the area from a weaker section to assist him.
The ombudsman will have to deliver his judgment in a month and though his order would not be binding on the institution, the institution can lose recognition from the regulator in case of repeated violations and non-compliance with the orders of the ombudsman.
“Non-compliance can lead to withdrawal of recognition,” Sibal explained.
The ombudsman will have to be a person with a judicial or legal background. The institute would have to appoint him from a panel suggested by the affiliating university in case of technical and management institutions and the Central Government in case of deemed universities.
The suggestion of instituting an ombudsman was made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD when it was looking at the Bill on Prevention of Unfair Practices in Technical and Management Institutions.
“The committee made this suggestion and we are going to implement it. Although the idea was to set up a grievance redress mechanism through the Educational Tribunals Bill, but if the Bill does not come, I am not going to wait,” Sibal said.
The proposed ombudsman would not cover grievances related to teachers.

foul content

Blocking websites not an option: Google India
New Delhi, January 16
Google India, which along with 20 websites is facing criminal cases for allegedly hosting objectionable materials, today told the Delhi High Court that blocking them was not an option as democratic India was not a "totalitarian" regime like China.
"The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China," advocate N K Kaul, appearing for Google India, told Justice Suresh Kait.
During last hearing, Justice Kait had warned Google India and social networking site Facebook India that websites can be "blocked" like in China if they fail to devise a mechanism to check and remove objectionable material from their web pages.
Responding to the court's remark, Kaul referred to media reports on the issue saying "they (reports) suggest the existence of the right (freedom of speech)."
Initiating arguments, Kaul said internet is a global system which have billions of users that also included companies, private persons and the governments and their departments.