If men menstruated, they would understand: Supreme Court on Madhya Pradesh HC firing women judges
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Madhya Pradesh High Court for terminating services of women civil judges and refusing to reinstate them, expressing its frustration, "if men menstruated, they would understand".
The bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and N. Kotiswar Singh was hearing the case of one of the six women judicial officers whose services were terminated after being deemed inadequate by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The termination, which was based on the low disposal rate of cases, drew sharp criticism from the top court, which argued that the personal challenges faced by the judicial officers, including physical and mental health issues, had not been adequately taken into consideration.
The bench made a stern observation, stating, “Disposal rate of a case cannot be a yardstick when the judge was suffering mentally and physically.”
The case came to the attention of the Supreme Court in January, when the court took suo-motu cognizance of the terminations and appointed senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal as amicus curiae to assist the court.
“I wish men had menstruation, then only they would understand,” Justice Nagarathna observed verbally, enraged over the apathy shown by the HC towards the judicial officer’s health.
"Particularly for women, if they are suffering physically and mentally, do not say they are slow and send them home. Let there be same criteria for male judges and judicial officers, we will see then, and we know what happens. How can you have target units (of case disposal) for district judiciary," the bench asserted.
The court scheduled the matter for further hearing on December 12.
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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve last year's trade deal or it will face higher tariffs
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump has said in a social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year's trade framework by July 4.
The announcement on Thursday appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25 per cent tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a "great call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the US president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the US Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
"A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!" Trump posted. "I agreed to give her until our Country's 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels."
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the US would charge a 15 per cent tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10 per cent tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
