SC sexual harassment panel gets 2 complaints since Nov 2013

New Delhi: The committee set up in the Supreme Court to deal with instances of sexual harassment within its precincts has received two complaints from two women lawyers since its inception in November 2013. 

"Both the complaints are pending disposal," said the Supreme Court Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee (GSICC), in its annual report which was made public today in the apex court website. 

The report has not disclosed the names of the alleged offenders. 

It said the statement of one of the complainants was video recorded by its three-member internal sub-committee and recording of statement of the other woman lawyer was deferred on her request. 

The report said that GSICC was constituted on November 26 last year with an object to fulfil an important function of sensitizing the public on gender issues and to address complaints made with regard to sexual harassment in the precincts of the Supreme Court. 

"In the First Meeting of GSICC held on December 9, 2013, an Internal Sub-Committee of three members was constituted in terms of Clause 9 (1) of the said Regulations. The three members are Indu Malhotra, Senior Advocate, L Nageshwar Rao, Senior Advocate and Bharti Ali, co-director of HAQ, an NGO. 

"Two complaints received by the GSICC from aggrieved women lawyers have been submitted to the Internal Sub-Committee. The Internal Sub-Committee initiated the process of examining the two complaints. 

Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam had formed GSICC which is headed by the Supreme Court's woman judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, and has six other female members. 

There are two members who are outsiders and not connected with the apex court in any manner. 

The panel is in consonance with the guidelines laid down by apex court in its judgement in Vishaka case for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment at workplace. 

Under the guidelines, it is required that the panel has a majority of female members and two members of civil society nominated by the Chief Justice of India. 

The committee includes three male members-- Justice Madan B Lokur, sitting apex court judge, senior advocate L Nageswara Rao and Prof Dr G Mohan Gopal, Director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, who is the nominee of the CJI and is an outsider. 

The women members are senior advocate Indu Malhotra, advocate Bina Madhavan (representative of Supreme Court Bar Association), B Sunita Rao (representative of Supreme Court advocates-on-record Association), Madhu Chauhan, (representative of Supreme Court Clerks Association) and Bharti Ali (Co-Director, HAQ : Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi) has been appointed as a nominee of the CJI and is an outsider. 

Rachna Gupta, Additional Registrar, is the member Secretary of the committee. 

The Supreme Court in October had put on its website the guidelines framed to deal with sexual harassment complaints within its precincts. 

As per the notification on "The Gender Sensitisation & Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal), Regulations, 2013" "aggrieved woman means, in relation to the Supreme Court, any female, of any age, whether employed or not, who claims to have been subjected to any act of sexual harassment by any person in the Supreme Court of India precincts but does not include any female who is already governed by the Supreme Court service regulations." 

NEWS Link:- http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/sc-sexual-harassment-panel-gets-2-complaints-since-nov-2013_908191.html#.Uuyp81S_9RY.blogger

Husband defends wife accused of murdering their Frisco son

 

 

The father of a Frisco boy whom police say was murdered by the boy's mother is standing by his wife.

He says police have the story wrong and that his wife was doing the right thing.

Frisco officers conducted a welfare check Wednesday evening at a home in the 15000 block of Mountain View Lane. There, they found Arnav Dhawan, 10, dead in a bathtub in the home.

Frisco Police said Thursday that the boy's mother, Pallavi, confessed to killing her son. But the boy's father, Sumeet, says he told police there was no way his wife could have killed their child.

FOX4 sat down with Sumeet Dhawan and his attorney, former judge David Finn, on Friday.

When asked if he thought his wife killed his son, Sumeet said, "No…I mean, my wife and my son were so close to each other. I mean, she saved his life when he was almost about to drown in India a couple of years ago. Not only that; she also sacrificed her career just to support him."

But Frisco Police charged Pallavi with the murder of Arnav.

"When he was born he had a couple of medical conditions," said Sumeet. "One condition is the microcephaly, which is an unusual size of the brain. The other one was he had a cyst in his brain, and the doctors had said when he was born that it could be a potential surgery, and also, potentially that he could have seizures."

Sumeet believes his son died last weekend, while Sumeet was out of town on a business trip.

"I went on 15th of this month," said Sumeet. "I was supposed to come back within 10 days. It got extended by a couple of days. I came back on Wednesday."

"I walked in and my wife was going out," said Sumeet. "She said she was going to come back. She didn't show up for a couple of hours. I got a little anxious, so I called the police."

Sumeet says police came, but said there was nothing they could do about her being gone. Police were about to leave when Pallavi returned home.

"She came in, and then we asked what happened to Arnav," said Sumeet. "She said, ‘Something tragic has happened; he's no more,' and then I called the cops and they broke the door."

"Now, the police said in their news conference yesterday that they asked her if he was in the bedroom, and she said yes and she nodded, and then they asked her if she killed him, and she nodded," FOX4 said to Sumeet. "Is that true?"

"That's not true at all," said Sumeet. "In fact, they didn't even know whether he was alive or dead. So the first thing they did was they went inside. They were not sure whether he was still alive or not. I think they called dispatch and they asked for a firefighter or an ambulance, and then they asked both of us to step outside. After five to seven minutes, the ambulance came. Then they looked at the body and said ‘He's no more.'"

When asked why Pallavi didn't notify Sumeet that something had happened to Arnav, he said, "See, she was, I mean she was probably in a state of shock. Imagine her condition. Your child is no more. I mean, she, I don't know. Maybe she tried to contact me. I was not reachable. She could or should have called the cops. She did not. She probably tried to help him and then she was gone in her state of mind, she just waited ‘til I came back…because she thought if she calls the cops, they'll take Arnav away and I'll never see him again."

Police say the child was in a bathtub draped in cloth with bags around him. The husband says the bags were full of ice.

"That's because she was trying to preserve the body with ice…because she wanted me to see him. She was, in her mind, trying to save him so I can come back and see him. And right or wrong, you know, she should have called the cops. This thing probably wouldn't have happened, right, because this was accidental."

Sumeet says when his father died in India in 2001, the body was preserved until family could arrive from America.

"They, in our home, took one room, they put a full sleet of ice and they laid him there," said Sumeet. "They didn't cremate him because they waited for us to come…me, my brother and my mom."

When asked if Sumeet had told that to police, he said, "No, I have not, because they never asked me that question, right? I mean, because, I didn't even know…my questioning was, what happened when you came in? They probably made a decision that she has done it. I told them, ‘Let's take it step-by-step…let's look at it what the actual evidence is, what the circumstances are before jumping to conclusions."

Pallavi was charged with murder, and her bond was set at $50,000.

"I spoke with the medical examiner," said Sumeet. "She said there's no injury marks, there's no thing on drowning, They still kept it open that he could have died from natural causes."

Sumeet says he can't put into words how he feels.

"Shattered, right?" said Sumeet. "Trying to prepare for this funeral and at the same time, she doesn't care for herself because something very important to her is gone and it's sour son. So she's like totally, she's lost. What else? I mean, son is gone and she's been charged with something which is unimaginable."

Read more: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/24606539/husband-of-woman-accused-of-murdering-son-stands-by-his-wife#ixzz2s5ciVyj2

Watching relationship movies can cut divorce rates by half

Washington, Feb 1 (ANI): A new study has found that watching and discussing movies about relationships can be as effective in lowering divorce rates as other, more intensive early marriage counseling programs.

Discussing five movies about relationships over a month could cut the three-year divorce rate for newlyweds in half, researchers said.

The study, involving 174 couples, is the first long-term investigation to compare different types of early marriage intervention programs.

The findings show that an inexpensive, fun, and relatively simple movie-and-talk approach can be just as effective as other more intensive therapist-led methods-reducing the divorce or separation rate from 24 to 11 percent after three years.

"We thought the movie treatment would help, but not nearly as much as the other programs in which we were teaching all of these state-of-the-art skills," Ronald Rogge, associate professor of psychology at the University of Rochester and lead author of the study, said.

"The results suggest that husbands and wives have a pretty good sense of what they might be doing right and wrong in their relationships. Thus, you might not need to teach them a whole lot of skills to cut the divorce rate. You might just need to get them to think about how they are currently behaving. And for five movies to give us a benefit over three years-that is awesome," he added.

The study is published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. (ANI)

NEWS Link:- http://in.news.yahoo.com/watching-relationship-movies-cut-divorce-rates-half-050621005.html

The importance of credibility in domestic violence cases

'It has been in all the recent news--New Jersey Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) has announced a bill that would create a publicly accessible registry containing all the names of individuals who have been found to have committed an act of domestic violence. Gusciora believes that a public registry would reduce the number of instances of domestic violence by repeat offenders. The registry would be similar in nature to the sex offender registry established under Megan's Law.
...
But while not diminishing the seriousness of the issue, false accusations do happen. False accusations of domestic violence can be used as revenge, as a weapon in divorces, child custody, support and visitation battles. The consequences can be devastating, ruining a life, being evicted from one's home, losing custody, heavy fines, attorney's fees, and in some cases, jail. In many cases, the question of whether domestic violence has actually occurred comes down to he said/she said, and that frequently hinges on the credibility of the accused and the accuser. ...'

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Ed. note: This is an item written and released by a law firm in New Jersey, so the authors likely have a business interest in the topic. While that may be the case, it doesn't mean what they are saying isn't true. And as for what lawyer one chooses to hire for whatever reason, it's up to them. Just wanted to make it clear this item is here due to its content, not because of who wrote it or any reason other than its relevance to men's rights and the crucial but often ignored presumption of innocence that all people facing charges in a US criminal court are supposed to have.

NEWS Link:- http://news.mensactivism.org/node/23470

The NCW has failed the Indian woman. It should be scrapped

Images of the Guwahati molestation shocked every television viewer. Fury erupted on the safety of women, the role of the police and the role of journalists. Then the National Commission of Women (NCW) woke up. An NCW representative, the glamorous  Congress member Alka Lamba, arrived in Guwahati with superbly blow-dried hair. She swept into a press conference. She posed for the cameras. She then announced the name of the victim. And took a flight the next day back to Delhi. The Commission then said it had submitted its report. It said the role of journalists should be probed and the police came late. NCW members Alka Lamba after meeting the victim of the Guwahati molestation incident. PTI Now hang on a minute, gentle ladies of the NCW. How about the safety and protection of the victim? Counselling? Words of advice and reassurance of care? A detailed fact-finding effort? Reaching out to other women's groups in Assam? Interacting with the police to ask for concrete steps that such action will not take place in future? Taking steps to ensure leisure spots, particularly those where liquor is served, are appropriately policed, as they are in all cities of the world? What about sending out the message that men and women have the same rights to enjoy the leisure activities of their choice? Oh no, none of that. The NCW disappeared from Guwahati faster than you could say National Commission of Women. A rapidly changing society is leading to newer forms of violence against women. Laws on crimes against women remain horrendously weak. For the crimes of molestation, assault and humiliation, all we have is the laughable, totally-outdated Section 354 on Outraging The Modesty Of A Woman, a bailable offence in many states punishable with a mere two years and a fine. Entertainment and Bollywood cults are projecting women as sex symbols and are screaming that  “liberated women” are those who appear in item numbers and have hot bikini bodies. Top heroines vie with one another to perform item numbers. Sexiness is now seen as an apparent leitmotif of female achievement. With female sexuality becoming the dominant perception of women, professional women, students, businesswomen, and working women find themselves at the receiving end of vicious assaults and crimes on the street and in public leisure spots. A woman in a miniskirt is seen to be "asking" to be eve-teased. A woman at a pub is seen as "asking" for molestation. Morality brigades are on the rampage. Women must cover their heads. Women must not wear jeans. Women must not use cellphones. Women who enter love marriages will be killed. The sex symbol and morality cop are shadow-boxing in a fantasy ring while millions of women suffer. The sex symbol and morality cop are both symptoms of the total lack of gender equality in our society today. They are, in fact, symptoms of the same disease, a feudal patriarchal culture where women are either “virgins" or "whores", a society where crimes against women are entering a new era of brazen brutality. Amidst the serious challenges faced by the modern Indian woman today sits the National Commission of Women, like a slothful octopus chained to the ruling party, feeding off political and government largesse. It sends out a dangling tentacle here, another lazy tentacle there, issues garbled statements about the need to appreciate words like “sexy”, to avoid NRI marriages and to wear proper clothes. Every day the NCW demonstrates that it simply does not take itself seriously. Every day it sends out reminders about its largely ornamental role. Note the following statements by NCW  chairperson Mamta Sharma lately, a Congress politician from Rajasthan: “Nowadays boys are very enthusiastic. If a group of boys teases you by calling you sexy, you should not get provoked and instead you should take it positively.” Should the NCW chairperson be concerning herself with the etymology and dictionary meanings of the word "sexy"? Or should she be working to create awareness in police, government departments, universities and schools to promote gender justice in society? Here’s another priceless statement from the NCW chairperson: “Don’t get fooled if some NRI tries to sell you a dream of taking you to beautiful places like Switzerland, France or England.” Oh really?  Superbly put.  The serious problem of NRI brides, the desperation levels of abandoned wives, the crimes endured by women in many of these marriages, all of these issues are so sweetly captured in a folksy parable from Sharma. And the latest gem? “ Women should dress carefully because such incidents (Guwahati molestation) are a result of blindly aping the West.” It's not just about blindly aping the West, Ms Sharma. It’s also about the vacuum in the law, lack of security at leisure spots, lack of gender justice, lack of fear of the law, police and judicial apathy and the complete lack of awareness that men and women have the right to enjoy exactly the same kind of leisure activities. Ms Sharma must watch a Jodie Foster starrer, The Accused. Based on a true story, the film shows that even a drunk, scantily dressed woman at a bar can be the victim of rape. That whatever the  “morality” of a woman, however she is dressed, rape and sexual assault are crimes and must be prosecuted as such. Just as the argument - she- was-asking-for-it - does not apply to a murder, it also does not apply to rape. The existence of the NCW is now becoming a disservice to the many women who are seeking justice, compensation and a fair hearing from courts and government. The fight for justice and equality is no longer about the shrieking of a zenana dabba.  It’s about campaigning for a just society and changed mindsets among men as well as women. But the NCW is a collection of politicians, bent on trivialising women's issues. Women politicians in India have never taken women's issues seriously. Fighting bitterly in competitive politics with men, in a highly patriarchal political environment, women netas have always had to play down their identities as women. Neither Mayawati nor Jayalalithaa nor Mamata Banerjee identify strongly with women's issues, they can’t afford to for fear of being written off as women. Mulayam Singh Yadav's campaign promise of government jobs for rape victims shows just how disconnected politicians are from understanding how justice needs to be delivered to women. Precisely why the NCW has to be urgently freed from political control and liberated from politicians. Athlete Pinki Pramanik faced public humiliation recently when she was charged with rape and leered at and groped in public by the police. Where was the NCW?  A government minister faced public outrage over statements about a rape in Kolkata recently. Where was the NCW?  Sonali Mukherjee, a helpless, horribly disfigured victim of an acid attack, is running from pillar to post trying to get funding for her treatment. Where is the NCW?  Why does the NCW not set up a fund- collecting mechanism for acid attack victims? Why is the NCW not asking for a separate law on acid attacks? Why is the NCW not campaigning for a sexual assault bill, which is the demand of women's groups? In campaigns against female foeticide and battering of baby girls, where is the NCW?  When Rumi Nath, an Assam MLA, was beaten up because of matters relating to her personal life, where was the NCW? The lesson is clear: The NCW is not there for Pinki. It is not there for Sonali. It is not there for Rumi. The NCW exists for politicians, by politicians, and of politicians, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the dilemmas and crimes faced by women. The chairperson of the NCW divests herself of totally frivolous statements. The NCW itself reveals the identity of a molestation victim. At a time when the leadership of the NCW must be with strong rational women working towards justice and equity in society as a whole , the NCW is dragging women back to girlie banter about what constitutes “sexy” and “NRI boys” and  “wearing proper clothes".  If the NCW cannot be overhauled because there are too many vested political interests trying to keep it alive as a resort for out-of-work netas, then the NCW should simply be scrapped.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-ncw-has-failed-the-indian-woman-it-should-be-scrapped-381459.html?utm_source=ref_article

Court allows French consular's mother to meet grandkids

The Karnataka High Court has permitted French consular Pascal Mazurier's mother Jacqueline Maille to meet her two grandchildren Friday at the mediation centre of the family court here.

Upholding the family court's July 20, 2013 order, a division bench of Justice K.L. Manjunath and Justice Ravi Mallimath directed Mazurier's estranged wife Suja Jones to allow her children to meet Maille, 63, for an hour at the mediation centre.

The two sons - aged nine and three - are in their mother's custody here.

"We direct the respondent (Jones) and her counsel who are present before the court to keep the children Friday before the mediation centre and the director or deputy director of the mediation centre would be present at the time of the complainant's mother visiting," said the court order issued Jan 27 but released Thursday.

Mazurier, 40, who is on bail in a criminal case for allegedly sexually assaulting his minor daughter, filed a contempt petition in the high court Nov 11 against his wife for not complying with the family court order.

"It is made clear that the complainant and his counsel so also the respondent and her counsel shall also be present to avoid unpleasantness," the bench said in the order.

As an accused in such a criminal case is not permitted by law to meet his kin, Maille came to Bangalore from France last year to meet her grandchildren.

Welcoming the ruling, Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (Crisp), a non-government organisation, said it was a great relief to Muzurier and his mother, who have been eager to meet the two sons over several months.

"As an NGO working for the children's rights, we have been giving legal counselling to Mazurier and his mother as per the Indian laws and the system. We hope the visitation will be smooth to promote the children's welfare from both sides," Crisp president Kumar Jahgirdar told IANS.

Mazurier was arrested June 19, 2012, after police registered a case against him June 15, 2012, under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint by Jones, who accused him of abusing their four-year-old child and alleging domestic violence against her.

The high court, however, granted him bail Oct 12, 2012, while the criminal case was pending in the sessions court for trial.

NEWS Link:- http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/court-allows-french-consular-s-mother-to-meet-grandkids-114013001308_1.html#.UuvIqgDlhPF.blogger

City Girl Kills In-law to Save Self from Rape

A final-year undergraduate girl student on Friday surrendered after killing her brother-in-law who attempted to sexually assault her.

The girl, studying BCom in a private college in the city, went to the Madhavaram police station along with her sister and confessed to having killed her brother-in-law by stabbing him in his neck using a kitchen knife. When a police team reached their apartment, they found Mathew Vinu Raj (35) dead in a pool of blood.

In the wee hours of Friday, Mathew locked his wife in a room and barged into his sister-in-law’s room and forced himself on her, police said. Mathew’s 8-year-old son was asleep in another room.

“The girl tried to protect herself for long and then took out a kitchen knife and threatened Mathew to leave the room. As he was unrelenting, she first stabbed him on his head. But that proved futile. She then stabbed him in the neck,” said inspector K Krishnamoorthy.

The girl had been staying with her sister’s family at Madhavaram for the last seven years after both of her parents died.

Mathew, a native of Kerala, married the girl’s sister after courting her for a few years. He initially agreed to his wife’s sister staying in his house, but soon started physically assaulting her.

The girl on Friday surrendered to police in Madhavaram.

“He used to verbally abuse and beat his wife and sister-in-law. The girl said he started making sexual advances towards her in the last two months. She had to suffer in silence as she had no one to support her,” said deputy commissioner S Vimala.

In a rare case, the Madhavaram police booked the girl under the milder IPC Section 304 (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder), and released her on bail. “She killed him in an act of self-defence,” said an officer. Police seek exemption under IPC section 100, which makes killing a person not an offence, if it was for self-defence.

NEWS Link:- http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/City-Girl-Kills-In-law-to-Save-Self-from-Rape/2014/02/01/article2031477.ece