SHOWING THE WAY

SHOWING THE WAY The Most Useful Litigations This is how unknown people change your life for the better Ketan Tanna and Sharmila Ganesan look at some important PILs that are pending and a few ridiculous ones

It is not clear which was India’s first ever Pub lic Interest Litigation (PIL). Some say it was the Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar case of 1979. It dealt with the miserable conditions of pris ons and undertrials. Others say that PILs were born in 1982 after the Supreme Court, while hear ing the S P Gupta vs Union of India case, announced that anyone acting in the interest of the public may petition the court on behalf of the disadvantaged .

The history of PILs might be ambiguous but it is irrelevant to the hundreds of social crusaders who throng the courts every now and then seeking so lutions to the various problems that affect the com mon man. It is natural that some people will waste the time of the courts with frivolous cases, like charging actresses and models with obscenity. Here we present some of the most thought pro voking and useful PILs that are pending in our courts. And, some of the most useless ones too.

A pre-marital ritual

It makes sense for grooms and brides, especially in the arranged marriage system, to undergo an HIV test. Thousands of people, women particularly have become victims of AIDS because their spous es chose not to confess that they had the disease But it is not practical in India for an HIV test to be part of the premarital ceremonies. There is a so cial embarrassment involved in asking the ‘other side’ to produce a certificate. So, Maharashtra Law Graduate Association, an NGO, had filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court seeking to make the pre marital HIV test mandatory. A committee set up in December 2007 by the state health ministry has unanimously decided to accept the proposal.

Are motorcycles safe?

Following the deaths of four motorcycle riders in separate accidents in Navi Mumbai, a PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court in 2007. It sought strict implementation of safety norms by two-wheel er manufacturers. The petitioner, Gyan Prakash from Jabalpur, has pointed out that two-wheeler accidents accounted for 15.1 per cent of all acci dents across India. As many as 2,439 riders died in accidents in 2005. The PIL has alleged that motor cycle manufacturers were cutting corners on safe ty norms. The matter is pending in court.

Cruel online lotteries

 An undated PIL before the Supreme Court has claimed that online lotteries were addictive and as a result they were severely affecting the lives of the poor and the youth. The litigation states that the young especially are not aware of the ill effects of lottery, and that the online version makes lottery an easily accessible habit. While considering the petition, the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 sought a response from the union government and three state governments—West Bengal, Sikkim and Tripura on their online lot tery schemes 

Health of the nation

There have been numerous PILs in this regard In Delhi, at a shelter home, 11 children died last year. The Delhi High Court is hearing a PIL on the way shelter homes for abandoned children are run Also, with 24 municipal conservancy workers, on an average, dying every month due to abysmal working conditions, activist Keval Semlani wrote a letter to the Bombay High Court to make life bet ter for such workers. The letter was converted into a PIL by the court. The hearing continues. Mean while, children and men of small frame continue to get into manholes with no protective gear.

A PIL seeking the ban on the manufacture of Nimesulide (one of the most commonly used anti inflammatory drugs) was filed in the Madras High Court. Tamil Nadu Health Development Forum filed the PIL citing a number of side effects of the drug like liver and renal failure among children The PIL states that the drug has been banned in several countries. But the court has refused to di rect the central government to impose a ban. The matter might be taken up in the apex court.

Converts and Reservation

 Can Dalits who converted to Christianity get the benefit of reservations? Last month, the Cen tre assured the Supreme Court that it will study the report of a commission which examined the issue of granting Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and extending the benefits of reser vation to them. An advocate appearing for Cen tre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, says the matter has been pending in the court for more than three years and should be heard urgently.

Are homosexuals criminals?

India is one of the most repressive nations for homosexuals. Since the law has clear views about homosexual conduct, gays in India face easy ex ploitation by police if caught in the act. In De cember 2002, the Naz Foundation filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court challenging the discretionary statutes on the grounds that it violated the con stitutional rights of sexual minorities in India and also interfered with the provision of HIV/AIDS prevention services. In 2005, the High Court dismissed the petition. Following a special leave petition, the Supreme Court in February 2006 set aside the order, and remanded the case back to the Delhi High Court for a decision on the merits of the case.

Why immerse Ganesha?

Activist Bhagvanji Raiyani has filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court asking for the ban on the annual immersion of Ganpati and Durga idols. The immersion of the idols in the sea by thousands of revellers causes large scale pollution. The litigation says that the sacred texts do not mention immersion at all. TNN (With Dhananjay Mahapatra and Bhanu Pratap Singh) …

And the most useless PILs

There are many who file PILs to attract publicity. Lawyers in small towns are known to slap frivolous cases against film stars in the hope that the actors would be forced to visit their modest courts. Here is a quick list.

The apex court recently dismissed a PIL filed by a man in Lucknow called Prince Lenin to recall the Indian cricket team from Australia to save the players from racial insults.

In February last year, lawyer Shruti Singh filed a PIL in the Patna High Court against Aishwarya Rai marrying a tree. “If Aishwarya was declared a maanglik, she was insulted by her mother in-law, an MP who vowed to safeguard the Constitution,” Singh said. The case was thrown out. Shruti Singh had also filed a PIL against former union minister Sanjay Paswan for encouraging witchcraft.

  Last year, the Patna High Court slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on an advocate for wasting its time. He filed a PIL against Manmohan Singh challenging his continuance as Prime Minister despite not being a member of the Lok Sabha.

The Delhi High Court recently imposed a fine of Rs 5000 on a petitioner who filed a PIL seeking direction to the organisers of a village Ramleela to desist from staging item songs.

Outstation cancer patients can put up here for free

Ketan Tanna meets the man who has put his spare flat to good use
Mumbai: Cancer is a cruel and expensive disease. It drains you physically and exhausts you financially. And for the thousands of families who travel to Mumbai for treatment, one of the most challenging hurdles is to find a cheap and safe place to stay while the patient is being treated. Which is why a threebedroom flat in Kandivli is like an answer to a prayer.
    A few years ago, businessman Suresh Agarwal, 47, realised that accommodation for outstation families was a crying need. For the last two years, his spare flat in Kandivli’s Lokhandwala area has been hosting cancer patients and their relatives who have not been able to get accommodation at Tata Memorial Hospital or Hinduja Hospital.
    On an average, four patients are allowed to stay in the flat for up to three months. The flat is furnished and has a proper kitchen where the patients or their family members can cook as well.The lodging is free, and all that is needed is a letter from the doctor treating the patient. So far, 45 patients have used this generous facility.
    It’s not just free boarding that Agarwal provides. Last week, he organised a musical show called Amit Kumar Night that raised Rs 35 lakh for Hinduja Hospital. Around two years ago, another musical event called the Vinod Rathod Night had raised Rs 15 lakh for the hospital.
    Agarwal, who runs a plastic factory in Daman, knows too well the havoc cancer can cause to family life. His younger brother Sushil, now 45, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1987.
    His brother-in-law, too, developed lung cancer in 1992 and later the wife of his brother-in-law was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
    What followed were almost daily visits to Hinduja where he became friends with the doctors and the management of the hospital. Even after his brother and relatives recovered, Agarwal continued to visit the hospital. On one such round, he noticed a frail person sobbing in the waiting area. He found out that the man’s treatment had been stopped midway as he was unable to pay.
    It was then that Agarwal decided that he had to do something. After consulting the management, Agarwal decided to create a corpus so that each time there was a needy patient, the corpus could be used. It has helped many patients.
    The Agarwal family has its roots in Assam. Soon after Sushil was treated successfully, they started getting requests for help from cancer patients from that state. “An empty flat near my home spurred me into offering it free to needy cancer patients,’’ says Agarwal.
    Dr Asha Kapadia, head of the oncology department at Hinduja Hospital, says, “I wish we had more people like him.’’ Suresh Agarwal can be contacted on 98200 65184

FOR THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Ketan Tanna 
profiles doctors who battle noise Once, on the eve of Ganesh Visarjan, a retired scientist put up a banner asking, “Is god deaf?”

    One Diwali night, gynecologist Prabhakar Rao called the Juhu police station to complain about the deafening noise in his area. But nobody was willing to take him seriously. It was Diwali after all. A few hours later, a bored constable arrived. “What do you mean there is so much noise?” the constable said, “I can’t hear any noise. In any case, there will be noise when crackers burst. And do you have any proof that the crackers were really loud?”
    Rao had no choice but to chuckle. By then, he was used to this attitude. He is one of the busybodies disliked by law enforcement in Mumbai. Along with pediatrician Yeshwant Oke and late businessman Saad Ali, he founded the Anti Noise Pollution Committee in 1984. The group took on the government and paved the way for the first of the many anti-noise court battles. They tried some desperate measures too. Once, on the eve of Ganesh Visarjan, retired scientist T N Mahadevan and friends put up a banner in the heart of Maratha pride, Lalbaug. The banner pointedly asked in Marathi, “Dev Behra Aahe Ka?” (Is god deaf ?). The banner, of course, created more noise.
    After a study of Society for Clean Environment in 1985 found that decibel levels in residential areas during festivals like Diwali were over 115 decibels (busy city traffic is generally at 85
decibels) Oke and other concerned citizens filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against the state government, BMC and the Mumbai police. The court then appointed an eight member committee to study noise pollution in Mumbai and suggest remedial measures. The Desai committee, as it was called, came up with an in-depth report on the harmful effects of noise.
    Some people say that noise is a natural part of Indian way of life but the truth is that it routinely has tragic consequences. Recently, an old woman died of cardiac arrest after a cracker went off suddenly at two in the morning. The drum beating and noise during Ganesh Visarjan procession greatly agonise old people and children.
    Oke was inspired to campaign against noise sometime in 1984 when he got a letter from Pachore village, near Jalgaon. The letter said that the desperate villagers were caught in the unbearable noise of secularism. In the morning, bhajans rented the air and in the evenings namaz and discourses tore the eardrums. Despite complaints, the police did not want to interfere.
    Twenty years after receiving the letter, 72-year-old Oke is still going strong. Some of the old guards have died but the group is constantly replenished by new dedicated members. As the photographer makes them pose, host of the afternoon congregation, Prabhakar Rao jokes, “We did not know that we are such good actors in addition to being doctors.” Seventy-twoyear-old Rao had a major surgery last year but he says that will not limit his fight against noise polluters.
    They enjoy these meetings and that is evident when, one by one, the members troop in. Since all of them are doctors, the talk inevitably veers towards the medical problems induced by loud noise. One of the cruelest ironies of life is that noise eventually causes deafness and these doctors only know that too well. “It is now established that noise pollution may rupture the eardrum, and even induce cardiac and cardiovascular changes, fatigue and also cause sleep disturbances, headache and insomnia,” Oke says.
    After the first writ petition filed by Dr Oke and friends, came the landmark Environment Protection Act of 1986, which notified ‘noise’ as a pollutant. It laid down a fine of up to Rs 1,00,000 or imprisonment up to five years or both
    The Maharashtra government, on its part, extended the time limit for loudspeaker use from 11 pm to 11 30 pm, and gave discretionary powers to the Commissioner of Police to extend this even further. Oke and other concerned citizens filed a second writ petition against the state government. Eventually they issued a legal notice to the police commissioners of Mumbai and Pune. A direct fall out was prohibition of loudspeakers from 10 pm to 6 am. Dandiya and other such blaring festivals took a direct hit. But in 2002, the environment ministry hurriedly amended the law permitting loudspeaker use from 10 pm to midnight for 15 designated days in a calendar year for religious and cultural events.
    It is official. In India, God is indeed deaf. But some old people will continue the battle.
ADMISSIONS OPEN
Membership of the Anti Noise Pollution Committee is free.
Dr Oke can be contacted on yeshwantoke@yahoo.com 
    VOICE OF INDIA
Permissible noise level in residential areas: 55 decibels Loud Speaker: 75-115 db Drilling Machine: 90-100 db Vehicles-Horns: 80-84 db Typewriter: 50-60 db

CANNOT FORGET BIMAL ROY

O N LY B I M A L

CANNOT FORGET BIMAL ROY

In this series, we cover unusual groups. Ketan Tanna, this week, profiles a unique club called Bimal Roy Memorial

    Needless to say, all Bimal Roy fans will not fit into a flat, especially a flat in Mumbai. Bengalis would insist that Bimal Roy fans will not fit into Bengal even. But then a house full of extreme fans of the departed film director is a good place to begin.
    In this upscale Bandra flat of his eldest daughter Rinki Bhattacharya, the walls are, inevitably, adorned with posters of classics like Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, Devdas, Sujata, Bandini and Madhumati. In the main living room, nine of the over 150 members of the Bimal Roy Memorial (BRM) sit for one of their frequent meets.
    BRM was founded in 1997. “Our mission is preservation, restoration and acquisition of Bimal Roy’s film prints with other memorabilia such as posters, publicity stills, old contracts, and film related documents,” says Bhattacharya. “The organisation conducts concerts, organises programmes, and felicitates journalists, technicians, performing artistes.” An activity that has truly become a rage is the musical series, Smriti Sandhya, which recreates the nostalgic mood of the black and white age. The response to the first Smriti Sandhya was so huge that police had to be called in.
    Fifty-three-year old Vidhyadhar Kamat points to a still of Do Bigha Zamin, and says with uncontrollable excitement, “Look at the expression of the face of the zamindar and that pleading look on the labourer’s face sitting on the floor. See the composition and the arrogance in the eyes of the zamindar who is smoking a hookah.”
    One of the fans in the room is 60-yearold yoga teacher Danny Pereira, the only member of the BRM, besides Bhattacharya, to have met Bimal Roy. Pereira was in school then and one day he and his friends wandered into the sets of Do Bigha Zamin in Mohan Studio. Roy noticed the school kids and was worried that they had bunked class. He quizzed them. When they assured the director that they had come after finishing school, Roy gave each of them an ice cream and made them feel more comfortable than they already were.
    As the conversations of this chatty group ebbs and flows, a strange character of the Nehruvian age accidentally comes through. Advertising professional Supriya Naiksatam, who is the secretary of BRM, says that her parents did not let her watch films when she was growing up. Another member, 53-yearold Vaijayanti Gupte, a social worker, nods to indicate a common plight. Gupte stayed in a hostel during her student days, but the freedom from parents was not enough to secure the right to watch movies. The only films she was allowed were educational or mythological. After Gupte’s confession arrives the bombshell. Rinki Bhattacharya says that her father, Bimal Roy, too, never allowed her to watch films when she was young.
    Though the members of the BRM do not want to come across as a snobbish clique that criticises the way modern films are made, they cannot resist commenting on the jarring overacting and the enactment of some scenes in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas. Vidhyadhar Kamath says that actor Motilal, who played Chunnilal, Devdas’ friend in the Bimal Roy classic, was subdued and refined compared to Jackie Shroff in Bhansali’s version who, she says, was over the top.
    But they do speak fondly of Bhansali’s gesture of inviting Rinki Bhattacharya to the sets of Devdas. Also, the premier of his version was dedicated to Bimal Roy. They like it when the new generation acknowledges the greatness of the old. Like when Vidya Balan admitted, after a special screening of Roy’s Parineeta, that she was no match for Meena Kumari.
    Bimal Roy’s fans say that his contribution to Hindi Cinema was overshadowed by the showmanship of Raj Kapoor and the newsworthy traumas of Guru Dutt. “Yes, my father never got his due. Maybe because he was not the chatty type nor was he a showman,” says Rinki.
    Bimal Roy might not have got his due but BRM members are determined to preserve his legacy. Funds are always a problem as the annual membership fee of BRM, at Rs 750 to Rs 1100, is nominal. Finding sponsors is a hard task and the government often says it is broke. But Bimal Roy’s fans cannot forsake their dreams. In the future, they see a film appreciation school and a museum dedicated to his
unceasing memory.

CLASSIC MOMENTS BRM members are planning a film appreciation school and a museum in the director’s memory