The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Man stuns wife in court: Gave triple talaq 4 yrs ago
■ USB charging ports and reading lights for all berths. ■ Ladders with comfortable footrests, additional handles for easier access to the top berth. ■ Separate urinals for men in the toilets; foldable nappy-changing tables for babies. ■ A Gps-enabled screen in each coach to display the train’s location. WITH THESE and a few other changes, the AC 3-tier coach — the country’s favourite mode of travel for long-distance train journeys — has got a major makeover.
“Ever since the AC 3-tier first rolled out in India, we have not been able to get rid of the footprint of the old design. Whatever little changes were made inside, the look and feel as well as the user experience remained more or less the same. Our mandate was to change all that and make from scratch,” said M K Gupta, General Manager of the Modern Coach Factory workshop in Rae Bareli, giving The Indian Express an exclusive preview of the new coach.
The first coach is currently awaiting the railway ministry’s final nod, before it hits the tracks as the new all-ac-3-tier Humsafar Express to be unveiled later this month. There are at least 10 major and minor design interventions — the AC 3-tier is the only passenger operation in which the Indian Railways makes a profit.
As part of the new look, a beige-cream-grey colour scheme has replaced the old signature blue upholstery of the Railways.
Gupta said one of the “hardest design challenges” was re-doing the side-lower berths to make them more comfortable. Currently,thebackrestsofthetwo seats facing each other have to be lowered to convert it into a berth. MAKING HIS first appearance in court in three years to answer charges of domestic violence and marrying another woman without divorcing the first, a man stunned his wife — and a Delhi court room — when he announced he had divorced her through triple talaq almost four years ago. She had no idea he had given her talaq.
Last Friday, in the mahila court of Metropolitan Magistrate Neha Paliwal in Tis Hazari, the 35-year-old man, a scrap dealer in Old Delhi who earns Rs 2 lakh a month, faced his wife, a 28-year-old, for the first time in three years. He then announced he had filed a document: “The respondent has given talaq to the applicant on 22 September, 2013. Talaqnama is enclosed herewith.”
Advocate Shubra Mendiratta, counsel for the woman, said: “For three years, he did not appear at asinglehearing.nowhesaysthat he has given talaq. It is only in the court that the woman has been told that her husband has given talaq. We will challenge the authenticity of the document. More importantly, we will challenge the triple talaq.”