Presidency Jail to be Karnan’s new abode
At 3.15pm on Wednesday, a white Scorpio whizzed past mediapersons gathered outside the historic Presidency Correctional Home, previously known as Presidency Jail.
Inside the SUV was a special prisoner who was to serve a sixmonth sentence ordered by the SC. For retired Calcutta high court judge CS Karnan, it was the first day behind the high walls. He became India’s first high court judge to land in jail on charges of contempt of court, while being on duty. Karnan officially retired from service on June 12.
Earlier in the morning, a Supreme Court vacation bench comprising justice DY Chandrachud and justice SK Kaul rejected Karnan’s bail plea and refused to suspend the sentence.
The retired judge was flown to Kolkata at 2pm from Chennai.
He was absconding for almost a month and was arrested by a Bengal police team from Coimbatore on Tuesday. His medical check-up — a mandatory procedure — was conducted at the NSC Bose international airport compound. At the airport, the 62-year-old mumbled something before journalists but most of what he said remained inaudible.
Karnan was sentenced by a seven-judge bench of the SC on May 9 for ‘contempt of court’.
When Karnan was brought to the jail, police had put up special barricades to ensure that none of the people who were waiting to meet other inmates could come close to the vehicle. However, those waiting outside the jail had no idea that a judge would now share the prison roof with about 2,000 undertrials and convicts.
If road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has his way, speed limit on highways and expressways in India could increase up to 120 km/hour.
Currently, only the 165km Yamuna Expressway connecting Delhi to Agra has a 100km/hr speed limit. All national highways (NH) across the country have a speed limit of 80 km/hour.
At a recent review meeting, Gadkari told officials that the ministry should consider increasing the speed limit on highways to 100 km/hour from the current 80 km/hour and on the upcoming new access controlled expressways to 120 km/hour.
“The minister said with the quality of highways improving and better quality of automobiles being manufactured, it is time that the speed cap on our highways is increased. We are in the process of making a formal proposal,” said a senior highways ministry official.
The ministry will soon set up a committee of experts to deliberate on the issue.
The government has already planned to build 1,000 kilometres of access-controlled expressways. Work has started on some stretches such as Delhi-Meerut and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway.
Many states in United States such as Texas have a speed limit of 137km/hour. The average speed limit on autobahn, the access controlled highway system in Germany, is 142km/hr. In some stretches of autobahn, there is no speed limit for some classes of vehicles.
However, in India, increasing the speed limit on expressways is not going to be easy.
Gadkari’s plan has not gone down well with road safety experts who are piqued at the poor safety standards on Indian roads that witness the highest road accident deaths in the world.
In 2015, five lakh road accidents and were reported in India. Speeding accounted for 44% of road accident deaths.