RIGHT TO BE HEARD ; AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF
DELIVERANCE OF JUSTICE
The right to be heard is a very important constituent of the principle of natural justice. It not only gives an opportunity to the parties to present their case but also inculcates the confidence of deliverance of justice. There are cases which are based on documentary evidences and right to have personal hearing does not appear to be of significance but still the court has been inclined to grant the right to hearing to the parties because there is no harm in granting such opportunities.
The right to be heard should go unhampered and be effective. In some cases where a party has appeared before a tribunal but has been so hampered in the presentation of the case that it has been held not to have had a hearing.
The second vital component of right to be heard is the sufficient notice to allow for preparation of defense. If a party is given a very short notice of hearing then it is of no consequences towards this right. What is to be construed as short notice or adequate notice is to be judged on the facts & complexity of the case and should be left to the discretions of the tribunal or judges but it has definitely a important bearing on the deliverance of justice. The courts attach such weight to the giving of adequate notice that where tribunals have correctly followed statutory provisions, they will be astute to help a party who did not in fact receive notice.
The right to a hearing and to a adequate notice may still be of little value if the individual does not know the evidences against him. The court proceedings get vitiated and are liable to be set aside if a party has no opportunity during trial to see or hear evidence against him. The right to effective hearing may necessitate adjournment of hearing which should be resorted to. In some cases the courts have recognized limits to right of a party to know the evidence before a tribunal. Thus the public interest in suppressing crime may be invoked to justify withholding the source of information from a party.
The right to cross-examine exists or not will depend upon the gravity and facts of the case. But in the courts in modern time it has been recognized as one of the prime component of the right to be heard. The next moot point is whether there is the right to have delivered the decision from the judge or tribunal who has heard himself the party. This may pose a problem in a society or the large organization because it would not be practicable to ensure this. Therefore in a tribunal or court where the evidences are recorded and the documents are taken on record, it is not necessary for the same person to give decision who has heard in person. A person later on can peruse the evidences and can deliver the decision.
A word of caution has been added by Lord Widgery C.J., although tribunals or courts must be careful to allow a party to put his case fully they are not required to sit “ pinioned in their seats” while a party talks endlessly. Secondly, once that point has been reached the tribunal is entitled to reach its conclusion and announce them. There is no right to be heard a second time.
There is difference of opinion among the experts whether the representation through legal experts entails a right or not. It is also a point of debate whether legal representation facilitates better results or not. In most of the society this is addressed by formulation of legal rules etc. I am of the opinion that in tribunals where law does not restrict, a party may be represented by a person other than lawyer if it suits them otherwise in most of the society the representation through a lawyer has been made enforceable by law.
The process of deliverance of justice demands greater degree of transparency in procedures and process. There is a very old saying that justice should not only be done but it should be seen to be done. This maxim is invoked in cases to see presence of bias or otherwise. Likewise if a party has not been afforded a proper opportunity for hearing then there persists a element of bias since justice is not seen to be done though in reality there may not exist bias. This maxim has similarly been relied on where decisions have been invalidated because the tribunal has received or appeared to receive, evidence in the absence of one of the parties.
This maxim is precisely applicable when the court is concerned not with a case of actual injustice but with the appearance of injustice or possible injustice. In words of Lord Lawton L. J “Doing what is right may still result in unfairness if it is done in the wrong way.” It is a important element in every society to build the public confidence that settlement of dispute in a tribunal or court would be done in just manner and this maxim contributes a lot towards this end. This may take some time extra in deliverance of justice but it is worth doing. Similarly, though the magistrates and administrative bodies are not under obligation of duty to give reason for their decisions but it has now been equally recognized by courts and legislation the desirability to give reasons for their decisions so that justice is not only done but it is also seen to be done.
There are certain circumstances in which the right to be heard does not constitute a right
Like ministerial decisions. Here the application of rules requiring a hearing and impartial
tribunal involves difficulties. The ministerial decision as well as secretarial decision to
initiate the procedure necessary to reach a preliminary conclusion whether to initiate a
inquiry or not OR to assess whether a prima-facie case exists or not are also precluded
from the right to be heard. Lord Denning expressed the view that there remains a
difference between what he called prima facie decision and a final decision. The reason for
this distinction is that the party is going to get an opportunity to present his point of view
before the process to arrive at final decision comes to conclusion.
There is no right to hearing where there is not even a provisional decision or preliminary
proceedings but merely the preparation of evidence to be used later in the making of a
decision. Similarly the witnesses cannot be expected to grant a hearing before giving
evidence to which a party objects. The duty of the tribunal is to reach a decision after
hearing the evidence and comments on it of the opposite party. There do exist a authority
for the proposition that that a body need not follow principles of natural justice if the
question of privilege or license is involved and does not confer the right to be heard but
this distinction has not been found to be attractive distinction. Depending upon the facts
and circumstances of the case, invariably the right to be heard and opportunity to know
the charges do constitute a important component of principle of natural justice.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
EVERYTHIG IS NOT FAIR IN LOVE & WAR- IT IS IN POLITICS
EVERYTHING IS NOT FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR- IT IS IN POLITICS
There is a very old saying- Everything is fair in love & war. I do not know how really this adage was generated but one thing is clear that it justifies the achievements rather than means to achieve. It is loud and clear that in ultimate analysis the only thing which carries any weight is - your goal is to be achieved. Gone are the days when people used to give more importance to the means rather than the goal and the achievement of goal had no significance if means were not proper.
Today politics is redefining this age old adage and has added new dimensions to it. Today everything is fair in politics-Indian Politics. The new mantra is- Everything is fair in politics. Those who dumped the UPA after enjoying the fruits of power for five years were shameless enough to renounce it before election on some pretext or other, have been equally shameless with no compunction to admit their mistakes remorselessly. A politician never admits or accepts a thing in direct manner but they have been very candid to admit their folly with hope that it would provide them another chance to rape the speechless bride which is known as Indian politics. It does not matter to them that just a week back they were fighting tooth & nail against the UPA and when public rejected them then they were quick to declare their support. It is of no consequence to RJD that their three MP who won election have been voted by public against Congress.
Take the example of SP in UP who had supported congress on the issue of no confidence motion on nuclear deal. Then walked out of ruling partner without withdrawing support and fought election against each other. After the declaration of results now again they are professing loyalty and support to new Govt which is to be sworn in. The supremo of ruling party in UP while sensing good number of seats in election had flown to Delhi thinking that now it is her turn to try her luck for the post of PM. They declared support to Left parties in hope to become their nominee for the prime-ministerial post so as to become the rallying point for the discontented elements. I do not think that Congress would be so naïve to align with them so as to embark on the path of suicide.
It does not matter to these actors of Indian politics and they do not mind to join hands with anybody, to collaborate with anybody, to create a filmy scene at centre , to resort to horse trading for grabbing the power because everything is saleable in the market of politics. Every element has a price and that price has to be paid. One will be surprised to listen the logic given by the leaders to justify their unjustified actions like- Politics is the name of uncertainties, everything is possible in politics, politics is the game of searching similarities among dissimilarities , a stable govt is to be provided to the country, nobody is untouchable in politics, we will not allow fundamental and non secular element to form govt, we are committed to secular govt and so on & so on. The problem is that today’s politicians have to grab the power by hook or crook and their immoral actions can be justified by such evasive talks only.
In this country a stage has come when a politician with 10-15 MPs dreams of becoming PM and expects the parties with hundred odd MPs to support him because he knows well his nuisance value. In the game of politics where 51 out of 100 counts 100 and 49 out of 100 counts 0, he knows very well that he can bargain hard because in the event of non formation of govt his loss of 10-15 MPs would be equal to the loss of 100-150 MPs belonging to larger party or the largest party. This theorem extends equal bargaining power in the power game between to highly unequal players. They assume public to be deaf, dumb and blind who can do nothing. They are themselves state leaders who would question them. Had it been for any body other than Shri Sharad Pawar from NCP he would have already shot on his feet like trio others. He judiciously waited till last and then declared his intentions to support new govt. But any body can understand with equal ease that those who were making noises from his party to make him PM ,were actually doing so at his instance only.
We have one politician known by name of Shri Ajit Singh from Lok dal who was quick to judge the trend of blowing wind and was with NDA in pre election time. The results were hardly declared and he could see the writings on the wall loud & clear. Now he has shown interests in leaving NDA and aligning with Congress to join New Govt. It is not difficult to see that the only consideration is to enjoy the fruits of power in the best possible way. The card of secularism is always available for such eventuality and to justify the action any time, anywhere.
How one can forget Leftists who had enjoyed the proximity to power for considerable durations. Then dumped the UPA on the issue of nuclear deal. Even while supporting the Govt their attitude was apparent- To take credit for every right thing done and to shun away responsibility for a unsuccessful thing. Then every now and then coming in the role of mentor cum big brother and making the going get tougher for the ruling partner so as to point finger at them. All this was being done because one thinks that people are not able to judge the real motives and they do not understand all this drama. See what has happened to them now. A party who was claiming before the election till the declaration of results that no govt can be formed without their support and congress may have to support them rather than seeking their support in formation of govt are not able to muster courage to face the media as bravely as they were doing before.
Whatever are the results of election but it is beyond doubt that the verdict given was not anticipated by any party in their wildest thought including the Congress who are now working overtime to point out the gains of hard work of Rahul. Rahul and the congress ,till the other day were busy in wooing the partners for prospective govt till the results were declared. You see how far Indian polity has traveled. It is the responsibility of political parties to give tickets to persons who are with clean image but all of them across the board had given the tickets to candidates with tarnished image and bad credentials. They had found it hard to discard them , after all in order to win election today you need money and muscle power. But this election appears to have set the agenda for the future elections in this country i.e. field the candidates with clean track record or face the consequences. It appears to me that in the time to come this message would be more loud and clear.
One has to appreciate the right thing done by Rahul. The reason for fighting election as a single party in UP and Bihar may have been taken with the view that Congress in these two states was in such a bad condition that there was nothing to loose further. So it was prudent to give a try to this idea. The concept of bringing youths in the politics who are mostly with clean track record has caught the attention of public. In Bihar it could not dent the ruling party since it is already giving good governance with social security & development activities. The people of Bihar have already enough in the past two decades and were eager to see good governance therefore there was no need for a change but in UP it has made all the difference. Irrespective of the claim of ruling party in UP, the state is in pathetic state ,very badly ridden with caste politics, corruption and abuse of power. There people could see a ray of hope in Rahul who was canvassing the transparent and corruption free politics to be judged based on the yardstick of development activities and not on the basis of caste, creed or religion.
I am of the opinion that Rahul is being groomed for the prospective role by Congress and the party stalwarts have not lost any time to see the silver linings in the achievements though they would have praised Rahul in the same manner ,had there been dismal performance by Congress . So there is nothing new if they are in full praise for him when results are good. We have to be candid with the requirements of Congress that they see something abnormal if leader is not from Gandhi family but to country it does not matter as long as a person with clear thought, sincere motives and clean image is at the helm of the affairs to discharge the business. After all one has to occupy that slot. Therefore it is of no consequences to people if Congress is able to delver under the leadership of Gandhi family. Results are needed to be delivered, that’s all.
Rahul has to be appreciated for his moral courage to point out very clearly the biggest malady with which our polity is suffering and that is caste, community, religion based politics wherein development and good governance with clean track records takes back seat. How many of our seasoned and matured politicians do have moral courage to acknowledge this evil and further how many of them have taken steps to contain this evil. At least Rahul has symbolically demonstrated with proof that youths can be trusted for this responsibility and they can a deliver results too. One may argue that if Rahul has to rise to the top post ,he do needs a team of young turks that’s why all this is being done. There is no denial to the fact that he would need a team of younger generation to force his way through the older generation. But then what is wrong in this. Any body in these circumstances would have done the same thing which Rahul is doing.
There do exists a pitfall for Rahul. The Congress party has always been accused of dynastic rule and promotion. It is true also to some extent. I was seeing the team of young MPs with Rahul and I find that most of them are either the scions of old congress men. Some of them has been taken from NSUI which is again a Congress outfit. There is lack of mass appeals to youths of this country. My suggestion would be to bring also those young persons/youths in the organization and politics who have no Godfather, no person to promote them politically or to push their cause, who is a common youth of a common family and should find a place in the Congress Organizational structure, party, set up. If this happens then a very common youth of this country would identify himself with Rahul, young Congress and this would produce miracle not only for Rahul, Congress but also for country.
We know from history that a Chandra Gupta Maurya in making needs a Chankya, kautilya. The present team of Rahul does not seem to gave one fit for this role. If Rahul takes my advice, though I am no body, it would be better the sooner he gets his Chankya because without kautilya a Chandra Gupta can not be born. Why cann’t Congress devise a screening procedure for the youths of this country on the line of Civil Services competitive exams and selects common youth for the party to be finally selected through their interview at final stage. It may be a good food for thought. I do not see anything wrong in this if it generates confidence in me that irrespective of very common family background of mine ,I have opportunity to rise in politics and fulfill my political aspirations, if found suited for this job. Let politics be a profession in the true sense otherwise at present it is a business in reality.
There is a very old saying- Everything is fair in love & war. I do not know how really this adage was generated but one thing is clear that it justifies the achievements rather than means to achieve. It is loud and clear that in ultimate analysis the only thing which carries any weight is - your goal is to be achieved. Gone are the days when people used to give more importance to the means rather than the goal and the achievement of goal had no significance if means were not proper.
Today politics is redefining this age old adage and has added new dimensions to it. Today everything is fair in politics-Indian Politics. The new mantra is- Everything is fair in politics. Those who dumped the UPA after enjoying the fruits of power for five years were shameless enough to renounce it before election on some pretext or other, have been equally shameless with no compunction to admit their mistakes remorselessly. A politician never admits or accepts a thing in direct manner but they have been very candid to admit their folly with hope that it would provide them another chance to rape the speechless bride which is known as Indian politics. It does not matter to them that just a week back they were fighting tooth & nail against the UPA and when public rejected them then they were quick to declare their support. It is of no consequence to RJD that their three MP who won election have been voted by public against Congress.
Take the example of SP in UP who had supported congress on the issue of no confidence motion on nuclear deal. Then walked out of ruling partner without withdrawing support and fought election against each other. After the declaration of results now again they are professing loyalty and support to new Govt which is to be sworn in. The supremo of ruling party in UP while sensing good number of seats in election had flown to Delhi thinking that now it is her turn to try her luck for the post of PM. They declared support to Left parties in hope to become their nominee for the prime-ministerial post so as to become the rallying point for the discontented elements. I do not think that Congress would be so naïve to align with them so as to embark on the path of suicide.
It does not matter to these actors of Indian politics and they do not mind to join hands with anybody, to collaborate with anybody, to create a filmy scene at centre , to resort to horse trading for grabbing the power because everything is saleable in the market of politics. Every element has a price and that price has to be paid. One will be surprised to listen the logic given by the leaders to justify their unjustified actions like- Politics is the name of uncertainties, everything is possible in politics, politics is the game of searching similarities among dissimilarities , a stable govt is to be provided to the country, nobody is untouchable in politics, we will not allow fundamental and non secular element to form govt, we are committed to secular govt and so on & so on. The problem is that today’s politicians have to grab the power by hook or crook and their immoral actions can be justified by such evasive talks only.
In this country a stage has come when a politician with 10-15 MPs dreams of becoming PM and expects the parties with hundred odd MPs to support him because he knows well his nuisance value. In the game of politics where 51 out of 100 counts 100 and 49 out of 100 counts 0, he knows very well that he can bargain hard because in the event of non formation of govt his loss of 10-15 MPs would be equal to the loss of 100-150 MPs belonging to larger party or the largest party. This theorem extends equal bargaining power in the power game between to highly unequal players. They assume public to be deaf, dumb and blind who can do nothing. They are themselves state leaders who would question them. Had it been for any body other than Shri Sharad Pawar from NCP he would have already shot on his feet like trio others. He judiciously waited till last and then declared his intentions to support new govt. But any body can understand with equal ease that those who were making noises from his party to make him PM ,were actually doing so at his instance only.
We have one politician known by name of Shri Ajit Singh from Lok dal who was quick to judge the trend of blowing wind and was with NDA in pre election time. The results were hardly declared and he could see the writings on the wall loud & clear. Now he has shown interests in leaving NDA and aligning with Congress to join New Govt. It is not difficult to see that the only consideration is to enjoy the fruits of power in the best possible way. The card of secularism is always available for such eventuality and to justify the action any time, anywhere.
How one can forget Leftists who had enjoyed the proximity to power for considerable durations. Then dumped the UPA on the issue of nuclear deal. Even while supporting the Govt their attitude was apparent- To take credit for every right thing done and to shun away responsibility for a unsuccessful thing. Then every now and then coming in the role of mentor cum big brother and making the going get tougher for the ruling partner so as to point finger at them. All this was being done because one thinks that people are not able to judge the real motives and they do not understand all this drama. See what has happened to them now. A party who was claiming before the election till the declaration of results that no govt can be formed without their support and congress may have to support them rather than seeking their support in formation of govt are not able to muster courage to face the media as bravely as they were doing before.
Whatever are the results of election but it is beyond doubt that the verdict given was not anticipated by any party in their wildest thought including the Congress who are now working overtime to point out the gains of hard work of Rahul. Rahul and the congress ,till the other day were busy in wooing the partners for prospective govt till the results were declared. You see how far Indian polity has traveled. It is the responsibility of political parties to give tickets to persons who are with clean image but all of them across the board had given the tickets to candidates with tarnished image and bad credentials. They had found it hard to discard them , after all in order to win election today you need money and muscle power. But this election appears to have set the agenda for the future elections in this country i.e. field the candidates with clean track record or face the consequences. It appears to me that in the time to come this message would be more loud and clear.
One has to appreciate the right thing done by Rahul. The reason for fighting election as a single party in UP and Bihar may have been taken with the view that Congress in these two states was in such a bad condition that there was nothing to loose further. So it was prudent to give a try to this idea. The concept of bringing youths in the politics who are mostly with clean track record has caught the attention of public. In Bihar it could not dent the ruling party since it is already giving good governance with social security & development activities. The people of Bihar have already enough in the past two decades and were eager to see good governance therefore there was no need for a change but in UP it has made all the difference. Irrespective of the claim of ruling party in UP, the state is in pathetic state ,very badly ridden with caste politics, corruption and abuse of power. There people could see a ray of hope in Rahul who was canvassing the transparent and corruption free politics to be judged based on the yardstick of development activities and not on the basis of caste, creed or religion.
I am of the opinion that Rahul is being groomed for the prospective role by Congress and the party stalwarts have not lost any time to see the silver linings in the achievements though they would have praised Rahul in the same manner ,had there been dismal performance by Congress . So there is nothing new if they are in full praise for him when results are good. We have to be candid with the requirements of Congress that they see something abnormal if leader is not from Gandhi family but to country it does not matter as long as a person with clear thought, sincere motives and clean image is at the helm of the affairs to discharge the business. After all one has to occupy that slot. Therefore it is of no consequences to people if Congress is able to delver under the leadership of Gandhi family. Results are needed to be delivered, that’s all.
Rahul has to be appreciated for his moral courage to point out very clearly the biggest malady with which our polity is suffering and that is caste, community, religion based politics wherein development and good governance with clean track records takes back seat. How many of our seasoned and matured politicians do have moral courage to acknowledge this evil and further how many of them have taken steps to contain this evil. At least Rahul has symbolically demonstrated with proof that youths can be trusted for this responsibility and they can a deliver results too. One may argue that if Rahul has to rise to the top post ,he do needs a team of young turks that’s why all this is being done. There is no denial to the fact that he would need a team of younger generation to force his way through the older generation. But then what is wrong in this. Any body in these circumstances would have done the same thing which Rahul is doing.
There do exists a pitfall for Rahul. The Congress party has always been accused of dynastic rule and promotion. It is true also to some extent. I was seeing the team of young MPs with Rahul and I find that most of them are either the scions of old congress men. Some of them has been taken from NSUI which is again a Congress outfit. There is lack of mass appeals to youths of this country. My suggestion would be to bring also those young persons/youths in the organization and politics who have no Godfather, no person to promote them politically or to push their cause, who is a common youth of a common family and should find a place in the Congress Organizational structure, party, set up. If this happens then a very common youth of this country would identify himself with Rahul, young Congress and this would produce miracle not only for Rahul, Congress but also for country.
We know from history that a Chandra Gupta Maurya in making needs a Chankya, kautilya. The present team of Rahul does not seem to gave one fit for this role. If Rahul takes my advice, though I am no body, it would be better the sooner he gets his Chankya because without kautilya a Chandra Gupta can not be born. Why cann’t Congress devise a screening procedure for the youths of this country on the line of Civil Services competitive exams and selects common youth for the party to be finally selected through their interview at final stage. It may be a good food for thought. I do not see anything wrong in this if it generates confidence in me that irrespective of very common family background of mine ,I have opportunity to rise in politics and fulfill my political aspirations, if found suited for this job. Let politics be a profession in the true sense otherwise at present it is a business in reality.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
SLOWDOWN IN INDIAN ECONOMY;MEASURES TO CHECK
SLOWDOWN IN INDIAN ECONOMY; MEASURES TO CHECK
The slowdown in economy is a global phenomena. The reasons causing it may have more similarity across the board but the remedy has to be different and distinct to each country’s economy due its own peculiarity. Therefore this article would be restricted to the measures needed to check slowdown in Indian economy. I am not an economist but do have grasp of basics of economics. It is open to the economists of the country to go into details of knitty-gritty of this problem but one thing is clear in my mind that this issue should be understood by a common educated Indian citizen.
Before we proceed further it is worthwhile to know few peculiarities of Indian economy. The GDP of India is 85% dependent on domestic production and 15% on export. The share of service sector has been increasing for the last two decades while the share of industry & agriculture sector in GDP has been decreasing. At present the service sector accounts for 50% of GDP while industry & agriculture sector accounts for 25% of GDP each. The growth in service sector has been very fast as compared to growth in agriculture sector though the 58% of population is still agriculture based society. Further, the BPO( business process outsourcing) sector growth has been more than 50% on year to year basis which is highly imbalance as compared to growth in other sectors with in the service sector.
The inflation had risen to the range of 11-12% till the second quarter of 2008 then it has cooled down to below 1% and even to Pt 18% by the mid of Apr 2009. It has been clearly the sign of over heated Indian economy. The Indian rupee was valued as low as Rs 39 per USD before rising to Rs 51 per USD. When the USD was at its low that time US did not restrict the outsourcing in the service sector but the moment it has become strong the laws are enacted to discourage the outsourcing in the service sector, particularly IT industry. All these indicators points toward a over heated & over rated Indian economy heading towards slowdown.
The targeted growth rate of GDP in 2010-11 was 10% but it was as low as 4.8% in Sep 08. The Central Bank in India now expects it to be around 6.0% in 2009-10 due to global cues. The strain of slow down in global economies on Indian economy has been very evident and the earliest indicator was reflected in the sharp downfall of sensex. Thereafter there were signs of less demands in automobiles & industry sector, shortfall in jobs requirements, job cuts in IT and BPO sector, delay of payments in international markets from developed economies & US particularly in IT sector, Liquidity crunch in Indian market etc. Though it is a fact that GDP of India is largely dependent on domestic markets but it would be incorrect to assume that liquidity crunch in the international market will not affect Indian economy adversely at home.
The unorganized sector in India is facing acute unemployment problems due to drastic reduction of demand in international market like diamond cutting, jewellery and leather industry etc. Even the organized sector like automobile, petrochemicals, steels, cements, airlines and hospitality have faced acute job shortages and there has been sharp cuts in the work force in these sectors. As an estimation , the organized sector has lesser jobs by 30% as compared to the demands during the corresponding period of last year. The share market all over the world has been a bloodied field with the shaken confidence of investors. The Indian share market has been a lucrative destination for gain by the Foreign Institutional Investors due to prevailing less lending interest rates in the developed countries till the recent collapse. The sudden sale of shares by FII en- block in very short span of time had led to huge loss of money by a common investor and the Indian share market had come to the floor. This indicates that more effective checks are required to be enforced by SEBI on the FII and Foreign Direct Investments(FDI).
The diagnostic symptoms of slowed down economy would also lead to the measures to be adopted for cure . This problem is needed to be addressed on two fronts. One is to stimulate demands in the Indian market through government investments which is like giving oxygen to the patient. The other is to increase liquidity in the Indian market which will increase the demands for production, increase in requirements of work force and reduction in job cuts which can be accelerated with the cuts in duty and taxes. It is needless to say that none of these two measures would be effective in isolation to sustain the Indian economy and therefore the combination of these two types of measures in concurrent manner intermittently would be needed to revamp the Indian economy.
In order to stimulate the demand in Indian market, RBI had included 20000 crore rupees in Dec 08 and had further raised rupees 3 lakh crore liquidity in the market through cuts in rates. The banks & non-banking financial companies were made available 75000 crore and state govts were allowed additional market borrowing of rupees 30000 crore. To address the liquidity crunch in the Indian economy RBI had announced the cuts in the Repo rates and Reverse Repo rates and brought it down to 3.25% & 4.75% respectively. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) was also brought down to 5% and interest rates on borrowings were reduced which was made possible due to the less rate of inflation.
These measures would definitely increase the fiscal deficit as compared to the planned targets but all these steps are undoubtly the right one taken at the right time. Though after the formation of new govt at centre we may find all types of hue & cry in Indian news media if the present govt is replaced by other political parties but these steps were utmost essential to sustain the Indian economy onslaught inflicted by global slow down .Keeping in view the decline in investments through FII , govt has rightly allowed 100% FDI on the automatic route though this measure will have its own constraint for being effective due to liquidity problems with banks in other developed countries.
I am of the opinion that SEBI should constitute one more system of checks & balances where the trading price of a share is regulated based on their book value as well as earnings per share in the previous quarter and the trading prices should not be allowed to go beyond a predetermined P/E ratio. This P/E ratio should be calculated sector-wise with regards to prevailing P/E ratios in other derivative markets. The witnessed loss of money in Indian share market is catastrophic considering the fact that in India 27 % of population still lives below poverty line and the indicator for being above poverty line is only earning of Rs 10 per day per person or Rs 3650 per year for a person.
The 70 % of US economy depends on the consumer spending and US itself accounts for 25 % of GDP of world. That’s why the boost in consumer spending in US which is possible only after restoration of consumer’s confidence will not only effectively check the slow down in US economy by generation of demands interalia production interalia job requirements but would also play a important role in bringing the other country’s economy on path of growth like the much needed oxygen. It would be the responsibility of the concerned govts to pump in govt investments in the market to create liquidity & demand in the market till the market becomes self sustainable. Similarly it is equally important for the second and third world countries like India, China, Mexico etc to pump in stimulants in the market so that their economy does not bleed to death by the time much needed oxygen is supplied by US economy on its recovery from the economic slowdown.
The slowdown in economy is a global phenomena. The reasons causing it may have more similarity across the board but the remedy has to be different and distinct to each country’s economy due its own peculiarity. Therefore this article would be restricted to the measures needed to check slowdown in Indian economy. I am not an economist but do have grasp of basics of economics. It is open to the economists of the country to go into details of knitty-gritty of this problem but one thing is clear in my mind that this issue should be understood by a common educated Indian citizen.
Before we proceed further it is worthwhile to know few peculiarities of Indian economy. The GDP of India is 85% dependent on domestic production and 15% on export. The share of service sector has been increasing for the last two decades while the share of industry & agriculture sector in GDP has been decreasing. At present the service sector accounts for 50% of GDP while industry & agriculture sector accounts for 25% of GDP each. The growth in service sector has been very fast as compared to growth in agriculture sector though the 58% of population is still agriculture based society. Further, the BPO( business process outsourcing) sector growth has been more than 50% on year to year basis which is highly imbalance as compared to growth in other sectors with in the service sector.
The inflation had risen to the range of 11-12% till the second quarter of 2008 then it has cooled down to below 1% and even to Pt 18% by the mid of Apr 2009. It has been clearly the sign of over heated Indian economy. The Indian rupee was valued as low as Rs 39 per USD before rising to Rs 51 per USD. When the USD was at its low that time US did not restrict the outsourcing in the service sector but the moment it has become strong the laws are enacted to discourage the outsourcing in the service sector, particularly IT industry. All these indicators points toward a over heated & over rated Indian economy heading towards slowdown.
The targeted growth rate of GDP in 2010-11 was 10% but it was as low as 4.8% in Sep 08. The Central Bank in India now expects it to be around 6.0% in 2009-10 due to global cues. The strain of slow down in global economies on Indian economy has been very evident and the earliest indicator was reflected in the sharp downfall of sensex. Thereafter there were signs of less demands in automobiles & industry sector, shortfall in jobs requirements, job cuts in IT and BPO sector, delay of payments in international markets from developed economies & US particularly in IT sector, Liquidity crunch in Indian market etc. Though it is a fact that GDP of India is largely dependent on domestic markets but it would be incorrect to assume that liquidity crunch in the international market will not affect Indian economy adversely at home.
The unorganized sector in India is facing acute unemployment problems due to drastic reduction of demand in international market like diamond cutting, jewellery and leather industry etc. Even the organized sector like automobile, petrochemicals, steels, cements, airlines and hospitality have faced acute job shortages and there has been sharp cuts in the work force in these sectors. As an estimation , the organized sector has lesser jobs by 30% as compared to the demands during the corresponding period of last year. The share market all over the world has been a bloodied field with the shaken confidence of investors. The Indian share market has been a lucrative destination for gain by the Foreign Institutional Investors due to prevailing less lending interest rates in the developed countries till the recent collapse. The sudden sale of shares by FII en- block in very short span of time had led to huge loss of money by a common investor and the Indian share market had come to the floor. This indicates that more effective checks are required to be enforced by SEBI on the FII and Foreign Direct Investments(FDI).
The diagnostic symptoms of slowed down economy would also lead to the measures to be adopted for cure . This problem is needed to be addressed on two fronts. One is to stimulate demands in the Indian market through government investments which is like giving oxygen to the patient. The other is to increase liquidity in the Indian market which will increase the demands for production, increase in requirements of work force and reduction in job cuts which can be accelerated with the cuts in duty and taxes. It is needless to say that none of these two measures would be effective in isolation to sustain the Indian economy and therefore the combination of these two types of measures in concurrent manner intermittently would be needed to revamp the Indian economy.
In order to stimulate the demand in Indian market, RBI had included 20000 crore rupees in Dec 08 and had further raised rupees 3 lakh crore liquidity in the market through cuts in rates. The banks & non-banking financial companies were made available 75000 crore and state govts were allowed additional market borrowing of rupees 30000 crore. To address the liquidity crunch in the Indian economy RBI had announced the cuts in the Repo rates and Reverse Repo rates and brought it down to 3.25% & 4.75% respectively. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) was also brought down to 5% and interest rates on borrowings were reduced which was made possible due to the less rate of inflation.
These measures would definitely increase the fiscal deficit as compared to the planned targets but all these steps are undoubtly the right one taken at the right time. Though after the formation of new govt at centre we may find all types of hue & cry in Indian news media if the present govt is replaced by other political parties but these steps were utmost essential to sustain the Indian economy onslaught inflicted by global slow down .Keeping in view the decline in investments through FII , govt has rightly allowed 100% FDI on the automatic route though this measure will have its own constraint for being effective due to liquidity problems with banks in other developed countries.
I am of the opinion that SEBI should constitute one more system of checks & balances where the trading price of a share is regulated based on their book value as well as earnings per share in the previous quarter and the trading prices should not be allowed to go beyond a predetermined P/E ratio. This P/E ratio should be calculated sector-wise with regards to prevailing P/E ratios in other derivative markets. The witnessed loss of money in Indian share market is catastrophic considering the fact that in India 27 % of population still lives below poverty line and the indicator for being above poverty line is only earning of Rs 10 per day per person or Rs 3650 per year for a person.
The 70 % of US economy depends on the consumer spending and US itself accounts for 25 % of GDP of world. That’s why the boost in consumer spending in US which is possible only after restoration of consumer’s confidence will not only effectively check the slow down in US economy by generation of demands interalia production interalia job requirements but would also play a important role in bringing the other country’s economy on path of growth like the much needed oxygen. It would be the responsibility of the concerned govts to pump in govt investments in the market to create liquidity & demand in the market till the market becomes self sustainable. Similarly it is equally important for the second and third world countries like India, China, Mexico etc to pump in stimulants in the market so that their economy does not bleed to death by the time much needed oxygen is supplied by US economy on its recovery from the economic slowdown.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
EXPEDIENCY IS THE WORD OF THE DAY
EXPEDIENCY IS THE WORD OF THE DAY
The urbanization is taking its toll in our day- to-day life. No one has time to pause and think. The general & popular mantra is to see behind and move forward, so no scope for innovation or concern or personal touch. Nowadays the personal touch is also accorded in the business like manner and promptly signified through packaging for utmost mileage otherwise it looses its relevance because the memory of people is too short. In some sense the short memory is good also otherwise life of a person will become so tense that he would not be able to pull along the life.
You must have noticed the scene in a park or ground where a politician or a dignitary is scheduled for a lecture or visit. Before the D- day, the screening of area is done, survey is carried out by security personnel, the area is sealed and various works for protection is carried out. Then snuffer dog squad sanitize the area prior to the visit and finally the visit takes place. What happens after the visit? The area bears the deserted look as if no one cares for it. It does not matter to anybody that some miscreants may take a round of the area , may carry out even photographic survey and can wait for a easy prey next time who would in no way be less important then the previous one. But who cares?
Take another example. The foundation stone for a new building is to be laid out by a renowned person so before this not only the ground is purified by sprinkling sacred water but the place as well as all the implements are also offered worship by priest prior to use. What happens afterwards? Let me tell you, If the area is not isolated by the barbed wire or fencing you would not find even the inaugural stone and the very next morning you would find people and animals attending to the nature’s call over it.
I happened to attend a mahayagya by the side of Ganges in Allahabad sometimes back which was to be conducted by the one hermit of repute. I would not take his name. During the puja and hawan , all the God & Godess were summoned to that hawan- kund and were given offerings by way of Ahuti. After conclusion of the puja, all God & godess were requested to go back to their respective Places ,in Hindi it is called loks. After that there was a feast which was attended by thousands of people and prasad was taken by everybody. Then every body dispersed after touching the ground by forehead at hawan-kund. Now the hawan-kund was open to its real claimants and there was no body else. The dogs had the feast after their masters, after all the loyalty of a dog is undisputed and at many times it has been found to be more than that of the human beings. Next morning the same drama starts again. The remaining Ahuti and the ashes were taken out of kund in the most sanctimonious way and then taken to the river Ganga for immersion. You must have noted that without dumping the dirt in river Ganga no purification takes place. And we do this with utmost religiosity. I do not know that how long we will keep on generating dirt in the society and the sacred river would keep on cleansing our dirt as it has been doing since time immemorial.
Why I am taking examples of religious activity ? It is because this is the activity which we do with utmost sanctity, devotion and care. At other places the situation is bad to worse. Recently I was attending the inauguration of a fate by a dignitary. As usual, no new work commences without the worship of Ganesh ji- God known to dispel negative influence and bad omen. The priest was aware of the requirements but was oblivious to the availability of a statue of Ganesh ji. We all know that necessity is the mother of invention, so it took place. A burning lamp, in Hindi it is called diya, was ignited and kept on the ground assuming it to be incarnation of Ganesh ji. Everybody was very religious at that point of time with folded hands and closed eyes concentrating on Ganesh ji in the form of diya. After that a rock was put on the ground duly sanctified which was worshipped and finally a coconut was broken over it.
Now guess what happened subsequently. Everybody present there had actually very short memory, so every body forgot that the burning lamp is still lying on the ground along with the sanctified rock and the broken coconut to which they were worshiping just now. People were going crossing it, over it, with every body attentive towards the VIP and the God, who was summoned to propitiate the ceremony seconds before ,was still lying on the ground. After some time I turned back and found a lady sitting on the ground, struggling to lift that lamp below the feet of people with the intention to shift it at a separate ,proper place. The lamp was hot and it was little bit difficult to shift it. That stupid priest was standing like a dumb as if remembering something , lost in thought to figure out as to how that lamp has been there.
If in a crowd of 200-250 people , you find it hard to find a person who is sensitive to this very evident requirements & facts then you can very well imagine that in which type of mindset we people are living. That’s why in this country it is very easy to find a good temple built by a wealthy businessman but it is equally difficult to find it properly maintained subsequently. It is altogether different matter that a very pompous ceremony takes place for installation of deity and more grand ceremony is organized for its inauguration by a VIP or minister or industrialist who puts a plaque proudly stating- this temple has been constructed by so & so….. OR this temple is inaugurated by so & so…
In this country of millions, God also needs donation by a mortal being created by himself for his residence and needs a introduction too like issue of identity card in the form of a plaque proudly affixed on the gate of temple at a prominent place. Thanks to the Department of Registrar of Birth & Death who does not come to God asking for his birth registration certificate and the affidavit needed for registration when He is born……. Good
The urbanization is taking its toll in our day- to-day life. No one has time to pause and think. The general & popular mantra is to see behind and move forward, so no scope for innovation or concern or personal touch. Nowadays the personal touch is also accorded in the business like manner and promptly signified through packaging for utmost mileage otherwise it looses its relevance because the memory of people is too short. In some sense the short memory is good also otherwise life of a person will become so tense that he would not be able to pull along the life.
You must have noticed the scene in a park or ground where a politician or a dignitary is scheduled for a lecture or visit. Before the D- day, the screening of area is done, survey is carried out by security personnel, the area is sealed and various works for protection is carried out. Then snuffer dog squad sanitize the area prior to the visit and finally the visit takes place. What happens after the visit? The area bears the deserted look as if no one cares for it. It does not matter to anybody that some miscreants may take a round of the area , may carry out even photographic survey and can wait for a easy prey next time who would in no way be less important then the previous one. But who cares?
Take another example. The foundation stone for a new building is to be laid out by a renowned person so before this not only the ground is purified by sprinkling sacred water but the place as well as all the implements are also offered worship by priest prior to use. What happens afterwards? Let me tell you, If the area is not isolated by the barbed wire or fencing you would not find even the inaugural stone and the very next morning you would find people and animals attending to the nature’s call over it.
I happened to attend a mahayagya by the side of Ganges in Allahabad sometimes back which was to be conducted by the one hermit of repute. I would not take his name. During the puja and hawan , all the God & Godess were summoned to that hawan- kund and were given offerings by way of Ahuti. After conclusion of the puja, all God & godess were requested to go back to their respective Places ,in Hindi it is called loks. After that there was a feast which was attended by thousands of people and prasad was taken by everybody. Then every body dispersed after touching the ground by forehead at hawan-kund. Now the hawan-kund was open to its real claimants and there was no body else. The dogs had the feast after their masters, after all the loyalty of a dog is undisputed and at many times it has been found to be more than that of the human beings. Next morning the same drama starts again. The remaining Ahuti and the ashes were taken out of kund in the most sanctimonious way and then taken to the river Ganga for immersion. You must have noted that without dumping the dirt in river Ganga no purification takes place. And we do this with utmost religiosity. I do not know that how long we will keep on generating dirt in the society and the sacred river would keep on cleansing our dirt as it has been doing since time immemorial.
Why I am taking examples of religious activity ? It is because this is the activity which we do with utmost sanctity, devotion and care. At other places the situation is bad to worse. Recently I was attending the inauguration of a fate by a dignitary. As usual, no new work commences without the worship of Ganesh ji- God known to dispel negative influence and bad omen. The priest was aware of the requirements but was oblivious to the availability of a statue of Ganesh ji. We all know that necessity is the mother of invention, so it took place. A burning lamp, in Hindi it is called diya, was ignited and kept on the ground assuming it to be incarnation of Ganesh ji. Everybody was very religious at that point of time with folded hands and closed eyes concentrating on Ganesh ji in the form of diya. After that a rock was put on the ground duly sanctified which was worshipped and finally a coconut was broken over it.
Now guess what happened subsequently. Everybody present there had actually very short memory, so every body forgot that the burning lamp is still lying on the ground along with the sanctified rock and the broken coconut to which they were worshiping just now. People were going crossing it, over it, with every body attentive towards the VIP and the God, who was summoned to propitiate the ceremony seconds before ,was still lying on the ground. After some time I turned back and found a lady sitting on the ground, struggling to lift that lamp below the feet of people with the intention to shift it at a separate ,proper place. The lamp was hot and it was little bit difficult to shift it. That stupid priest was standing like a dumb as if remembering something , lost in thought to figure out as to how that lamp has been there.
If in a crowd of 200-250 people , you find it hard to find a person who is sensitive to this very evident requirements & facts then you can very well imagine that in which type of mindset we people are living. That’s why in this country it is very easy to find a good temple built by a wealthy businessman but it is equally difficult to find it properly maintained subsequently. It is altogether different matter that a very pompous ceremony takes place for installation of deity and more grand ceremony is organized for its inauguration by a VIP or minister or industrialist who puts a plaque proudly stating- this temple has been constructed by so & so….. OR this temple is inaugurated by so & so…
In this country of millions, God also needs donation by a mortal being created by himself for his residence and needs a introduction too like issue of identity card in the form of a plaque proudly affixed on the gate of temple at a prominent place. Thanks to the Department of Registrar of Birth & Death who does not come to God asking for his birth registration certificate and the affidavit needed for registration when He is born……. Good
Friday, May 1, 2009
RECESSION IN WORLD ECONOMY- AN INDICATOR TO TAKE LESSONS
RECESSION IN WORLD ECONOMY- AN INDICATOR TO TAKE LESSONS
Nowadays a lot of hue & cry is there about the slow down in economy in various countries. To be frank, I have not understood all this. The slow down in economy is primarily of two types- one is known as depression and another is known as recession. The depression do have a longer time effect as compared to recession for its continuance as well as recovery. The depression has to do with the problems in economy with in infrastructural domain while recession is concerned with market driven economy linked with share market. The share market experts treat recession as a healthy sign for a phase of one to two year after a bullish phase of three to five years. Then the natural question is – If it is so then why so much hue & cry for a normal phenomena which is bound to happen?
To understand this, you may have to first know the forces in play in today’s world which drive a economy. The world economy today is not in that phase which it used to be two or three decades ago. To understand this, take a few examples. The Ford motors used to manufacture cars right from the stage of manufacturing steels to every components of car to their assembling till marketing. Now the Maruti Suzuki gives franchise to various concerns for manufacturing small parts, establishes ancillary units for certain components and remains limited to assembly lines and marketing network. The Boeing company though retains the proprietary rights but a Boeing airliner is assembled from major inputs from partners in seven countries.
Take another example of Nike shoes which is produced by assembling components from independent suppliers from nine countries under Nikes coordination in Asian factories. Nike is “merely” a designer, a coordinator of a global supply chain encompassing 800,000 workers worldwide. Now the pre-requisites is to possess the core competence with proprietary rights and having partners occupying other parts of value chain. Therefore today Nike specialises in designing & marketing only and resorts to outsourcing the production of shoes to other partners.
Dossany & Kenney after concluding their study of US economy while studying the recession in the economy have opined that US needs to move up the workers in its chain the economic ladder to make them to work on creative tasks like design & marketing. Today the industry functions on the fundamentals of co-operations and networking. The outsourcing does not remain limited to a particular areana in a chain of productuion line but it brings along with it the complete gamut of complicacy linking to various subchains , minor production lines, marketing and designing network which are linked to each other like a web.
The outsourcing has resulted into jobs going to foreign countries as assessed for the US economy and the blue collars jobs are being replaced by the jobs demanding specialized skills like designing etc. Today most of the international giant corporations do have their design hub in developed countries or US but the manufacturing is carried out in countries like China , Mexico, Bangladesh etc due to availability of cheap human skilled or semi-skilled labour needed for the job. The internet has played a very significant role in this scenario where a designer is available online to do a similar job at the tenth of the cost with same efficiency and is able to send the designs very quickly online. The leading economies while formulating the blue print of diversification & decentralization of production line had decided to retain the designing and marketing expertise had failed to appreciate the potential of internet web which may crash their economy by snatching the specialized white collar jobs and paralyzing their economy.
Today the fear psychosis is playing in the mind of developed countries to loose the future jobs of designing and the core competence to the internet generated market if it is not checked in time for the reason that the production line has already been outsourced to developing & under developed countries. It would not help them even if they restore back the production line to the developed countries since it would not be commercially viable due to reduced cost of production on account of cheap labour available in second or third world countries to do the manual jobs. Though the immigration policy of developed countries have been able so far in keeping job seekers from developing world out of developed world but how would they check the invasion of internet snatching their white collar jobs.
The above deliberation highlights few salient features of modern day economy-
a) The economy of various countries are linked to each other inseparably today and are susceptible to the inter transfer of good or bad happenings from one economy to another.
b) The outsourcing has increased the role of developing & under developed economies in today’s world.
c) The developed countries are going through a fear psychosis that their specialized and white collar jobs would be lost to the third world countries. These sentiments are high in the share markets and uncertainty prevails in the mind of investors.
Now the need is to understand the role of share market in the world economy. Today every company raises money through public participation by issue of shares . It is needless to say that the public sentiments do affect the share market. The rise or fall of price of a share is primarily governed by the demand and supply equation of share purchase or sale which is linked to prevailing sentiments in the market. The role of media is also important because they have the capability to spread the news which subsequently shapes the public opinion. The cost of shares in the market governs the market capital of a company. Though there are yardsticks to assess the book value of a share but P/E component ( price of share to earning per share) is totally dependent on the demand and supply of shares rather than the demand & supply of goods being manufactured by the company. That’s why we see that a particular share trades at 10 or 15 times of its valuation regardless of the actual profit. The cost of the production has very little role in determining the trading price of a share which ultimately governs the overall valuation of share market in a given country.
Hence it is clear that performance of a company is always based on the performance of shares in the market though it is not the actual representative of the assets of company. The growth of economy as reckoned in public sentiments today is more based on the market driven factors rather than the other financial yardsticks. When the market was in the bullish phase and market sentiments were high on positive notes then no one had bothered that the production , demand of products has not been raised as many times as the valuation of company and cost of shares has arisen. Then the GDP of country was also rising with ever high growth rate in economy. But when the market has entered in bearish phase and the market sentiments are negative , the share prices have crashed in all the countries so do the various countries economies then every body appears to make noises about it. Does this downfall in economy real? I can answer in short that the downfall is as much real as the rise was.
No one would dispute that the market sentiments do affect the production of industries because if market sentiments are hurt then the demand of product decreases. But does the demand really decrease in the same proportion the share has reduced in its valuation? The answer is no, never. We have to understand that the demand in shares depends upon the number of times a share is sold & purchased which means that if somebody rotates this cycle ten times then it would be counted as demand of ten units in share market while in reality the demand of product in market would be that much unit which is actually sold after manufacture. This applies to service sector also like IT industry, Consultancy etc but to the limited extent because here the human skills is concerned and no materialistic evaluation can be carried out as in the case of FMCG, OIL& GAS sector etc. It is clear that in share market the virtual demand is generated which results into hyped share prices and therefore any valuation of worth of a company or soundness of economy based on share market prices is bound to generate a virtual money, virtual assets as well as virtual growth which is bound to be different from the real growth, factors. This virtual money is like a bubble which has volume but not the weight so it is bound to be deflated.
The role of traders, lending rate prevalent in a country, interest rates payable on loan and bank deposits, role of FII, role of international mutual & hedge funds do also contribute to drive the prices of shares in market which has very little to do with the valuation based on the actual demand/supply of product and cost of production. The component of black money in circulation in a given country and avenues available for its investments do also have a role to play in the valuation of trading prices of shares. But all these factors do not contribute towards actual growth of economy. It is also now being realized that though the outsourcing of blue collar jobs by developed countries to third world countries reduces the cost of manufacturing, raises the profit component per share but it does not creates jobs. This a important factor to indicate that in today’s world economy the employment is not generated though the cost and valuation of economy keeps on rising to the great extent, if market is in bullish phase.
The testimony to this virtual phenomena is that the second & third world economies are least affected by the present meltdown and the economies of the first world are worst affected. Whosoever had gained more has lost more too in the downward trend of market. The market valuation of worth in trading of shares in every country has been down from half to one fifth of the peak valuation. It means that money has been lost in every country and in total in this world. Then the first concern is that where from that much money was generated when market was at peak and then afterwards where has it gone when market is plummeted. Does it mean that value or amount of money lost in capital has been taken away by some ALIENS out of this world? Definitely not. Then what is the fun all about this?
I can conclude that money has gone to the same place where from it had come earlier which means it was virtual money with virtual gain and the loss is also virtual. But such phenomena do affect adversely the world economy because a common investor when calculates his prices of shares from the peak valuation ,he thinks that the difference in valuation has been his loss interalia this phenomena shakes the confidence of a common investor and the markets goes into the bearish phase due to the negative sentiments and loss of confidence in the market/economy. The U S market controls approximately 25 percent of world GDP therefore any rise or fall in US economy do affect other countries. In today’s world of media & internet connectivity vis- a -vis dependence of various countries on US economy due to outsourcing, it is seen that any negative sentiments in public in US do influence other economies with cascading effects. Therefore the rise and fall are very steep and linked to US economy. Presently the US economy is passing through very bad phase of recession generated due to its policies of outsourcing to third world countries , investment in the law and order situation of other countries, diplomatic investments in certain countries and failure to sustain the desired economic growth in their own country. Their inability to fight the increasing unemployment accentuated due to loss of white collar jobs of specialized skills and inability to retain effectively the core competence of the value chain being lost to the other country due to internet invasion has further worsened the public sentiments in US.
The restoration of US economy and the positive sentiments of US people would again pull their economy out of recession and may indirectly contribute towards the positive sentiments of people of other countries in the market. This may again result into the cascading effect of generating confidence in investors rescuing the world market and putting it again on bullish phase and growth. Then slowly the loss of money in the world economies will start recovering and probably higher peak then the previous one would be achieved by the market but this is the time to take lessons, take remedial measures and be aware of the pitfalls of share market driven world economy. Untill this happens, world economies and world market would remain in the melted down state with valuation of market and shares in the devalued form.
Nowadays a lot of hue & cry is there about the slow down in economy in various countries. To be frank, I have not understood all this. The slow down in economy is primarily of two types- one is known as depression and another is known as recession. The depression do have a longer time effect as compared to recession for its continuance as well as recovery. The depression has to do with the problems in economy with in infrastructural domain while recession is concerned with market driven economy linked with share market. The share market experts treat recession as a healthy sign for a phase of one to two year after a bullish phase of three to five years. Then the natural question is – If it is so then why so much hue & cry for a normal phenomena which is bound to happen?
To understand this, you may have to first know the forces in play in today’s world which drive a economy. The world economy today is not in that phase which it used to be two or three decades ago. To understand this, take a few examples. The Ford motors used to manufacture cars right from the stage of manufacturing steels to every components of car to their assembling till marketing. Now the Maruti Suzuki gives franchise to various concerns for manufacturing small parts, establishes ancillary units for certain components and remains limited to assembly lines and marketing network. The Boeing company though retains the proprietary rights but a Boeing airliner is assembled from major inputs from partners in seven countries.
Take another example of Nike shoes which is produced by assembling components from independent suppliers from nine countries under Nikes coordination in Asian factories. Nike is “merely” a designer, a coordinator of a global supply chain encompassing 800,000 workers worldwide. Now the pre-requisites is to possess the core competence with proprietary rights and having partners occupying other parts of value chain. Therefore today Nike specialises in designing & marketing only and resorts to outsourcing the production of shoes to other partners.
Dossany & Kenney after concluding their study of US economy while studying the recession in the economy have opined that US needs to move up the workers in its chain the economic ladder to make them to work on creative tasks like design & marketing. Today the industry functions on the fundamentals of co-operations and networking. The outsourcing does not remain limited to a particular areana in a chain of productuion line but it brings along with it the complete gamut of complicacy linking to various subchains , minor production lines, marketing and designing network which are linked to each other like a web.
The outsourcing has resulted into jobs going to foreign countries as assessed for the US economy and the blue collars jobs are being replaced by the jobs demanding specialized skills like designing etc. Today most of the international giant corporations do have their design hub in developed countries or US but the manufacturing is carried out in countries like China , Mexico, Bangladesh etc due to availability of cheap human skilled or semi-skilled labour needed for the job. The internet has played a very significant role in this scenario where a designer is available online to do a similar job at the tenth of the cost with same efficiency and is able to send the designs very quickly online. The leading economies while formulating the blue print of diversification & decentralization of production line had decided to retain the designing and marketing expertise had failed to appreciate the potential of internet web which may crash their economy by snatching the specialized white collar jobs and paralyzing their economy.
Today the fear psychosis is playing in the mind of developed countries to loose the future jobs of designing and the core competence to the internet generated market if it is not checked in time for the reason that the production line has already been outsourced to developing & under developed countries. It would not help them even if they restore back the production line to the developed countries since it would not be commercially viable due to reduced cost of production on account of cheap labour available in second or third world countries to do the manual jobs. Though the immigration policy of developed countries have been able so far in keeping job seekers from developing world out of developed world but how would they check the invasion of internet snatching their white collar jobs.
The above deliberation highlights few salient features of modern day economy-
a) The economy of various countries are linked to each other inseparably today and are susceptible to the inter transfer of good or bad happenings from one economy to another.
b) The outsourcing has increased the role of developing & under developed economies in today’s world.
c) The developed countries are going through a fear psychosis that their specialized and white collar jobs would be lost to the third world countries. These sentiments are high in the share markets and uncertainty prevails in the mind of investors.
Now the need is to understand the role of share market in the world economy. Today every company raises money through public participation by issue of shares . It is needless to say that the public sentiments do affect the share market. The rise or fall of price of a share is primarily governed by the demand and supply equation of share purchase or sale which is linked to prevailing sentiments in the market. The role of media is also important because they have the capability to spread the news which subsequently shapes the public opinion. The cost of shares in the market governs the market capital of a company. Though there are yardsticks to assess the book value of a share but P/E component ( price of share to earning per share) is totally dependent on the demand and supply of shares rather than the demand & supply of goods being manufactured by the company. That’s why we see that a particular share trades at 10 or 15 times of its valuation regardless of the actual profit. The cost of the production has very little role in determining the trading price of a share which ultimately governs the overall valuation of share market in a given country.
Hence it is clear that performance of a company is always based on the performance of shares in the market though it is not the actual representative of the assets of company. The growth of economy as reckoned in public sentiments today is more based on the market driven factors rather than the other financial yardsticks. When the market was in the bullish phase and market sentiments were high on positive notes then no one had bothered that the production , demand of products has not been raised as many times as the valuation of company and cost of shares has arisen. Then the GDP of country was also rising with ever high growth rate in economy. But when the market has entered in bearish phase and the market sentiments are negative , the share prices have crashed in all the countries so do the various countries economies then every body appears to make noises about it. Does this downfall in economy real? I can answer in short that the downfall is as much real as the rise was.
No one would dispute that the market sentiments do affect the production of industries because if market sentiments are hurt then the demand of product decreases. But does the demand really decrease in the same proportion the share has reduced in its valuation? The answer is no, never. We have to understand that the demand in shares depends upon the number of times a share is sold & purchased which means that if somebody rotates this cycle ten times then it would be counted as demand of ten units in share market while in reality the demand of product in market would be that much unit which is actually sold after manufacture. This applies to service sector also like IT industry, Consultancy etc but to the limited extent because here the human skills is concerned and no materialistic evaluation can be carried out as in the case of FMCG, OIL& GAS sector etc. It is clear that in share market the virtual demand is generated which results into hyped share prices and therefore any valuation of worth of a company or soundness of economy based on share market prices is bound to generate a virtual money, virtual assets as well as virtual growth which is bound to be different from the real growth, factors. This virtual money is like a bubble which has volume but not the weight so it is bound to be deflated.
The role of traders, lending rate prevalent in a country, interest rates payable on loan and bank deposits, role of FII, role of international mutual & hedge funds do also contribute to drive the prices of shares in market which has very little to do with the valuation based on the actual demand/supply of product and cost of production. The component of black money in circulation in a given country and avenues available for its investments do also have a role to play in the valuation of trading prices of shares. But all these factors do not contribute towards actual growth of economy. It is also now being realized that though the outsourcing of blue collar jobs by developed countries to third world countries reduces the cost of manufacturing, raises the profit component per share but it does not creates jobs. This a important factor to indicate that in today’s world economy the employment is not generated though the cost and valuation of economy keeps on rising to the great extent, if market is in bullish phase.
The testimony to this virtual phenomena is that the second & third world economies are least affected by the present meltdown and the economies of the first world are worst affected. Whosoever had gained more has lost more too in the downward trend of market. The market valuation of worth in trading of shares in every country has been down from half to one fifth of the peak valuation. It means that money has been lost in every country and in total in this world. Then the first concern is that where from that much money was generated when market was at peak and then afterwards where has it gone when market is plummeted. Does it mean that value or amount of money lost in capital has been taken away by some ALIENS out of this world? Definitely not. Then what is the fun all about this?
I can conclude that money has gone to the same place where from it had come earlier which means it was virtual money with virtual gain and the loss is also virtual. But such phenomena do affect adversely the world economy because a common investor when calculates his prices of shares from the peak valuation ,he thinks that the difference in valuation has been his loss interalia this phenomena shakes the confidence of a common investor and the markets goes into the bearish phase due to the negative sentiments and loss of confidence in the market/economy. The U S market controls approximately 25 percent of world GDP therefore any rise or fall in US economy do affect other countries. In today’s world of media & internet connectivity vis- a -vis dependence of various countries on US economy due to outsourcing, it is seen that any negative sentiments in public in US do influence other economies with cascading effects. Therefore the rise and fall are very steep and linked to US economy. Presently the US economy is passing through very bad phase of recession generated due to its policies of outsourcing to third world countries , investment in the law and order situation of other countries, diplomatic investments in certain countries and failure to sustain the desired economic growth in their own country. Their inability to fight the increasing unemployment accentuated due to loss of white collar jobs of specialized skills and inability to retain effectively the core competence of the value chain being lost to the other country due to internet invasion has further worsened the public sentiments in US.
The restoration of US economy and the positive sentiments of US people would again pull their economy out of recession and may indirectly contribute towards the positive sentiments of people of other countries in the market. This may again result into the cascading effect of generating confidence in investors rescuing the world market and putting it again on bullish phase and growth. Then slowly the loss of money in the world economies will start recovering and probably higher peak then the previous one would be achieved by the market but this is the time to take lessons, take remedial measures and be aware of the pitfalls of share market driven world economy. Untill this happens, world economies and world market would remain in the melted down state with valuation of market and shares in the devalued form.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
INDIAN OSCAR FOR SALE
INDIAN OSCAR FOR SALE
There is no Indian Oscar. Nowadays the trend is to feature Be- car. Any body can see it in news media, internet etc, etc. Initially I thought it is something like Os-car. Could it be a Ad name for a mobile ? No no, not Nokia or something. I mean the transport, car to say. Recently we have been talking of Nano… of course car. Then a well wisher reminded me that there is no company manufacturing a car which is being marketed under the brand name of OS but he was kind enough to agree with me that he can not guarantee me that in future no company would market a car under the brand name of OS.
How there can be Oscar from India? Yeah.. I also thought there is something wrong somewhere. We are still in the learning process of knowing the technical know-how of bagging a international award in the field of creative art. Any body would agree with me that we have proved ourselves to be a good learner and have already started showing the encouraging results. On my part I have observed that unless we have some international tags or appendices attached to a book or film, it does not qualify for considerations for international recognition. So very quickly we have been experimenting in the fusion technique like East meets West. Any student of chemistry will tell you that the fusion process releases more energy as compared to fission process.
Does it really matter to us if there is no Oscar constituted by us? We do have Oscar winning gems. In our country they are as good as Oscar itself. Otherwise also it has been a country where we are always inclined to idolatry; Be it politics, education, cinema, tv or anything else. We make out the personality bigger than the institution itself. We simple hearted Indians are ever- ready like the torch to light a personality so much so that the very footing granting legitimacy & recognition is forgotten. So in the same manner, the Oscar is forgotten but we do remember the personality concerned and cultivate a personality cult. Thats why today we are talking so much of Rubina Ali, a poor girl put up on sale by her poorly rich father aspiring to make himself rich and we do not talk of the contribution of Rubina Ali as Latika to the award winning film- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
This is a film on Dogs who live in a slum and will subsequently become millionaire after the film would bag something like known as Oscar. But I think I am getting rude here. Actually , in reality now these are the gods of slums who dream of their good days like Rubina Ali alias Latika. In this way a social regeneration would be brought in our society and living standard of an average Indian will improve. The inflation has already come down close to zero but the things are still as costly as they were ever been. These slum dwelling children will have satisfaction some day that they have done their lot to improve the miserable condition of their parents.
There is nothing surprising what Rubinas father has been doing. As per the logical conclusion, according to him he will not only secure the future of his prodigical child but will also secure a comfortable living for himself and his family. It is totally immaterial that Rubina is a minor child and do live with her step-mother and father. I wonder that things would have been totally different had she been living with her own mother. It is natural that Rubina will not understand all this. Anyway, nobody is asking her too.
This is what happens when a person gets rich and famous overnight. It becomes very difficult for him to digest all this. It is too much . We have been listening the story of a carpenter since our childhood who got insane when he tumbles down to a underground khazana in a jungle. Do you see a difference between a mother selling her new born child for 50 rupees alongwith a square meal in order to save the child and herself both though a doubt must be lurking in her psyche that the girl child may even land up in a brothel when grown up. But off course she would be alive to see the light of the day otherwise child will not survive. As compared to a situation when a father sells her child for two hundred thousand pound in the name of better future for herself and himself both.
Actually I see a difference which is marked with immorality, greed and killer instinct. After all in this country the farmers have been committing suicide to get rid off their loans so there is nothing unusual if by selling a poor girl the destiny of a complete family is secured. As usual the children are so innocent that they can not even sense the real motives behind the apparent motives. The pictures of a poor girl who was sitting against the wall comfortably in a room totally unaware of talks of two ladies to kill her because she was a kidnapped child and police was after them continues eating the given chocolates and sees towards them very innocently even when one of them approach her with a pillow in her hand to suffocate her,.. The poor girl dies swiftly without even knowing what has happened. The culprit lady was found to be a murderer of several children in Pune, was apprehended with her accomplice and sentenced the penality perhaps the death sentence to account for her sins.
These photos were haunting the conscience & psyche of every Indian household some 10-12 years back who were not able to sleep comfortably at night and all had taken a sigh of relief with sense of satisfaction when the ladies were booked under Indian Penal Code for their deeds. So the Rubina Ali is also as innocent as any 8 year old child enjoying the comfort of a five star hotel while her father finalises the deal of his lifetime and making a innocent comment that my house in which we all seven live is as large as toilet in hotel and continues drinking her strawberry milkshake & ice-cream as if nothing unusual is happening.
The Life has come to a complete circle when we compare this incident to the fact that Madonna, the star, intends to adopt a poor child from a poor Indian parents so as to give the child a better tomorrow.
There is no Indian Oscar. Nowadays the trend is to feature Be- car. Any body can see it in news media, internet etc, etc. Initially I thought it is something like Os-car. Could it be a Ad name for a mobile ? No no, not Nokia or something. I mean the transport, car to say. Recently we have been talking of Nano… of course car. Then a well wisher reminded me that there is no company manufacturing a car which is being marketed under the brand name of OS but he was kind enough to agree with me that he can not guarantee me that in future no company would market a car under the brand name of OS.
How there can be Oscar from India? Yeah.. I also thought there is something wrong somewhere. We are still in the learning process of knowing the technical know-how of bagging a international award in the field of creative art. Any body would agree with me that we have proved ourselves to be a good learner and have already started showing the encouraging results. On my part I have observed that unless we have some international tags or appendices attached to a book or film, it does not qualify for considerations for international recognition. So very quickly we have been experimenting in the fusion technique like East meets West. Any student of chemistry will tell you that the fusion process releases more energy as compared to fission process.
Does it really matter to us if there is no Oscar constituted by us? We do have Oscar winning gems. In our country they are as good as Oscar itself. Otherwise also it has been a country where we are always inclined to idolatry; Be it politics, education, cinema, tv or anything else. We make out the personality bigger than the institution itself. We simple hearted Indians are ever- ready like the torch to light a personality so much so that the very footing granting legitimacy & recognition is forgotten. So in the same manner, the Oscar is forgotten but we do remember the personality concerned and cultivate a personality cult. Thats why today we are talking so much of Rubina Ali, a poor girl put up on sale by her poorly rich father aspiring to make himself rich and we do not talk of the contribution of Rubina Ali as Latika to the award winning film- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
This is a film on Dogs who live in a slum and will subsequently become millionaire after the film would bag something like known as Oscar. But I think I am getting rude here. Actually , in reality now these are the gods of slums who dream of their good days like Rubina Ali alias Latika. In this way a social regeneration would be brought in our society and living standard of an average Indian will improve. The inflation has already come down close to zero but the things are still as costly as they were ever been. These slum dwelling children will have satisfaction some day that they have done their lot to improve the miserable condition of their parents.
There is nothing surprising what Rubinas father has been doing. As per the logical conclusion, according to him he will not only secure the future of his prodigical child but will also secure a comfortable living for himself and his family. It is totally immaterial that Rubina is a minor child and do live with her step-mother and father. I wonder that things would have been totally different had she been living with her own mother. It is natural that Rubina will not understand all this. Anyway, nobody is asking her too.
This is what happens when a person gets rich and famous overnight. It becomes very difficult for him to digest all this. It is too much . We have been listening the story of a carpenter since our childhood who got insane when he tumbles down to a underground khazana in a jungle. Do you see a difference between a mother selling her new born child for 50 rupees alongwith a square meal in order to save the child and herself both though a doubt must be lurking in her psyche that the girl child may even land up in a brothel when grown up. But off course she would be alive to see the light of the day otherwise child will not survive. As compared to a situation when a father sells her child for two hundred thousand pound in the name of better future for herself and himself both.
Actually I see a difference which is marked with immorality, greed and killer instinct. After all in this country the farmers have been committing suicide to get rid off their loans so there is nothing unusual if by selling a poor girl the destiny of a complete family is secured. As usual the children are so innocent that they can not even sense the real motives behind the apparent motives. The pictures of a poor girl who was sitting against the wall comfortably in a room totally unaware of talks of two ladies to kill her because she was a kidnapped child and police was after them continues eating the given chocolates and sees towards them very innocently even when one of them approach her with a pillow in her hand to suffocate her,.. The poor girl dies swiftly without even knowing what has happened. The culprit lady was found to be a murderer of several children in Pune, was apprehended with her accomplice and sentenced the penality perhaps the death sentence to account for her sins.
These photos were haunting the conscience & psyche of every Indian household some 10-12 years back who were not able to sleep comfortably at night and all had taken a sigh of relief with sense of satisfaction when the ladies were booked under Indian Penal Code for their deeds. So the Rubina Ali is also as innocent as any 8 year old child enjoying the comfort of a five star hotel while her father finalises the deal of his lifetime and making a innocent comment that my house in which we all seven live is as large as toilet in hotel and continues drinking her strawberry milkshake & ice-cream as if nothing unusual is happening.
The Life has come to a complete circle when we compare this incident to the fact that Madonna, the star, intends to adopt a poor child from a poor Indian parents so as to give the child a better tomorrow.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
AUR SHANOO CHALI GAYE
AUR SHANOO CHALI GAYE…… Have you heard? Yes, there was some news and the the news channel were screaming at their full throttle. You know since there has been proliferation of news channels they have mushroomed like anything. They just create hype about anything& then all of sudden forget everything about that issue as if all the substance has been extracted. Is this not a new brand of yellow journalism? This needs deliberations in our society, that in the name of freedom of speech and fourth state which form of journalism is to be encouraged.
But the point is that Shanoo chali gayeee. Who is she? Shanoo represents the section of society who has no face, no voice, underprivileged & deprived who can be found anywhere like wild grass- weeds, you know. Shanoo is one of the millions of children who are abused most in nowadays advanced society. Here the social engineering works and every child has more or less same tale to tell irrespective of their strata to which they belong in our highly fragmented society. Our society is trying to tune in multilayer system wherein every layer has lateral & longitudinal movement against each other. Thanks to our social engineers who are known by the name of politician. They owe a lot to this fate of achievement.
So who has the time to think about Shanoo but let me tell you that Shanoo is still alive. There are millons in our society awaiting their fate. Have you seen a young poor girlchild in a metropolitan city going on the streets in chilly winter morning along with her mother to work in a household to wash the dirty utensils, cloths? Yeah, now here you are – she is Shanno. It matters to whom that since 4 AM in the morning she is awake and has already walked 3 to 4 km to get to nearest public transport. And it does matter altogather to anybody that after work she has to rush back to her school at 7 30 AM where she studies in a govt school run by our government in seat and will have midday meal there which is distributed daily but most of the time on papers. Her parents cannt afford to send her to a public or private school. What to talk of this? They cannot send her to school even if Shanno does not earn her school fees by working as house maid.
I happen to pass daily to the nearby busstand after the office hours and stop for a cup of tea in the roadside dhaba. There I usually find Shanno washing the glasses, bringing the tea, taking orders of butter toast and frying it on the pane as if it would have been her life on the fryingpan itself. Anyway one day I ventured to ask her that when she would go to home? Prompt was the reply. Sahaeb- you mean that chawl which you call drainside slum. Sahaeb that is not our home, infact we do not have any home. We just go their to sleep. My father also comes in the late night very high in spirit, I do not know what he says to my mother. He drags her to a corner who is half asleep due to running around all along the day. Then they do something like wrestling . Sahaeb I do not have time to watch all that. After all I have to get up early, 4 AM to go to school. Why so early? The govt school opens up at 9 AM. Nahi sahaeb, Memsahaeb has to go to public school at 7 30 AM to teach , so I have to reach there at 5 AM for the kitchen cleaning. That is our school. If I do not go there then how will I go to Sarkari Pathshala. Sahaeb hum to school nahi jate hai, school jise public school kahte hai waha to memsahib jati hai .
I was thinking that till now this Shanno has told me a lot of stories but she has not replied my question. I could not restrain myself and asked Shanno how old are you? Very prompt was the reply- Sahaeb, in this winter I will be eight years old. OK, When is your birthday? Sahaeb , in my school it has been written as 1 July because school are opened after summer vacation that time but my mother says that it was in winter when I was birn but no one remembers the actual date. I was reminded in my mind the original question and asked hurriedly before I could miss my bus. Shanno, when will you go home? She replied today I have to go to pedestrian way near my chawl because abba has not paid hafta to that policewallah so today we will sleep on the roadside pedestrian way. My mother comes around 7 PM daily after completing the household works in the locality houses and then she picks me up. Shanno, you will be happy then that now you will sleep at your pathway in the open sky be watching stars. Yes, but one more thing is to be done, I have to cook the chapaties for dinner and which we will eat . If lucky then my mother will bring the sparable curry given by memsahaeb otherwise we have have lot of salt at our home. I preferred to take leave of Shanno otherwise I would miss the bus. While getting on the bus ,I was thinking that only people like Shanno do eat the salt of our country. Thanks God, at least somebody is there…
Have you seen Vikash? No. He is Shanno brother younger by one year. The surprising fact is that they manage this gap very meticulously. Just one year gap. So the vikash has not started going to sarkari pathshala but has already been getting the lessons of life. Vikash father goes at 11 AM for work- a ragpicker. He cannt go earlier because it is difficult for him to get up early. He is a hardfast socialite, meets his friends daily in the Chameli bars and invariably gets delayed to get home. So Vikash father takes him along and leaves him near the traffic signal where he remains through out the day- cleaning the cars windows which stops there, showing them Shani Bhagwan Statue in the afternoon, selling 3 PM papers and begging in the evening hours till 9 PM when her mother will pick up him too. Where does VIkash take lunch? What is this? Yae kya hota a Sahaeb. Khana, Khana Kab Khate ho?. Oh Sahaeb ,we take khana in the night before going to sleep . If we do not take Khana then how do we work?
There is one more friend of Vikash who remains with him through out the day. His name is Tommy. This name sounds strange. Yes, he is Doggy , the best friend of Vikash. Vikash was happy to tell me the story when they both had befriended. Some two year back, Vikash used to live on the railway station with his mother. That time the father was not there. He does not know that where his father had gone that time but Vikash had noted that in those days Shanno too was not there with him. So the mother and son used to beg on the station. One day so happened that Vikash was asking for money from a traveller on train. That time that man had thrown the little basket containing left over puri and sabji. This was the golden opportunity for Vikash so he rushed towards that little basket to catch hold of it. That very moment Tommy was also nearby and tried to snatch the basket. Then there was little skirmish between them but after a moment Vikash thought not to fight with Tommy and they both happily & friendly had shared their booty. Since then both are good friend and there has been no let up on this account till today. Vikash remembers that then one man with a girl had come to his mother. And slowly they both became friendly like Tommy has been with him. That is how Vikash got a sister Shanno, father and friend Toomy . All five of them then had moved to railway station drainside chawl. Vikash has been happy since then.
But today Shanno has gone. Vikash is not able to understand that after coming from school, that’s too after two days –why she has been sleeping in impeccable white sheet? He will fight with her mother that this partiality in not good. He has been asking for a new bedsheet for last one year but it was not given to him but today she had given it to her instead to sleep. Vikash is confused also because his mother is constantly weeping and father is sitting in police station for last two days.
Shanno had all the desire to study, read and become a big sahaeb like Mensahaeb where she had been working but she has not returned from the school at all. Will she remain ther forever? This is not good, Vikash will fight with her that he also needs her company to play with her. How can she remain in school for forever? Will Vikash really be able to fight with Shanno?We all know the answer that no, now vikash cannot fight with Shanno. In fact now he wont be able to fight with Shanno ever. KAUKI SHANNO CHALI GAYE HAI.
We have to think that what sort of society we wish to leave for our future generations. The most deprived section of the society is CHILDREN. Nobody thinks of them .We do care for them , love them, pamper them but we never think to take their views. Ever we ask them that what opinion thay hold about a particular issue, happenings. What is their choice for a particular issue? We always assume on our own that he is a child and there is no need to ask him. We commit all sorts of violence to them not only physical but we do rape their emotions. While making them to study and obey some command, we thrash them too without any second thought.. Are they not citizens? Are they not entitled to basic fundamental rights like Right to living etc. When we cannot thrash a grown up person – how it is so that we thrash them very easily and get away with our crime. Even nobody notices.
Let me tell you that the children are the most vulnerable to physical and sexual harrasement. The childrens sexual abuse is a very burning problem with large enormity. The children are mostly abused sexually by there own so called uncle, aunti, bhayai and so on. They are susceptible to this type of abuse because they do not understand it and are easily intimated or induced into some form of allurement like choclate or toys or anything like that.
Our society do have a moral responsibility to check child abuse and this problem has to be effectively tackled if we want to see a better tomorrow. The children should be granted elementary fundamental rights for free secondary& tertiary education, free healthcare, protection against hunger , protection from domestic violence & sexual abuse.
Let us see that Shanno lives in our society like we are living and no more a Shanno is subject to that gruesome fate whish one of them has met.
NOTE- THE ABOVE NARRATION IS BASED ON REALTY AND NOT FICTION. SO THINK…
But the point is that Shanoo chali gayeee. Who is she? Shanoo represents the section of society who has no face, no voice, underprivileged & deprived who can be found anywhere like wild grass- weeds, you know. Shanoo is one of the millions of children who are abused most in nowadays advanced society. Here the social engineering works and every child has more or less same tale to tell irrespective of their strata to which they belong in our highly fragmented society. Our society is trying to tune in multilayer system wherein every layer has lateral & longitudinal movement against each other. Thanks to our social engineers who are known by the name of politician. They owe a lot to this fate of achievement.
So who has the time to think about Shanoo but let me tell you that Shanoo is still alive. There are millons in our society awaiting their fate. Have you seen a young poor girlchild in a metropolitan city going on the streets in chilly winter morning along with her mother to work in a household to wash the dirty utensils, cloths? Yeah, now here you are – she is Shanno. It matters to whom that since 4 AM in the morning she is awake and has already walked 3 to 4 km to get to nearest public transport. And it does matter altogather to anybody that after work she has to rush back to her school at 7 30 AM where she studies in a govt school run by our government in seat and will have midday meal there which is distributed daily but most of the time on papers. Her parents cannt afford to send her to a public or private school. What to talk of this? They cannot send her to school even if Shanno does not earn her school fees by working as house maid.
I happen to pass daily to the nearby busstand after the office hours and stop for a cup of tea in the roadside dhaba. There I usually find Shanno washing the glasses, bringing the tea, taking orders of butter toast and frying it on the pane as if it would have been her life on the fryingpan itself. Anyway one day I ventured to ask her that when she would go to home? Prompt was the reply. Sahaeb- you mean that chawl which you call drainside slum. Sahaeb that is not our home, infact we do not have any home. We just go their to sleep. My father also comes in the late night very high in spirit, I do not know what he says to my mother. He drags her to a corner who is half asleep due to running around all along the day. Then they do something like wrestling . Sahaeb I do not have time to watch all that. After all I have to get up early, 4 AM to go to school. Why so early? The govt school opens up at 9 AM. Nahi sahaeb, Memsahaeb has to go to public school at 7 30 AM to teach , so I have to reach there at 5 AM for the kitchen cleaning. That is our school. If I do not go there then how will I go to Sarkari Pathshala. Sahaeb hum to school nahi jate hai, school jise public school kahte hai waha to memsahib jati hai .
I was thinking that till now this Shanno has told me a lot of stories but she has not replied my question. I could not restrain myself and asked Shanno how old are you? Very prompt was the reply- Sahaeb, in this winter I will be eight years old. OK, When is your birthday? Sahaeb , in my school it has been written as 1 July because school are opened after summer vacation that time but my mother says that it was in winter when I was birn but no one remembers the actual date. I was reminded in my mind the original question and asked hurriedly before I could miss my bus. Shanno, when will you go home? She replied today I have to go to pedestrian way near my chawl because abba has not paid hafta to that policewallah so today we will sleep on the roadside pedestrian way. My mother comes around 7 PM daily after completing the household works in the locality houses and then she picks me up. Shanno, you will be happy then that now you will sleep at your pathway in the open sky be watching stars. Yes, but one more thing is to be done, I have to cook the chapaties for dinner and which we will eat . If lucky then my mother will bring the sparable curry given by memsahaeb otherwise we have have lot of salt at our home. I preferred to take leave of Shanno otherwise I would miss the bus. While getting on the bus ,I was thinking that only people like Shanno do eat the salt of our country. Thanks God, at least somebody is there…
Have you seen Vikash? No. He is Shanno brother younger by one year. The surprising fact is that they manage this gap very meticulously. Just one year gap. So the vikash has not started going to sarkari pathshala but has already been getting the lessons of life. Vikash father goes at 11 AM for work- a ragpicker. He cannt go earlier because it is difficult for him to get up early. He is a hardfast socialite, meets his friends daily in the Chameli bars and invariably gets delayed to get home. So Vikash father takes him along and leaves him near the traffic signal where he remains through out the day- cleaning the cars windows which stops there, showing them Shani Bhagwan Statue in the afternoon, selling 3 PM papers and begging in the evening hours till 9 PM when her mother will pick up him too. Where does VIkash take lunch? What is this? Yae kya hota a Sahaeb. Khana, Khana Kab Khate ho?. Oh Sahaeb ,we take khana in the night before going to sleep . If we do not take Khana then how do we work?
There is one more friend of Vikash who remains with him through out the day. His name is Tommy. This name sounds strange. Yes, he is Doggy , the best friend of Vikash. Vikash was happy to tell me the story when they both had befriended. Some two year back, Vikash used to live on the railway station with his mother. That time the father was not there. He does not know that where his father had gone that time but Vikash had noted that in those days Shanno too was not there with him. So the mother and son used to beg on the station. One day so happened that Vikash was asking for money from a traveller on train. That time that man had thrown the little basket containing left over puri and sabji. This was the golden opportunity for Vikash so he rushed towards that little basket to catch hold of it. That very moment Tommy was also nearby and tried to snatch the basket. Then there was little skirmish between them but after a moment Vikash thought not to fight with Tommy and they both happily & friendly had shared their booty. Since then both are good friend and there has been no let up on this account till today. Vikash remembers that then one man with a girl had come to his mother. And slowly they both became friendly like Tommy has been with him. That is how Vikash got a sister Shanno, father and friend Toomy . All five of them then had moved to railway station drainside chawl. Vikash has been happy since then.
But today Shanno has gone. Vikash is not able to understand that after coming from school, that’s too after two days –why she has been sleeping in impeccable white sheet? He will fight with her mother that this partiality in not good. He has been asking for a new bedsheet for last one year but it was not given to him but today she had given it to her instead to sleep. Vikash is confused also because his mother is constantly weeping and father is sitting in police station for last two days.
Shanno had all the desire to study, read and become a big sahaeb like Mensahaeb where she had been working but she has not returned from the school at all. Will she remain ther forever? This is not good, Vikash will fight with her that he also needs her company to play with her. How can she remain in school for forever? Will Vikash really be able to fight with Shanno?We all know the answer that no, now vikash cannot fight with Shanno. In fact now he wont be able to fight with Shanno ever. KAUKI SHANNO CHALI GAYE HAI.
We have to think that what sort of society we wish to leave for our future generations. The most deprived section of the society is CHILDREN. Nobody thinks of them .We do care for them , love them, pamper them but we never think to take their views. Ever we ask them that what opinion thay hold about a particular issue, happenings. What is their choice for a particular issue? We always assume on our own that he is a child and there is no need to ask him. We commit all sorts of violence to them not only physical but we do rape their emotions. While making them to study and obey some command, we thrash them too without any second thought.. Are they not citizens? Are they not entitled to basic fundamental rights like Right to living etc. When we cannot thrash a grown up person – how it is so that we thrash them very easily and get away with our crime. Even nobody notices.
Let me tell you that the children are the most vulnerable to physical and sexual harrasement. The childrens sexual abuse is a very burning problem with large enormity. The children are mostly abused sexually by there own so called uncle, aunti, bhayai and so on. They are susceptible to this type of abuse because they do not understand it and are easily intimated or induced into some form of allurement like choclate or toys or anything like that.
Our society do have a moral responsibility to check child abuse and this problem has to be effectively tackled if we want to see a better tomorrow. The children should be granted elementary fundamental rights for free secondary& tertiary education, free healthcare, protection against hunger , protection from domestic violence & sexual abuse.
Let us see that Shanno lives in our society like we are living and no more a Shanno is subject to that gruesome fate whish one of them has met.
NOTE- THE ABOVE NARRATION IS BASED ON REALTY AND NOT FICTION. SO THINK…
Monday, April 13, 2009
ATTRIBUTES OF BIAS
PRESENT REFERENCE- B-5/f/14 april SERIES- B-5/07 FEB
BACK REFERENCE B-5/e/25 Feb
ATTRIBUTES OF BIAS
CONTINUED
A judge or tribunal may be disqualified in a variety of circumstances where there actions or behaviour or other factors may suggest their inability to discharge their duties impartially.The question is whether the likelihood of bias is serious enough for the Law to take account of it. For example, a judge who believes that drinking alcohol is not good for health and who is himself teetotaler can not be disqualified to sit on the panel disposing licensing application.
A judge whose words or actions show that he has preconceived opinions on the merits of the parties is disqualified by bias. For example- a magistrate who in the course of proceedings relating to access by wife to the children who were in the custody of the husband commented that the husbands conduct was callous and he didi not have spark of manhood in him. The wife shortly thereafter filed a application before the magistrates for custody of children. The order made in her favour was quashed by the supreme court.
The three cases which might be thought to present a special risk of bias are- a judge sitting on appeal from an earlier judgement of his own; a judge hearing a case in which he had earlier been involved as counsel; a judge excersing his power to imprison for contempt committed in the face of the court.
So far so the first case is concerned in the modern law it is not considered objectionable for a judge to sit in appeal against his own previous judgement for the reason that it is now accepted that by virtue of judges training , regimentation and maturity it is accepted that he is not going to be impartial for the mere fact that it his own earlier judgement. But it is also opined that because laymen rarely appreciate the degree of mental detachment of which members of judiciary are capable in relation to their own opinions it is highly desirable that this praxctise should acted upon as rarely as possible.
The second cstegory of case where a judge sits in hearing of a case in which he was earlier a counsel may be regarded as a special instance of the rule forbidding a judge to be simultaneously accuser or party in the litigation before him, at any rate a closely analogous situation but there seems to be no absolute rule. In Shore v Wilson L ord Campbell decline to give judgement having argued the case at the Bar of the House and been elevated to the Bench before the litigation was completed.
The third special case is the jurisdiction of judges to punish for contempt of court. In a general sense it may be argued that all judges have an interest in extending their power and privileges by extending the law of contempt. The question of bias is particularly acute however where a judge punishes a person for contempt in the face of the court,e.g. where a litigant abuses a judge personally or hurls furniture into the well of the court. There is no doubt that a judge has jurisdiction to deal with such cases although it would be a rough justice.. Therefore the law provides for at least appeal from any order or decision of a court punishing for contempt.
concluded
BACK REFERENCE B-5/e/25 Feb
ATTRIBUTES OF BIAS
CONTINUED
A judge or tribunal may be disqualified in a variety of circumstances where there actions or behaviour or other factors may suggest their inability to discharge their duties impartially.The question is whether the likelihood of bias is serious enough for the Law to take account of it. For example, a judge who believes that drinking alcohol is not good for health and who is himself teetotaler can not be disqualified to sit on the panel disposing licensing application.
A judge whose words or actions show that he has preconceived opinions on the merits of the parties is disqualified by bias. For example- a magistrate who in the course of proceedings relating to access by wife to the children who were in the custody of the husband commented that the husbands conduct was callous and he didi not have spark of manhood in him. The wife shortly thereafter filed a application before the magistrates for custody of children. The order made in her favour was quashed by the supreme court.
The three cases which might be thought to present a special risk of bias are- a judge sitting on appeal from an earlier judgement of his own; a judge hearing a case in which he had earlier been involved as counsel; a judge excersing his power to imprison for contempt committed in the face of the court.
So far so the first case is concerned in the modern law it is not considered objectionable for a judge to sit in appeal against his own previous judgement for the reason that it is now accepted that by virtue of judges training , regimentation and maturity it is accepted that he is not going to be impartial for the mere fact that it his own earlier judgement. But it is also opined that because laymen rarely appreciate the degree of mental detachment of which members of judiciary are capable in relation to their own opinions it is highly desirable that this praxctise should acted upon as rarely as possible.
The second cstegory of case where a judge sits in hearing of a case in which he was earlier a counsel may be regarded as a special instance of the rule forbidding a judge to be simultaneously accuser or party in the litigation before him, at any rate a closely analogous situation but there seems to be no absolute rule. In Shore v Wilson L ord Campbell decline to give judgement having argued the case at the Bar of the House and been elevated to the Bench before the litigation was completed.
The third special case is the jurisdiction of judges to punish for contempt of court. In a general sense it may be argued that all judges have an interest in extending their power and privileges by extending the law of contempt. The question of bias is particularly acute however where a judge punishes a person for contempt in the face of the court,e.g. where a litigant abuses a judge personally or hurls furniture into the well of the court. There is no doubt that a judge has jurisdiction to deal with such cases although it would be a rough justice.. Therefore the law provides for at least appeal from any order or decision of a court punishing for contempt.
concluded
Sunday, April 12, 2009
ATTRIBUTES OF BIAS
PRESENT REFERENCE- B-5/e/13 aprilSERIES- B-5/07 FEB
BACK REFERENCE B-5/d/25 Feb
ATTRIBUTES OF BIAS
The interests and favour are two essential elements of bias- to judge its presence and as well as its degree which are elementry to decide disqualification of a judge on the ground of bias. The interests has prima-facie connection with financial interests whereas the favour is concerned with relationship to a party or witness. Any pecuniary interests however small it may be, is sufficient to qualify a person as biased and disqualify a judge on the ground of bias. The relationship to a party or witness is to be judged in the light of the facts of the case and does not disqualify a person on the ground of bias.
The guiding principle is that if a person or judge has any interest legal or illegal in the outcome of the case then he qualifies to be termed as biased. Here the law does not reckon the amount of interest. In order to understand this it will be worthwhile to know that in the 19th century the ground of disqualification of magistrates was their interest in the outcome of litigation as ratepayers who would ultimately bear the cost of unsuccessful proceedings. The rudimentary element of financial interests to be disabling has to be direct. The indirect or remotely linked pecuniary interest does not qualify for bias. It is now a accepted principle.
The fear of bias arising out of acquaintance or kinship with the disputants can be seen in the early statute which forbade a judge from sitting in court of the country of his birth. These principles were applicable as late as 1739 as far as criminal cases were concerned and as late as 1809 where civil litigation were concerned. But in modern times more than mere acquaintanceship or distant relationship would be needed before a judge were disqualified though there is no hard and fast rule. Here comes the question of degree. In cases where a advocate practices in a court of sitting judge of his father,there is a established likelihood of bias but a advocate who practices in a HIGH COURT where a judge who is friend of his father who himself is also a sitting judge of the same HIGH COURT, the likelihood of bias does not arise. However it wont be improper for a advocate to practice in a court where his father is one of sitting judges amongst others who are listening the case.
The decision of a judge or a person or a tribunal would be vitiated if it could be established that the same person is working as accuser as well as judge. This principle is applied steadfastily. It is not necessary that the prosecutor should himself be a judge, his mere presence among the adjudicators is sufficient to invalidate a decision.
TO BE CONTINUED
BACK REFERENCE B-5/d/25 Feb
ATTRIBUTES OF BIAS
The interests and favour are two essential elements of bias- to judge its presence and as well as its degree which are elementry to decide disqualification of a judge on the ground of bias. The interests has prima-facie connection with financial interests whereas the favour is concerned with relationship to a party or witness. Any pecuniary interests however small it may be, is sufficient to qualify a person as biased and disqualify a judge on the ground of bias. The relationship to a party or witness is to be judged in the light of the facts of the case and does not disqualify a person on the ground of bias.
The guiding principle is that if a person or judge has any interest legal or illegal in the outcome of the case then he qualifies to be termed as biased. Here the law does not reckon the amount of interest. In order to understand this it will be worthwhile to know that in the 19th century the ground of disqualification of magistrates was their interest in the outcome of litigation as ratepayers who would ultimately bear the cost of unsuccessful proceedings. The rudimentary element of financial interests to be disabling has to be direct. The indirect or remotely linked pecuniary interest does not qualify for bias. It is now a accepted principle.
The fear of bias arising out of acquaintance or kinship with the disputants can be seen in the early statute which forbade a judge from sitting in court of the country of his birth. These principles were applicable as late as 1739 as far as criminal cases were concerned and as late as 1809 where civil litigation were concerned. But in modern times more than mere acquaintanceship or distant relationship would be needed before a judge were disqualified though there is no hard and fast rule. Here comes the question of degree. In cases where a advocate practices in a court of sitting judge of his father,there is a established likelihood of bias but a advocate who practices in a HIGH COURT where a judge who is friend of his father who himself is also a sitting judge of the same HIGH COURT, the likelihood of bias does not arise. However it wont be improper for a advocate to practice in a court where his father is one of sitting judges amongst others who are listening the case.
The decision of a judge or a person or a tribunal would be vitiated if it could be established that the same person is working as accuser as well as judge. This principle is applied steadfastily. It is not necessary that the prosecutor should himself be a judge, his mere presence among the adjudicators is sufficient to invalidate a decision.
TO BE CONTINUED
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
WHAT DOES BIAS MEAN?
PRESENT REFERENCE- B-5/d/07 aprilSERIES- B-5/07 FEBBACK REFERENCE B-5/b/25 Feb
WHIT DOES BIAS MEANS?
The dictum that no man should be a judge in his own case has arisen from the need that the judge hearing dispute between men should be impartial. Though we know that persons occupying positions as judges in judiciary are not inclined to influence their decisions based on their personal knowledge by virtue of their training but there are wider ramifications stressing this requirements for judges.
There are two types of bias-1) individual bias 2) general bias. There is no doubt that a judge who has dealt with a case earlier himself as a advocate will not sit on the chair to hear it or a judge who has himself delivered the decision in lower court will not himself review the same case in higher courts on his elevation or similarly if a judge has some personal involvement/interest in a case ,may be pecuniary or otherwise ,will not sit in the hearing. And if he does so then he qualifies to be debarred from sitting in the hearing. It is not difficult to see that the individual bias is more serious to disqualify a judge to hear a case than the general bias.
The prejudice is different from bias, sometimes it contributes to bias and sometimes not. For example- the expressed opinion of a judge that wherever there is contradictions between the evidence rendered by a public and the policeman on duty, he will accept the evidence of policeman. Generally this concept is perfectly allright because it accepts the versions of a govt official on duty and rejects the versions of a commoner. But it is abundantly clear that this may lead to bias depending upon the circumstances of the case. Therefore though generally speaking the judge holding this opinion is impartial in his own right but this opinion may make him fit to be prejudiced leading to bias.
We should not forget that judges are also a part of the society and do carry with them the opinions, views generally accepted in their society or I can say that their judgements are based on the generally accepted norms of the society in which they live. A matter or opinion is biased or not is also judged based on social values and norms. It is believed to be of fundamental importance that judges and tribunals are free from bias or at least , from those biases which a society regards as undesirable in a judge.
It is also true that society demands that its judges be biased in certain directions no less insistently than it demands that they shall be unbiased in others. However ,in times when the views of society are changing very rapidly then question may arise as to which biases society wishes its judges to have.Here comes the third type of bias which may be termed as prejudice either, partially or wholly unconscious views against particular section of society or religion or race. This sort of bias which has tacit sanction of society or dominant class has more dangerous connotation than the individual bias or general bias. It may be based on gender issue also which demands gender equality in the society. It is very hard to think of probable judgements in society involving different genders on gender issues if the society harbours the discriminations based on gender. The need of establishing various commissions for women rights to address their sufferings is a testimony to this stark and naked truth.
WHIT DOES BIAS MEANS?
The dictum that no man should be a judge in his own case has arisen from the need that the judge hearing dispute between men should be impartial. Though we know that persons occupying positions as judges in judiciary are not inclined to influence their decisions based on their personal knowledge by virtue of their training but there are wider ramifications stressing this requirements for judges.
There are two types of bias-1) individual bias 2) general bias. There is no doubt that a judge who has dealt with a case earlier himself as a advocate will not sit on the chair to hear it or a judge who has himself delivered the decision in lower court will not himself review the same case in higher courts on his elevation or similarly if a judge has some personal involvement/interest in a case ,may be pecuniary or otherwise ,will not sit in the hearing. And if he does so then he qualifies to be debarred from sitting in the hearing. It is not difficult to see that the individual bias is more serious to disqualify a judge to hear a case than the general bias.
The prejudice is different from bias, sometimes it contributes to bias and sometimes not. For example- the expressed opinion of a judge that wherever there is contradictions between the evidence rendered by a public and the policeman on duty, he will accept the evidence of policeman. Generally this concept is perfectly allright because it accepts the versions of a govt official on duty and rejects the versions of a commoner. But it is abundantly clear that this may lead to bias depending upon the circumstances of the case. Therefore though generally speaking the judge holding this opinion is impartial in his own right but this opinion may make him fit to be prejudiced leading to bias.
We should not forget that judges are also a part of the society and do carry with them the opinions, views generally accepted in their society or I can say that their judgements are based on the generally accepted norms of the society in which they live. A matter or opinion is biased or not is also judged based on social values and norms. It is believed to be of fundamental importance that judges and tribunals are free from bias or at least , from those biases which a society regards as undesirable in a judge.
It is also true that society demands that its judges be biased in certain directions no less insistently than it demands that they shall be unbiased in others. However ,in times when the views of society are changing very rapidly then question may arise as to which biases society wishes its judges to have.Here comes the third type of bias which may be termed as prejudice either, partially or wholly unconscious views against particular section of society or religion or race. This sort of bias which has tacit sanction of society or dominant class has more dangerous connotation than the individual bias or general bias. It may be based on gender issue also which demands gender equality in the society. It is very hard to think of probable judgements in society involving different genders on gender issues if the society harbours the discriminations based on gender. The need of establishing various commissions for women rights to address their sufferings is a testimony to this stark and naked truth.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
CANON OF PRINCIPLE OF NATURAL JUSTICE
PRESENT REFERENCE- B-5/C/25 Feb
SERIES- B-5/07 FEB
BACK REFERENCE B-5/b/25 Feb
The courts has been subjecting the contracts to JUDICIAL REVIEWS more and more to assess the reasonableness of terms & conditions of contracts as well as to assess the legality of examption clauses as brought out earlier. The courts have not been hesitant to pronounce a contract void on legal grounds or repungent to the principle of fairness therefore it becomes all the more important to analyse the canons of fairness.These are as under-
a) No man should be judge in his own cause.
b)No man should be judged without a hearing.
c)Every judge should be free from bias.
d) A court should sit in public.
e)The reasons should be given for decisions.
f) The decisions should be based on evidence of probative value.
g) The defendants are entitiled to legal representations.
The above rules can be summarized as that" justice must not only be done but be seen to be done."The concept of principle of natural justice varies in its requirements as the views of society change.Now have a look on the following judgements-
a) Lord Esher M R defined natural justice as the natural sense of what is right or wrong. Year 1885
b) In 19 th century, Lord Campbell C J defined the right of support which a landowner enjoys against his neighbour for his land , unencumbered by buildings ascribed to natural justice.
c) In this century natural justice has been invoked in discussions of parental rights arising from guardianship by nature and nurture. Year 1931
d) In the house of lords natural justice in the wide sense has been used by Lord Pearce in cases involving the right of crown to destroy property in war time. Year 1965
e) Lord Denning M R described the taking advantage of ones own wrong to acquire the title to land as contrary to equity and natural justice. Year 1975
Thus we find that the concept of natural justice not only varies with time span but also in a given time it varies from case to case. The decision of Justice Kerr J in a case in 1975 is relevant to quote here " there cannot be a technical breach of the rules of natural justice since that concept relates to matters of subatance, not tecnalities." In the modern world the international tribunals have recognized them as " general principles of law common to civilised communities." They are enshrined in Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lord Reid in a judgement in 1971 have noted that " it is now well recognized that the court has power to expand procedure laid down by statute if that is necessary to prevent infringement of natural justice and is not plainly contrary to the intention of parliament." The scope of application of principle of natural justice has very vast and universal application and the judiciary is not only well aware of this but is cautious to the probable misuse of this principle. Take a view of the cautionary note recorded by Lord Megarry J in a case in 1971-
"the principles of natural justice are of wide application and great importance but they must be confined within proper limits and not allowed to run wild."
To be continued
SERIES- B-5/07 FEB
BACK REFERENCE B-5/b/25 Feb
The courts has been subjecting the contracts to JUDICIAL REVIEWS more and more to assess the reasonableness of terms & conditions of contracts as well as to assess the legality of examption clauses as brought out earlier. The courts have not been hesitant to pronounce a contract void on legal grounds or repungent to the principle of fairness therefore it becomes all the more important to analyse the canons of fairness.These are as under-
a) No man should be judge in his own cause.
b)No man should be judged without a hearing.
c)Every judge should be free from bias.
d) A court should sit in public.
e)The reasons should be given for decisions.
f) The decisions should be based on evidence of probative value.
g) The defendants are entitiled to legal representations.
The above rules can be summarized as that" justice must not only be done but be seen to be done."The concept of principle of natural justice varies in its requirements as the views of society change.Now have a look on the following judgements-
a) Lord Esher M R defined natural justice as the natural sense of what is right or wrong. Year 1885
b) In 19 th century, Lord Campbell C J defined the right of support which a landowner enjoys against his neighbour for his land , unencumbered by buildings ascribed to natural justice.
c) In this century natural justice has been invoked in discussions of parental rights arising from guardianship by nature and nurture. Year 1931
d) In the house of lords natural justice in the wide sense has been used by Lord Pearce in cases involving the right of crown to destroy property in war time. Year 1965
e) Lord Denning M R described the taking advantage of ones own wrong to acquire the title to land as contrary to equity and natural justice. Year 1975
Thus we find that the concept of natural justice not only varies with time span but also in a given time it varies from case to case. The decision of Justice Kerr J in a case in 1975 is relevant to quote here " there cannot be a technical breach of the rules of natural justice since that concept relates to matters of subatance, not tecnalities." In the modern world the international tribunals have recognized them as " general principles of law common to civilised communities." They are enshrined in Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lord Reid in a judgement in 1971 have noted that " it is now well recognized that the court has power to expand procedure laid down by statute if that is necessary to prevent infringement of natural justice and is not plainly contrary to the intention of parliament." The scope of application of principle of natural justice has very vast and universal application and the judiciary is not only well aware of this but is cautious to the probable misuse of this principle. Take a view of the cautionary note recorded by Lord Megarry J in a case in 1971-
"the principles of natural justice are of wide application and great importance but they must be confined within proper limits and not allowed to run wild."
To be continued
Sunday, February 22, 2009
concept of principle of natural justice
B-5/b/23 Feb
THIS IS A SEQUEL TO MY BLOG B-5/07Feb WITH BACK REFERENCE AS B/5/a/ 14 Feb.
During the course of development of Concept of Contract, the opinion in favour of Freedom of Contract has gained the momentum and acknowledgement. The freedom of contract has three basic components-
a) Freedom of choice in the sense that nobody was bound to enter into any contract if he did not choose to do so.
b) Freedom of choice in the sense that everyone had a choice of persons with whom he can contract.
c) Freedom of choice in the sense that people could make virtually any kind of contract on any terms they choose.
The freedom of making the terms of contract has greater ramifications and there used to be consideration of public policy, with the courts having the power to declare contracts to be ineffective if it was repungent to public policy.Now it has been legally accepted that every man has a right to break his contract if he chooses to do so provided he elects to pay damages instead of performing his contractual obligation. Further now the courts have accepted that even where a contract is entered into by an agreement , it does not necessarily determine all the contents or scope of contract. These matters are to be seen with respect to implied terms which means terms may be implied in FACT OF CASE OR IN LAW. Terms implied in fact are based on the intention of the parties whearas terms implied in law are imposed by law directing the parties to exclude a function which is contrary to the Law as interpreted by courts.
The inequality in the bargaining power of the parties involved in a contract and their further perpetuation in the society as exhibited by Government Contracts ,the courts have accepted the view that interference with freedom of contract is often justifiable even on strict economic grounds. Now the courts has been gradually more and more looking into the surronding facts and examining reasons for decisions of the parties to enter into a contract and to judge their reasonableness by objective tests.
The market forces in play in economy has brought out the necessity of devising Standfard Form of Contract. The idea of an agreement freely negotiated between the parties has given way to the necessity for a uniform set of printed conditions to be used time and time again wherein one party receives a standard form of contract devised by the other party which he must accept as it is or go without it. The freedom of contract is absent or at any rate exists on one side only against those contracts entered into based on printed condition of standard form of contract. Why it is so?Because the contractor has no liberty to discuss any of the printed conditions nor any liberty to vary the terms in any way. It is not untill that some dispute arises when he realizes how few his rights are.
The courts have made endeavour to rectify this lacunae by requiring certain standard notices in respect of the onerous terms of contract. The inequality in bargaining power in Government Contracts have led to the inclusion of certain terms which cannot be said to be fair and reasonable. Today the freedom of contract is being viewed by courts in different light and individual interests have been made to subserve those of the community. The Law today interfere at numerous points with freedom of the parties to make what contract they like.One extremely common and troublesome feature of the standard form of contract is the presence of an Exemption Clause which often provides that the organisation is not to be liable in virtually any circumstances whatsoever. This is where nowadays the courts are intervening a lot through judicial reviews and this is where a officer formulaing the terms and conditions of contract has to be very -very carefull.
THIS IS A SEQUEL TO MY BLOG B-5/07Feb WITH BACK REFERENCE AS B/5/a/ 14 Feb.
During the course of development of Concept of Contract, the opinion in favour of Freedom of Contract has gained the momentum and acknowledgement. The freedom of contract has three basic components-
a) Freedom of choice in the sense that nobody was bound to enter into any contract if he did not choose to do so.
b) Freedom of choice in the sense that everyone had a choice of persons with whom he can contract.
c) Freedom of choice in the sense that people could make virtually any kind of contract on any terms they choose.
The freedom of making the terms of contract has greater ramifications and there used to be consideration of public policy, with the courts having the power to declare contracts to be ineffective if it was repungent to public policy.Now it has been legally accepted that every man has a right to break his contract if he chooses to do so provided he elects to pay damages instead of performing his contractual obligation. Further now the courts have accepted that even where a contract is entered into by an agreement , it does not necessarily determine all the contents or scope of contract. These matters are to be seen with respect to implied terms which means terms may be implied in FACT OF CASE OR IN LAW. Terms implied in fact are based on the intention of the parties whearas terms implied in law are imposed by law directing the parties to exclude a function which is contrary to the Law as interpreted by courts.
The inequality in the bargaining power of the parties involved in a contract and their further perpetuation in the society as exhibited by Government Contracts ,the courts have accepted the view that interference with freedom of contract is often justifiable even on strict economic grounds. Now the courts has been gradually more and more looking into the surronding facts and examining reasons for decisions of the parties to enter into a contract and to judge their reasonableness by objective tests.
The market forces in play in economy has brought out the necessity of devising Standfard Form of Contract. The idea of an agreement freely negotiated between the parties has given way to the necessity for a uniform set of printed conditions to be used time and time again wherein one party receives a standard form of contract devised by the other party which he must accept as it is or go without it. The freedom of contract is absent or at any rate exists on one side only against those contracts entered into based on printed condition of standard form of contract. Why it is so?Because the contractor has no liberty to discuss any of the printed conditions nor any liberty to vary the terms in any way. It is not untill that some dispute arises when he realizes how few his rights are.
The courts have made endeavour to rectify this lacunae by requiring certain standard notices in respect of the onerous terms of contract. The inequality in bargaining power in Government Contracts have led to the inclusion of certain terms which cannot be said to be fair and reasonable. Today the freedom of contract is being viewed by courts in different light and individual interests have been made to subserve those of the community. The Law today interfere at numerous points with freedom of the parties to make what contract they like.One extremely common and troublesome feature of the standard form of contract is the presence of an Exemption Clause which often provides that the organisation is not to be liable in virtually any circumstances whatsoever. This is where nowadays the courts are intervening a lot through judicial reviews and this is where a officer formulaing the terms and conditions of contract has to be very -very carefull.
Friday, February 13, 2009
CONCEPT OF CONTRACT
B-5/a/14 feb
THIS IS A SEQUEL TO MY LAST BLOG NUMER B-5/07 FEB, TITILED" WHAT CONTRACT IS"
There is no doubt that the meaning and interpretation of contract has been changing over the centuries,right from the time of Chandragupta Maurya till date.The evolution of contract has been a interesting journey. In the era of King Maurya the essential element of contract were free consent and consensus on all material terms and conditions. The voidability of contract was governed by-a) contract formed during night, b) contract entered into the interior compartment of a house, c)contract made in a forest ,d) contract made in any other secret place. There were certain exceptions to clendestine contracts like to ward of voilence, in connection with marriage, under orders of government & by purdahnashin women.
During the Mohammedan rule the essential element of contract were that one party should make a proposal and other should accept it which means that minds of both must agree. The Muslim Law of contract were further reviewed after the grant of regulations and charters by the Britsh Crown to the East India Company. This eventually led to the enactment of Indian Contract Act of 1972 which is being followed till date.Indian Contract Act was drafted in England whereby Englih Law of Contract permeates it.This can be understood easily by Blackstones commentary on the laws of England when he treated contract as one method among others of acquiring a title to property. To blackstone, the law of contract was rather a subdivision of the law of property than an independent branch of law.
During 15th century the concept of contract had primarily evolved arround the action on DEBT. The writs were centered arround the claims for the price of goods sold and delivered. The essential feature of the that writ was that the claim was for money compensation for benefits derived. During the 16th century the concept of breach of contract was derived though it was not in terms of todays interpretation and it was primarily focussed on the disputes arousing out of claim for money compensation. Most of the general principles of English Law of contract were generated in 18th & 19th century. The judges in 18th century interpreted the theory of natural law to mean that men had an inalienable right to make their own contract for them selves and the freedom of contract was a prime idea into this.
The noteworthy feature of English Law of Contract is that it ia SINGULAR. This means that all contracts irrespective of their content or subject matter are governed by the same rules which interalia brought the need of uniform civil code for all citizens irrespective of their caste & creed.
The journey of English Law of contract has been through CONSENSUS theory and WILL theory by the end of 19th century. The Consensus theory emhasized that the source of the contract as the will of the parties, the contract depended entirely on the intention of the parties which means court does not make the contract for the parties it merely enforces that. The court had no power in making of contract which means court had no role in judging the fairness in construction of contract. The Will theory got ingressed in concept of contract in 19th century end whereby it was accepted that every promise made intentionally is binding and enforceable. The examination of the construction of promise in a contract empowered the courts to judge the fairness of contract also which was missing in the Consensus theory. Now the contract was executionary in nature wherein a party was liable not because of anything done at the time of entering into the contract but because of his promise or intention to do something in future. The importance of intention in the formation of contract had led to the formulation of WILL theory.
WE should not forget that the Indian Contract Act, 1872 contains the principles of English Law which are frozen . It means that that these are incorporated in the act as these were in 1872 at the time of drafting of the act. This is where the interpretation of contract in terme of its meaning becomes of prime importance. During 20th and 21st century the various judgements delivered by judges has altogather has given a different meaning to the concept of contract. In this era a contract can be defined as a combination of agreement and obligation. A contract is an agreement made between two or more parties which is intended to be enforceable at law and is constituted by the acceptance by one party of an offer made to him by the other party to do or abstain from doing some act.
The evolution of free market in the current economy and in the society has altogather added new concept to the meaning of contract.The classical concept which can be termed as original concept of Indian Contract Act or English Law did not take into account the inequalities in the bargaining power between parties entering into contract.Though parties are assumed to be equal before the law but in reality thay are not. The economic power plays are vital role in creating inequality among the parties.The increasing gap between theory and reality of developing society had its particular effect on the meaning & interpretation of law of contract.
There is a pathetic contrast between the law of contract as it is and the modern contract as it functions in society today.In todays society it is a accepted fact that the agreement should be binding and must create legal relationship of contract. e.g. acceptance of an invitation to dinner is not a binding enforceable contract as it does not create a legal relationship. Take another example where some situations are considered as contractual even though genuine assent is missing like cases of appending signatures on unread documents.
AS OF TODAY the law of contract does not prescribe the rights and obligations of the parties but imposes a number of resrictions subject to which the parties may create, by their contract, such rights and obligations as thay may agree as long as they do not infringe the legal prohibition. Here we see that the meaning of Freedom of Contract has again changed in todays world as compared to the meaning which was prevalent in 18th century.The law is now viewed as a positive instrument to achieve justice.The enshrined principle of contract that one should abide by ones agreements and fullfils ones promises is now being governed by another principle ,i.e. ONE SHOULD NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE AF AN UNFAIR CONTRACT WHICH ONE HAS PERSUADED ANOTHER PARTY TO MAKE UNDER ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL PRESSURE BECAUSE IT PROFOUNDLY AFFECTS MORAL & LEGAL IDEAS ABOUT FREEDOM OF CONTRACT AND SANCTITY OF CONTRACT.
THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS primarily falls in this category and are subject to scrutiny by courts on the abovesaid principles. Not only the construction of contracts are subject to judicial reviews but in case of disputes the arbitrators are also guided by this very foundation of the concept of contract as it is today.
To be continued
THIS IS A SEQUEL TO MY LAST BLOG NUMER B-5/07 FEB, TITILED" WHAT CONTRACT IS"
There is no doubt that the meaning and interpretation of contract has been changing over the centuries,right from the time of Chandragupta Maurya till date.The evolution of contract has been a interesting journey. In the era of King Maurya the essential element of contract were free consent and consensus on all material terms and conditions. The voidability of contract was governed by-a) contract formed during night, b) contract entered into the interior compartment of a house, c)contract made in a forest ,d) contract made in any other secret place. There were certain exceptions to clendestine contracts like to ward of voilence, in connection with marriage, under orders of government & by purdahnashin women.
During the Mohammedan rule the essential element of contract were that one party should make a proposal and other should accept it which means that minds of both must agree. The Muslim Law of contract were further reviewed after the grant of regulations and charters by the Britsh Crown to the East India Company. This eventually led to the enactment of Indian Contract Act of 1972 which is being followed till date.Indian Contract Act was drafted in England whereby Englih Law of Contract permeates it.This can be understood easily by Blackstones commentary on the laws of England when he treated contract as one method among others of acquiring a title to property. To blackstone, the law of contract was rather a subdivision of the law of property than an independent branch of law.
During 15th century the concept of contract had primarily evolved arround the action on DEBT. The writs were centered arround the claims for the price of goods sold and delivered. The essential feature of the that writ was that the claim was for money compensation for benefits derived. During the 16th century the concept of breach of contract was derived though it was not in terms of todays interpretation and it was primarily focussed on the disputes arousing out of claim for money compensation. Most of the general principles of English Law of contract were generated in 18th & 19th century. The judges in 18th century interpreted the theory of natural law to mean that men had an inalienable right to make their own contract for them selves and the freedom of contract was a prime idea into this.
The noteworthy feature of English Law of Contract is that it ia SINGULAR. This means that all contracts irrespective of their content or subject matter are governed by the same rules which interalia brought the need of uniform civil code for all citizens irrespective of their caste & creed.
The journey of English Law of contract has been through CONSENSUS theory and WILL theory by the end of 19th century. The Consensus theory emhasized that the source of the contract as the will of the parties, the contract depended entirely on the intention of the parties which means court does not make the contract for the parties it merely enforces that. The court had no power in making of contract which means court had no role in judging the fairness in construction of contract. The Will theory got ingressed in concept of contract in 19th century end whereby it was accepted that every promise made intentionally is binding and enforceable. The examination of the construction of promise in a contract empowered the courts to judge the fairness of contract also which was missing in the Consensus theory. Now the contract was executionary in nature wherein a party was liable not because of anything done at the time of entering into the contract but because of his promise or intention to do something in future. The importance of intention in the formation of contract had led to the formulation of WILL theory.
WE should not forget that the Indian Contract Act, 1872 contains the principles of English Law which are frozen . It means that that these are incorporated in the act as these were in 1872 at the time of drafting of the act. This is where the interpretation of contract in terme of its meaning becomes of prime importance. During 20th and 21st century the various judgements delivered by judges has altogather has given a different meaning to the concept of contract. In this era a contract can be defined as a combination of agreement and obligation. A contract is an agreement made between two or more parties which is intended to be enforceable at law and is constituted by the acceptance by one party of an offer made to him by the other party to do or abstain from doing some act.
The evolution of free market in the current economy and in the society has altogather added new concept to the meaning of contract.The classical concept which can be termed as original concept of Indian Contract Act or English Law did not take into account the inequalities in the bargaining power between parties entering into contract.Though parties are assumed to be equal before the law but in reality thay are not. The economic power plays are vital role in creating inequality among the parties.The increasing gap between theory and reality of developing society had its particular effect on the meaning & interpretation of law of contract.
There is a pathetic contrast between the law of contract as it is and the modern contract as it functions in society today.In todays society it is a accepted fact that the agreement should be binding and must create legal relationship of contract. e.g. acceptance of an invitation to dinner is not a binding enforceable contract as it does not create a legal relationship. Take another example where some situations are considered as contractual even though genuine assent is missing like cases of appending signatures on unread documents.
AS OF TODAY the law of contract does not prescribe the rights and obligations of the parties but imposes a number of resrictions subject to which the parties may create, by their contract, such rights and obligations as thay may agree as long as they do not infringe the legal prohibition. Here we see that the meaning of Freedom of Contract has again changed in todays world as compared to the meaning which was prevalent in 18th century.The law is now viewed as a positive instrument to achieve justice.The enshrined principle of contract that one should abide by ones agreements and fullfils ones promises is now being governed by another principle ,i.e. ONE SHOULD NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE AF AN UNFAIR CONTRACT WHICH ONE HAS PERSUADED ANOTHER PARTY TO MAKE UNDER ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL PRESSURE BECAUSE IT PROFOUNDLY AFFECTS MORAL & LEGAL IDEAS ABOUT FREEDOM OF CONTRACT AND SANCTITY OF CONTRACT.
THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS primarily falls in this category and are subject to scrutiny by courts on the abovesaid principles. Not only the construction of contracts are subject to judicial reviews but in case of disputes the arbitrators are also guided by this very foundation of the concept of contract as it is today.
To be continued
Friday, February 6, 2009
WHAT CONTRACT IS
N-5/07 FEB
CONTRACTS
This is a aspect of life which has been in practise since time immemorial. take a few examples-
a) A person in barter system exchanges 10 kg of rice with 100 kg of firewood.It has few noticeable attributes-1) the rate of exchange is predetermined,2) quality of product in exchange is known to both the parties.3) the barter is always conducted in presence of others and this condition is automatically met by virtue of this transaction so there is a witness,4) the missing thing is a written document5) the barter was a recognised form of transaction in society so it had social sanction.
IS IT A CONTRACT? Yes it is contract in every aspect.
b) You go to a shop and purchase rice , 10 kg in quantity for rs 400 then take a cash memo and pay for it. Now see the attributes, 1) the shopkeeper has displayed the rate of sale of rice, 2) the shopkeeper has kept the goods displayed or has kept the sample,3) the purchaser notifies the quantity he intends to purchase.4) the seller signifies his agreement to sell the desired quantity indirectly as he accepts the quantity asked to be sold 5)the purchaser pays for the amount on productuion of cash memo6) the shopkeeper accepts the money and mark the cash memo as paid.7) the purchaser takes over the goods. 8) there is no other document except the cash memo.
IS IT A CONTRACT? Yes, it is.
NOW take another example.
c) You go for a life insurance policy. you search for a policy provider and your policy document is readied. Your policy starts. SEE the attributes-1) there is a policy provider who displays in advance his mandate.2) the policy purchaser accepts that mandate in his mind while selecting the policy provider.3) the policy purchaser signifies his agreement to mandate by approaching policy provider and filling up the form.4) the policy purchaser completes his obligation by paying the premium. 5) the policy provider hands over the policy document and receipt for premium.6) the person becomes a policy holder which will run for its terms.7) there are two documents- policy bond and premium receipt.
IS IT A CONTRACT? Yes it is.
Thus we find that in our daily life we execute the contracts every now and then. sometime knowingly and somtimes unknowingly. from these transaction it is not difficult to see the various components necessary for entering into a valid & sustainable contract. But the real question which comes into picture is that at a given time what attributes are being termed as valid& sustanable and what are NOT. This ASPECTS not only changes with passage of time but it changes also from place to place i.e. from society to society. The principle of natural justice which has been taken from Britsh Law in 19th centuray, has been a changing concept over time in British society itself from 19th centuray to 21th centuaruy. the interpretation and meaning of principle of natural justice has been changing from muslim society to Britsh society to Indian society to african society. What is found to be totally unethical in Britsh society today & for that matter Britsh Law has been found to be ethical and socially acceptable in muslim society in GULFand elsewhere.
In most of the societies the agreement entered into between two parties with free will & consent has been termed to be a valid contract which is legally enforceable. BUT THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS- is there really free will existing?
Now take example of a contractor who wants to take up the work in a society where claimants for work are two many and works is less and there is a one person also who has the authority to award the work. OR take a example where there are few contractors who specializes in some specialist work for which a lot of scope exists in the society are available. The idle situation enshrined in constitution where both the parties are equal and enter into contract with free will - really does not occur in reality. There is bound to be two unequal parties in a trasaction and then how there can be free will existing between two unequal parties. Then how the contract can be termed as legally sustainable and enforceable. These are few parameters which comes into picture while framing the contract document and while making the contracts.
Let us take from here on very first point,i.e. Principle of Natural Justice. this becomes of more importance since most of the countries including India follows the Britsh model of Law. You see first ,how the meaning of natural justice has been changing in the British society itself from 19th century to 21 century.
This series will continue and we will share views threadbare in every ascpects of contract.
To be continued
CONTRACTS
This is a aspect of life which has been in practise since time immemorial. take a few examples-
a) A person in barter system exchanges 10 kg of rice with 100 kg of firewood.It has few noticeable attributes-1) the rate of exchange is predetermined,2) quality of product in exchange is known to both the parties.3) the barter is always conducted in presence of others and this condition is automatically met by virtue of this transaction so there is a witness,4) the missing thing is a written document5) the barter was a recognised form of transaction in society so it had social sanction.
IS IT A CONTRACT? Yes it is contract in every aspect.
b) You go to a shop and purchase rice , 10 kg in quantity for rs 400 then take a cash memo and pay for it. Now see the attributes, 1) the shopkeeper has displayed the rate of sale of rice, 2) the shopkeeper has kept the goods displayed or has kept the sample,3) the purchaser notifies the quantity he intends to purchase.4) the seller signifies his agreement to sell the desired quantity indirectly as he accepts the quantity asked to be sold 5)the purchaser pays for the amount on productuion of cash memo6) the shopkeeper accepts the money and mark the cash memo as paid.7) the purchaser takes over the goods. 8) there is no other document except the cash memo.
IS IT A CONTRACT? Yes, it is.
NOW take another example.
c) You go for a life insurance policy. you search for a policy provider and your policy document is readied. Your policy starts. SEE the attributes-1) there is a policy provider who displays in advance his mandate.2) the policy purchaser accepts that mandate in his mind while selecting the policy provider.3) the policy purchaser signifies his agreement to mandate by approaching policy provider and filling up the form.4) the policy purchaser completes his obligation by paying the premium. 5) the policy provider hands over the policy document and receipt for premium.6) the person becomes a policy holder which will run for its terms.7) there are two documents- policy bond and premium receipt.
IS IT A CONTRACT? Yes it is.
Thus we find that in our daily life we execute the contracts every now and then. sometime knowingly and somtimes unknowingly. from these transaction it is not difficult to see the various components necessary for entering into a valid & sustainable contract. But the real question which comes into picture is that at a given time what attributes are being termed as valid& sustanable and what are NOT. This ASPECTS not only changes with passage of time but it changes also from place to place i.e. from society to society. The principle of natural justice which has been taken from Britsh Law in 19th centuray, has been a changing concept over time in British society itself from 19th centuray to 21th centuaruy. the interpretation and meaning of principle of natural justice has been changing from muslim society to Britsh society to Indian society to african society. What is found to be totally unethical in Britsh society today & for that matter Britsh Law has been found to be ethical and socially acceptable in muslim society in GULFand elsewhere.
In most of the societies the agreement entered into between two parties with free will & consent has been termed to be a valid contract which is legally enforceable. BUT THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS- is there really free will existing?
Now take example of a contractor who wants to take up the work in a society where claimants for work are two many and works is less and there is a one person also who has the authority to award the work. OR take a example where there are few contractors who specializes in some specialist work for which a lot of scope exists in the society are available. The idle situation enshrined in constitution where both the parties are equal and enter into contract with free will - really does not occur in reality. There is bound to be two unequal parties in a trasaction and then how there can be free will existing between two unequal parties. Then how the contract can be termed as legally sustainable and enforceable. These are few parameters which comes into picture while framing the contract document and while making the contracts.
Let us take from here on very first point,i.e. Principle of Natural Justice. this becomes of more importance since most of the countries including India follows the Britsh model of Law. You see first ,how the meaning of natural justice has been changing in the British society itself from 19th century to 21 century.
This series will continue and we will share views threadbare in every ascpects of contract.
To be continued
an interview with god
Friday, February 6, 2009
AN INTERVIEW WITH GOD
B-4/06 FEBI happened to be lost sometime back in my abstract thought and searching for way out of jungle, meanwhile it got dark. to pass the night i happened to enter i cave where i tumbled upon a gentleman sitting quietly in a corner. I did not notice him at first then i found that there is somebody too besides me. Offcourse there was darkness but some light like moonlight was arround the gentleman. Now have a look ,how the discussion proceeded-Stranger- who are you?Me- I am vimal goswami.Stranger- no, no ... that is your name but who are you?Me- I am an engineerStranger- no,no... that is your qualification but who are you?Me- i am a director posted in a projectStranger- no, no that is your designation but who are you?Me- i am a central govt employee working in BRO.Stranger- no, no... that is your employment, profession you know but ....Me- i am a brahminStranger- no,no.. that is your caste but...Me- i am son of shri...Stranger- no, no that is your relation but...Me- i am from UPStranger- no. no.. that is your place of residence but....Me- i am hinduStranger- no no ... that is your religion but....?So the dialogue was going like this, i was swetting to show my identity. I had tried all possible identification coming to my mind then all of a sudden some thig new ocurred to me.Me- look sir, i am humanStranger- Really! but you do not look like, what do you call yourself human, after all it is a yoni only.Me- i have two eyes, mind , brain, legs ..etcStranger- no ,no you are mistaken. in fact that is your body but after all who are you?Me-i am like a machine ,i need air to breath, food to live and so on ....Stranger- no ,no.. machine can not work for indefinite period. they have to be dicarded after some time but in your case if your body"s part are given to another person just after your death then still works. so who are you?Me- sir, inside me there is something which goes out of the body at death, I am that thing.Stranger- ok but what is that? let me knowMe- that is atma which goes out. when it is out then i am no where. i am actually atma.Stranger- ok, how does look like atma? can you describe?Me- No sir, actually i have not seen it but it is there in me.Stranger- how can you say that?Me- i do not know ,sirSuddenly i remenbered something and exclaimed-Me- yes sir, now i remember. it is God inside me and i am that.Stranger- May be, but actually i am God.Me- Sir cannt it be that you are inside me ? May be the thing outside like you is inside me too. yes sir, i am that onlyThen i started coming to my senses. i was tellying him that i am sure god is inside me and i am that. in fact i am God.Then stranger reacted, there cannot be two GOD. God has to be one. i said let us decide first that how many Gods are there.To this the stranger got annoyed and dismissed me by saying that first you learn to introduce yourself then come for interview.Better next time.Ihad no option but to leave the place. when i came out ,found that it was dawn and twilight was there but now there was complete darkness inside me. I was ashamed that after so many years, educationm, maturity i could not even introduce myself to a appearingly illterate person.CAN ANY BODY INTRODUCE MYSELF TO ME?BALACE NEXT TIME
AN INTERVIEW WITH GOD
B-4/06 FEBI happened to be lost sometime back in my abstract thought and searching for way out of jungle, meanwhile it got dark. to pass the night i happened to enter i cave where i tumbled upon a gentleman sitting quietly in a corner. I did not notice him at first then i found that there is somebody too besides me. Offcourse there was darkness but some light like moonlight was arround the gentleman. Now have a look ,how the discussion proceeded-Stranger- who are you?Me- I am vimal goswami.Stranger- no, no ... that is your name but who are you?Me- I am an engineerStranger- no,no... that is your qualification but who are you?Me- i am a director posted in a projectStranger- no, no that is your designation but who are you?Me- i am a central govt employee working in BRO.Stranger- no, no... that is your employment, profession you know but ....Me- i am a brahminStranger- no,no.. that is your caste but...Me- i am son of shri...Stranger- no, no that is your relation but...Me- i am from UPStranger- no. no.. that is your place of residence but....Me- i am hinduStranger- no no ... that is your religion but....?So the dialogue was going like this, i was swetting to show my identity. I had tried all possible identification coming to my mind then all of a sudden some thig new ocurred to me.Me- look sir, i am humanStranger- Really! but you do not look like, what do you call yourself human, after all it is a yoni only.Me- i have two eyes, mind , brain, legs ..etcStranger- no ,no you are mistaken. in fact that is your body but after all who are you?Me-i am like a machine ,i need air to breath, food to live and so on ....Stranger- no ,no.. machine can not work for indefinite period. they have to be dicarded after some time but in your case if your body"s part are given to another person just after your death then still works. so who are you?Me- sir, inside me there is something which goes out of the body at death, I am that thing.Stranger- ok but what is that? let me knowMe- that is atma which goes out. when it is out then i am no where. i am actually atma.Stranger- ok, how does look like atma? can you describe?Me- No sir, actually i have not seen it but it is there in me.Stranger- how can you say that?Me- i do not know ,sirSuddenly i remenbered something and exclaimed-Me- yes sir, now i remember. it is God inside me and i am that.Stranger- May be, but actually i am God.Me- Sir cannt it be that you are inside me ? May be the thing outside like you is inside me too. yes sir, i am that onlyThen i started coming to my senses. i was tellying him that i am sure god is inside me and i am that. in fact i am God.Then stranger reacted, there cannot be two GOD. God has to be one. i said let us decide first that how many Gods are there.To this the stranger got annoyed and dismissed me by saying that first you learn to introduce yourself then come for interview.Better next time.Ihad no option but to leave the place. when i came out ,found that it was dawn and twilight was there but now there was complete darkness inside me. I was ashamed that after so many years, educationm, maturity i could not even introduce myself to a appearingly illterate person.CAN ANY BODY INTRODUCE MYSELF TO ME?BALACE NEXT TIME
AN INTERVIEW WITH GOD
B-4/06 FEB
I happened to be lost sometime back in my abstract thought and searching for way out of jungle, meanwhile it got dark. to pass the night i happened to enter i cave where i tumbled upon a gentleman sitting quietly in a corner. I did not notice him at first then i found that there is somebody too besides me. Offcourse there was darkness but some light like moonlight was arround the gentleman. Now have a look ,how the discussion proceeded-
Stranger- who are you?
Me- I am vimal goswami.
Stranger- no, no ... that is your name but who are you?
Me- I am an engineer
Stranger- no,no... that is your qualification but who are you?
Me- i am a director posted in a project
Stranger- no, no that is your designation but who are you?
Me- i am a central govt employee working in BRO.
Stranger- no, no... that is your employment, profession you know but ....
Me- i am a brahmin
Stranger- no,no.. that is your caste but...
Me- i am son of shri...
Stranger- no, no that is your relation but...
Me- i am from UP
Stranger- no. no.. that is your place of residence but....
Me- i am hindu
Stranger- no no ... that is your religion but....?
So the dialogue was going like this, i was swetting to show my identity. I had tried all possible identification coming to my mind then all of a sudden some thig new ocurred to me.
Me- look sir, i am human
Stranger- Really! but you do not look like, what do you call yourself human, after all it is a yoni only.
Me- i have two eyes, mind , brain, legs ..etc
Stranger- no ,no you are mistaken. in fact that is your body but after all who are you?
Me-i am like a machine ,i need air to breath, food to live and so on ....
Stranger- no ,no.. machine can not work for indefinite period. they have to be dicarded after some time but in your case if your body"s part are given to another person just after your death then still works. so who are you?
Me- sir, inside me there is something which goes out of the body at death, I am that thing.
Stranger- ok but what is that? let me know
Me- that is atma which goes out. when it is out then i am no where. i am actually atma.
Stranger- ok, how does look like atma? can you describe?
Me- No sir, actually i have not seen it but it is there in me.
Stranger- how can you say that?
Me- i do not know ,sir
Suddenly i remenbered something and exclaimed-
Me- yes sir, now i remember. it is God inside me and i am that.
Stranger- May be, but actually i am God.
Me- Sir cannt it be that you are inside me ? May be the thing outside like you is inside me too. yes sir, i am that only
Then i started coming to my senses. i was tellying him that i am sure god is inside me and i am that. in fact i am God.
Then stranger reacted, there cannot be two GOD. God has to be one. i said let us decide first that how many Gods are there.
To this the stranger got annoyed and dismissed me by saying that first you learn to introduce yourself then come for interview.Better next time.
Ihad no option but to leave the place. when i came out ,found that it was dawn and twilight was there but now there was complete darkness inside me. I was ashamed that after so many years, educationm, maturity i could not even introduce myself to a appearingly illterate person.
CAN ANY BODY INTRODUCE MYSELF TO ME?
BALACE NEXT TIME
I happened to be lost sometime back in my abstract thought and searching for way out of jungle, meanwhile it got dark. to pass the night i happened to enter i cave where i tumbled upon a gentleman sitting quietly in a corner. I did not notice him at first then i found that there is somebody too besides me. Offcourse there was darkness but some light like moonlight was arround the gentleman. Now have a look ,how the discussion proceeded-
Stranger- who are you?
Me- I am vimal goswami.
Stranger- no, no ... that is your name but who are you?
Me- I am an engineer
Stranger- no,no... that is your qualification but who are you?
Me- i am a director posted in a project
Stranger- no, no that is your designation but who are you?
Me- i am a central govt employee working in BRO.
Stranger- no, no... that is your employment, profession you know but ....
Me- i am a brahmin
Stranger- no,no.. that is your caste but...
Me- i am son of shri...
Stranger- no, no that is your relation but...
Me- i am from UP
Stranger- no. no.. that is your place of residence but....
Me- i am hindu
Stranger- no no ... that is your religion but....?
So the dialogue was going like this, i was swetting to show my identity. I had tried all possible identification coming to my mind then all of a sudden some thig new ocurred to me.
Me- look sir, i am human
Stranger- Really! but you do not look like, what do you call yourself human, after all it is a yoni only.
Me- i have two eyes, mind , brain, legs ..etc
Stranger- no ,no you are mistaken. in fact that is your body but after all who are you?
Me-i am like a machine ,i need air to breath, food to live and so on ....
Stranger- no ,no.. machine can not work for indefinite period. they have to be dicarded after some time but in your case if your body"s part are given to another person just after your death then still works. so who are you?
Me- sir, inside me there is something which goes out of the body at death, I am that thing.
Stranger- ok but what is that? let me know
Me- that is atma which goes out. when it is out then i am no where. i am actually atma.
Stranger- ok, how does look like atma? can you describe?
Me- No sir, actually i have not seen it but it is there in me.
Stranger- how can you say that?
Me- i do not know ,sir
Suddenly i remenbered something and exclaimed-
Me- yes sir, now i remember. it is God inside me and i am that.
Stranger- May be, but actually i am God.
Me- Sir cannt it be that you are inside me ? May be the thing outside like you is inside me too. yes sir, i am that only
Then i started coming to my senses. i was tellying him that i am sure god is inside me and i am that. in fact i am God.
Then stranger reacted, there cannot be two GOD. God has to be one. i said let us decide first that how many Gods are there.
To this the stranger got annoyed and dismissed me by saying that first you learn to introduce yourself then come for interview.Better next time.
Ihad no option but to leave the place. when i came out ,found that it was dawn and twilight was there but now there was complete darkness inside me. I was ashamed that after so many years, educationm, maturity i could not even introduce myself to a appearingly illterate person.
CAN ANY BODY INTRODUCE MYSELF TO ME?
BALACE NEXT TIME
Thursday, February 5, 2009
ASTROLOGY
B-3/5FEB
ASTROLOGY
THE subject astrology has its origin in ancient indian astronomical science with a breakthrough of invention of 0, called zero, without which the world would have been a big zero. the law of nature is -whatever is destroyed that can be created too. in other world the cycle of evolution will stop if there is no new begining. in other world we can say that if death is not there then birth wont be there too.
Astrology is a combination of mathematical science plus emirical science. the mathematical part governs the calculation of position of various planets as well as their degrees too. and emirical part, developed over the centuries by scholars , assess the resultant effect due to plenatary position.
The prime theory is that whatever is the planetary position of planets at the time of birth ,i.e. the moment when he comes out of the womb, affects the development of the person born. the effects of rays on the person of the cluster of planets falling first time on a new born governs the life to be led by the life born. thus a careful study of the planetary positions, their degree, their movements carries with them a blue print which can be termed as genetically coded blue print like a small seed containing the gentic blue print of a full grown tree (which can be interprted by scholar known as astrologer). next part becomes very simple to understand that since the planetary position for a person becomes a fixed entity then its interpretation would reflect the course of events in the years to come ,just similar to the analogy that when you sow a particular seed you know in advance that which type of tree it is going to develop and which type of fruit it will bear, what would be the life of tree etc, etc.THIS THEORY HAS ONE SERIOUS SET BACK WHICH NONE OF ASTROLOGER ANSWERS CONVINCINGLY, ME TOO. we calculate the plantary position at the time of birth based on planetary movement with the use of astronomical science. no doubt it is the present position in the orbit of planets whereas the light which comes into contact of a new born is those rays which have different-2 time effect.
To elucidate it - the planets are very far away to be measured in terms of light year. the rays from these takes from years to decades to react earth. then since the every planet is at different distance then the cluster of rays reaching earth at any given moment have travelled defferent distance in defferent time. you understand this way that some of the rays eminated from a planet woud reach earth by the time when a short lived person would have even died.
then what is the fun?
Barring this question, everything is ok. Let me assure you as a astrologer, the pridictions based on astrology comes true with remarkable accuracy provided you have right person in hand with no vested intrests. Today the so called astrologers have brought a lot of bad name to this pristine and precious science because they are misusing it for their narrow gain.
NOW let us come to basics. there are various types - predictive astrology, arood astrology, medicinal astrology whereby the prdiction of occurrence of affliction, its time and cure is predicted. this is the more advanced branch with most objective prediction and most definite results. there are 12 houses in the birth chart with 9 planets placed into it. the 12 houses govern 12 segment of life e.g. 10 house govern your profession, 1 house your physique and appearance, 4 house mother and ancestral property, 5 house progeny, 6 house disease, 7 house marriage and love life and so on. these planets are at different degrees and the period of movement of planet which is called mahadasha is also varying from person to person. The mahadasha has various systems like cycle of 120 years called vinshottari mahadasha( mostly used), ashtottari mahadasha which is of 80 years and so on. If you think carefully though it appears simple but it leads to million of combinations.In short, thats why there are millions of person with individualistic life, happenings in the life time etc.
This science is like genetic code in the the genes. Basically you study genealogy of persons living in millions through astrology.
TWO BASIC QUESTIONS-a) why it is so that two persons born at same time at same place takes birth in two widely defferent households? and then why these two persons life which is to come in future years vary so vastly?
b)Take example of seed. A Particular variety of seed does not always fructify in similar fashion.F or example we take the same variety of seed and sow them in defferent environment,one be thrown in river, another be sown in barren land and the third in the good arable land. we know well that though the seed is same but it will have three defferent results/output. WHAT IS THAT FACTOR WHICH GOVERNS THAT WHICH SEED IS TO BE SOWN WHERE?
THINk till will meet next time. To be continued
ASTROLOGY
THE subject astrology has its origin in ancient indian astronomical science with a breakthrough of invention of 0, called zero, without which the world would have been a big zero. the law of nature is -whatever is destroyed that can be created too. in other world the cycle of evolution will stop if there is no new begining. in other world we can say that if death is not there then birth wont be there too.
Astrology is a combination of mathematical science plus emirical science. the mathematical part governs the calculation of position of various planets as well as their degrees too. and emirical part, developed over the centuries by scholars , assess the resultant effect due to plenatary position.
The prime theory is that whatever is the planetary position of planets at the time of birth ,i.e. the moment when he comes out of the womb, affects the development of the person born. the effects of rays on the person of the cluster of planets falling first time on a new born governs the life to be led by the life born. thus a careful study of the planetary positions, their degree, their movements carries with them a blue print which can be termed as genetically coded blue print like a small seed containing the gentic blue print of a full grown tree (which can be interprted by scholar known as astrologer). next part becomes very simple to understand that since the planetary position for a person becomes a fixed entity then its interpretation would reflect the course of events in the years to come ,just similar to the analogy that when you sow a particular seed you know in advance that which type of tree it is going to develop and which type of fruit it will bear, what would be the life of tree etc, etc.THIS THEORY HAS ONE SERIOUS SET BACK WHICH NONE OF ASTROLOGER ANSWERS CONVINCINGLY, ME TOO. we calculate the plantary position at the time of birth based on planetary movement with the use of astronomical science. no doubt it is the present position in the orbit of planets whereas the light which comes into contact of a new born is those rays which have different-2 time effect.
To elucidate it - the planets are very far away to be measured in terms of light year. the rays from these takes from years to decades to react earth. then since the every planet is at different distance then the cluster of rays reaching earth at any given moment have travelled defferent distance in defferent time. you understand this way that some of the rays eminated from a planet woud reach earth by the time when a short lived person would have even died.
then what is the fun?
Barring this question, everything is ok. Let me assure you as a astrologer, the pridictions based on astrology comes true with remarkable accuracy provided you have right person in hand with no vested intrests. Today the so called astrologers have brought a lot of bad name to this pristine and precious science because they are misusing it for their narrow gain.
NOW let us come to basics. there are various types - predictive astrology, arood astrology, medicinal astrology whereby the prdiction of occurrence of affliction, its time and cure is predicted. this is the more advanced branch with most objective prediction and most definite results. there are 12 houses in the birth chart with 9 planets placed into it. the 12 houses govern 12 segment of life e.g. 10 house govern your profession, 1 house your physique and appearance, 4 house mother and ancestral property, 5 house progeny, 6 house disease, 7 house marriage and love life and so on. these planets are at different degrees and the period of movement of planet which is called mahadasha is also varying from person to person. The mahadasha has various systems like cycle of 120 years called vinshottari mahadasha( mostly used), ashtottari mahadasha which is of 80 years and so on. If you think carefully though it appears simple but it leads to million of combinations.In short, thats why there are millions of person with individualistic life, happenings in the life time etc.
This science is like genetic code in the the genes. Basically you study genealogy of persons living in millions through astrology.
TWO BASIC QUESTIONS-a) why it is so that two persons born at same time at same place takes birth in two widely defferent households? and then why these two persons life which is to come in future years vary so vastly?
b)Take example of seed. A Particular variety of seed does not always fructify in similar fashion.F or example we take the same variety of seed and sow them in defferent environment,one be thrown in river, another be sown in barren land and the third in the good arable land. we know well that though the seed is same but it will have three defferent results/output. WHAT IS THAT FACTOR WHICH GOVERNS THAT WHICH SEED IS TO BE SOWN WHERE?
THINk till will meet next time. To be continued
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