Shoe attack shocked us but now it is forgotten chapter: CJI B R Gavai
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Thursday said he and Justice K Vinod Chandran were shocked when a lawyer attempted to hurl a shoe at him on October 6, but the issue is a "forgotten chapter."
In an unprecedented and shocking incident, a 71-year-old lawyer, Rakesh Kishore, took his shoe in his hand and tried to hurl it at the CJI on Monday.
The act elicited all-around condemnation.
The CJI made the observation during the hearing of a batch of pleas seeking review and modification of the Vanashakti judgement, which had prohibited the central government from granting retrospective or ex post facto environmental clearances to projects found violating environmental norms.
"My learned brother (Justice Chandran) and I were very shocked with what happened on Monday; for us it is a forgotten chapter," the CJI said on the shoe attack.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, who is sharing the bench, differed with the course of action adopted against the errant lawyer, and said, "I have my own views on this, he is the CJI, it is not a matter of joke!"
Justice Bhuyan said the attack was "an affront to the Supreme Court" and due action should have been taken.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta termed the act unpardonable.
The top law officer hailed the CJI for his magnanimity and "majesty."
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was there in the court, asked senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan to proceed with the matter and not to discuss the shocking episode any further.
"For us it is a forgotten chapter," the CJI reiterated and proceeded with the hearing.
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ASHA workers threaten indefinite strike from Feb 27 over rationalisation order, pending demands
Bengaluru: ASHA workers in Karnataka have warned of launching an indefinite strike from February 27, protesting a health department order to rationalise the workforce and alleging that long-pending demands have not been addressed.
The Karnataka State Joint ASHA Workers’ Association criticised the department’s decision to increase the population assigned to each ASHA worker, arguing that it violates existing norms and would lead to large-scale job losses. According to current norms, one ASHA worker is assigned for every 1,000 individuals. Under the current rationalisation plan, the allotted population in rural regions has been increased to up to 2,000, while in metropolitan areas with populations more than 50,000, the number has been raised from 1,000 to a minimum of 2,500 and a maximum of 3,000.
Deccan Herald quoted D Nagalakshmi, state secretary of the ASHA Union affiliated to AITUC, as saying the department had conveyed that an honorarium of ₹10,000 could not be ensured unless the population coverage per worker was increased. She alleged that workers were effectively being asked to accept higher workloads while excess ASHAs would be removed. “This would render nearly 7,000 to 8,000 ASHA workers jobless, and such a move is being carried out only in Karnataka,” she said.
At present, the state government pays ASHA workers a monthly honorarium of ₹5,000, while the Centre provides performance-based incentives. Workers said accessing these incentives has become difficult as data must be entered on the ASHA portal by primary health community officers, but vacancies in these posts have not been filled.
The workers have also submitted a set of pre-Budget demands, seeking an increase in the combined state and central incentives to ₹15,000 and enhancement of the state honorarium to ₹ 8,000, in line with promises made in the Congress election manifesto. Other demands include a lump-sum retirement benefit on the lines of West Bengal, creation of a corpus fund to meet treatment expenses of ASHA workers suffering from serious illnesses with reimbursement provisions, and payment of a fixed monthly honorarium for up to three months during recovery from severe illness.
ASHA workers had staged an indefinite protest in January over similar issues. On the fourth day of the agitation, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened and assured the workers that their demands would be met.
