Former CJI Justice Altamas Kabir is no more

“India has lost a legal luminary”

Hailed as one of the brilliant judges of the Supreme Court, former Chief Justice of India, Justice (Retired) Altamas Kabir passed away on Sunday (Feb 19) after prolonged illness. He was 68.

Justice Kabir was unwell for quite some time. Suffering from kidney-related ailments, Justice Kabir was admitted to a private hospital in the city last week. He breathed his last in Kolkata, where he spent many years as lawyer. Justice Kabir is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son.

Justice Altamas Kabir enrolled as an Advocate in 1973 at Kolkata Bar Association. Justice Kabir practised in the District Court of Calcutta and later in the Calcutta High Court. Nephew of the well-known Bengal writer and politician, Humayun Kabir, Altamas Kabir was known for his erudition and tongue-in-cheek humour.

Former and late Chief Justice of India Justice Altamas Kabir being felicitated by alumni (Hermonites) of Mt. Hermon School (Darjeeling) at his residence in New Delhi in 2012 after being appointed as the 39th Chief Justice of India. (Left to Right) Advocate Mahesh Singh, Jigme N Kazi, Justice Altamas Kabir, Krishna Goenka, Advocate Udai P. Sharma and Karan Anand.

Born on July 19, 1948 in Kolkata, Justice Kabir completed his LLB and MA from the University of Calcutta. The soft-spoken judge started his legal career in 1973 when he enrolled as an advocate.

As a lawyer Justice Kabir was considered an authority in both Civil and Criminal cases. As an advocate, Kabir practised in the Calcutta high court and the district session court between early 1970s and late 1980. He was appointed as a judge in the Calcutta High Court in 1990.

In March 2005, Justice Altamas Kabir was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court. Later that year, he was elevated to the Supreme Court on September 9. Three years later, he was appointed the 39th Chief Justice of India on September 29, 2012. He retired on July 18, 2013 after a brief tenure of about nine months. Justice Kabir was the fourth Muslim to hold the top post in India’s history.

Justice Kabir’s amicable behaviour endeared him to fellow judges and lawyers.

Says Supreme Court advocate Parmanand Pandey, “In the death of Justice Altamas Kabir,we have lost a judge, who gave more importance to equity in his verdicts. He was very indulgent to lawyers in giving patient hearings.Courts presided over by him used to sit normally up to 6 or 6.30 p.m. Once he heard me quite at length and I thought to have carried the day.While dictating the order, he was about to dismiss my SLP but in the nick of the time the then puisne judge RM Lodha whispered something to him in his ears prompting Justice Kabir to ask for some clarification from me, which turned the table in my favour. I never saw him misbehaving with anybody. 
He was eclectic and humane to the core.One of his sisters is married to a Hindu and another cousin Liela Kabir is to a Christian and famous politician George Fernandes.His uncle Humayun Kabir was a known Bengali writer and a freedom fighter.”

Born in Faridpur (now in Bangladesh) on July 19, 1948, Justice Kabir studied at Mount Hermon School in Darjeeling and Calcutta Boys School and Presidency College, Kolkata.

He is the nephew of late union minister Humayun Kabir, who served with Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.

During his brief tenure as Chief Justice of India, Justice Kabir delivered several landmark judgments particularly on human rights and election laws.

As the Chief Justice, he was part of the Supreme Court Bench which heard the case of the two Italian marines in 2013.

In another noted judgement in December 2012 as the Chief Justice of India, Justice Kabir along with Justice H.L. Dattu directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to go ahead with its probe into the disproportionate assets case against Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav.

In May 2011, Justice Kabir with Justice Cyriac Joseph, quashed the disqualification of 11 BJP MLAs by the then Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.G. Bopaiah as it did not fulfil the criterion of natural justice and fair play.

Expressing her condolences Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “Condolences on the passing of former CJ Altamas Kabir ji. My thoughts with his family/colleagues. India & Bengal have lost a legal luminary.”

(Ref: India Today, The Hindu, Hindustan Times)

China teases India, blocks a Brahmaputra tributary in Tibet to build dam

As India mulls utilizing its full entitlement under Indus Waters Treaty to make Pakistan feel the pinch of its terror policy, China has teased India again in Tibet. China has blocked an important tributary of Brahmaputra river to construct a dam in Tibet.

The state-run news agency of China, Xinhua has reported that China "on Friday blocked a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo (the Tibetan name for Brahmaputra) River as part of its most expensive hydro project." The hydel power project is cause of concern for India as the dam may impact the flow of water into the lower riparian countries including Bangladesh.

"The Lalho project on the Xiabuqu River in Xigaze (which is very close to Sikkim), involves an investment of 4.95 billion yuan (740 million U.S. dollars)," Xinhua reported.

Xigaze is also known as Shigatse and it is from this location Brahmaputra flows into Arunachal Pradesh.

The hydel project was launched in June, 2014 and scheduled to be completed in 2019. Its reservoir was designed to store up to 295 million cubic meters of water, the agency reported.

NOT THE FIRST DAM

This is not the first time that China has tried to alter the flow of rivers, flowing into India. In 2015, China operationlised the largest hydel project in Tibet, Zam Hydropower Station, built on Brahamputra river.

China's first dam on the main upper reaches of the Brahmaputra was built at Zangmu in 2010. The green light was given for three more dams in the 2011-15 five-year plan, on which work is on-going.

Though, China has maintained that its dams are run of the river projects, which are not designed to hold water, India has expressed deep concern over the implementation of the hydel project. The hydropower project on Brahmaputra or its tributaries make the northeastern states vulnerable for both untimely flood and lack of water.

NO WATER TREATY

There is no water treaty between India and China but the two countries have devised an Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on trans-border rivers. The two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on strengthening cooperation on trans-border rivers under which Beijing provides data to India on the water flows.

China's decision to block a Brahmaputra tributary came at a time when India has mounted diplomatic and strategic offensive against Pakistan in the aftermath of Uri terror attack, in which 19 jawans lost their lives. China's response to Uri attack and subsequent developments has been very guarded.

Some of the rivers under the Indus Waters Treaty originate in Tibet including Indus and Satluj.

(India Today – Oct 1, 2016)

THE WAY WE FOUGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS  

   A decade and seven years ago, six Sikkimese representing the three ethnic communities of Sikkim – Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalese – held a 12-hour hunger strike in Gangtok on October 2, 1999, demanding restoration of their political rights on seat reservation in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly.

(Left to Right) Tenzing Namgyal, Jigme N. Kazi, Nima Lepcha, Pintso Bhutia, K.C. Pradhan and Gyamsay Bhutia.

   The participants were:  the Late K.C. Pradhan, former Minister and Advisor of the Sikkimese Nepalese Apex Committee (SNAC), Nima Lepcha and Pintso Bhutia, Convenors of the Sikkim Bhutia-Lepcha Apex Committee (SIBLAC), Jigme N. Kazi, Chairman of the Organisation of Sikkimese Unity (OSU), and Tenzing Namgyal and Gyamsay Bhutia of the SIBLAC.

   The protestors “sought the blessing of the ‘Father of the Nation’ and the Guardian Deities of Sikkim in their struggle on restoration of their political rights” as reflected in Article 371F of the Constitution of India.

   “We held the hunger strike on October 2 to remind the world that we were determined to struggle on till our demand on restoration of our political rights were met. While others fought the elections we fought for our people. We are not concerned with who wins or loses in the polls; our main concern was that if the Assembly seats were not restored to us in the near future we would be the ultimate losers and the electoral process would then become a meaningless ritual as the Sikkimese people would have no future to look forward to.”

Ref: The Lone Warrior: Exiled In My Homeland, by Jigme N. Kazi, published by Hill Media Publications, Gangtok, 2014. 

After surgical strike, China 'hopes' India, Pakistan can resolve issues through dialogue

By IANS , Sept 29, 2016

BEIJING: Following India's claim that it launched "surgical strikes" on the terrorist launch pads in Pakistani Kashmir on Thursday, China has said that Beijing was in touch with both New Delhi and Islamabad through "various channels".

Responding to a question during the daily briefing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson here said: "We hope that they (India and Pakistan) can carry out dialogues to properly resolve disputes and maintain regional peace and security."

The statement comes after tensions between Pakistan and India escalated after India announced that it has carried out surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control, which divides Jammu and Kashmir between the two countries.

Pakistan has dismissed Indian claims that it carried out any strike on terrorist launch pads on territory under its control.

The spokesman added that China was a friendly neighbour to both Pakistan and India.

Asked about the Kashmir issue, the spokesperson said: "China has been following the Kashmir situation and takes seriously Pakistan's position on Kashmir."

"China believes that the Kashmir issue is a left-over from history which shall be resolved by relevant parties through dialogue and consultation." (The New Indian Express)

Column

The next president unbound by the 'Obama overreach'

By Victor Davis Hanson

Donald Trump’s supporters see a potential Hillary Clinton victory in November as the end of any conservative chance to restore small government, constitutional protections, fiscal sanity and personal liberty.

Clinton’s progressives swear that a Trump victory would spell the implosion of America as they know it, alleging Trump parallels with every dictator from Josef Stalin to Adolf Hitler.

Part of the frenzy over 2016 as a make-or-break election is because a closely divided Senate’s future may hinge on the coattails of the presidential winner. An aging U.S. Supreme Court may also translate into perhaps three to four court picks for the next president.

Yet such considerations only partly explain the current election frenzy.

The model of the imperial Obama presidency is the greater fear. Over the last eight years, President Barack Obama has transformed the powers of presidency in a way not seen in decades.

Congress talks grandly of “comprehensive immigration reform,” but Obama, as he promised with his pen and phone, bypassed the House and Senate to virtually open the border with Mexico. He issued executive-order amnesties. He allowed entire cities to be exempt from federal immigration law.

Perils of presidential power

The Senate used to ratify treaties. In the past, a president could not unilaterally approve the Treaty of Versailles, enroll the United States in the League of Nations, fight in Vietnam or Iraq without congressional authorization, change existing laws by non-enforcement, or rewrite bankruptcy laws.

Not now. Obama set a precedent that he did not need Senate ratification to make a landmark treaty with Iran on nuclear enrichment.

He picked and chose which elements of the Affordable Care Act would be enforced — predicated on his 2012 re-election efforts.

Rebuffed by Congress, Obama is now slowly shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center by insidiously having inmates sent to other countries.

Respective opponents of both Trump and Clinton should be worried.

Either winner could follow the precedent of allowing any sanctuary city or state in the United States to be immune from any federal law found displeasing — from the liberal Endangered Species Act and federal gun registration laws to conservative abortion restrictions.

Could anyone complain if Trump’s secretary of state were investigated by Trump’s attorney general for lying about a private email server — in the manner of Clinton being investigated by Loretta Lynch?

Would anyone object should a President Trump agree to a treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the same way Obama overrode Congress with the Iran deal?

If a President Clinton decides to strike North Korea, would she really need congressional authorization, considering Obama’s unauthorized Libyan bombing mission?

What would Americans say if President Trump’s IRS — mirror-imaging Lois Lerner — hounded the progressive nonprofit organizations of George Soros?

Partisans are shocked that the press does not go after Trump’s various inconsistencies and fibs about his supposed initial opposition to the Iraq War, or press him on the details of Trump University.

Conservatives counter that Clinton has never had to come clean about the likely illegal pay-for-play influence peddling of the Clinton Foundation or her serial lies about her private email server.

But why, if elected, should either worry much about media scrutiny?

Obama established the precedent that a president should be given a pass on lying to the American people. Did Americans, as Obama repeatedly promised, really get to keep their doctors and health plans while enjoying lower premiums and deductibles, as the country saved billions through his Affordable Care Act?

More recently, did Obama mean to tell a lie when he swore that he sent cash to the Iranians only because he could not wire them the money — when in truth the administration had wired money to Iran in the past? Was cash to Iran really not a ransom for American hostages, as the president asserted?

Can the next president, like Obama, double the national debt and claim to be a deficit hawk?

Congress has proven woefully inept at asserting its constitutional right to check and balance Obama’s executive overreach. The courts have often abdicated their own oversight.

But the press is the most blameworthy. White House press conferences now resemble those in the Kremlin, with journalists tossing Putin softball questions about his latest fishing or hunting trip.

One reason Americans are scared about the next president is that they should be.

In 2017, a President Trump or President Clinton will be able to do almost anything he or she wishes without much oversight — thanks to the precedent of Obama’s overreach, abetted by a lapdog press that forgot that the ends never justify the means. (Chicago Tribune)

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of “The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.”

China is India's primary security challenge: UK think-tank

29 September 2016                                                                                         

India's relations with Pakistan and Nepal have deteriorated in the past year but China remains the country's ''primary security challenge'', according to an annual strategic survey by an influential London-based think-tank released on Tuesday.

The Strategic Survey 2016: The Annual Review of World Affairs of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reviewed India's troubled relationship with Pakistan and referred to the intensive ''retaliatory'' firing across the Line of Control under the Modi government, fluctuations in the dialogue process, the Ufa summit and the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase.

''India's major security threat remained the terrorism emanating from Pakistan, on which (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi took a tougher position than his predecessor,'' it said, but identified China as India's ''primary security challenge''.

The survey said the challenge from China was because of its assertiveness on the border dispute with India, exacerbated by Beijing's growing trade and defence partnerships with New Delhi's South Asian neighbours and by an expansion of Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.

''For policymakers in New Delhi, this created fears of encirclement and hardened their attitude towards Beijing, even as China continued to be India's largest trading partner, and Modi sought to establish stronger trade and investment links with Beijing,'' it said.

Referring to shifts in Pakistan's policies, the survey said, ''As ever, the main driver of Pakistan's security policy was its rivalry with India. This consideration trumped all other factors.''

Rahul Roy-Choudhury, IISS senior fellow for South Asia, told The Hindustan Times, ''Instead of any 'knee-jerk' military-focussed reaction that will at best be symbolic rather than substantive, India needs a calibrated and sustained multifaceted approach towards Pakistan.

 ''This could seek to target Pakistan-based terrorist groups, effectively operationalise counter-terror cooperation with India's strategic partners in the Gulf region and the West, and highlight India's emerging economic and global influence with the international community.''

Roy-Choudhary, who contributed to the survey, said India also ''needs to ensure that its main constituent in Pakistan - the people - is suitably empowered through the democratic process''.

The survey further said that India's ''neighbourhood first'' policy has paid few dividends beyond Bangladesh and Bhutan.

''This was due to the complex domestic politics of countries in the region, their historical suspicion of India as the dominant regional power, the influence of India domestic and ethnic politics, and increasing Chinese engagement with the region,'' it said.

''Equally important was the failure to meet expectations generated by Modi's initial outreach to other leaders in the SAARC, after he invited them to his May 2014 inauguration ceremony.''

At the global level, the survey said, institutions and norms that dampen the risk of conflict are under assault from populism in developed states and the assertive behaviour of rising and reviving powers.

IISS director general John Chapman said, ''The underpinnings of geopolitics have splintered so much in the past year that the foundations of global order appear alarmingly weak. The politics of parochialism now mix with the instincts of nationalism, and both clash with the cosmopolitan world order so carefully constructed by the technocrats of the late 20th century.'' (domain-b.com)

INSIDE SIKKIM

My first book, 'Inside Sikkim: Against the Tide' was released by former Indian External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, at the Press Club of India, New Delhi, on December 28, 1993. Later it was launched in Gangtok in early February 1994 by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling, who was then leading a pro-democracy movement in Sikkim.