During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, expressed dismay and took strong exception over Governor Khan sitting over the eight bills for a period of two year. As per a report in the LiveLaw, CJI Chandrachud observed that “No reason has been given by the Governor to keep the bills pending“. Referencing to the judgment passed by the Supreme Court on the Punjab Governor case, the CJI further criticised the conduct of Governor Khan and held that “The power of the Governor cannot be utilised to pause the law-making exercise of the legislature”.

The bills mentioned in the petition:

As per the report in the LiveLaw, the following bills had been mentioned in the writ petition filed by the state of Kerala. The period for which the said bills had been awaiting the assent of the Governor is also provided.

1. University Laws Amendment Bill (1st Amendment) 2021 -23 months
2. University Laws Amendment Bill (1st Amendment) 2021-23 months
3. University Laws Amendment Bill (2nd Amendment) 2021 [APJ Abdulkalam Technical University (Mal)] -23 months
4. Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill 2022 [MILMA] -14 months
5. University Laws Amendment Bill 2022 -12 months
6. Kerala Lokayukta Amendment Bill 2022-12 months
7. University Laws Amendment Bill 2022 -9 months
8. Public Health Bill 2021 -5 months

On November 28, Governor Khan had cleared the Public Health Bill and referred the rest to the President. Among the referred bills are bills which proposed to divest the Governor of the powers to make appointments in State Universities and another bill that sought to limit the powers of Kerala Lok Ayukta. Another bill related to the MILMA society have also been referred to the President.

Arguments during the hearing:

Advocate Venugopal urges for court to lay guidelines on power of the Governor to refer bill to the President

Advocate Venugopal, representing the state of Kerala, highlighted that some of the bills pending with the Governor had been passed back in the year 2021 itself. The senior advocate further raised the argument that a Governor cannot simply refer a bill for the President’s consideration and urged the Court to issue guidelines for the exercise of that option by the Governor. He pointed out that of the seven bills, three were earlier issued as Ordinances, for which the Governor had granted assent. The issue of contention that he raised in reference to these where that how could the Governor have an objection to the bills at this stage and refer them to the President, when he had passed the same an Ordinances.

However, when the aforementioned arguments where raised, the bench pointed that a prayer for guidelines will be broadening the scope of the present writ petition. As reported in the LiveLaw, the CJI highlighted that with the passing one bill and referring the others to the President, the Governor has taken some action and the initial grievance ventilated in the petition has been resolved. In reference to the same, the petition that was moved under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution lay resolved. 

Upon this, advocate Venugopal sought liberty to amend the petition to seek reliefs regarding guidelines. “There is no single power in the Constitution vested in any authority which is arbitrary. The constitution would say Art 14 would apply to any action,” Venugopal had argued, as per the report in the LiveLaw.

Advocate Venugopal submitted that the Kerala Governor had sent seven of the eight bills before him to the President though the said bills were not in conflict with any central law. He also pointed out that eight new bills, including a money bill, have been sent to the Governor for his assent. Decrying violation of Article 200, advocate Venugopal stated that “Now seven out of eight bills sent for Presidential assent. This is just to delay the case. He can do so only if there is an inconsistency with a central law. He cannot blindly take the seven bills and send to president. There are eight other bills pending before him and it was passed in September and he is sitting on it,” Venugopal said.

While praying for keeping the present application pending with liberty to amend the prayers, advocate Venugopal further pointed the adversarial conduct by the Governor is affecting the working of the state. The senior advocate stated “For two years a welfare bill is not allowed to be law. The governance of the state is suffering. This is adversarial. Unless your lordships step in very strongly, it will affect citizens.” 

Advocate Venugopal re-iterated the crucial need for laying down clear guidelines on the power guaranteed to the Governor of the state to refer a bill to the President so that the people of the state do not suffer. The counsel had stated, “Time has come today that this court should lay down some guidelines as to when the bills can be reserved for the presidential assent and unless this is laid down the state is suffering. A bill cannot be kept pending for two years like this. This seems adversarial. Unless this court steps in strongly the people will suffer,” as per a report of Bar and Bench. 

Attorney General for India R Venkataramani refuses to get into the political arguments, assures action by the Governor

Throughout the hearing, AG Venkataramani was vehemently objecting to the demand for laying down of guidelines on power of the Governor to refer bills to the President being raised by advocate Venugopal. The AG maintained the stance that the said relief cannot be sought in the present petition.

After advocate Venugopal made his submission, the CJI remarked that there was some merit in the arguments raised by advocate Venugopal and asked the AG, “Mr AG, there is some merit in the argument. Why is governor sitting on bills for 2 years?” as per the LiveLaw report.

Upon this, the AG replied that he does not want get into a political battle and said “I don’t want to get into a political…I do not wish to go into this as it will open up a lot of things” said the AG.

Refusing to take the issue highlighted by advocate lightly and settling for the reply given the AG, the Supreme Court bench pointedly said “We will get into it very much… There is accountability by the Governor and it is about our accountability to the constitution and the people ask us about it,” the Court said.

Regarding the money bill that was recently sent before the Governor, the AG assured the bench that the Governor will act on it. “He will act accordingly. I don’t think he will sit on money bill,” AG said. Notably, the bench had recorded the AG’s assurance in the order.

Order of the Court:

The said hearing saw many interesting twists and turns taking place. It is crucial to note that initially, the Supreme Court bench was not inclined to lay down the guidelines being requested by the State of Kerala. “The prayer for guidelines will not strictly arise in the frame of petitions as it stands now,” the Court had initially said in its order, as per Bar and Bench. 

However, the meritorious arguments raised by advocate Venugopal as well as the lack of adequate responses provided by AG Venkataramani resulted in the bench changing its stance. The CJI-led bench then stated, “We have to keep the matter pending. We thought of disposing the plea, but it will not be proper. Because then how they file another plea seeking just guidelines. This is a live issue. We have eight live bills and if we dispose this bill then we will do disservice to the petition. Let them amend the petition.” 

With this, the Court allowed the State of Kerala to amend its plea to seek guidelines to be laid down by the Court for Governor to send bills passed by the State to the President. The Court, however, refused to interfere with the action of Governor Khan to send seven bills passed earlier by the State legislature to the President. The Court said that the with the Governor forwarding the bill to the President, the Constitutional requirement under Article 200 as regards granting assent to bills stood satisfied.

“It was only after this plea that Governor reserved seven bills for president assent and cleared one. The fact of the matter is Governor has albeit after this petition exercised his constitutional power by granting assent to 1 and reserved seven for the president. Now Article 200 requirements stands met,” the Court said in its order, as per Bar and Bench. 

Even as the Court was dictating the order, it hoped that better sense would prevail among the political opponents in the State. The CJI remarked that in case there is no political consensus and the deadlock continues, the Court will do its Constitutional duty and lay down the law if needed. “Let us hope that some political sagacity takes over the State and we hope some sagacity prevails. Otherwise we are here to lay down the law and do our duty under the Constitution.”

The AG, once more, voiced his displeasure and opined, “We do not want to get into all of this. There is a lot happening in the State.” 

However, not letting the remarks pass, advocate Venugopal defended the state government of Kerala and said, “He is making a lot of insinuating statements… State of Kerala is functioning beautifully in education, infrastructure, health care… these are serious statements.” 

Related:

By holding up bills, are Governors undermining democracy? 

India today has all the markers of a failing democracy. But the situation is not irreversible

The principles of democracy can’t be scarified at altar of majoritarianism: Justice Govind Mathur

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That was the observation of SC-ST Special Court Judge K.M. Retheesh Kumar while delivering the sentence in the sensational case of lynching of Bihar youth, Atthapady Madhu on April 5.

A report in The Hindu brings the shocking news that, in less than six weeks since, the sourhern state renowned for social harmony has witnessed yet another brutal lynching. This time it was a youth from Bihar named Rajesh Manjhi. This 37-year-old labourer was beaten to death by a gang of men in the early hours of Sunday at Kizhissery.

In a chilling replay, there are many similarities between the lynching of Madhu and Manjhi. Both victims were forcibly constrained by two groups of people alleging charges of theft. Thereafter, both were mercilessly kicked and beaten. Then, were humiliated and their hands were tied. Lastly in both cases, victims were taken to the hospital by the police, but soon died. Post-mortem reports suggested that both died of severe internal injuries.

Mr. Retheesh Kumar’s emphatic statement that Madhu’s should be the last lynching case in Kerala has so far fallen on deaf ears. The only redeeming factor is the response from the police to the Kizhissery incident was much quicker and smarter than in Madhu’s case.

“We made the arrests within three hours after the incident. We collected incriminating pieces of evidence, including the weapons used to thrash Manjhi, his shirt, and videos. This is a clear case of murder,” District Superintendent of Police Sujith Das S. told The Hindu.

Unlike in the earlier Madhu case, Manjhi’s lynching did not attract a wider attention largely because of other news developments at the time, including the Karnataka election results. The quick response of the police by arresting nine of the accused within three hours after the incident too took the sheen of media sensation off the case.

If Madhu’s family had the support of society at large, particularly the media, during the trial of the case, it needs to be seen how Manjhi’s case is going to develop in a State away from his home State.

In the first case, the prosecution had failed to prove charges of murder under Indian Penal Code Section 302. “But we are confident that this case can get a conviction under Section 302. It was not an impulsive attack. It was deliberate. The beating took place from 12 midnight to 2.30 a.m. until Manjhi became unconscious. It was at 3.10 a.m. when a nurse attended to him and said he was dead,” said Mr. Das.

The police have now recovered the digital video recorder of a crucial surveillance camera that was taken away by one of the accused. The police have also recovered the mobile phones and some videos of Manjhi being beaten up.

Related:

2nd week, four mob lynchings: Bihar government remains mum

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Shanimol Osman ( Picture from facebook)

Osman, the first woman secretary of the AICC from Kerala has worked for the party since joining the Kerala Students Union years back. Ever since, she has served the party in different positions such as President of the Kerala State Mahila Congress, Municipal Chairperson at Alappuzha, member of the Alappuzha District Panchayat, member of the District Planning Committee, and member of the committee for the National Youth Programme. She is presently a member of the AICC, the Political Affairs Committee in the Kerala PCC and the Pradesh Election Committee.

Osman had been in the news after the defeat of the Congress-led UDF in the last Assembly elections in the state in 2016. She alleged that she was defeated in the constituency of Ottappalam as the Congress had given its votes to the BJP candidate. She also said on Facebook that she was a victim of the caste-group politics inside the party, which kept her away from positions. She boycotted the KPCC meeting held after the elections, along with senior leader Bindu Krishna, demanding to discuss the reasons for the failure of the Congress.

Shanimol Osman speaking at an election convention ( Pic ffom face book)

She had also contested in the by-election to the Perumbavoor constituency in 2009 but lost to Saju Paul of the CPIM. She was offered a seat in the Kasargod Parliament constituency, an LDF stronghold, in 2014 but she refused.

Shanimol graduated in Zoology from SD College, Alappuzha, and is a postgraduate in Sociology from the Loyola College, Thiruvananthapuram.  She then completed LLB from the Kerala Law Academy, Thiruvananthapuram. The 52-year old has a son and daughter – Alif Sathar Osman and Asya Thami Osman.  A Mohammed Osman is her husband.

The LDF candidate AM Ariff, who is presently MLA from Aroor, is also a native of Alappuzha.  He has been representing Aroor in the Assembly since 2006. The NDA has fielded Dr KS Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Kerala Public Service Commission and former VC of the Sree Shankaracharya University for Sanskrit in Kalady, who recently joined the BJP.

The constituency was won by the Congress in the last two elections by its national secretary KC Venugopal, who refused to contest this time citing organizational responsibilities (AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka). While the UDF is asking for votes to continue the development activities of the last ten years, the LDF is asking for a change.

Courtesy: Two Circle

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Picture courtesy: Twitter

This is how Indian society rewards you for reaching the top, aspiring seriously to be on top, and actually asking questions to authorities about why they keep drawing on women’s energies and resources while simultaneously undermining the very ground on which they survive. In Kerala, two things are going on: there is on the one hand, a vicious gang led by Rahul Easwar which is openly threatening women who would dare to enter Sabarimala with the worst kinds of violence, on the other, the horrid misogyny of the press was revealed at the press conference held by the Women in Cinema Collective who expressed their deep disquiet at the way in which the organization of cinema actors, AMMA, and its president Mohanlal, were eager to protect oppressors and ignore survivors. Also, even male intellectuals who have been very supportive of feminist and gender justices causes have been named in the MeToo campaign among journalists in Kerala.

Kerala is a society where, in the past twenty years, we have seen women come up everywhere — in journalism, literature, academics, cinema, architecture, engineering, art, management, sports, trade unionism, activism. Women in Kerala have been the force of social democratizing as evident from the struggles ranging from the Munnar tea garden workers’ struggle to the brave nuns protesting against sexual violence. For sure, a very large number of women in Kerala are ultra-conservative, and that is apparent both in their presence in the muck that Easwar and his gang are raking up in Kerala, as well as in the shameless way in which some of them were emboldened to hurl caste insults at the Chief Minister of Kerala. This is therefore reminiscent not so much of the Battle of Britain in World War II, but for the Battle of Stalingrad — which was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, even as there was hand-to-hand combat on the ground for control of the tiniest slices of the city, and where the city residents were often subject to the terrors of both the Nazi and the Soviet sides alike.

If you want to see male hubris overflowing, please take a look at this video, of 
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWomeninCinemaCollectiveOfficial%2Fvideos%2F249328929064857%2F&show_text=0&width=267“>
the press conference held by the Women in Cinema collective. All I can tell us all is, Keep Calm and Carry on. After all, unlike in the World War II, the ammunition of these creeps need not hurt us at all; it can make it only more powerful.

This article was first published on kafila.online

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Originally built by the Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century, Arthunkal church is one of the most important Catholic pilgrim centres in Kerala. Devotees from all across the state visit the church during January for a grand two-week celebration of the feast of St. Sebastian. The village, synonymous for the church, considers St. Sebastian as its guardian.

Mohandas’ claim has set alarm bells ringing not only among the Christians in Kerala, but also the BJP leadership which has been trying to woo the Christian groups to its fold, reports Deccan Chronicle.  Mohandas, who is also an RSS pracharak, had tweeted on Aug 26 that if excavations were conducted at the church, the remains of the temple could be found.

“The altar of the church kept falling during construction and the clergymen approached an astrologer who advised them to build it a little away from where the original sanctum sanctorum of the temple stood.  It’s the responsibility of each Hindu to reclaim this temple,” tweeted Mr Mohandas.

The BJP leaders criticised him for triggering an unwarranted controversy. “It is his personal opinion and the BJP has nothing to do with it. The issue has never been discussed in any of the party forums and he is living in a fool’s paradise,” said a former state BJP president.Another former BJP president said people like Mohandas were bringing shame to the party. “Mohandas is not an official spokesperson of the party,” he said.

The Mararikulam police, as instructed by Alappuzha police chief S. Surendran, registered a case against Mohandas for provoking communal tension.

AIYF district secretary T. T. Jismon had filed a complaint with Surendran against the tweet. Surendran also asked the Cherthala DySP to register a case under CrPC 153 (A) for creating communal hatred and ordered to give protection to Arthunkal, the third Basilica of the Roman Catholic (Latin Rite) Church in Kerala.
 
 

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Representation Image

According to the Telegraph, a Sunni Muslim organisation that follows the stricter Salafi branch of Islam has surprised many by refusing a Muslim teenager’s demand to wear the abaya on all days bypassing the more secular dress code at a college it runs. The college management has stood by its secular dress code.

The Jamia Nadwiya Teacher Training Institute in Edavanna, run by the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen in Muslim-majority Malappuram district, has refused to relax its rules while stressing that it has students from other communities as well. This has sent out a strong message.

According to the report, the institute’s dress code makes it mandatory for its students – who are all women – to wear saris on three particular days of the week while allowing them a wider choice of clothing on the other days. An abaya is a black outer garment that covers everything but the face, feet and hands.

But one candudate, Husband, 18 and married, was not hapoy. Husna C, 18, who had obtained a seat in the DEd (Diploma in Education) course, made several attempts to get the management to relax the dress code before eventually dropping out. It was her husband P. Harshad Mohammed who spoke to  The Telegraph on her behalf saying that Husna has, aggrieved by this,  enrolled in a BA Economics course at another college.

Doing all the talking for his wife, Harshad said he was not against saris. “But like most Muslims, we too feel the abayais more comfortable and safer than the sari,” he said.

“When she realised that this college won’t allow her to wear the abaya on all days, my wife joined another college.”# He added: “It’s very unfortunate that a college run by a Muslim trust denied our request although some non-Muslim colleges allow students to wear the abaya, which conforms to our religious practices, on all days.”

Howeer, an official at the teacher training institute, who didn’t want to be identified, said the other Muslim students had been complying with the dress code, and that the college couldn’t have made an exception for one student.

“As we have Hindus and Christians among our students too, the management has for a long time been enforcing the sari as the uniform for Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,” the official, a practising Muslim, said.

“We even have a uniform sari that all the students buy and wear. We had clearly told her (Husna’s) husband that rules are rules and if she wanted to wear the abaya, she could join any other college where it is allowed on all days.”

The Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, founded in 1950, runs a cluster of institutions at its about 30-acre campus in Malappuram, including a nursing college, arts and science college, higher secondary school for girls, residential secondary school and a school of Islamic studies.
 

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The man with his girl friend was in his twenties, they were at a beach near Kollam on February 14, when the woman had to go to an isolated area to relieve herself as the gang tried to assault her.The man was attacked too when he tried to rescue her.

The young man from Kerala has been found hanging outside his home in Kerala’s Palakkad district on Thursday, said NDTV.

The video shot on the beach was already posted on the social media sites. Beacause of the incident, the man was upset and stayed aloof for some days, according to the report.

A suicide note has been found in which he blames the vigilantes for his death.

After the couple complained to the police, the men were arrested.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had warned miscreants against such incidents and had told the police to take action against such people.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter
 

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An activist takes part in a protest in December 2015 to mark the third anniversary of the Delhi bus gang rape. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA

There has been much anger from the film industry and feminist groups regarding the safety of young girls in Kerala society. Sadly, this case is not an isolated incident. The rising number of attacks against women and girls in India’s most literate state is indeed  shocking.

According to the data on the Kerala Police website, the number of rape cases has risen from 500 in 2007 to 1,644 in 2016. The acclaimed model of Kerala’s gender and social development is clearly at a crossroads.

In recent times, the women of Kerala were portrayed as progressive “female capital” thanks to higher literacy levels than women from the rest of the country. The kinship system of “Marumakkathayam” is unique to Kerala. This simply means the practice of matriliny, whereby inheritance of family property is traced through daughters, rather than sons. Thus the eldest son is responsible for his sisters’s children and particularly their daughters. This familial descent and the inheritance of property is widely practised among many communities, such as some nair caste groups.

The inheritance of property rights by daughters has also allowed women to enjoy more status within households. Some of the practices of this traditional kinship system included polyandry (many husbands for women) and the joint family system. Furthermore, other left-leaning social movements and progressive measures in education and health policies have enabled women to enjoy a greater level of equality.

Progressive claims

The Kerala model of social development, even with lower economic growth, was lauded in both academic debates and by development agencies until the mid-1990s. But this general narrative is criticised due to widening social inequalities and marginalisation of its minorities.

The claims of a progressive state with “empowered women” sits uncomfortably alongside rising levels of misogyny. In addition to direct forms of violence against women, women in public spheres are targeted both through direct and online abuse. Some examples include the sexist and denigatory statements of the film director Major Ravi against a renowned TV journalist based on her reporting of the controversial presentation of the Goddess Durga; online abuse targeted at the TV presenter Ranjani Haridas who is seen as a
“liberated” and “modern” Malayalee woman; and ongoing opposition for women’s entry into the Sabarimala Temple.

The tone of such misogyny points to the notions of non-conformity of “progressive” Malayalee women to Bharatheeya (Indian) ideals of domesticity, modesty and conservative religious values. Thus women are still seen as an important “capital-bearing” object, both in how they are perceived as a “subordinate” confined to domestic and caring roles behind closed doors, and how they are represented as a “sexual” form through cultural practices or popular culture, such as films.

The concept of gender as capital is a useful tool for understanding contemporary gender relations in Kerala. Despite women’s higher education, the female capital is seen to be confined to the private home life. This is because women’s “gender capital” is identified with traits of femininity, such as domestication, passivity and subordination to male superiority (including sexuality).

Meanwhile, notions of femininity and feminine traits are being simultaneously devalued or disadvantaged in the public sphere. The higher echelons of political and economic power in Kerala are still dominated by men. In many ways, the Kerala model has not come to include or value its feminine capital by expanding the role of women as equals in society. Rather it has led to a loss or erosion of gender capital – as the escalating violence against women and girls shows.

Rising forms of patriarchial tendencies, such as the withdrawal of women from the labour market and dowry practices – where the bride’s parents pay a bride price to the groom – limit women’s meaningful participation in society.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2016 which captures various gender disparities has placed India in 108th position. The undervaluing of women’s work was cited as the main reason for closing gaps in education and occupational segregation. For example, care work and nursing is largely a female occupation and is often undervalued and seen as a “natural” female attribute. While women have used their feminine capital by entering into economic employment in Kerala, this is mostly in the care and service sectors. Such realms of work show how women’s work choices operate within boundaries of gender and social norms.

Kerala continues to pose a troubling conundrum. The current debates on equality and development should move beyond the rhetoric of gender equality, and begin examining lived experiences of women and men in different contexts. For Kerala, it is time to reflect on the processes of social reproduction within the society through addressing its gender bias.

Shoba Arun, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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via Sunny Mannumanam Kapicadu / Facebook.com
 

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