The most awaited visit
The State police are keeping their fingers crossed over the expected appearance of Sasikala Pushpa, the expelled AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP, before the Madras High Court Bench on Monday. Though the Supreme Court has protected her from being arrested for the next six weeks in a case booked on charges of sexually harassing two of her domestic aides, the apex court has also directed her to comply with the High Court’s order to appear in person and explain the allegation of having made a false statement that she signed a Vakalat (a document authorising a lawyer to appear on behalf of her) in Madurai on August 17. While opposing her anticipatory bail application before the Bench, the prosecution had claimed that the MP could not have signed the Vakalat in Madurai on August 17 since she had left for Singapore from Delhi the same day. Since Monday would be the first public appearance of Ms. Pushpa in the State after she levelled serious allegations against the AIADMK leadership in Parliament on August 1, the police are anxious to avoid any untoward incident involving the party cadres.
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Taking Pokemon to court
The Madras High Court often handles weird petitions. Recently, a law student Mitesh Sharma approached the court seeking a direction to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to block the popular augmented reality game ‘Pokemon Go’ from being downloaded.
The game has popular avatars of Pokemon such as Squirtle, Pikachu, Charmander and Balbasaur pictures.
The First Bench headed by the Chief Justice didn’t seem pleased with the plea though.
“This is a publicity interest litigation by the petitioner, who is still a law student. We are sure there are better ways of obtaining recognition for the law work than an endeavour to block ‘Pokemon Go’ game,” the Bench said. However, they noted that the petitioner had sent a representation only on August 4 this year and within 15 days, he had moved the court. If there are any dangers envisaged in view of the game, it is for the administration to take necessary action, the court said. -------------------------------
Rumour creates long queues
Political parties extending offers of ‘help’ to “improve” the welfare of the citizens with additional intensity before any elections is not unusual. Recently, talks of promise of handing over free house site pattas to applicants before the upcoming civic polls did the rounds in Avinashi and Tirupur.
While no one knows for sure where this information originated, it has led to gullible people flocking the Tirupur Collectorate in large numbers during the weekly grievances redressal meeting by district administration on Mondays for the past few weeks. Last Monday, the queue was serpentine with around 2,000 people turning up believing the rumours that it was the last date for applying for free house site.
Finally, a separate desk and officials were designated to collect the applications. Though officials could be heard cursing the rumour, they did not want to lock horns with politicians by issuing statements against it.
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Salutation to non-existent V-C
The inordinate delay in appointing Vice-Chancellors for three universities, including Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), has attracted criticism from several quarters.
However, Labour Minister Nilofer Kafeel, who was the chief guest for the convocation at M.S.S. Wakf Board College in Madurai on Saturday, seemed to be unaware of this and mentioned the non-existent Vice-Chancellor of MKU, in the convocation address, though she did not mention any name. No one bothered to correct her. -------------------------------
Working overtime
Even while the Election Commission is yet to give an indication of the date of polls for the Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies, which were cancelled on account of widespread distribution of cash to voters, the ruling party members and the official machinery are working overtime to reach out to residents in the Aravakurichi constituency. Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M. Thambidurai, Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar and Karur Collector K. Govindaraj invariably spend weekends in the villages as the elections could be announced anytime.
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Helmet for
van driver?
Can a man driving a van be fined for driving without a helmet? Well, personnel in Eriyode police limits in Dindigul think so as they served a notice on cargo van driver and fined him Rs 100 recently. The notice identifies the vehicle as “TATA AC (sic)” while recording the reason as ‘without helmet’ in defects column.
( Contributions from Mohammed Imranullah, Dennis S Jesudasan, R. Vimal Kumar, Pon Vasanth Arunchalam, C. Jaishankar and K. Raju)
