I think of a democratic and progressive India, where rights of every citizen are respected and ensured.
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Right to Education Act 2009 set to be amended
Monday, September 21, 2009
Dear Friends,
Our archaic laws still exists while new ones keep coming but there is hardly an attempt to scrap or amend the old laws. This often leads to situations like this. In the instant case while a family wanted to adopt a girl child under the new child friendly legislation called Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000 but they couldn't because the archaic law on adoption named Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act came in the way.
The family had to approach the court to get the matter settled but why can't such exercise be carried out while notifying the new law that no relevant existing law is in contradiction of the law, so that a process to amend /scrap the old law could be taken then and there. Well, in the instant case, the Hon'ble Supreme court finally held that the New law will override the old provisions of Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act.
Also it is all the more important to do this in view of the paradigm shift that we see in the status of SC/ST, gays, HIV patients, the women, the disabled, the elderly and those who were not in the mainstream till now, with the introduction of new laws, signing of new international treaties, landmark judgements from the Supreme Court of India etc.
In fact, a detailed exercise is needed by the Union Ministry of Law and also by the Law Ministries in various Indian States to ensure that no existing laws/rules/practices/norms etc are in contradiction the new socio-economic and legal order based on equal rights and non-discrimination.
regards
SC Vashishth, Advocate
To read from source click here
MUMBAI: Hindus who have always wanted to adopt a girl even though they already have a daughter can now do just that. The Hindu adoption law prohibits same gender adoptions but, in a landmark judgment this week, the Bombay High Court has thrown open the legal doors to allow Hindus adopt a child of the same gender as their existing one.
In the verdict, the HC allowed a recent petition by Mumbai-based actor couple (names withheld on request) to be legally declared as adoptive parents of a girl they had taken in as their ward over four years ago under the Juvenile Justice Act.
The couple had a two-year-old biological daughter of their own when they sought and were allowed by the court in 2005 to become guardians of a year-old destitute baby girl. Stating that courts must harmonise personal laws with secular legislation, Justice D Y Chandrachud held the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000 — a secular law enabling rehabilitation of abandoned children through adoption — would prevail over the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (Hama), a personal law that has placed certain restrictions on adoption.
Justice Chandrachud took up the Pathaks’ issue seriously as it “involved the larger issue of encouraging adoption and giving an abandoned child a chance in life’’. He looked closely at adoption laws under their various avtars and at the Indian Constitution as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child which India had ratified in 1992 before ruling that “adoption is a facet of right to life and that freedom and dignity are the foremost values of governance in civil society and freedom and dignity of the young must count above all’’.
This was the first time the court was interpreting provisions of two conflicting legal provisions on adoption; it had a 54-year-old Hindu Adoption Act and the more progressive nine-year-old Juvenile Justice Act, which introduced adoption of abandoned children and gave it a wider platform. The Hindu law places stringent conditions and prohibits adoption of a child of the same gender where an adoptive father or mother already have a child living at that time.
For instance, if the adoption is of a daughter the adoptive parent must not have a Hindu daughter or a son’s daughter living at the time of adoption. Conditions are stricter while adopting a son and adoptive parents must not have a Hindu son, a grandson or even a great-grandson alive.
The Juvenile Justice Act, a countrywide beneficial social law, came in 2000 and introduced a ‘child-friendly’ approach towards adoption “in the interest of ultimate rehabilitation of a narrow sub-class of children who are orphaned, abandoned or surrendered’’.
The HC, after hearing advocate Vishal Kanade for Pathak, held: “Right to life includes rights of parents and of individuals, women and men, who wish to adopt to give meaning to their lives on the one hand and, on the other hand, is the right of abandoned children who are in need of special care and protection."
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
We need watch dogs and tab keepers to keep the disabilty movement vibrant
Congratulations Collin, once again!
Here is the news:
Banks pocketing funds meant for disabled
TNN 5 September 2009, 02:41 am IST
Harmonizing Disability Act with UNCRPD
'Disability Act should conform to UN model'
Ashish Sinha
New Delhi, September 8, 2009
Click here to read from source: India Today
On a day Taare Zameen Par won the national award for being the 'best family welfare entertainment film', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh authenticated the need for an attitudinal shift towards persons with disabilities.At a conference of state welfare ministers, Singh said India lagged in adopting the correct - human rights - approach on the subject. He said the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act, 1995 would be "comprehensively" amended to conform to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), enforced in May 2008. India is a UNCRPD signatory.
"I found in each one of them (persons with disabilities) a determination to live productive lives and make their individual contributions to society. We should give them every possible opportunity to do so. They need equal opportunities as equal citizens with special needs," he said.The UN convention redefines the old approach of viewing persons with disabilities as "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection.
The PWD Act, to a large extent, suffers from the same shortcoming with the state becoming the 'provider' - sometimes the 'facilitator' - for persons with disabilities. Experts said other legislations on the subject also suffer from the old mindset and rather than "comprehensive amendments", a new set of laws was necessary.The UN convention sees people with disabilities as "subjects" with rights, capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.
"The PWD Act lists seven disabilities - blindness, low vision, leprosy- cured, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, mental retardation and mental illness. The UN convention doesn't restrict the definition. It talks of higher support need as a matter of right," said Poonam Natarajan, chairperson of the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
"A person is not disabled; it is the environment that makes him so. Their legal capacity must be redefined.They should have full control over decision-making and choices," she said. The Prime Minister described persons with disabilities as those having "evolving capacities". After enforcement of the UN convention, the focus shifted to providing equal opportunities to persons with disabilities so that their potential could be harnessed.
"The medico-charity model needs to be dumped. Disability, simply, is diversity. It means the right to live with dignity and equal opportunities. The mindset of the administrative machinery, however, is no different from most of society where stigma is associated with disability," said a senior IAS officer working in the sector.
Last year, the government had announced an incentive scheme to promote employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector. The Prime Minister pointed out the scheme hadn't made much headway. " This may partly have been because of the economic slowdown. But as our economy is now emerging from its slowdown phase, I urge the corporate sector to respond handsomely in the implementation of the scheme," he said.
Courtesy: Mail Today
Monday, August 31, 2009
Are we preparing CAs or White Collar Criminals in the name of CA education from ICAI?
So, A Student Entering into CA Curriculum also dreams of bringing awareness about “FINANCE” and it’s “Management and Control” among people of India, among the corporate in which he dreams to get employed and thereby contributing to the progress of India. BUT the reality is perhaps not this!
regards
ICAI to dig deeper in to Satyam, Buysiness Standard, 29 Aug 09
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the regulatory body for chartered accountants in the country, is now making a second and final report on the role of the auditors in the massive accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services, now called Mahindra Satyam.
Speaking to the media here on Saturday, ICAI President Uttam Prakash Agarwal said that a high-powered disciplinary committee will shortly visit Hyderabad to study issues related to failure of adherence to accounting practices, corporate governance, role of independent directors and other stakeholders in the Satyam case.
He declined a give a deadline within which the investigation will be completed but indicated it could be February next year when his term as the president will end. The report from the committee will once again be submitted to the ministry for further action against the auditors.
The ICAI president declined to say what kind of action it will recommend to the chartered accountants who audited the Satyam accounts if proven guilty. The Satyam auditors were S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas of Price Waterhouse.
Agarwal said that Gopalakrishnan was stripped of all non-standing committee posts two weeks ago. However, he will continue to serve as a member as it was not in the jurisdiction of the ICAI president to remove members from their posts, he added.
ICAI, in the wake of the Satyam fraud, had asked all its members to look for external evidence before certifying the accounting statements to ensure that similar incidents do not recur.