Law student denied loan by bank, approaches high court

MADURAI: A law student has moved the Madurai bench of the Madras high court after anationalised bank denied an education loan to him. 

C Boomiraja of Chinnamanur, Theni district joined the three years BL course at the Government Law College, Madurai. Hailing a poor family, Boomiraja persuaded had told his father that he would avail education loan from any nationalised bank. 

In his petition, Boomiraja said immediately after getting admitted into college, he along with his father approached the branch manager of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) in Chinnamanur for availing educational loan. After coming to know that his father is a casual labourer and the sole bread winner of the family there was no proper response and the bank did not even issue the application form for availing the loan. Even after approaching the bank several times, they were sent without proper replies. 

He then approached the Theni district collector with a representation, which was forwarded to the bank. But to his shock and surprise, the chief manager of IOB, Dindigul passed an order rejecting his application for educational loan and "humiliated the dignity of legal education". Hence, Boomiraja filed the present petition seeking to quash the order and sanction the loan amount. 

In the impugned order, the chief manager stated that "the job opportunities on completion of BL course are very much limited in the present scenario except working as a junior with senior advocate for five to seven years and the income earned during such period will not be enough to meet your family commitments and loan instalments. Hence the proposal is not viable one." 

Justice V Dhanapalan, before whom the matter came up, directed the petitioner to implead the Union finance ministry and chairman and managing director of IOB, as respondents. The matter was posted for next week.  

NRI CHILDREN CUSTODY ROW

Norway won’t hand over Indian kids

Oslo, March 22
Dealing a blow to an Indian couple battling for custody of their children, Norway's Child Welfare Service has said the kids cannot go back to India, where they can be caught up in "a very unfortunate tug of war" in the wake of differences between their parents.

"New developments in the child welfare case involving two Indian children make it impossible to carry out the hearing in Stavanger District Court that was scheduled for Friday 23 March," the Norwegian Child Welfare Service (CWS) said in a statement.

The statement follows reports of differences between the parents - Anurup and Sagarika Bhhtacharya, whose children three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya were placed in foster care in Norway in May last year on grounds of "emotional disconnect".

Norwegian authorities believe that it would not be in the "best interests" of the kids that they be moved to India now amidst differences between the parents.

Over the past few days, both the parents and the children's uncle, who was to get the custody of the kids, "have changed their position several times on the agreement that had originally been reached. This has caused the Child Welfare Service to doubt their motives as far as the agreement is concerned," CWS chief Gunnar Toreseen said. 

Arunabhash Bhattacharya, the paternal uncle of the children, is in Norway in connection with the case. 

The CWS had a clear intention to sign and implement the agreement but that the events of the last few days now make this impossible, Toresen said. 

In view of the "new developments," the hearing scheduled for tomorrow in the Stavanger District Court will not take place now, the statement said. 

Toresen said the authorities have been made aware of a conflict in the family that could influence the outcome of the case.