Supreme Proposes : Can e-Courts dispose ?

 

 

Context :

One India /  11 Sept 2020 :

Should convicted politicians be barred for life from contesting polls asks SC

Extract :

Ø  The court was hearing a case to ensure speedy trials in 4,442 criminal cases pending against former and sitting MPs and MLAs across states. The court asked the centre to respond to a new prayer seeking a life ban on politicians convicted of heinous offences from contesting elections

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Business Line / 12 Sept 2020

New norms for publishing candidates’ criminal record

Extract :

Ø  The candidates and political parties will have to publish details of contestants’ criminal antecedents in newspapers and on television first within the first four days of the last date of withdrawal of nominations, the Election Commission decided at a meeting here on Friday.

Ø  In a statement the Commission said that the second publicity for criminal antecedents has to be within five to eight days of the last date of withdrawal of nominations while the third publicity should be from the ninth day till the last day of campaigning, which happens two days before voting day.

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Times of India / 17 Sept 2020

SC direction to expedite trial against legislators is welcome : Govt

Extract :

With 4,442 cases pending against sitting and former MPs and MLAs, the Union government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it would welcome any direction from the court for speeding up the trials in the cases pending for years against elected representatives.

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Times of India / 18 Sept 2020

Send plan within a week to speed up trials of lawmakers: SC  

Extract :

Ø  Setting off alarm bells for chief ministers, MPs and MLAs against whom trials in criminal cases have been pending for years, the Supreme Court , on Thursday asked HCs to submit in a week, action plans to expeditiously complete trial proceedings in 4,442 criminal and corruption cases against sitting and ex-legislators 

Ø  As many as 2,556 cases are pending against sitting MPs and MLAs . Among CMs, Telengana’s K Chandrasekhar Rao leads the telly with 64 criminal cases , followed by Andhra Pradesh’s Y S Jaganmohan Reddy with 38 criminal cases

 

Ø  A bench of Justices N V Ramana, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy asked chief justices of each HC to formulate an action plan on requirement of Special Courts for exclusive trials of criminal cases against sitting and former legislators , while keeping in view following parameters :

#   Total no of pending cases in each district

#   No of Special Courts required for speedy trials

#   Existing number of Special courts

#   No of judges and subject categories of pending cases

#   Tenure of the judges to be designated

#   No of cases to be assigned to each judge

#   Expected time for disposal of cases

#   Distance between the designated courts

#   Requirement of Infrastructure

The Bench also reminded the HC CJs about the 2018 SC judgement which has ruled that if a stay on trial granted by HC was more than 6 months old, then the trial court could proceed with the trial as if there was no stay

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2019 : Nightmare Year ? ………………………………………………….[ 12 Dec 2017 ]

 

Extract :

“ Govt to set up 12 special courts to try 1,581 MPs and MLAs “

Highlights :

·         228………. Members of Parliament to be tried in two special courts

·         13,500 … Approx number of total pending cases

·         1,125 ….. Number of cases that each special court will have to decide in a year

·         242……..  Number of days trial courts normally function in a year

·         4.6………  Ave number of cases per day, each special court will have to dispose off

 

I assume that,

 

·    It will be May 2018 , by the time these Special Courts start working – more than 4 YEARS after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to set up these courts

·    These “ Super Efficient “ courts will refuse to grant any “ Postponement Dates “ to the accused and not only conclude within ONE HOUR ( whether the accused was guilty or not ) but also announce the VERDICT , on the spot ( remember , 4.6 cases / day ? )

·    There cannot be any “ Appeal “ against the judgements of these special courts

·    Some 365 MPs / MLAs ( out of those 1581 accused ) will be found GUILTY

·   The Speakers of the Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha , will get court order copies within 7 days

·   The Speakers will disqualify, within 7 days, those MPs / MLAs who are declared guilty and who have been handed out sentences of 5 years or more

·    The Election Commission will receive these “ Disqualification Notifications “ in 7 days

·    The Election Commission will announce re-election dates within 30 days for seats falling vacant

·    These Elections will start from Dec 2018  and stretch throughout 365 days of 2019

·   To ensure proper / timely availability of Election officers / police / EVMs / polling booths / presiding officers / school-teachers / transport etc , spread over 28 States , no more than ONE ELECTION will be conducted PER DAY ( - one for each of 365 days of 2019 ! )

 

I had envisaged this scenario , as far back as MAY  2014 , in :

AllSeasons Are Election Seasons

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2014/05/all-seasons-are-election-seasons.html

2019 will be a nightmare year , not only for the politicians but also for the voters !

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Now, in past 2 years, how many cases have these 12 Special Courts tried ?

( source : https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/1097-criminal-cases-pending-against-mps-mlas-before-special-courts-centre-tells-/316403  / 11 Sept 2018 )

Extract :

The Ministry of Law and Justice in an affidavit told the court that there are a dozen courts -- six sessions and five magistrate courts (in the case of Tamil Nadu, the class of the court has not been indicated). As many as 1,233 criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs were transferred to these courts.

Of these 1,233 cases, 136 have been disposed of and 1,097 are pending.

The Centre's reply came in response to August 21 order of the top court seeking to know the number of special courts that have been set up following its December 14, 2017 order and the number of cases pending before these courts

=========================================================

At  this rate , how many special Courts would be needed to dispose off all the cases by Dec 2021 ?

How does the following sound ?

Ø  136 cases by 12 courts = 12 cases / court , in one year

Ø  That means 12 courts would need 100 years to dispose off 1233 cases

Ø  Alternately, we need 100 Special Courts to dispose off these 1233 cases in 1 year

Obviously, this just cannot happen ! Central Government has neither the resources nor the WILL , to set up 100 Physical Courts anytime soon !

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So , what is the alternative ?

E Courts , is the only answer

In past few months, we have come across following examples of VIRTUAL GOVERNANCE :

Ø  Supreme Court conducting trials / hearings using Video-Conferencing

Ø  High Courts doing likewise

Ø  Even Lok Sabha allowing MPs to participate remotely

Ø  PM having e-conferences with State Chief Ministers, using Video-Meet

Ø  United Nations General Assembly going VIRTUAL

Ø  May be ( ? ) even World Economic Forum ( WEF )

Ø  EU Ministers, regularly meeting ONLINE

Ø  In India , many companies conducting AGMs , online

Ø  Most “ Service Sector “ companies in India, letting employees to work from home

This trend is bound to accelerate over next few months

With minimum infrastructure and time-loss, we can, easily set up, not just 100 but even 1,000 E-Courts , through launch of a portal { technology already commonplace }

On the same portal , 1,000 judges ( sitting in their homes ) can conduct trials , occupying 1,000 VIRTUAL COURTS

Complainants / Plaintiffs / Lawyers / Witnesses etc., too can log-on from their homes, into their RESPECTIVE / ASSIGNED , COURT-ROOMS [ Perfect Social Distancing ]

Finding 1,000 retired judges within ONE MONTH, cannot be a problem . They will be happy to work from 9 am to 6 pm ( with 30 minutes lunch-break )

I urge Shri Ravishankar Prasadji, to consider my suggestion

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  29 sept 2020

===================================================

Related Readings :

Justice delayed is Justice Denied ……………………[ 12 Dec 2018 ]

https://doj.gov.in/  [  Tele – Law / Reaching the Unreached ]

eCourts Mission Mode Project

 

About e-Committee

========================================================

 

Thank You, Adar Poonawala

 

Thank You, Adar Poonawala

 

 

[ceo.office@cyruspoonawallagroup.com  / contact@seruminstitute.com / michael.vernekar@seruminstitute.com ]

 

Thank you for raising the question that the Government has to answer – sooner than later

Context :

CEO of Serum Institute asks Indian govt: Will it have Rs 80,000 crores available over next one year?  

 

Extract :

 

Ø  "Quick question: will the Government of India have Rs. 80,000 crores available over the next one year ? Because that is what the Ministry of Health needs to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone in India. This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle," Poonawalla said.

 

Ø  "I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide, vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution," he added.

 

Ø  Vaccine manufacturers intend to sell to governments who will then distribute and vaccinate the Covid vaccine. Poonawalla had told IANS in an interview, "It is too early to comment on the vaccine's price.”

 

Ø  However, we will keep it under Rs 1000. Having said that, our aim is to provide an efficacious and affordable vaccine. We are certain that it will be procured and distributed by governments without charge."

 

 

Ø  SII will be making one billion doses of COVISHIELD over the next one year for India and other low-and-middle-income countries (GAVI countries).Once we get necessary regulatory approvals, we will start manufacturing in large volumes.

 

 

Ø  SII has said it will not take profit from the vaccine.

 

     "In the interest of public health and as one of the largest vaccine producers it

      is our  responsibility to make the vaccine affordable for the public at-large,"

      he had said.

      

 

 

===================================================

 

Dear Adar,

 

You ask :

Does Govt have Rs 80,000 Crore ?

 

My answer :

Govt has to find that money NOW , or end up spending 100 times more LATER on looking after / treating millions who will get infected with COVID because they did not / could not, get vaccinated

Your calculations indicate Rs 80,000 Cr for ( say ), 100 crore citizen

That is Rs 800 per vaccine doze

How much “ economic activity “ could we possibly lose if we lose ONE DAY worth of GDP due to 10 crore ( non-vaccinated ) persons getting infected and become “ non-productive “ for 14 days of quarantine ?

In 2019, our GDP was $ 2875 billion = $ 7.9 billion per day ( for 365 days )

That amounts to Rs 55,137 Cr per day !

Hence, we can recover those Rs 80,000 crore in less than 2 days of full economic activity !

 

Here is another way to justify spending Rs 80,000 crore

I am not an economist but do the following calculations make any sense ?

 

Ø  Assume that, out of 100 crore citizen ( to be vaccinated ), only 55 crore persons were “ GDP Producer “ ( employed + self employed )

 

Ø  These 55 crore persons produce Rs 55,137 Cr of GDP per day ( Rs 1,137 per day per person )

 

 

Ø  Due to “non-vaccination / Covid infection “, 10 crore persons remained “ non-productive “ for 14 days each ( = 140 crore man-days loss )

 

Ø  Hence, total GDP loss = Rs 1137 / day  x 140 cr man-days = Rs 159,180 Crore = twice of Rs 80,000 crore to be allotted by the Government !

 ==================================================

As far as :

 

Ø  Deciding the “ priorities “ ( of who should get the vaccine first – second …etc )

Ø   “ Procurement / Distribution “ of the vaccine ,

 

I have sent following e-mails to the Cabinet Ministers / NITI Aayog / State CMs etc :

 

Bill Gates has the same concerns – and similar views  ………[ 25 Sept 2020 ]

 

A Nightmare come true ?   ……………………………………………………[ 18 Sept 2020 ]

 

Rationing of Covid Vaccine ?   ………………………………………………..[ 06 July 2020 ]

 

“ Corona Kavach “ Insurance  …………………………………………………[ 07 July 2020 ]

 An Appeal to DCGI – and others  …………………………………………..[ 09 July 2020 ]

Thank You All   …………………………………………………………………………[ 10 July 2020 ]

 Probabilities  …………………………………………………………………………..[ 19 July 2020 ]

 Congratulations , Sid Chakravarthy  ………………………………………[ 24 July 2020 ]

 Thank You , Cabinet Secretary   ……………………………………………..[ 07 Aug 2020 ]

===================================================

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  27 Sept 2020  

 

 

Bill Gates has the same concerns – and similar views

 

 

Here is what Bill Gates has to say about who should get COVID vaccine first – second – and so on .

Who should get what priority ?

As we get a vaccine approved in the next 4 months, India can play a big role: Bill Gates
Bodhisatva Ganguli , Sept 24 , Economic Times

 

Extract from interview with Bill Gates :

Who should be vaccinated first? How does a country decide that?

A vaccine has two properties. One is that it prevents you from getting sick, and there you’d want to go for elderly people.

The other thing a vaccine does is it reduces transmission, and there, you want to go for the health workers, people in nursing homes, police, teachers in schools...

So, each country is going to have an interesting challenge. (Infosys co-founder) Nandan Nilekani has talked about using the digital infrastructure for people to register that they want the vaccine and fill out some facts, and then hear, okay, who’s a provider nearby and what’s your priority ranking when there’s still those constraints

My big focus has been to make sure the volumes are very high, so these very difficult trade-offs about who should get it become a bit easier, because you just have so much volume that it’s not in super scarce supply.

It will be interesting for India, whether it allows some percentage of the vaccines made in India to go to other developing countries which don’t have these amazing vaccine manufacturers, like India does

===================================================

In my following blog / email , I wrote :

Rationing of Covid Vaccine ?   ……………………………………………………….[ 06 July 2020 ]

 

Who are those “most in need“?

 

 

Ø  People deserving highest priorities are :

 

      Ø  Healthcare Workers ( Doctors – Nurses – Lab Technicians etc )

 

      Ø  Police personnel

 

      Ø  Personnel from Essential Services

 

      Ø  Home Delivery persons…… (  This is not a comprehensive list )

 

How to determine these priorities , scientifically / un-biasedly , for 700 million people ?

 

But , if meticulously compiled and centrally processed ( with help of Artificial Intelligence ), following data, compiled uniformly at source, could determine those

 

 “ VACCINATION  PRIORITIES “ :

 

 

 

[ A ]   PERSONAL  DATA

 

          Ø  Name / Birthdate ( for Age ) / Gendre / Contact Details / Aadhar

              number

 

 

[ B ]   LOCATION  DATA

 

         Ø  Permanent Address / Current Address ( State – Jilla – City – locality ) /

             Red Zone / Containment

 

 

[ C ]   FAMILY  DATA

 

         Ø  Details of Parents / Siblings

 

 

[ D ]  HEALTH  HISTORY

 

         Ø  Details of recent illnesses - morbidity / Medicines given ( including for

             Covid treatment ) / Hospitals where treated / Names & License

             Number of Doctor who treated

             

 

[ E ]   ETHNIC  DATA

 

         Ø  Race / Religion  / Language ( Mother tongue )

 

 

[ F ]  EDUCATIONAL  DATA

 

        Ø  Graduate – Under Graduate – Illiterate etc

 

 

[ G ]  EMPLOYMENT  DATA

 

         Ø  Employed – Unemployed – Self employed

 

[ H ]  INCOME  DATA

 

         Ø  Monthly Income ( to determine whether RICH – MIDDLE CLASS –

             POOR )

 

 

As far as India’s moral obligation to supply the vaccine to other poor counties , here is what I proposed :

      A Nightmare come true ?   ……………………………………..[ 18 Sept 2020 ]

      Extract :

India is claimed to be manufacturing 60 % of the total vaccine production of the entire world ( with allegedly , SERUM INSTITUTE – Pune supplying 50 % of world supply )

That imposes on India, a MORAL RESPONSIBILITY to help out poor / covid affected countries, who do not have their own manufacturing facilities, nor the money to import expensive vaccines made by US-EU etc

At the “ World level “, we cannot dictate other countries what distribution regulation they should adopt

But, nothing stops Central Government from announcing the following RULES for the Indian Vaccine Manufacturers :

Ø    You will email ( to DCGI – Drug Controller General of India / ICMR and the

      Commerce Ministry ), your weekly / monthly, production / sales figures (

      including any vaccines imported in bulk for re-packaging or as vials )

     

    

Ø    You can locally sell vaccine, only to the Central and State Governments (-

      their notified agencies ) under BULK PURCHASE CONTRACTS

      

Ø    In any given month, you will be allowed to EXPORT, 20 % of the dozes that

      you have actually “delivered  “to local governments during the preceding

      month. For such exports, you will need to apply – and obtain  from the

      Commerce Ministry – an EXPORT LICENCE 

           

    ( If you have delivered 10 lakh dozes locally in Nov  2020 , you will be issued

      an export license for exporting 2 lakh dozes in Dec 2020 )

     

Ø   To get an Export License, you will need mention the DESTINATION (

     countries to which exporting ).

     Commerce Ministry will want to ascertain that you are going to export to “

     COVID affected POOR countries “ – and not to RICH countries

     

=================================================

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  26 Sept 2020