Women in Maharashtra have another reason to celebrate as International Women's Day approaches. It is now perfectly legal for a woman to retain her maiden name after marriage. The Bombay high court recently amended a crucial rule under the Family Courts Act to prevent a woman from being compelled to file any marriage-related proceedings only in her husband's surname, thus offering relief to many seeking a divorce. It will also help...
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In preventive detention, subjective satisfaction of authority key: Bench by J Venkatesan
‘Court will not interfere in the issue except in exceptional cases' In preventive detention cases, the court cannot interfere with the subjective satisfaction reached by the detaining authority (DA) on breach of public order, except in exceptional cases and on extremely limited grounds, the Supreme Court has held. A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and J. Chelameswar said, “The court cannot substitute its own opinion for that of the DA when the...
More »Small loans add up to lethal debts by Erika Kinetz
-AP The microfinance industry pursued a path of rapid business growth in recent years; two investigations now link it to debtor suicides First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, television sets, ration cards and heirloom gold jewellery. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself into a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children. Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby. More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of...
More »A tale of two reports by V Venkatesan
There are two serious points of disagreement in the reports of the SIT and the amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran. THE Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate, M.S. Bhatt, on February 15, rejected pleas seeking copies of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team's (SIT) report on the 2002 Gujarat carnage until March 15 on a technicality – that the SIT needs more time to submit its full report along with all documents, evidence and other...
More »A decade of shame by Anupama Katakam
The victims of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat are still to get justice but are determined to continue the fight. SAIRABEN SANDHI and Rupa Mody sit quietly on the back benches at the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Ahmedabad watching the proceedings in the Zakia Jafri case. Both the women have witnessed immense tragedy. One saw her son killed, while the other has been searching for her missing son for the...
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