6 HC judges to be sworn in tomorrow

Chandigarh, September 28
The Punjab and Haryana High Court is all set to wear a new look, with Justice Mohinder Pal being transferred out and six advocates being elevated.
Available information suggests the warrants of appointment of the six advocates as the Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court have been signed. The designated Judges are expected to be administered oath on Friday morning.
The High Court has already received a fax message on the clearing of their names for elevation. The lawyers being elevated are RN Raina, NK Sanghi, Rameshwar Malik, TS Dhindsa, PS Dhaliwal and Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia.
The oath is expected to be administered by Acting Chief Justice MM Kumar, as Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is currently on a long leave following illness.
It is also believed that Justice Mohinder Pal stands transferred out to the Gujarat High Court. He was elevated as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 8, 2007. Born on December 30, 1956, Justice Mohinder Pal is a Panjab University alumnus.
This is the first time in the recent past that just one Judge has been transferred out of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Prior to this, three judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court were transferred out in October last. In fact, the transfer orders of Justice Ashutosh Mohunta, Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma and Justice HS Bhalla were received by the High Court on October 13, 2010.
With the elevation of the six advocates, the number of judges will go up to 48 against the current strength of 42. But it will drop to 47 after Justice Mohinder Pal joins the new place of posting.
Even after the elevation of the additional Judges, the vacancies of Judges in the High Court will continue, as their sanctioned strength is 68. The result of the shortage of Judges is there for all to see. As of now, the High Court has approximately two lakh pending cases.
The New Judges
RN Raina
NK Sanghi
Rameshwar Malik
TS Dhindsa
PS Dhaliwal
Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia 

One held for occupation of NRI’s property

Hoshiarpur - The NRI police station, Hoshiarpur, has booked Varinder Kumar under Sections 447 and 506 of the IPC on the basis of a complaint made by Sunita Rani, an NRI.
She alleged the accused forcibly took possession of her plot.
According to the police, Sunita Rani alleged that the accused threatened to kill her when she demanded her plot to be returned to her from the accused.

Fake Immigration agents’ racket busted

Hoshiarpur, September 26
Fake travel agents have duped Rs 18 lakh from a gullible person in the name of sending his sons to a foreign country.
The Bulhowal police has booked Vishal Kumar and his brother Deepak Kumar from Batala, Ravi Kumar, his brother Sanjiv Kumar, and Rakesh Kumar under Sections 406, 420 and 120B of the IPC and Section 10 of the Immigration Act.
Surjit Singh, the victim, alleged that the aforesaid accused took
Rs 18 lakh from him with a promise to send his sons abroad. But neither did they send the boy abroad nor did they return the money.

Consumer Case

Kingfisher Airlines told to pay Rs 40,000 to customer

Chandigarh, September 26
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has slapped a fine of Rs 30,000 on Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. for its failure to provide a boarding pass to a Mani Majra Housing Complex resident.
District forum president PD Goel, and members Rajinder Singh Gill and Madanjit Kaur Sahota, observed that the opposite parties were under legal obligation to provide a hassle-free and comfortable journey to their potential customers; which they had failed while dealing with the situation in the present complaint.
The forum also directed the opposite parties to issue a complementary return ticket to the complainant on any domestic flight, besides Rs 10,000 as costs of litigation.
The complainant, Lata Sikri, had averred that she had booked an air ticket for Bidar via Hyderabad with Kingfisher Airlines through Airpak Travels, Chandigarh. The flight was scheduled to take off at 9.25 am from Delhi.
She said even though the opposite party issued boarding passes to all her male colleagues, she was denied the same. Subsequently, the boarding pass of another airlines, Spice Jet, was issued to her and the flight departed in the late hours at 3.45 pm. She was given in writing that surface transport would be provided by the Hyderabad Airport Authority for Bidar. She contended that the airport authority provided her with a taxi, but the driver lost his way and it took another six hours to reach the destination. She wrote to Kingfisher Airlines, which regretted the inconvenience and offered her a complimentary return ticket on Kingfisher Airlines, which she declined. The counsel for the opposite parties argued that the complainant had already availed of the services against the consideration paid by her to the opposite parties.

Trial of Saudi woman for violating ban on female drivers reveals limits of king's reform drive

CAIRO - A Saudi activist will stand trial for defying the kingdom's ban on female drivers, a lawyer and rights advocates said Sunday, revealing clear limits on how far the conservative Muslim land is willing to go to grant women greater rights.

Just a day earlier, King Abdullah, who is regarded as a reformer by Saudi standards, decreed that women would be allowed for the first time to vote and run as candidates in elections for municipal councils starting in 2015. He also promised to appoint women after two years to the Shura Council, the currently all-male consultative body with no legislative powers.

Activists in Saudi Arabia and abroad welcomed the changes as a step in the right direction, while urging the kingdom to end all discrimination against women. Some also pointed to the case against Najalaa Harriri as evidence of how far the kingdom still has to go on the path of reforms.

Harriri was among the dozens of Saudi women to challenge the country's longtime ban on driving in a campaign that began in June. In a nod to the power of social media, the campaigners posted video of themselves behind the wheel on the Web, drawing international attention at a time of great tumult across the Arab world.

She was summoned for questioning on Sunday by the prosecutor general in the western port city of Jeddah, according to attorney Waleed Aboul Khair. She will stand trial in a month, joining several other women currently on trial for driving.

Activists say the trials reveal a gap between the image the kingdom wants to show to the outside world and the reality on the ground in the ultraconservative nation.

"I believe that Saudi Arabia has always had two kinds of rhetoric, one for outside consumption to improve the image of the kingdom and a more restrictive one that accommodates the religious establishment inside," Aboul Khair said.

In Saudi Arabia, no woman can travel, work, marry, get divorced, gain admittance to a public hospital or live independently without permission from a "mahram," or male guardian. Men can beat women who don't obey them and fathers or brothers have the right to prevent their female relatives from getting married if they don't approve of her suitor.

"Right now, women are harassed and they get dragged to courts and nothing has changed in this respect," said Aboul Khair, who himself has been referred to court after challenging the social restrictions women face as well as other issues. His trial has yet to start.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

In a high-profile case that triggered the June Internet campaign, Manal al-Sherif was detained for more than 10 days after appearing in a video clip driving her car and calling for a mass driving protest on June 17. Al-Sherif, an IT expert, was released after signing a pledge not to drive again or speak to reporters.

Since then, Harriri and dozens of other Saudi women have followed her lead. Harriri also helped start a similar campaign this month called "My Right, My Dignity" that calls for an end to all forms of discrimination against women.

In most cases, the women are stopped by police and held until a male guardian is summoned and the women sign a pledge not to drive again. Some are referred to court.

Harriri refused to sign, according to Samar Badawi, another female activist who was present at the police station with her three weeks ago.

"Najalaa is not the only one. I've received phone calls from many women who get detained and referred to trial," Badawi said. "At court, you have one of two options: either the judge issues a sentence or closes the case."

The ban is rooted in religious edicts and Saudi Arabia's conservative traditional culture, which views limitations on women's freedom of movement as a necessity to prevent sins. However, there is no written law banning women from driving. As a result, there is no set punishment for the offence.

Also, activists like Badawi argue this means there is no legal basis for brining the women to trial.

She notes that she has been driving every two or three days in Jeddah since June and without a problem. The port city is notably more liberal than the capital, Riyadh, and other parts of the country.

"We are marginalized in very basic rights," said Badawi, who was sentenced herself to six months in prison for disobeying her father. "They think that by giving us some political rights, we will be pleased and shut up."

Marriage 'doesn't stabilise relationships'

Although married couples are less likely to separate than live-in couples, marriage is not the reason behind this phenomenon, claims IFS, an influential UK think-tank.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that those who marry are simply more likely to be older, better educated and wealthier than those who have babies out of wedlock.

On the other hand, couples living together tend to be younger and less well off, with fewer educational qualifications, and are less likely to have planned their pregnancy.

The claim is aimed at the Government's objective of preventing family breakdown by promoting marriage.

"The evidence suggests that much of the difference in relationship stability between married and cohabiting parents is due to pre-existing differences between the kinds of people who get married before they have children, compared to those that cohabit," The Telegraph quoted Ellen Greaves, research economist at the IFS, as saying.

"While married couples have more stable relationships than couples who cohabit, this is not because they are married, but because of the other characteristics they have that lead to marriage," concluded the report.

Rs 1 lakh fine slapped on hospital for deficiency in service

Mohali, September 23
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Grecian Super Speciality Hospital to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a Chandigarh resident for alleged deficiency in service.
BS Mehandiratta, president of the forum, ordered that the Grecian Hospital and Dr Vinod Nimbran, oncologist, should pay to the complainant a compensation of Rs1 lakh within one month from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. If this compensation was not paid within the aforesaid period, it would carry interest thereon at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from the date of institution of the complaint till the date of actual payment. The opposite parties were also asked to pay litigation costs of Rs 5,000. Satwant Kaur, resident of Sector 10, Chandigarh, told the forum that she was diagnosed as a case of breast cancer by the Command Hospital, Chandigarh, and advised mastectomy procedure to be performed at the earliest. She was referred to Grecian Hospital, one of the empanelled hospitals under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS).
She was advised certain tests but during the process she got the impression that the hospital was allegedly prolonging the time line in order to justify the additional charges. Finally, the surgery was done on September 12, 2009. The complainant , however, got restless and frustrated due to the casual and indecisive behaviour of the doctors and other paramedical staff. A programme for administering her chemotherapy was planned after her discharge.
The complainant further alleged that her first chemotherapy was administered by a nurse without the personal supervision of any doctor amounting to negligence on the part of the hospital. The second cycle was also not carried out in a satisfactory manner.
The complainant alleged that the aforesaid acts of commission and omission on the part of the hospital amounted to deficiency of service. The hospital delayed the action and procedure at every stage, which was sure to have reduced the life span of the complainant and also caused her to bear pain and trauma for removal of her breast.
The opposite parties in their joint written statement have denied the allegations of the complainant. They have stated that in case the complainant was not satisfied with the treatment given by them or with the first cycle of chemotherapy, she could not have visited them again. The fact that she came to them for chemotherapy repeatedly showed that she was satisfied with their treatment. They have denied that at the time of administration of chemotherapy to the complainant, no doctor was present and have stated that Dr Ashutosh Mukharjee, who is MD, radiation oncologist, and was a consultant, had planned and administered the drug in his presence. The husband of the complainant at the time of every discharge filled feed back and satisfactory treatment/investigation certificate form.
The miraculous recovery of the complainant was possible only because of good treatment by the hospital and their doctors. Denying any deficiency of service on their part, the opposite parties have sought dismissal of the complaint.