The Good Word

THE GOOD WORD Dec 20, 2021 - Week 53

Volume 7S-32| Pages 2

Union Cabinet sets 21 years as the minimum

marriageable age for girls

Bharat First Visit IndiaWiki.org

Dec 15, the Supreme

Court’s (SC) order paved

the way for double lane

widening of roads for the

Chardham project to a

width of 10 metres, 7

metres for the

carriageway and 1.5

metres each for two

shoulders. The strategic

900-km-long Chardham

project worth ₹12,000

crore aims to provide all-

weather connectivity to

four holy towns,

Yamunotri, Gangotri,

Kedarnath and Badrinath

in Uttarakhand.

The crux its judgment,

that modified its Sep

2020 order, was that

defence needs are

paramount and

environment protection

must also be attempted

alongside. The approval

for wider roads is made

conditional on

implementing

recommendations of the

High Power and Oversight

Committees on issues

such as muck dumping,

hill cutting, backfilling,

stabilization, drainage,

disaster management etc.

At: IndianExpress

Guru Gobind Singh birthday – Dec 22 – image courtesy: RVCJ; Udham Singh birthday – Dec 26 – image courtesy Sikh24; Atal Bihari Vajpayee birthday – Dec 25 – image courtesy - HelloMumbaiNews

Russia demands

NATO exit from

eastern Europe

Dec 18, Russia has

demanded that the US

and NATO provide

legally binding

assurances that they

will not invite new

members or establish

military bases in ex-

Soviet bloc countries

neither in eastern

Europe nor central Asia.

Russian deputy foreign

minister Ryabkov said

Russia was ready to

hold urgent security

talks with the US, as

early as Saturday.

While the US and NATO

countries have not

invited Ukraine to be

part of NATO the US is

imparting military

training to Ukrainian

forces and has

committed more than

$2.5 billion to bolster its

military. Russia has

been vexed about

former Soviet bloc

countries Ukraine and

Georgia which have

both swung towards the

West. Tensions still run

high along the Ukraine

border. At: SBS

Dec 19, French minister

of the armed forces,

Florence Parly’s visit to

India for the Annual

Defense Dialogue, and

her meetings with the

Indian prime minister

and defense minister,

are being seen by

experts as French efforts

to strengthen ties with

India after its AUKUS

betrayal by allies US,

Britain and Australia.

Australia terminated a

multibillion-dollar French

submarine program mid

way, opting instead to

build nuclear submarines

with the US and Britain.

France had recalled its

ambassador from

Australia. It now wishes

to substitute its

Australian alliance in the

Indo-Pacific with

reinforced ties with India

and Indonesia to contain

an expansionist China.

France has offered to

impart the best defense

technology to India

including donating

nuclear submarines and

sharing sophisticated

maritime intelligence.

At: Fr24News

France seeks to

better ties with

India post AUKUS Dec 21, the Karnataka

cabinet cleared the

anti-conversion bill

titled the 'Karnataka

Protection of Right to

Freedom of Religion

Bill, 2021‘. It will be

tabled before the lower

house of the state

legislature, possibly on

Tuesday.

The bill comes in the

backdrop of large-scale

religious conversions

out of Hinduism. It aims

to stop conversion from

one religion to another

by misrepresentation,

force, fraud, undue

influence, allurement

or marriage. It also

prevents mass

conversions of two or

more people. A jail

term of between 3 to 5

years will apply for a

violation in case of

people in the general

category. For wrongful

conversions involving a

minor, woman or an

SC/ST person the jail

term will go up to 10

years. A court may

additionally order

payment of 5 lacs to

victims.

At: IndianExpress

SC clears Chardham

road widening citing

defence needs

including the Muslim

law are likely to be

amended. It will make

the minimum age for

marriage of men and

women alike, at 21

years.

The purpose of the

move is women

empowerment,

explained Jaya Jaitly

who led a taskforce of

the ministry of women

and child development

in Dec 2020 which

recommend the change.

The team held

extensive consultations

with experts and young

women. Feedback was

sought from 16

universities and over 15

NGOs were engaged to

reach out to the youth

across rural and urban

India. Earlier in Aug

2020, prime minister

Modi had announced the

intention to increase this

age at Independence

Day address. In Feb

2020, finance minister,

Nirmala Sitharaman too

had pointed out in a

budget speech, that this

minimum age was last

changed from 15 to 18

years in 1978. Since

then there were far

greater opportunities for

women in India to

pursue higher education

and careers.

Image and content: OpIndia

Image: OpIndia

Dec 15, the Union

Cabinet approved a

proposal to raise the

legal minimum age of

marriage of women

from 18 to 21 years.

The government will

introduce amendments

to the Prohibition of

Child Marriage Act,

personal laws such as

the Hindu Marriage Act

and the Special Marriage

Act, most of which,

barring the one for

Muslims, presently

prescribe a minimum

age of a bride as 18

years. Under the Muslim

law a girl can get

married after 15 years.

All personal laws,

PM Modi inaugurates the 594 km long Ganga

Expressway in Uttar Pradesh

Kidambi Srikanth wins a silver in BWF

World Championships, a first for India

become UP’s longest

expressway connecting

the states north west

diagonally down to its

south east and India’s

second longest.

A 3.5 km long airstrip

will be built in

Shahjahanpur to enable

emergency takeoff and

landing of Air Force

planes.

An industrial corridor is

also planned to run

parallel to it providing a

major thrust to the

economic growth in the

region. Over 18 lac

saplings will be planted

and solar panels

installed to make it a

greener initiative.

Sounding the poll bugle

ahead of the UP

assembly elections

Expressway prime

minister Narendra Modi

proclaimed that the day

is not far away when UP

will be identified as the

most modern state with

next-generation

infrastructure. Listing

accomplishments under

the Yogi government the

PM said more than 30 lac

impoverished individuals

have received pucca

dwellings. He then

coined a slogan, ‘UP +

Yogi = Bahut Hai Upyogi‘.

UP and Yogi work

wonders together.

Image: PTI, At: RepublicWorld

Badminton ace Kidambi Srikanth became the first Indian man to reach the

BWF World Championship final and clinched a silver in a well contested

match against Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, going down 21-15, 22-20

Image: SportsCastPlus, At: RepublicWorld

Dec 18, Defence

Research and

Development

Organization (DRDO)

successfully flight tested

a nuclear capable, new

generation, ballistic Agni

Prime (Agni-P) missile

with a range of between

1,000 and 2,000 km. It

weighs half of what the

Agni III does and

incorporates proven

technologies from the

4,000 km ranged Agni-IV

and the 5,000 km

ranged Agni-V missiles.

The two-stage

canisterised solid

propellant Agni-P missile

with a dual redundant

navigation and guidance

system can be

launched from a rail-

or road-based

platform and stored

for a longer periods. It

was test-fired from the

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

island off the coast of

Odisha. It can be

stored, transported

and deployed across

the length and breadth

of the country and,

thanks to its

canisterisation, the

missile’s launch time

has been greatly

reduced. The Agni

series of missiles is one

of the mainstays of

India’s nuclear

capabilities.

At: TheHindu

Book available online

Kapurthala lynching

victim was mentally

unstable, hungry

Karnataka cabinet

nod for anti-

conversion law

Dec 21, The Kapurthala

gurdwara lynching incident

where a man was beaten

to death for alleged

sacrilege, is taking a

different turn. It was the

second such lynching case

in just 24 hours. On Dec

19, a man was lynched to

death at the Golden

Temple, Amritsar, by a

mob on similar allegations.

It has now emerged from

CCTV and sewadar

(volunteer) accounts that

the deceased was spotted

in the kitchen located on

the ground floor eating

chapatis. Apprehended by

the sewadars, the man

who was in his twenties,

was detained in a room on

its premises. He was then

beaten to death by an

angry crowd. The police

were not allowed to take

him. The police could not

find any evidence of

sacrilege at the gurdwara.

The gurdwara in-charge

made live videos for social

media inciting the mob

alleging the victim had

committed ‘beadbi’.

Videos suggest the victim

was probably mentally

unwell. At: OpIndia

DRDO successfully test fires nuclear

capable Agni P missile

Dec 19, in the presence

of Uttar Pradesh (UP)

chief minister Yogi

Adityanath, prime

minister (PM) Narendra

Modi laid the foundation

stone for the Ganga

Expressway in

Shahjahanpur. The 594

km long, six-lane Ganga

Expressway will be

constructed at a cost of

over ₹36,200 crore. It

will begin near Meerut

and end next to

Prayagraj. It will pass

through Hapur,

Bulandshahr, Amroha,

Sambhal, Budaun,

Shahjahanpur, Hardoi,

Unnao, Rae Bareli and

Pratapgarh. It is set to

After resigning as Punjab

chief minister and then

from the Congress,

Captain Amarinder Singh

had announced his new

political outfit 'Punjab

Lok Congress (PLC)‘. Dec

18, Singh announced the

decision that PLC will join

hands with the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP).

The confirmation came

after a meeting with

Gajendra Singh

Shekhawat, senior BJP

leader. Decision on seat

sharing in the 117

assembly seats will be

taken later based on the

winning ability of each

candidate. Singh will

likely contest from

Patiala where he has won

four times in 2002, 2007,

2012 and 2017.

On Friday, 22 Patiala

municipal counsellors

and senior Patiala

Congress leaders joined

the PLC. Singh

proclaimed the alliance

with BJP was 101% sure

of victory in the 2022

state polls.

At: Republic

Captain Amarinder

Singh to tie up with

BJP for Punjab polls

Dec 20, 2021 | Week 53 | Volume 7S-32

Bharat First Visit IndiaWiki.org

PAGE 2 THE GOOD WORD

Email: IndiaWiki2020@gmail.com Website: http://TheGoodWord.IndiaWiki.Org

If you desire wealth,

and know at the

same time that the

whole world regards

him who aims at

wealth as a very

wicked man, you,

perhaps, will not

dare to plunge into

the struggle for

wealth, yet your

mind will be running

day and night after

money. This is

hypocrisy and will

serve no purpose.

Plunge into the

world, and then,

after a time, when

you have suffered

and enjoyed all that

is in it, will

renunciation come;

then will calmness

come. So fulfil your

desire for power and

everything else, and

after you have

fulfilled the desire,

will come the time

when you will know

that they are all very

little things; but until

you have fulfilled

this desire, until you

have passed through

that activity, it is

impossible for you

to come to the state

of calmness,

serenity, and self-

surrender. These

ideas of serenity and

renunciation have

been preached for

thousands of years;

everybody has

heard of them from

childhood, and yet

we see very few in

the world who have

really reached that

stage. I do not know

if I have seen twenty

persons in my life

who are really calm

and non-resisting,

and I have travelled

over half the world.

Every man should

take up his own

ideal and endeavour

to accomplish it.

That is a surer way

of progress than

taking up other

men's ideals, which

he can never hope

to accomplish.

Swami Vivekananda

Karma Yoga

a series of extracts

claiming that the

French system of

criminal justice was

superior to the one in

these two countries,

was nothing short of

blasphemy. But that is

my position and has

been so for over 30

years. My position was

vindicated again in the

US when I observed the

criminal trial of the Los

Angeles police officers

in the Rodney King

beating and the O.J

Simpson trial.

What exactly is the

inquisitorial system.

Francesco Parisi, a law

scholar has written

extensively on the

matter. He, in a lecture

that I attended, stated:

In a typical inquisitorial

proceeding, the trial is

dominated by a

presiding judge, who

determines the order in

which evidence is taken

and who evaluates the

content of the gathered

evidence. In those

proceedings, the court

determines the

credibility and relative

weight of each piece of

a evidence without

being constrained by

strict rules in that

respect. By contrast, in

a typical adversarial

system, the case is

organized and the facts

are developed by the

sole initiative of the

parties. The process

develops through the

efforts of litigants

before a passive

decision make who

reaches a decision on

the sole basis of the

evidence and motions

presented by the

litigants.

The distinction

between adversarial

and inaquisitorial

system finds its origin

in twelfth century

European law.

Adversarial processes

could only be initiated

by the action of private

party (the so-called

processus per

accusationem), while

inquisitorial

proceedings could be

triggered ex officio by

the judicial system (the

so-called processus per

inquisitionem). The

meaning of the

distinction evolved in

later medieval times to

include other features

gererally associated

with the two

procedures. Most

notably, the distinction

came to refer to the

general role of the

judge in the fact-

finding phase of the

trial. In medieval times,

the judge was

generally conceived as

an official truth seeker.

In a well known

dictum, fourteenth

century jurist Bartolus

from Sassoferrato

argued that, with or

without a proposal by

a party, courts could

produce and examine

witnesses for the

purpose of truthful

discovery. Along

similar lines, Baldus de

Ubaldis, a jurist who

wrote during the

second half of the

fourteenth century,

argued that because of

their institutional role

as congnitional judges,

medieval courts were

at liberty to hear those

witnesses whose

depositions they

considered necessary.

The inquisitorial system

involves accumulation

of evidence by the

judicial officer. After

serval inquisitions, this

judicial officer decides

whether the case

should proceed for a

trial which is always

before a judicial officer.

If not, the case is

dismissed. Because the

judges are involved in

gathering evidence,

they are not influenced

by the executive

pressures.

The common belief, at

least in the Anglophone

countries is that the

French system is

inferior as in it you are

guilty until proven

innocent. Even the

senior lawyers in this

country suffer from this

misconception, which

emerges because the

conviction rate in

France and Switzerland

is almost 100%. It is

not appreciated that

this happens because

an extensive inquisition

is held before the case

even comes up for a

trial. I agree with

Kennedy and others

who have expounded

the merits of the

inquisitorial system.

Despite the deficiencies

in our judicial system (I

have written about that

as well), I am one of

those who resposes

more trust in our

judicial officers than our

police.

Let us consider one

case. During Radhey

Shyam Gupta's tenure,

a person was locked up

in Delhi for a first

degree murder and

incarcerated in the

Tihar prison for several

weeks. He was

supposed to have

confessed murder to

the police. The only

problem was that the

deceased turned up

alive. This most

disgraceful episode in

which even the judiciary

was involved in sending

the man to judicial

custody would never

have taken place in an

inquisitorial system. For

the record, Gupta did

not resign as Police

Commissioner for this

lapse.

I, therefore plead with

all our legal experts to

evaluate, which of the

systems is better

equipped to deliver

justice in this country;

at least in serious

criminal cases. We need

insulation from police

excesses, and

incompetence and

political thuggery. I

invite opinions on this

matter.

he was close to the

political formation in

power. Clearly re-

introduction of the jury

system would not serve

our needs unless we

have a mind-set where

we can regard our

commitment to the law

and the Constitution

above our commitment

to narrow interests.

I shall revert to the days

when I was training as a

barrister. I happened to

interact several times

with the renowned

author and broadcaster

Ludovic Kennedy, who

was very concerned

about miscarriage of

justice in the United

Kingdom. He believed

that it was because the

adversarial system was

not concerned with

unravelling the truth.

He wrote and lectured

extensively on the issue

and after several

interactions convinced

me that a different

system was more just

and should be tried in

that country.

Is Inquisitorial System

Superior?

The system in question

is the inquisitorial

system, which is

followed in France,

Switzerland and several

other European

countries. It was a very

unorthodox position.

For a person like me,

whose entire legal

education took place at

the Lincoln's Inn in the

UK and Harvard Law

School in the US,

Adversarial System:

Truth vs Proof of

Charges

In effect, what I am

stating is that the

adversarial system is

less concerned with the

truth but more about

whether charges are

proved or not. That

remains the central

disadvantage on the

system we have

inherited from the

British. And given the

state of our executive

and legislature, we are

left with an

unacceptably low

conviction rate plus

resource paucity with

the accused does result

in egregious

miscarriages of justice.

We have to seriously

ask overselves whether

this is really in sync

with our needs. It must

also be remembered

that we had to abandon

the jury system after

the Nanawati trial

when it was found to

be inimical to provision

of justice in India. We

do accord quasi jury

functions to Members

of Parliament in the

impeachment of the

judges of the higher

courts. But the only

occasion the

Parliament was called

upon to exercise it (in

Justice Ramaswami

case), it failed

miserably! A judge

found guilty by three

fellow judges was

insulated from

impeachment because

Source - Different Truth

Author - Prof. Ashoka

Jahnavi Prasad

Reappraisal of Criminal

Justice System

It concerns a careful

reappraisal of the

criminal justice system

we follow.

India, like most

Commonwealth

countries, and the US,

follow an adversarial

system of criminal

justice. This system

requires the

investigative agencies

to present evidence

before the presiding

judge who invites the

defense counsel to

rebut. The judge does

not participate in the

investigative process

but acts as a referee. In

the countries where

there is a jury system,

the jurors are expected

to deliberate and

pronounce the verdict.

The advantages of the

adversarial system are:

-The judge reserves

comment until all

evidence from both

parties is heard.

-This makes the judge

appear more neutral

since judgement must

be reserved until all the

evidence is heard.

The disadvantages of

the adversarial system

are:

-The finding of evidence

rests on the resources

of the two parties,

which may be unequal.

-Parties only provide

evidence favourable to

their arguments.

Should justice be less concerned with the truth than with if the charge can be proved?