List of case-based operating procedures in all PCR vans

Every PCR van will now have a set standard operating procedure (SOP) to attend to calls related to women in distress. The decision will help reduce room for error and PCR reaction time, police said.

The new system will ensure that each PCR van has notices that explain, in bullet points, the operating procedure to attend to a distress call. There is a separate SOP for every distress call, particularly those of molestation, rape, domestic violence and threat calls.

“For instance, if the call is about a rape incident, then the operator need not waste time (waiting) for a briefing from his supervisor to react. The SOP would guide the operator as to what he should do,” T N Mohan, Special Commissioner of Police (Operations) told Newsline.

Meanwhile, Delhi High Court on Thursday asked government and police to ensure that there is proper publicity to its orders that all hospitals, including private ones, cannot deny treatment to victims of criminal offences.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/list-of-casebased-operating-procedures-in-all-pcr-vans/1081445/

RTE only for 6-14 age group: Govt

Nursery admission No bar on screening procedure by schools for students below age 6: Govt to HC

The Central government informed the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that the Right to Education Act applies only to “elementary education” which is defined in the Act as education from Class I to Class VIII. Provisions of the RTE, the government said, are available only to children in the age group 6 to 14 years and do not affect primary education.

“There is no bar on a screening procedure by a school for students under six years of age,” the government counsel said in response to a specific question put by the bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain.

The government filed an affidavit after it was asked by the High Court whether admission to the nursery class was regulated by the RTE Act.

The High Court has been hearing arguments on a PIL challenging two notifications by the Central government and the Delhi government allowing schools to formulate their own criteria for admission to the nursery class. The admission process has been stalled due to the pendency of the petition. The High Court had remarked that the admission process for 2013-14 could be affected by its final decision on the petition.

The government affidavit stated that “there are certain provisions of the Act, which relate to children below six years and beyond 14 years. These specific provisions, however, are those related to drop-out children and children from economically weaker sections.”

The government affidavit also mentions Section 11 of the RTE that speaks about pre-primary education for children above three years of age. The HRD Ministry affidavit says that state governments “may have their own policies governing admissions in pre-primary class”.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra also told the court that the Delhi School Education Act and notifications issued under the Act were there to regulate pre-primary education in Delhi.

“The affidavit is quiet on the question raised by the court about the utilisation of Section 13 in the Act. The HRD Ministry passed the buck to the state government to see the applicability in the last paragraph of the affidavit,” advocate Ashok Aggarwal said. Court said it will pass its order by next week.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rte-only-for-614-age-group-govt/1073751/0

SC slams Delhi for dip in sex ratio

No conviction in sex determination cases, mechanism ineffective: Bench

The Supreme Court on Tuesday criticised the declining female child ratio in the Capital when it said that the Delhi government mechanism to punish violators of pre-natal sex determination laws did not appear to be effective.

A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra also took strong exception to the fact that there was not a single conviction under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act in Delhi though the government claimed to have registered cases of violations.

“Your own statistics show that there has been a constant decline in the sex ratio in the last three years, up to 2011. Why is it so? Moreover, cases that you initiated against the violators have been pending in courts for years now and there is not even a single conviction. It does not seem that you are pursuing these cases in courts, so that they are brought to logical conclusion and there is a deterrence effect,” the bench said.

The court wondered if the government was taking “any interest” in proper prosecution or if it thought that filing cases was enough. “You have not convicted anybody. We don’t think you have an effective mechanism. Your job is not over only after you file cases. There are 47 court cases pending,” the bench said.

The apex court said it will have to pass directions to the principal sessions judges of Delhi courts to ensure that all cases under the PNDT Act are concluded within a particular time frame. It also said government must upload all information about the hospitals and doctors found guilty under the charges.

During the proceedings, the bench favoured an active campaign on the issue of female foeticide: “Why is there gender inequality? You must hold awareness campaigns to tell people that they should love a girl child like they love a male child. The Act must also be implemented in letter and spirit.”

In its affidavit, the government’s health secretary, who was personally present on the court’s order, conceded that the child sex ratio 0-6 years (CSR) had shown a decline from 868 in 2001 to 866 in census 2011 and that it was on the decline in the last three years too. The national CSR is 920 female per 1000 male child.

“It is submitted that the government is even monitoring birth data of 50 major hospitals every month to look for significant deviations. Such deviations are also being monitored through surveillance on such hospitals by the district appropriate authorities,” the affidavit stated.

It was also said that the Social Welfare department was implementing the Ladli scheme to encourage birth of the girl child through facilitating and empowering families with financial support.

The bench remained unimpressed with the argument and said it will pass a formal order on receiving suggestions from additional solicitor general H P Raval and amicus curiae Colin Gonsalves in the matter.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sc-slams-delhi-for-dip-in-sex-ratio/1073288/0

E-stamping in city courts

To ensure hassle-free transactions and prevent fraudulent practices, the Delhi government has introduced electronic-stamping facility in all the district courts in the city while doing away with stamp papers of all denominations.

“Delhi has become the first state in the country to introduce e-court fee in all its district courts…. The new system was first introduced in Delhi High Court in November, 2012. The exercise for all six district courts has been completed within just three weeks,” Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said.

She said this was a major step forward in the direction of a modern judicial system and an e-governed state. “The last court to implement the e-court fee system was the Kakardooma court where it was introduced last week,” Dikshit said.

It is a unique system, which enables the public and lawyers to get a court fee receipt of exact denomination, irrespective of the amount, thus, making the entire process of remitting court fee entirely paper-free,” she said.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/estamping-in-city-courts/1073279/

Government Approved various Certification courses for Shahra Trust

Shri Mahadeo Shahra Sukrat Trust is a Public Charitable Trust duly registered by Registrar of Public Charitable Trust, Indore, and was formed in 1976 specially to initiate the corporate social responsibility initiatives of Ruchi.

Government of India has approved various certificate courses like “Beauty Culture and Health Care” and ”Fabric Painting and Warli Painting” which was conducted by Shahra Trust. The Trust initially undertook relief work for the underprivileged in the areas of health, education and other sectors at Manglia, Indore, Madhya Pradesh where the largest and first production plant of Ruchi is situated. Dinesh Shahra and Ankesh Shahra are part of Shahra Trust.

Hospitals can’t deny first response treatment to crime victims: HC

After it was told that accident or rape victims were often denied treatment by private hospitals, which did not want to involve themselves in crime cases, the Delhi High Court on Thursday held that private hospitals must must not turn away emergency patients on such grounds.

The bench comprising Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain issued the orders while hearing a suo motu case. An NGO had previously raised the question of speedy medical aid to victims. The point was raised again by counsel assisting the court, advocate Meera Bhatia.

The court directed Delhi government Principal Secretary, Health, “to issue appropriate directions to all hospitals to attend to all persons who are in dire need of immediate first-aid (or other) medical need due to involvement in some crime”.

The court also directed the Commissioner of Police to “issue instructions to all police personnel to take victims to nearest hospital for treatment”.

The court also asked police to look into a system of ‘SOS’ or ‘panic button’ messages, which could be sent by women from their cellphones to any number of their choice as well as to police.

“There could be some GPS-based system for a PCR van to track the location of the mobile phone from which the SOS message was sent. You could contact NIC or Infosys or TCS to consider this software,” the court said.

The court said Mumbai police was using a basic form of a similar system and asked the Delhi Police to “extend and refine” the software.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hospitals-cant-deny-first-response-treatment-to-crime-victims-hc/1067700/