Common Law

1. Citizens’ Charter in Jan Lokpal recognizes the “Right of Reply” and seeks an effective mechanism for redressal of Citizens’ complaints. The roots of proposed Citizens’ Charter can be traced to earliest period of human civilization. The essay is long, but may still deserves a full reading. 2. This essay seeks to unearth the deep roots of proposed Citizens’ Charter, the essential attributes of Citizens’ charter and historical relationship between State & Citizens; and general apathy of modern Indian State to deal with citizens’ complaints to them; also to engineer an effective answer to deal with this deep menace of unreplied complaints, till the Jan Lokpal Act comes into existence. 3. It is my case that satisfactory replies to complaints are not of some importance but of fundamental importance in State – Citizen relationship. And therefore, it is necessary to trace the evolution and development of law, the emergence of concept of democracy, and trace the origin of today...

Wednesday, 7th April 2010, 10.20 Hrs. To, The Hon'ble the Chief Justice Of India, K G Balakrishnan, In the backdrop of Yahoo India news report - Tue, Apr 6 10:54 AM: CBI says charge those who sting, SC to decide. The Supreme Court today decided to test the legality of the CBI stand that a person who does a sting operation on the sly to expose a "corrupt" public official is liable to be charged with the offence of abetting corruption. Abetment of corruption draws a punishment of imprisonment of a maximum five years and fine under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988. MY LORDSHIP, If whether an alleged act constitutes an offence punishable with imprisonment, is probably a matter of Public Policy of India, a matter 'substantially' falls within the provinces of Parliament of India. MY LORDSHIP, in our scheme of Constitution, the Separation of powers is recognized as a basic feature of our functional democracy. The Separation of powers implies the ex...

News Report: The Hindu: 09.05.2010 Govt likely to finalise IPO managers for CIL soon. http://www.thehindu.com/businessline/blnus/14091821.htm NEW DELHI: The government is likely to appoint six merchant bankers, including the lowest bidder Citigroup, that have been shortlisted for managing the initial public offer of state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) within a few days, according to market sources. Sources close to the development said that the other five shortlisted bankers - Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Enam, Kotak Mahindra and DSP Merrill Lynch - are expected to match the “near-zero” fee bid of the Citigroup because of the high profile and siz e of the CIL IPO. Sources said that as against the global norm of 3-5 per cent fee that bankers charge for managing IPOs, Citigroup has bid a tiny fraction of the estimated size of the issue (around Rs 12,000 crore) so as to ensure that a commercial contract can be signed . “There has been an instance, or two, where government has r...