The recent toxic liquor tragedy killing 33 persons in Cuttack and Khurda districts has brought to the spotlight at least eight types of medicines being misused by addicts in various parts of the state. The latest deaths occurred due to methyl alcohol in Epee-Carm Carminative and concentrated Cinnamon water. That may be a routine misuse going horribly wrong, because ethyl alcohol got replaced by methyl alcohol and the latter is poisonous. Doctors...
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The law of life
-The Hindu The Supreme Court last week ruled as unconstitutional the mandatory imposition of the death penalty under the Arms Act in view of the absence of judicial review. The verdict is a reiteration of current jurisprudence that for criminal offences, life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence the exception. The impugned section 27 (3) of the Arms Act stipulates capital punishment for offences that may result in the loss...
More »Bureaucrats beware: Inept can be sacked after 15 years by Vishwa Mohan
Deadwood in the Indian bureaucracy will not be able to clog the government any longer. The Centre has notified a rule making it compulsory for IAS, IPS and officers from other all-India services to retire in "public interest" if they fail to clear a review after 15 years of service. Officers adjudged as inefficient and non-performing will be shown the door and even those who make the cut will need to...
More »Supreme Court strikes down Arms Act provision for mandatory death penalty by J Venkatesan
Bench says it runs counter to constitutional law and ultra vires Constitution The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared unconstitutional Section 27 (3) of the Arms Act, which provides for mandatory death sentence to an accused charged with an offence under this provision. Section 27(3) says: “Whoever uses any prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition or does any act in contravention of Section 7 and such use or act results in the death of...
More »Year of criticism, from the bench and against it by Krishnadas Rajagopal
Judicial activism was the key in many Supreme Court observations and judgments during 2011. 2011 CVC THOMAS: A three-judge bench led by CJI SH Kapadia declared “non est” — or nonexistent — the majority recommendation of a high-powered committee for P J Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner. The court ruled that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister’s recommendation amounted to “official arbitrariness”, coming in spite of the dissent of the third...
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