Indian-origin judge appointed to S Africa's highest judicial bench
Johannesburg (PTI): Narandran 'Jody' Kollapen, who is Indian origin, has been appointed to South Africa's highest judicial bench, the Constitutional Court.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday announced the appointment of 64-year-old Kollapen and Rammaka Steven Mathopo as the latest additions to the Constitutional Court after a lengthy process of public interviews.
Kollapen and Mathopo were among the five candidates recommended to Ramaphosa in October this year for the two vacancies.
Both will take office from January 1, 2022.
Kollapen was interviewed twice before for appointment to the Constitutional Court but was unsuccessful then despite having served two terms as an acting judge of the same institution.
The Presidency said Kollapen and Mathopo have illustrious careers in the legal profession and the judiciary.
Kollapen, who has now been elevated from his position as a judge of the high court, started legal practice in 1982, focussing largely on public interest work. He joined Lawyers for Human Rights in 1993 and went on to become its national director in 1995, serving in that position until the end of 1996.
In 1997, he took up a post as commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission and went on to serve as chair of the commission for seven years from 2002 until 2009. He was appointed as chair of the South African Law Reform Commission in April, 2016.
Kollapen serves on the structures of numerous NGOs and community-based organisations, including the Legal Resources Centre, the Foundation for Human Rights and Laudium Care Services for the Aged.
He has also been invited to speak on human rights issues across the world, including at the United Nations and Harvard University.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Durban University of Technology; the Turquoise Harmony Institute's award for his contribution to society in the area of law and human rights; and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Congress of Business and Economics, which was born out of the erstwhile Transvaal Indian Congress from the days when Mahatma Gandhi was in South Africa.
In 2010, while in the position of acting Constitutional Court judge, Kollapen made a strong statement about cultural and national identity as the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the religious organisation Siva Gnana Sabhay in Lenasia.
Kollapen said there was no need to shy away from the unique Indian identity, culture and religion brought to South Africa by the first indentured labourers 150 years earlier, but that South Africans of Indian-origin should use this to help build the rainbow nation as citizens of the country.
Kollapen's mother was among the women in the historic protest march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of the apartheid-era government, in 1956 to protest discriminatory laws. She was arrested and jailed twice for her participation in passive resistance protests.
Kollapen often recalled how his mother had told him that she was pregnant with him at the time.
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Odisha woman raped twice in a day, dies after being thrown off four-storey building; 2 held
Paradip (Odisha) (PTI): A 23-year-old woman was raped twice in a day in separate places by her boyfriend and a stranger offering help and then thrown off a four-storey building, leading to her death, in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district, police said on Friday.
Police arrested both the accused and booked them under various sections of BNS for kidnapping, rape and murder.
"The incident took place on February 22 after the woman left her house with plans to elope with her boyfriend, who had asked her to come to a temple by promising to marry her. However, he took her to a secluded place, raped her and abandoned her at Rahama bus stand," Jagatsinghpur Superintendent of Police Ankit Kumar Verma told reporters.
As the victim was waiting at the bus stand, another man hailing from Jharkhand, who was heading to nearby Paradip on his motorcycle, saw the hapless woman and offered help.
He, however, took her to the roof of his rented accommodation at a place in Paradip town and raped her again, the SP said.
The accused then threw the woman from the roof of the building, leading to her death, he said, adding her body was found the next morning.
The SP said the victim's brother lodged a complaint at Paradip Model police station on February 25, alleging that his sister was raped and murdered on February 22. An unnatural death case was registered on February 23 following the recovery of the woman's body.
Earlier, in the evening of February 22, the woman's brother had lodged a missing persons case at Tirtol police station when his sister did not return home.
BJD supremo and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Naveen Patnaik, condemned the incident and demanded justice for the woman and other victims of recent rape incidents.
"How many more innocent lives will be lost? From underage girls to differently abled young women, no one is safe. So, is the rule of law still in place in the state? The news of heinous crimes coming from Kanhari in Angul, Kuchinda in Sambalpur, and Paradip is deeply disturbing. Chaos everywhere, insecurity all around, O Mother!" he said in an X post.
"While the government delivers long-winded speeches on women's safety and law and order, the ground reality is extremely alarming. Even in broad daylight, an atmosphere of fear prevails. Despite repeated instances of such deplorable incidents, the government's failure to take any exemplary, stringent action is emboldening the criminals. The government should take proactive steps to spread awareness on women's safety and ensure the rule of law is upheld in the state," the former CM added.
