Secure women like VIPs: HC to cops

Delhi High Court on Wednesday urged the police to “secure each woman to the extent you secure us (judges)”, and said it was “willing to forsake” its own security for safety on university campuses.

The high court’s remark came while hearing a plea initiated by it on an alleged assault on the Dean and professors of the Delhi University’s Law Faculty by some students last year.

The high court directed the police to ensure people felt safe on the campus of Delhi University (DU).

“We are not interested in how you do it. We are interested in the results, that women and others feel secure while moving around the campus,” the bench said.

It pulled up the police for taking over one year to lodge FIRs in connection with the incidents of violence against the faculty and directed it to ensure there was no recurrence.

The court told the police that certain crimes such as molestation and eve-teasing were “endemic” and these could be prevented if the agency knew where such offences were rife. It said lack of immediate action by the police was the reason why people took to such crimes.

The court appointed an amicus curiae who would “consider necessary steps and guidelines to be framed to ameliorate the sense of security in DU, especially in the Law Centre, to prevent the recurrence of such unpleasant incidents”.

Law Faculty Dean Ved Kumari had earlier told the court that during the alleged violence against her and other professors, police officers present there were like “silent spectators” and did not lodge an FIR on the grounds that no complaint was received.

The men, who are lawyers by training, were questioned for two hours before police booked them under Sections 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to confine a person) and Section 511 (attempt to commit offence punishable with life imprisonment) of the IPC.

They were briefly arrested on August 5 after Kundu approached police but were released as the charges were bailable. The Opposition accuse the Centre and the Haryana government of interfering in the case and trying to defend the party leader’s son.

Chandigarh Police reports to the Centre as the city is a union territory.

“The arrests and new charges are based on legal opinion, new pieces of evidence in the form of CCTV footage, statement of witnesses and the map of the route,” Luthra said.

Police had also come under fire after they said the CCTV cameras along the route were not functional. Later, they said they retrieved footage, which is vital to proving the stalking charge, from five cameras.

Well versed with law, the men refused to give blood and urine samples after their arrest on August 5 and it could go against them during the trial, Luthra said.

Minutes before the surrender, the BJP tried to wash its hands of the accused. “Vikas (Barala) and the BJP are separate. The opposition parties are trying to mislead people by saying that the BJP is influencing the probe,” party spokesman Jawahar Yadav said.

As he was speaking to media, Vikas Barala’s father Subhash walked in and said his son would join investigation. He left as abruptly as he came.

On August 5, Barala and Kumar allegedly started following Kundu in their SUV at around 12.20am. During the 20-minute chase, the SUV pulled up close to her car several times and even tried to block her way, Kundu said in her complaint. ties and state governments had extended support to the goods and services tax (GST) bill, a similar approach was needed to resolve the country’s problems.

Later, in a series of tweets, he reaffirmed his pledge to free India from poverty, dirt, corruption, terrorism, casteism and communalism, and create a “New India of our dreams” by 2022.

Congress president Gandhi, speaking after Modi in the special discussion initiated by Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, said there is a feeling that “clouds of politics of division and hate” are hovering over the plural and egalitarian values enshrined in the Constitution.

“It seems secular, democratic and liberal values are being endangered. The public space for debate and difference of opinion is shrinking,” she said.

“Have the forces of darkness emerged? Is there a fear about the existence of a sense of freedom? Are attempts being made to destroy roots of democracy, which is based on equality, social justice, law-based system and freedom of expression?”

She said the resolution for Quit India was brought by Nehru and supported by Sardar Patel.

Gandhi asked people to defeat “repressive and sectarian” forces, saying: “We can and will not allow the idea of India to be a prisoner to a narrow-minded, divisive and communal ideology. If we have to preserve freedom, we will have to defeat the forces endangering it. We can’t and we won’t allow sectarian forces to succeed.” HT. But Jadeja, an MLA from Kutiyana, said a day before polling, he got a call from senior party leader Praful Patel, who asked him to vote for the BJP. He was seen greeting Shah after casting his vote. But Jayant said a whip couldn’t be issued over the phone and Jadeja would be served a show-cause notice.

Both the NCP lawmakers defied the party whip, Congress sources in New Delhi said. BJP rebel Nalin Kotadiya, too, made conflicting claims through Wednesday.

Immediately after the polling, he told media he had voted for BJP but in the night he changed his stand and posted a Facebook video in support to the Paitdar community, which is seeking quota in jobs and education and is up in arms against the ruling BJP.

While the government has refrained from taking immediate action on it since Parliament is in session, Prasad described it as a “very good report”. While he refused to comment on the recommendations, the minister said the government will take a considered and “structured view”.

The move to revamp the arbitration framework in India is a focus area for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wants India to become an international arbitration hub in place of Singapore. The government wants arbitration to become the first resort of dispute resolution to clear the backlog of cases — currently standing at 3.15 crore — in Indian courts. The committee included two former judges of the Supreme Court, Attorney General KK Venugopal and law secretary Suresh Chandra, apart from legal luminaries from the field.

The panel has suggested a number of changes in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, including inserting a confidentiality clause. “Confidentiality is the norm and specifically mentioned in the statutes world over. In India, the ACA does not specify confidentiality and we have recommended an amendment to do so… It will inspire confidence in international clients choosing India for arbitral proceedings,” a member of the committee told HT while explaining the rationale behind the suggestion.

Another recommendation includes introducing a qualifying exam on the lines of the bar exam to permit lawyers to represent clients in arbitral proceedings. The committee has suggested that India should have specialised bar and benches for arbitration.

The BCI conducts an all-India bar examination which is mandatory for lawyers to clear before they can start practice. But the exam is caught in a legal tangle with the Supreme Court hearing a case on its legal validity.

The panel has also recommended that the government should take over the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution under the SC by bringing in a law and rebrand it as India Arbitration Centre after revamping it. The government and the judiciary have been involved in a turf battle since the court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Law in October 2015.