Again guest lecture

Today’s lecture was on Criminal justice in India by Justice J. Chelameswar, the former Chief Justice of Gouhati High Court, former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court and present Chief Justice of Kerela High Court. In India every year crime rate is escalating higher and higher but why criminal justice is deteriorating? Why more acquittals and why less convictions? For this he pointed our number of deficiencies in the concerned agencies like investigating agencies, officers and so on.

According to him lack of advanced method of investigation and still following the out dated method of investigation by investigating officers and investigating agencies. Another one is lack of officer’s enough specialization and qualified skill on their job like in investigations.

He said that another reason for low rate of conviction could be because of liberal pardoning power which most of the time are diluted by politics. Further he also said that lack of faith on judiciary by the people at large. People want every suspect to be convicted but they don’t realize repercussions behind if every suspect is going to be convicted. They also don’t know that suspect can be convicted only the evidence produced before the court proved beyond all reasonable doubt. He cited various examples how people react if suspects are let free. He said that most prosecutors lack skill and their appointment most of the time are political orientated rather than a skill and knowledge oriented.

Finally he concluded with pointing out some defects in sentencing after conviction. He said most of other countries life imprisonment means for life but in Indian life imprisonment in theory is for life but in practice maximum term is fourteen years which most of time convicts rarely gets even maximum terms of fourteen years. So this is also a contributing factor for going up the scale of crime rate, he said.

Guest lectures

Lately I have been engaged so tightly on series of submissions and this delayed my update on this record of lectures. It‘s been even a week since we had couple of lectures. Still then let me shed out whatever is left out in my memory. First lecture was by Justice M.N. Rao . His lecture was on “Religion through the lens of law: Neutrality of state secularization” .His lecture was so lengthy it lasted almost two hours. He said his preparation of lecture runs to 150 pages. Let me try how much I have grasped it.

Once upon a time religion and law was one concept. Through religion, beliefs and faiths regulated the conduct of mankind when there was no proper codification of laws. But today world over has proper codification of laws which regulates conduct of all mankind. . He said religion is the matter of private domain which is the relationship between person and the god whereas law is the matter of public domain which is the relationship between people and the state. Today with change of time everything changes and more people are becoming secular and expose to diverse religions, so neutrality of sate is very important. Religion and state are always inter connected, he said. He said there is no state without religion, so every state has religion. State guarantees freedom of religion but he said it can be regulated by state through law. He cited various cases like where students refused to sing a nation anthem. He said every citizen has duty to respect nation anthem and national flag. Tomorrow if we become the prime minster we cannot refuse to take oath under nation flag and anthem as against our religion. So every citizen has duty to respect the same.

Finally he concluded that every person has right to freedom of faith but practice of that faith can be regulated by state through law.

Another lecture was on 19/2/2011 by former judge of the Indian Supreme Court, Former Chief Justice of AP High Court, Justice U.C Benerjee. His lecture was on sustainable development. The moment I saw this topic it reminded me of our unique philosophy, GNH as this being one of the pillars of GNH. He stressed mainly on preservation of nature, ecological balance, biodiversity, global warming, climate change, etc. Internationally this concept was first appeared in Bretten Wood’s Report then in Rio Conferernce, 1992. But he said to India he was the first judge to introduce this concept in Indian jurisprudence. He introduced this concept in Kolkata Wet Land case in 1993 where he said that economic development should be with the ecological balance. He said with globalization and growth of population economic development of every nation is very important but that should be without compromising the ecological balance. Economic development with the ecological balance is what he wants. He cited various examples of effect of climate change due to global warming. He also cited various industrialized nations which are without fresh air. So he time and again in the course of his lecture reminded that economic development with the ecological balance not with the cost of ecological balance.

Adieu to Surprise Test

What the fuck we have tomorrow?, we have been cussing in every surprise test for last four years as name of the test itself fathomable that surprise test means schedule less test. Students are mandated to study all subjects together just for one paper next day. They should ready for next day to face any paper otherwise just blindly predicting and restricting to one subject if it does not come next day then it’s gone! Sure big chance to land either in helpless abode of zeros or at the most in ones. So much discretion to examination committed. They give which ever paper they wish and prefer which at the end torments many in ones and zeros without even the bare minimum pass mark.

Whatever may be this time was last one. It’s over now. I know as long as my life goes and learning goes I definitely have to face gamut of exams ahead but no more surprise it’s surely going to be scheduled ones. In four years we have had eight surprise tests once in every semester. Yes as I went on facing semester after semester somehow naturally I got adapted with it. Still then especially when the syllabus was too vast just for 10 marks paper forget about other four subjects a day was barely enough to cover even one subject, so it was sometimes really exasperating. I don’t know for what good purpose they introduced such test. But no doubt one day this will definitely lead to unfurl and cherish my college days memories..

Finally adieu to surprise test but no other tests. I will have many other exams alike in another two semesters but scheduled ones. No more surprises at least from tests. So excited I’m………

Good Bye surprise test. All the best, Have some mercy on our junior batches and treat them kindly…..

Class in every last class of the day

In our University every day we have five hours of class. But fortunately sometimes classes get cancelled for guest lecturers for which they make mandatory attendance but compare to class little scope for bunking and even we attend also we find it more refreshing than lectures in the class from monotonous professors as most of the guest lectures are on interesting issues beyond our course..

First hour class starts from 9am and at this hour all students would be found so much attentive. So as classes go on proceeding further until last hour many would be found exhausted and by the time it’s fifth hour all would ask, who is coming in fifth hour? Which means almost all of them are exhausted and don’t feel like listening the lecture. What all they wanted is leave early and enjoy lunch. The moment they see professor coming they start yelling, free period sir!. Some promise to leave early while some does not care at all. They want to leave only on time not early no matter however loud students yell.
If the professor is quite lenient then they won’t let him teach also students go on yelling, sir lets go’ . Sometimes professors lose patience and attempt to admonish also but nobody cares as students already know everything about Professor still they go on talking and yelling. If they have special lunch on that day then they go on naming the menu and alerting other batches who were let off early would empty it…They go on reasoning this that ma blah blah…….
No professor leaves as early as half an hour before. At the most professors leave just ten minutes before. While for some professor they leave only five minutes before the actual time. However, we no more have to yell for letting off early. In triples of months we would be in final year which has only three hours of class. Just matter of patience for sometime then we keep our fingers crossed and enjoy early lunch everyday……………….