Grant of Classical language status : Madras High Court issues notice to Centre and governments of Odisha and Kerala

The Madras High Court today ordered issuance of notices to the Centre and governments of Odisha and Kerala on a PIL challenging the grant of classical language status to Oriya and Malayalam languages.

 

Madras High Court

The Ministry of Culture of the Centre vide a notification on March 11, 2014 had granted the status to these languages.

A Division bench of the Court comprising of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh also ordered the registry to tag the PIL filed by R Gandhi, an advocate, with the similar petitions challenging grant of classical status to Telugu and Kannada languages.

The court had earlier allowed Karnataka Government to implead itself as a party to the case.

In his PIL, Gandhi submitted that he was not against any Indian language getting classical status provided it satisfied the criteria.

He contended that Ministry of Culture and Home affairs should adhere to criteria laid down to determine the eligibility of a language to be considered for classification as a “Classical Language” as per the notification of the Centre on November 25, 2005.

As per the criteria, the status should be given to the language with “high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years”, he contended.

The claim of any language for classical language has to be evaluated in terms of the criteria which are really based on recommendations of the Gopichanth Nareng Committee appointed by Government of India, he contended.

He also sought for a direction from the court to the Centre to strictly adhere to implement the criteria laid down in the 2005 notification for determining the eligibility of languages to be considered as “Classical Language” before declaring classical status to any language.

Madras High Court Advocates Association moves the Madras High Court challenging the list of 9 persons forwarded by the collegium for appointment as judges

The Madras High Court Advocates’ Association (MHAA) has filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Supreme Court Secretary-General and others to send back the list of nine persons recommended for filling vacancies of judges in the Madras High Court.

 

Madras High Court

At present, there are 18 vacancies in the High Court. The sanctioned strength of judges is 60. A similar situation was witnessed in January last year when a PIL was filed seeking the return of a list of 12 names suggested then by the High Court collegium. The list was ultimately sent back.

In the present petition, the MHAA secretary, S.Arivazhagan, submitted that the High Court collegium had recommended nine names for appointment. The association had requested the court to consider persons from unrepresented communities in strict compliance with the constitutional mandate of achieving social justice.

The association said the present collegium system of selecting judges was much criticised by experts and advocates. Ultimately, the sufferers were the litigant public. It was being openly spoken at the Bar that some judges appointed were indecisive due to non-exposure in various fields of law. Despite the increase in the number of judges, quality and quantity of disposals had remained unsatisfactory. This was because in the collegium system there was no yardstick for selecting suitable candidates. The process of consultation was conspicuously absent.

The petitioner said the association wanted the entire vacancies to be filled up by upholding social justice. The Association has sought for a direction to the authorities concerned to drop the present move of appointing nine persons as judges to the 9 vacancies in the Madras High Court and for a direction to them to redo the same afresh, after taking into consideration the demands of the advocates.

 

Madras High Court passes interim order in a case directing Government authorities to issue a circular forthwith banning the conduct of beauty contests in colleges in Tamil Nadu

The Madras High Court hearing a petition filed a mother of a student alleging non-conferment of the promised prize at a beauty pageant held as part of a cultural event at Anna University's College of Engineering in Guindy, has passed an interim order directing the government authorities to issue a circular forthwith banning the conduct of beauty contests in colleges in Tamil Nadu.

 

Madras High Court

Justice T S Sivagnanam passed the interim order in a petition filed by a mother, Lakshmi Suresh, who said her daughter, an engineering student, participated in Ms Techofes contest held as part of the annual cultural event at Anna University's College of Engineering in Guindy in February 2013. The girl won the beauty contest, but was given a forged certificate by the organisers of Ms. Techofes-2013. She was also not given the promised prize, the petitioner claimed.

Claiming that her daughter's dignity and decency had been undermined, Lakshmi demanded the promised prize along with a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.

Justice Sivagnanam wondered as to how walking the ramp would benefit a student pursuing a course in engineering. In his order, Justice Sivagnanam said: "One issue which is a matter of concern is whether at all such an event to select the best-looking male/female student is required to be conducted in a cultural event, that too organized by a century-old engineering college established and administered by the government."

Justice Sivagnanam further said that the court intended to examine whether the university exercised due care and control over these programmes, whether there are any guidelines and how funds are administered. "Till these issues are considered, the secretary of higher education department, commissioner of technical education and director of collegiate education are directed to issue a circular forthwith to all institutions, universities, deemed universities and colleges in the state to ban or not to conduct any beauty show or programme to decide best looking male/female student in their institution or at inter-collegiate level."

The University however contended that it was not aware of any such event or prize. Rejecting this argument of the University, Justice Sivagnanam said: "When the programme was conducted on the premises of the university, it cannot be stated that officials of the university were not aware of various events mentioned in the programme. It could be presumed that programme schedule would have to be approved by the university before the event is conducted."

The Court then said that certain interim directions were required to prevent such unpleasant experiences.  "Fanciful price money is being advertised and several corporate giants fund the programme. The larger question would be the need for such a programme in such a cultural festival," said Justice Sivagnanam. It was in this context that the Court asked the governmental authorities to ban the holding of such beauty contests.

 

The Court then adjourned the matter to May 22 for further hearing.

Amidst reports of software major TCS preparing to retrench 25000 employees to cut costs, Madras High Court injuncts it from retrenching woman employee

In a case having potentially far-reaching significance, the Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained a private company- software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from retrenching an employee whose service had been terminated by the company.

 

Madras High Court

The employee Rekha, who is pregnant at present, was issued termination orders on December 22, 2014. She was informed that she would be relieved from duty on January 21, 2015.

She immediately moved the Madras High Court contending that the retrenchment move was illegal and in gross violation of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

In her petition,  setting forth the facts leading up to the passage of the termination order Rekha said she joined TCS in Chennai in March 2011 as an IT analyst.

She claimed that she is a 'workman' coming within the meaning of Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as her main duties and responsibilities are technical and clerical in nature. Explaining the nature of her job, the petitioner, Rekha averred in her petition that her job involves receiving and collating information about software/application to be developed, analyzing requirements and designing and developing appropriate software or application based on client company's needs, said Rekha in her petition. Noting that she was honest, sincere and dedicated worker and that her performance had always been very good, Rekha said she had been given the rating 'C' (meets expectations) thrice during her service in TCS.

She said the company reportedly had taken an unfair decision to terminate the services of 25,000 workers holding designation of assistant consultant and above, and to recruit 55,000 persons, predominately freshers on the basis of campus interviews, and other less experienced persons with a view to cut costs. She was issued termination orders on December 22, 2014, stating that she would be relieved from service on January 21, 2015.

She contended that TCS has not published any seniority list as required under the rules framed under the Industrial Disputes Act and it has not given any notice of retrenchment as required under the Act.

TCS has not complied with the provision in the Act which enjoins the employer to  pay 15 days of wages for every completed year of service as compensation to the retrenched employee which too is mandatory under the Act, she said, adding, "in any event, termination is not valid or justifiable."

On Tuesday, admitting her writ petition to file, Justice M Duraiswamy granted an order of interim injunction restraining the company from retrenching her. The order would remain in force for a period of four weeks.