Friday, November 6, 2009

Traffic Ramaswamy - The PIL King

Traffic Ramaswamy – for Chennaiites, doesn’t the very mention of that name ring a bell? How was he inspired to seek legal remedies through PILs? Well, I will let him do the talking:

“In 1953, when I was hardly 18, I went to fetch my family’s ration from a shop. They weighed 14 kgs of rice and packed it in a bag. As I was about to carry the bag home, the Tehsildar appeared in front of me and told me that according to the prevailing rules, one should not carry 14 kgs of rice. I left the bag there and challenged him saying that though I was leaving empty handed, I would see to it that they brought it to my home! …

I filed a suit against him. As soon as the judgment was delivered, the same tehsildar knocked the door of my house along with a bag of 14 kgs ofrice.

I understood one thing. We can challenge anyone however mighty he or she may be, provided our cause is just…”

The MRTS in Chennai is indeed a big boon for commuters. But the main problem is that most of the, if not all the Stations are far away from bus stops. This is is a major disincentive to commuters. The worst affected are the Chindadiripet, Chepauk, Triplicane, Greenways Road, Kotturpuram, Tiruvanmiyur, and Taramani Stations. Have I mentioned all the intermediate stations? Will anybody take immediate action?

The Madras High Court has the distinction of pronouncing several interesting and motivating judgments. Sometime back, its bench at Madurai had ordered the accused in a rationrice smuggling case to donate a reasonable quantity of rice , purchased from the open market to homes for elders and mentally challenged children. Justice T. Sudanthiram made it obligatory for the accused to furnish purchase bills to the concerned police stations.

Madras HighCourtIn another unorthodox directive in 2003, Justice Karpaga Vinayagam handed down a novel ‘punishment’ to politician M. Ranganathan, as a precondition for granting him bail in a criminal intimidation case. He had to read the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi in the Madurai Gandhi Museum for half an-hour for five days. Known for his unconventional verdicts, the judge had also ordered a police officer, who failed to implement the court’s directive, to donate Rs 1,000 to Gandhi Museum.

We also know of actress Roja, who was asked to spend a day at an orphanage and along with the children eat the food served there. This was in a case related to failure to repay a loan taken from a financier promptly.

Very recently, The Madras High Court imposed a condition to eight persons accused of burning the "National Flag" to "erect a flagpole in front of your house and hoist the national flag daily for one week." Justice R Regupathi, allowing their bail pleas, said: "Though I am inclined to release the petitioners on bail, to make them realize the pristine value of the national symbol, and also their obligations and responsibility in upholding the sanctity of such symbols, it is but proper to impose the conditions." The judge, not stopping with that, asked the eight accused persons to visit an orphanage and do community service for three hours daily for seven days.

I am happy the courts of law are turning into courts of justice!

Kamala TheatreThe reopening of Kamala theatre is indeed a welcome step forward in the entertainment circle of Chennai. But getting there isn’t as easy as it seems, for you will have to rethink your routes every time you are asked to take a diversion. You would be lucky not to end up at Thirupathy. Battling with road traffic is one thing, but trying to find your way past the foot traffic is dodgy business. This chaos may lead people to ‘dodging’ even your favourite theatre.

After going through a lot to reach the locality last Friday, I lost interest and decided to ditch the inaugural of the reopening of the theatre.

P.S: Pardon the accidental irony of starting and finishing this diary with ‘traffic’


Courtesy : www.irazoo.com

1 comment:

  1. great person.......each and every citizen must have social responsibility like him...........

    ReplyDelete