Editor,
Cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was sentenced to one year’s rigorous Imprisonment on Thursday (19th May 2022) in a 1988 road rage case in which a person (about double the age of Sidhu) had died from fist-blow injuries inflicted by Sidhu. Admitting that the March 15, 2018 judgement by Justice J Chelameswar (since retired) was unduly lenient/indulgent in letting off Sidhu and with a mere fine of Rs.1000 in a case under Section 323 of IPC (voluntarily causing hurt) a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjay K Kaul remedied the error by imposing punishment of one year’s rigorous imprisonment on the former cricketer in addition to the fine.
However, the bench refused to expand the scope of offence to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304-Para II as a reprieve, although Navjot Singh Sidhu was tried for charges under Section 302 IPC and Section 323 read with Section 34 of IPC and was sentenced to 3 year’s rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. one lakh.
“In the given circumstances, tempers may have been lost but then the consequences of the loss of temper must be borne,” the bench added. The top court emphasized maintaining a reasonable proportion between the seriousness of the crime and the light punishment that humiliates and frustrates a victim of crime”. But an act of criminality is a crime and a criminal is a criminal whoever he may be. No individual or for that matter no citizen of the country, is above the laws of the land.
While awarding the punishment the justices had not recommended for a light job for Sidhu while serving the rigorous imprisonment jail term. At the same time Section 323 of IPC also does not provide any leniency to a convict sentenced for serving a rigorous imprisonment jail term.
It is inexplicable as to why Sidhu is being trained for a clerk’s job in Patiala Central jail and is being treated as a VIP, high-profile and celebrity prisoner while other prisoners are treated differently for their criminal acts and are serving rigorous imprisonment jail terms! Sidhu is being served with food, drink and beverages of the standard and quality of a 5-star hotel on the plea of medical grounds. Is similar meticulous care on health grounds taken for convicted criminals serving rigorous imprisonment jail terms in Patiala Central Prison?
Such discrimination between prisoners serving rigorous imprisonment jail terms constitutes gross violation of the Articles 14 as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
Yours etc.,
Samares Bandyopadhyay,
Advocate Kolkata High Court
Was India ready for democracy
Editor,
I thank you once again for bringing forth a news edition that one finds useful as an indication of responsible reportage. I greatly appreciate your editorial page and the issue over examining the Church as redeemer was an invigorating read. One also read the article on the Congress and followed it with a Rahul Gandhi news article on Jawaharlal Nehru – the first Prime Minister of India.
Needless to say what struck one is the ludicrousness of imagining an India in the absence of educating and empowering it’s masses about themselves or their country. The subject matter for all intrigues remain the “people of India” who have had their self-descriptions thrust upon them (of a secular, socialist, democratic, republic) by those at the helm and receiving the handouts by an exiting British. They possibly lived in London and confused it’s residents for the average Indian populace that easily could have been of as many countries as the Indian state imagines it’s provinces to be without doing a mite of injustice to anyone.
Obviously a Nehru’s Discovery of India highlights this possibility more than it does of assuring one of a Nehru being politically aware of both the idea of the state, and governance. The book does establish his status as an author of some talent. But literary skills do not make one qualified to be a political leader. He already would have a Rabindra Nath Tagore mortally challenge him upon that aspect. One doubts if Rahul Gandhi shares Nehru’s literary skills but he may easily have shared the political ignorance and incapacity of a Nehru.
The individual at the core of any democracy who is cumulatively called the ‘people’ imagines an individual who is both politically aware and has the agency to demand his/her rights and recognize his/her attendant obligations. In other words, an individual in a democracy must be aware of both the Hobbesian state of nature as well as the nature of the state in Hobbes’ world to be able to appreciate democracy. It definitely isn’t about the Shudras, and their synonym of crime-terror. In other words, the terms of the pre-civil, civil, and the uncivil adequately describe the distinctions, with the uncivil (Shudras or crime-terror) meriting the penal code, that also acts as the guiding light for the pre-civil to make their way to the civil, and not the uncivil.
The pre-civil is also pre-political. The uncivil of necessity is anti-political. The civil forms the political and thereby the people of any democracy. The failure to recognize this basic distinction amongst themselves, and also amongst the people they sought to constitute via their Constitution is problematic. Only the monkey (with all due apologies to the simians) emerges in comparison to those at the helms of affairs who received from a departing British all the paraphernalia of colonialism. Ostensibly the same monkeys also constituted the Indian populace via their Constitution.
Unless an Indian republic first comprehends itself in merely the terms it so likes to describe itself – the curse upon humanity cannot be lessened and religion scarcely finds its foothold against the Vedic Ages to imagine itself as the avenging angels for some God, in making the population and the areas it imagines to be of it (?) to be such a curse upon humanity. Becoming the Chimpanzee could be a sign of hope for the monkeys, but the pearl necklace isn’t theirs to begin with! That is what any state and governance is all about, and indicative of human achievements – of human civilizations since ancient Greece and perhaps even before!
Because for any democracy to define itself as “We the people…” it needs to be able to describe “who or what can be the people…”! Obviously neither the Shudras nor the monkeys can be given that status. It is such a political issue but of global import – given so many similar ones have emerged since the end of the European colonial period!
Yours etc.,
Lawrence Michael,
Via email
A moment of pride!
Editor,
I would like to congratulate Mr Ankur Das a resident of Meghalaya for his determination and hard work in clearing the IAS Examination. As I was browsing through the pages of the reputed Shillong Times dated May 31, 2022, besides the unattractive news relating to the different political backbiting, blame games, corruption etc, something else attractive caught my eyes. Seeing Mr Ankur Das clearing the IAS Examination and reading how he prepared to reach the top is really inspiring not only to me but to the entire residents of Meghalaya. A moment to celebrate knowing the fact that after eight to ten years, finally a resident of the State cleared the most difficult exam. On behalf of the future IAS aspirants and all the residents of Meghalaya, we are proud of you Mr Ankur Das and we wish you all the best in life.
Thank you for making Meghalaya proud!
Yours etc .,
Andy TG Lyngdoh
Assistant Professor,
Via email