Astrologer gets one-year RI

Panchkula, August 9
A local court today awarded a one-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) to a Panchkula-based astrologer in connection with an eight-year-old molestation case.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Rakesh Singh awarded punishment to Ravi Dutt Shandilya, an astrologer and a resident of Sector 11.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 3,000 on the guilty. The court awarded punishment to the accused under Sections 354 (molestation) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
Public prosecutor Govinder said in case of default in the payment of fine, the accused would further serve three more months in imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, the victim, working as a computer clerk in the office of Shandilya, had alleged that the accused was involved in obscene acts with her. She had further alleged that the accused had touched her body parts as well.
On the complaint of the victim, an FIR was registered against the accused on February 8, 2003 in the Sector 5 police station.
The victim and her father had also deposed before the court. The victim in her statement before the court had stated that the accused had also threatened her that he would kill her if she would disclose this act to her family members.

Acquittal rate on the rise

36 set free by district court this year so far

Panchkula, August 9
The Panchkula police has failed miserably in solving major cases of crime, but the worrying factor for the force is the rising rate of acquittal of criminals from the Panchkula court.
This year, a total of 36 criminals have been acquitted from the Panchkula district court so far, which has raised a question mark on the efficiency of law-enforcement agencies.
Cases like those of the kidnapping of Jiya and Arnav, the murder of a car showroom guard, the kidnapping and murder of realtor Deepak Rai Sagar and the murder of an Australia-based NRI remain unsolved.
Cases in which the accused have been acquitted include those of murder, planning dacoity, rape and abetment to suicide. The acquittals have resulted either from the failure of the prosecution to furnish substantial evidence in court or from witnesses turning hostile during trial.
In a recent case of murder of a woman at Kalka, the court acquitted four members of the family as there was not any strong evidences against them.
The police maintained that her husband had killed her with the help of his family, but failed to substantiate the criminal conspiracy theory during trial in court.
A priest was acquitted of charges of rape inside the ‘dharamshala’ at the Mata Mansa Devi temple. The complainant had changed her statement on three occasions. The prosecution had failed to produce any medical evidence against the accused, which ultimately led to the acquittal.
In May, the court acquitted four persons accused of planning dacoity. They were acquitted as there were contradictions in the prosecution story. There was no independent witness and all prosecution witnesses were police personnel.
On April 4, the Panchkula court acquitted Darshan Lal of Raipur Rani in connection with a case of murder registered the previous year as 13 witnesses turned hostile.
Panchkula SP Maneesh Chaudhary said he had now directed investigating officers to update him about the status of cases being tried in various courts on a fortnightly basis.
He added that they were now holding meetings with the prosecution department regularly as well, which would help improve the conviction rate.
On the issue of rising acquittal rate, the Haryana DGP held a meeting with SPs of all districts in Haryana. They discussed ways to improve the prosecution ratio. Officials attached with courts were recently given training so that the acquittal rate could be minimised.

Expert evidence allowed on waiver of tort impact

Justice Joan Lax, during the course of the class action trial in Andersen v. St. Jude Medical, Inc., has granted defendants’ request to allow expert evidence from a law professor on the societal and economic impacts of waiver of tort. Lax ruled that the evidence was relevant to several questions relating to waiver of tort including whether all or part of the class before her could elect to have damages determined through a disgorgement of profits. She also ruled that it was relevant as to whether all of the class or only parts of it could so elect.

Vanessa Voakes of Stikeman Elliott has more on the firm’s class action law blog.

Canada’s reformed class-action law wins few friends

By Allison Martell

A Canadian law designed to make it easier to bring class action suits against companies that mislead investors has all sides frustrated as it faces its first real-world tests.

Changes to the Ontario Securities Act that came into effect in late 2005 eliminated an arduous requirement that shareholders prove they relied on faulty disclosures when they invested on the secondary market.

But the reform added the requirement that a judge must rule that each class action has a reasonable chance of success before it moves on to trial. This is known as a leave requirement and is unique in Canadian law.

“Corporate Canada demanded a leave requirement in order to protect itself from frivolous litigation,” said Dimitri Lascaris of Siskinds LLP. “What they got was something that not only imposes significant burden on plaintiffs, but also imposes a significant burden on them. It’s costly to both sides.”

Lascaris is lead counsel for the plaintiffs in both of the first two cases approved for trial since the reform was enacted. Time is running out for the second case as the company under fire, Arctic Glacier Income Fund, said last week that it may default on its credit agreements.

Defense lawyers worry that judges set too low a bar in approving the first suits considered. But the case of Arctic Glacier shows the time spent arguing for leave to go to trial may be a significant problem for shareholders seeking compensation from struggling firms.

GLACIAL PACE
Arctic Glacier has struggled since 2008, when it said its U.S. operating subsidiary, Arctic Glacier International Inc, was being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2009 the ice supplier pleaded guilty to conspiring with competitors to divide up the market in part of Michigan, and agreed to pay a US$9-million fine. It has since agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements with purchasers in both the United States and Canada.

Siskinds filed the class action suit against Arctic Glacier in September 2008, alleging that the company had misrepresented itself as a “good corporate citizen”. A judge gave the class action leave to continue to trial this March, but the defense will ask in September for permission to appeal that decision. It will almost certainly be years before the case comes to trial.

The first case, against Imax Corp, has moved at a similarly sluggish pace since Siskinds filed in September 2006. The class action, alleging that the company overstated its 2005 revenues, was granted leave in December 2009, but Imax’s request for an appeal was not turned down until February 2011. The case may be another two years coming to trial.

More than 20 similar class actions have been filed under the new law, according to a January report from NERA Economic Consulting. Nine have been settled, but the majority were still awaiting leave to go to trial, NERA said.

DETERRING FRIVOLOUS SUITS

The leave requirement was meant to keep shareholder class actions, previously rare in Canada, from rising to U.S. heights.

But Lascaris said plaintiffs already risk having to pay opponents’ legal costs, something that is almost unheard of in the U.S. context, and the leave requirement simply slows a process that is already time-consuming.

Cristie Ford, a law professor and securities regulation expert at the University of British Columbia, disagreed.

“I think the leave requirement is a great thing, and I think the cap on damages is a great thing too,” she said, noting that U.S. companies often settle frivolous class actions to avoid legal costs.

Eric Hoaken, part of the defense team for the Arctic Glacier case, said only a fraction of defendants’ costs are covered, but cases decided so far show the leave requirement isn’t working as a deterrent either.

“If what the framers of the legislation had in mind was that the leave test was going to be a meaningful obstacle that would screen out cases, there’s no indication in the two cases that have decided leave so far that that’s going to happen,” he said.

The two cases with leave to continue to trial are Silver v. Imax Corp (2011 ONSC 1035) and Dobbie v. Arctic Glacier Income Fund (2011 ONSC 25).

Capt tells Khangura to woo NRIs

Chandigarh, August 9
Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Capt Amarinder Singh has appointed Kila Raipur MLA Jassi Khangura, a former NRI, to initiate interaction with various NRIs, groups and organisations in the USA, Canada and Europe to set an agenda for his trip to these places later this year.
In a letter issued to Khangura, Captain Amarinder Singh asked him to utilise his forthcoming trip to the US, Canada and the UK for the benefit of the party,
keeping the Assembly elections in mind.
“You are requested to initiate an interaction with various NRI organisations and individuals... which can act as a prelude to my visit to these countries before Diwali this year”, the PPCC president asked Khangura, while adding, “you can act as a representative of the PPCC president to help me in setting an agenda for my trip”. 

Youths recount travails in Iraq

A Jalandhar youth holding a live bombshell at an undisclosed location in Iraq. A Tribune photograph

Jalandhar, August 9
More facts have begun emerging in the case of 40 youths from Punjab and Haryana trapped in a remote area of Iraq with three of them returning from there. They had allegedly been detained in a secluded farm house in a town in Iraq for the past more than five months.
In a flagrant violation of the United Nations conventions, the youths were being allegedly forced to clear live bombshells from hundreds of acres of barren land, near Al-Najaf and Karbala towns.
One of them, Kanwaljit Singh, a 26-year-old youth from Khurlapur village in Jalandhar, alleged that conduits of unscrupulous Indian travel agents in Iraq sold them to private contractors. They were forced to clear live bombshells, wreckage of used bombs and missiles from the fields.
“The travel agents promised us a job in the house-keeping sections of the Iraqi military establishments. However, after we landed there, they sold us to contractors who kept us near Al-Najaf town and forced us to clear the fields for a meagre salary of $300,” said Kanwaljit Singh.
“They even took away our passports and demanded Rs 70,000 from us to return to India”, he added.
Earlier, as the families of these youths were unaware of their whereabouts, some of the parents were worried that terror groups might have detained their sons. A few weeks ago, some of the stranded youth had revealed the nature of jobs they were doing to their families. However, they were unaware about where the recovered bombshells were being supplied. This added to the parents anxiety and they feared that the captors might have been supplying the recovered ammunition to some terrorist outfits.
Kulwinder Singh, from Takhni village in Hoshiarpur, who returned along with Kanwaljit, said, “There was a 1500-acre farm located near Al-Najaf and Karbala towns. The farm had turned into a battlefield during the US-Iraq war. The entire field was full of tonnes of live and exploded bombshells. We were asked to pick the bombshells and then dump them in a separate small farm located nearby.”
Kulwinder alleged that no rule of law was followed in that part of the country. “The clearing of wartime wreckage went on for three to four months and no Iraqi official ever visited the place,” he alleged.
The ordeal of the youths had come to fore when Bal Mukand, a resident of Khambra, near Jalandhar, whose 20-year-old son is also trapped in Iraq, lodged a complaint with the police about how his son, along with 40 Indian youths, was detained in a camp located at an undisclosed and semi-forested area in Iraq. He had alleged in his complaint that the youths, most of whom are from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, were forced to work for terror groups. Meanwhile, the families 12 youths have approached the Ministry of External Affairs to plead their case with Iraqi government for the early release of the stranded youth from Iraq.

Duped by agents

l Their ordeal came to the fore when Bal Mukand, a resident of Khambra, near Jalandhar lodged a police complaint
l Conduits of unscrupulous Indian travel agents sold the youth to private contractors
l Were forced to clear live bombshells, wreckage of used bombs and missiles from fields
l Some families approach the MEA to intervene for their release

Embassy in touch with duped youths

New Delhi, August 9
The Indian Embassy in Baghdad is in touch with nearly 30 Indians from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh who are desperate to return home, having been duped by travel agents.
There were some 350 people of different nationalities working on a housing project at Najaf, some 160 km south of Baghdad. Of them, 28 Indians, who have been forced to work on the project, have contacted the Indian mission.
According to the MEA spokesman Vishnu Prakash, the youths who had approached the Indian Embassy were being treated as ‘Indians in distress’ and the mission was trying to facilitate their safe return to India. The embassy was in touch with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and the Punjab Government in this connection.

Appointment of lambardar

HC overrules Financial Commissioner’s order 


Chandigarh, August 9
democracy at the grassroots level, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has overruled the Punjab Financial Commissioner’s order to hold that having a PCO or a small shop in a village could not be construed as disqualification for the lambardar’s post.
The HC has added that candidate for the lambardar's post could not be expected to be unemployed or merely engaged in agriculture activities.
The ruling by Justice Alok Singh came on a petition filed by Balwinder Singh against Punjab Financial Commissioner.
The post had fallen vacant after the death of then lambardar Mehnga Singh in 1997. After completing all the formalities, the District Collector had ruled: "Balwinder Singh is young, mature and better qualified. His name is duly recommended by Garhshankar tehsildar and the sub-divisional magistrate. Hence, he is preferred and appointed as lambardar.”
Acting on an appeal, the Financial Commissioner set aside the order, while observing the petitioner was running a PCO and was an LIC agent.
Counsel for the petitioner, on the other hand, vehemently argued that the LIC agency of the petitioner was terminated in 2001.
Justice Alok Singh ruled: “In the opinion of this court, running a PCO in the village does not mean that petitioner shall not be available in the village to perform duties of lambardar.”

Chandigarh UT Administration to act tough against commercial building violations

Chandigarh, August 8
is bad news for thousands of violators of building bylaws in commercial buildings in the city. Cracking the whip against the violators, the UT Administration has decided to impose a hefty penalty of Rs 500 per square feet per month with a view to discouraging the misuse of commercial property.
The Rs 500-penalty clause, which has been inserted in the Chandigarh Estate (Amendment) Rules 2009, is the offshot of blatant building byelaws violations in commercial property, particularly in major commercial centres, including Sectors 17, 22, 34, 35 and Mani Majra, a senior official said today.
However, to give an opportunity to the building violators, the Estate Office would grant them a period of two months to either get the revised building planssanctioned or themselves demolish the violations. In case the owners do not remove the illegal additions and alterations within a period of two months, the buildings would be sealed and penalty at the rate of Rs 500 per square per month would be imposed, sources said.
The sources said a fresh survey of the additional building violations would soon be conducted to enforce the new provision effectively to check violations, which could adversely affect the structural safety of old multi-storeyed buildings in major commercial centres in the city.
Meanwhile, the trading community is up in arms against the “anti-trader” and “anti-people” penal clause.
“The demand for modifications in the business premises by the big corporates and the MNCs has made additions and alterations necessary. The hefty penalty will go against the trading community and general business environment in the city,” alleged JPS Kalra, spokesman of the Chandigarh Business Council.
Echoling similar sentiments, Charanjiv Singh, chairman of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, termed the penalty clause as “anti-business” aimed at harming traders’ business interests.With a view to boosting trade and commerce, the UT Administration should evolve a consensus with the traders’ bodies on the issue, he demanded.

Economics of Rs 500 penalty

For violations in 600 square feet, the violators would have to shell Rs 3 lakh per month (Rs 36 lakh per year). In certain cases, the penalty could exceed the cost of the commercial property over the years having adverse impact on the trade and industry at a time when Chandigarh is witnessing retail revolution.

Over 30,000 commercial properties in city

There are at least 30,000 commercial properties in the city and a substantial number of them have illegal additions and alterations. At least 1,500 cases of violations were pending with the Estate Office. However, the actual number of violators could be much more than that.

Cathay Pacific investigates alleged sex photos of flight attendant and pilot aboard aircraft

Published: 2011-08-08 11:13:00

(SPOT.ph) Cathay Pacific Airline has launched a full investigation on the  lewd photos allegedly of one of their flight attendants performing oral sex on a pilot aboard their aircraft, reports an AFP story on ABS-CBN News.  While the woman in the photo wore a red outfit resembling Cathay Pacific’s uniform, the man did not appear to be wearing the airline’s pilot uniform.  According to the report, the blurred photos were published on Chinese-language media.

“We are conducting a full investigation into the matter and there are some indications that the female shown in the photos may be a member of our cabin crew,” said a Cathay Pacific spokesperson, adding that nothing further has been confirmed. The report also mentioned that there was no way to conclude whether the incident occurred on the ground or in-flight.

According the report, the Chinese-language paper Apple Daily said that the “pilot,” a foreigner, haswritten a letter saying the photos were stolen from his personal computer and that he had lodged a police report.