Appeal from Anna Hazare-Go to MPs homes for peace protest

Dear Indians,

For the first time we are requesting you directly to take some immediate action in the fight against corruption in our country. As by now everyone of you know that the government has rejected "Jan Lokpal Bill". This is a 'U' turn after "All party Meet" at Prime Minister's residence. Why? What has been discussed in this meeting which led the government to boldly change its decision and concern about Shri Anna Hazare? Government says that "let him (Anna) do whatever he does. If Anna wants to continue with his fast, it is his wish".(source Hindustan Times, click here for details)The government which was saying that Anna's health is our first priority suddenly left Anna on his own?

This all happened after all party meet. This means NO PARTY OR POLITICIAN WANTS TO BRING STRICT LOKPAL BILL. Why will they bring this? If a strict Lokpal bill comes in action, "POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT JOBS WILL BE NO MORE LUCRATIVE PROFESSION". We always felt somewhere in our heart that atleast there are few politicians left who want to do good for our country, but we differ on this today.

These ministers and MPs are no special creature but a common person, whom we have elected to serve country. But, they are behaving like dictators. We sincerely request below things:

1st request : Take a leave from your offices, business or any work you are doing. 

2nd request : Go to the homes or offices of the MPs of your areas. 

3rd request : Do not leave the place untill and unless the JAN LOKPAL BILL is passed. 

4th request : In any case do not allow violence to erupt in this movement and abide by law. 

A SELFLESS OLD MAN OF 74 YEARS HAS NOT EATEN FOR PAST 10 DAYS FOR US. GIVE YOUR 10 DAY FOR YOUR COUNTRY, COMING 100 YEARS WILL BE BETTER FOR US. 

Speak Asia updates on 24/08/2011

Dear BizBasket Viewers,

KINDLY GO THROUGH THE FOLLOWING UPDATES FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE SPEAK ASIA PANELISTS ASSOCIATION AS ON 24/08/2011 :

Hello Friends,
Today has been a day of mixed responses but summed up i would say a step ahead in the positive direction.
The day started with the hearing of the PIL which is now being heard along with the earlier criminal PIL filed against the Govt. of Maharashtra that had accused SAOL as being on the verge of committing fraud on lakhs of innocent investors in what they preferred to call a net based fraud.

Without Prejudice i attempt to reduce in writing what i understood from the proceedings, I understood that the Hon. Judges clearly said that they are not at all suggesting or wanting the EOW to investigate SAOL individually, in fact the court is interested to understand the preparedness of the agency to counter any attempt to defraud the gullible Indian investor in any sort of cyber fraud.

The court wanted to understand in detail the procedure to file complaints with the EOW and the systems in place with the EOW like cyber forensics to investigate and to prevent any sort of cyber economic crime.

The court was clear and prounced in the court their main concern was to safe guard the interest of small and marginal investors.

The Associations Advocate Mr. Ahmad Abdi prayed before the Hon. Court for immediate ad interim relief by way that the over Rs. 130 crores seized by the Authorities be deposited with the Hon Court to be held by the court till the same could be disbursed amongst the panelists.

The Company's Advocate Mr. Abaad Ponda requested the Hon. Court that an opportunity be given to the company to defend itself before being termed scamsters.
He even pointed out to the court that how the EOW was misusing the observation made by the Hon. Ladyship, when she had simply made a prima facie observation in the matter, as if it was an order and placed it before various judicial forums while opposing the bail application of the accused (SAOL officials and others).
The advocates of the company urged the Hon. Court to comment that the police investigate the matter independently without taking into account the Hon. Courts observations as earlier passed. The Hon. Court was pleased to make the following observation: : "The police should investigate the matter independently".
This is not an ad verbatim recording of the observation but is close to it in letter and spirit.
After hearing all concerned the court was pleased to instruct the Govt. Of Maharashtra to reply to the post in the next two weeks, and the matter is now posted after two weeks.

We then rushed to to the Thane court where the Bail Application was pre-poned from tomorrow to today.
The Magistrate heard the bail application, but reserved her order till tomorrow as the Investigating Officer of the EOW Bhayander was not available today.
The matter is now posted for tomorrow for orders.
We hope and pray that all will be well tomorrow.

What is PIL ? BizBasket's legal education drive !

What is PIL??

Public interest litigation means litigation for the protection of the public interest. It is litigation introduced in a court of law, not by the aggrieved party but by the court itself or by any other private party. It is not necessary, for the exercise of the court's jurisdiction, that the person who is the victim of the violation of his or her right should personally approach the court. Public interest litigation is the power given to the public by courts through judicial activism. However, the person filing the petition must prove to the satisfaction of the court that the petition is being filed for a public interest and not just as a frivolous litigation by a busy body.

Such cases may occur when the victim does not have the necessary resources to commence litigation or his freedom to move court has been suppressed or encroached upon. The court can itself take cognisance of the matter and proceed suo motu or cases can commence on the petition of any public-spirited individual.

Origin of PIL :

Prior to the 1980s, only the aggrieved party could approach the courts for justice. However, post 1980s and after the emergency era, the apex court decided to reach out to the people and hence it devised an innovative way wherein a person or a civil society group could approach the supreme court seeking legal remedies in cases where public interest is at stake. Justice P. N. Bhagwati and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer were among the first judges to admit PIL's in the court. Filing a PIL is not as cumbersome as any other legal case and there have been instances when even letters and telegrams addressed to the court have been taken up as PIL's and heard by the court.

Examples of PIL :

The Bombay High Court on 31 August 2006 directed the broadcasters to give an undertaking that they will abide by the Cable Television Network Act 1995 as well as the court's orders by tomorrow, in view of larger public interest.

A division bench comprising Justices R M Lodha and S A Bubbey were hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Professor Pratibha Nathani of St Xavier's College alleging that films without certification by the Censor Board for Film Certification (CBFC) allowing 'free public exhibition', were being shown on cable channels, which have a bad impact on children. Hence, such films should not be shown and action be taken against those still running such content on their channels.

The court on 23 August had allowed the cable operators and channels to screen only 'U' and 'U/A' certified films.

However, before that order, the police had taken action against the Multi-system operators and seized their decoders due to which they could not telecast certain channels. Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Apranti told the court that they did not have a problem if the channels provided the cable operators with new decoders.

Also, Zee Television and Star Television networks applied for the declaration in writing that they would abide by the said Act and court orders.

The court also directed seven channels—Star Movies, Star One, Star Gold, HBO, ZEE Movies, AXN and Sony Max—to furnish a list of all the films that they were to screen to the police.

Study on PIL results:

According to a controversial study by Hans Dembowski, PIL has been successful in the sense of making official authorities accountable to civil society organisations. While this social scientist also found some effect on the ground level, PIL cases dealing with major environmental grievances in the Kolkata agglomeration did not tackle underlying problems such as inadequate town planning. Dembowski's book " Taking the State to Court - Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India" was originally published by Oxford University Press in 2001. The publisher, however, soon discontinued distribution because of contempt of court proceedings started by the Calcutta High Court. The author, who claims he was never officially notified by the Court, has since republished the book online with the Germany-based NGO Asia House

Speak Asia Panelist Association Legal Updates

Dear BizBasket Viewers,

PLEASE GO THROUGH THE LATEST LEGAL UPDATES FROM THE SECRETARY OF OUR ASSOCIATION (AISPA). WE REQUEST YOU TO GO THROUGH THE ARTICLE WORD BY WORD AND TAKE ACTION AS REQUESTED IN THE ARTICLE. FRIENDS ! PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT OUR ASSOCIATION IS WORKING EXACTLY LIKE TEAM ANNA IS WORKING FOR THE LOKPAL BILL. OUR UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT AND TRUST TO THIS TEAM IS REQUIRED.

Hello Friends, fellow-Speakasians,

Today was a very busy day and i attempt to report as follows:

It started with my Meeting with the Associations Council Mr. Ahmad Abdiji we had a long conference on various issues. We discussed in detail the present situation and the route ahead. We discussed that the PIL filed by the Association on Saturday i.e. 20^th August, 2011 will now be mentioned before the Chief Justice of the Mumbai High court for admission tomorrow morning at 11:00 am.

We hope that the Associations PIL as filed on 20^th August 2011 be heard by and along with the earlier criminal PIL. We, have agreed, and decided that a RTI application, be filed before the relevant RBI authorities, with the following details.

1. Writ petition (lodg.) No. 1365 0f 2011

Speakasiaonline pte. Ltd. and others. ..Petitioners

Versus

Reserve Bank of India .Respondents

Coram: Dr. D. Y. Chandrachud & Anoop V. Mohta, JJ.

Date: 14^th July, 2011.

The honorable lordships in their order dated 14^th July, 2011, had opined in their order on page 5 para 6 line 2 as follows. Relevant Extract:

“However in the interest of fairness, an opportunity should be granted to the petitioners to submit a representation to the Reserve Bank. Sub section (2) of section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 does in fact contemplate the making of such representation.”

The lordships further in line 11 go on to add as follows:

“We accordingly dispose of this petition by permitting the petitioners to place representations on the record of the Chief General Manager of the Reserve Bank of India, who had issued the circular dated 23^rd May, 2011. In the event that such a representation is made, we would expect the Reserve Bank of India to make a decision in accordance with law. The Reserve Bank of India may furnish an opportunity to the petitioners to explain the contents of the representation in a meeting which may be convened for that purpose”.

The question for the RTI may arise as follows:

• Has the Chief General Manager, RBI been approached by the company Speakasiaonline pte. Ltd. if yes when?
• If Yes, Has the chief General Manager, RBI given an opportunity to the said company to present their business module?
• What was the reason?, on what grounds?, what was the causative action which forced the Chief General Manager to issue the circular dated 23^rd May, 2011?
• Has the meeting been convened as the lordships ordered?

Friends, this is the broad outline and grounds for the RTI application. My advice to all of you is that please arrange proper legal councils, spend money, and get good experienced advocates on board. For any document support send your request to speakasian.ashok@gmail.com with the subject “RTI help”. I am asking you to write to me on my Id only because the speakasia.association@gmail.com is being flooded with the support E mails.

1. Your Committee then met some members of an NGO’s supporting the human rights of people in Maharashtra and made a presentation to them on how lakhs of people who depended solely on the income generated from the SAOL module have been robbed of their legitimate right to earn. By this malicious campaign they have been robbed of the opportunity to their livelihood and respectful existence.
2. The Committee Members then met and decided on the following steps for the immediate future over the next couple of days:
1. Immediate focus is to seek our COO’s Release.
2. We need to see that the Associations PIL is admitted tomorrow.
3. The associations PIL has to be clubbed with the initial PIL and should be heard along with the original PIL.
4. To Launch the Associations own Website thereby providing an Authenticated Forum for the Panelists.
5. To register the association and open the Bank Accounts.
6. The resultant outcome of the hearing of the PIL hopefully on Wednesday i.e. 24^th August, 2011 will decide our future course of action.
3. 
   

As an aside, I wish to mention here that the immediate pre operative expenses are being borne by the office bearers and the committee members on an individual basis. But going forward we may require monetary support from the speakasian family, and we are in the process under advice of legal counsel, deciding how to go about it.

It will not be out of place to mention here that the legal fees of our counsel Adv. Ahmad Abdiji has been paid by your Office bearer by individual cheques.

Tomorrows Agenda is as follows

1. Early Morning meeting of the core committee for E support and website development.
2. Attending the Thane Court where Tarak Sahibs Bail application will be heard.
3. Meeting PR agency to discuss PR activity to fight negative campaign.
4. Collate, and putting material together for Wednesday PIL hearing.