Mother of PIL: Pushpa Kapila Hingorani passed away

January 7, 2014 Contents [hide]

What were the key contributions of Kapila Hingorani? Public Interest Litigation (PIL): Understanding the Right to Constitutional Remedies: Why PIL? Concept of PIL: Can PIL be filed for personal gains? Remedial nature of PIL: National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

Pushpa Kapila Hingorani (86), a lawyer who is known by the title Mother of PIL for being the first women to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL)on behalf of voiceless under-trial prisoners in Bihararound more than three decades ago, has passed away.

What were the key contributions of Kapila Hingorani?

During her 60-year long career as a lawer, Kapila Hingorani fought more than 100 cases in theSupreme Court voicing concern through PILs for the poor, downtrodden and help-less people before thejudiciary. She took the initiative of filing a PIL in 1979 to fight a lawsuit regarding the condition of the prisoners detained in the Bihar jail, whose cases were pending in the court. The main thing about this petition was that it was not filed by any single prisoner, rather it was filed by various prisoners of the Bihar jail. The case was admitted in the Supreme Court before the bench headed by Justice P. N. Bhagwati. This petition was filed by the name of the prisoner, Husnara Khatoon, hence the petition came to be known as Husnara Khatoon Vs State of Bihar. In this suit, the Supreme Court upheld that the prisoners should get benefit of free legalaid and fast hearing. Because of this case 40,000 prisoners, whose suits were pending in the court, were released from the jail. Thereafter many cases like this were registered in the apex court.

Public Interest Litigation (PIL):

A PIL means litigation for the protection of the public interest.

Understanding the Right to Constitutional Remedies:

Article 32 of the Constitution of India is known as Right to Constitutional Remedies. Article 32 (1) says that The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred by this Part is guaranteed.

Why PIL?

In ordinary cases the aggrieved person/ party has the right to seek redress under Article 32. Prior 1980s only the aggrieved party could approach the courts for justice. The Indian legal system which was more or

less with colonial nature saw the state of deprivation of civil and political rights particularly during the emergency era. After the emergency got ended in 1977, the 2 judges of the Supreme Court Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer and P. N. Bhagwati recognized the possibility of providing access to justice to the poor and to reach out to the people. Hence Public Interest Litigation was devised an innovative way wherein a person or a civil society group could approach the supreme court seeking legal remedies in cases where public interest is at stake. Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer and Justice P. N. Bhagwati were the first judges to accept PIL. In S. P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 case, Justice P. N. Bhagwati articulated the concept of PIL. Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar was the first such PIL case filed by advocate Kapila Hingorani and focused on the inhuman conditions of the prisons. The case led to release of more than 40, 000 under trial prisoners.

Concept of PIL:

In S. P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 case, Justice P. N. Bhagwati provisioned that if an injury is caused to a person or class of person or a legal right of the person/class of person is violated, and such person or class of person by reasons of poverty, helplessness or disability or social/economical disadvantageous position cannot approach the court, then a member of the public can maintain an application for an appropriate direction / order/ writ in the High Court under article 226 and in case any breach of the fundamental rights the person or class of person can seek judicial redress in Supreme court under article 32. Please note that Article 226 is Power of High Courts to issue certain writs.

Can PIL be filed for personal gains?

In Ashok Kumar Pandey v. State of West Bengal case it was maintained that one can approach the court to wipe out violation of fundamental rights and genuine infraction of statutory provisions, but not for personal gain or private profit or political motive or any oblique consideration.

Remedial nature of PIL:

The PIL has remedial nature and indirectly incorporates the principles enshrined in the part IV (Fundamental Duties) of the Constitution of India into part III (Fundamental Rights) of the Constitution.

National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

In 1979, the apex court for the first time talked of the necessity of free legal aid to poor persons to make the justice system mount a meaningful protection of their rights. Eight years after the judgment of Hussainara Khatoon Vs State of Bihar case, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to weaker sections of the society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes

PARAM Yuva II: Indias no.1 and ranked 44th among most power efficient supercomputer in the world
January 7, 2014 No comments

As per Green500 List announced at the Supercomputing Conference (SC 2013) in Denver, Colorado, in the US, Indias PARAM Yuva II supercomputer built by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), has been ranked no.1 in India, 9th in the Asia Pacific Region and 44th in the world among the most power efficient computer systems.

Why does Green 500 rank computer systems according to their power efficiency?

Generally, supercomputers eat up a lot of power and produce much heat that requires sophisticated cooling facilities to ensure proper functioning. This renders the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of operating supercomputer to increase. In a bid to draw attention towards development of energy efficient

supercomputers, Green500 ranks computer systems in the world according to compute performance per watt, thus providing a world ranking based on energy efficiency.

Indias power network integrated into one grid with joining of Southern region
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How would linking the southern-region with the national grid help? Where are the major grids in India? One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency: How would National Grid help? How did the evolution of National Grid take place?

Indias power network has been integrated into one grid as South India has been linked with the national electricity grid. This completes the consolidation of the entire country into one network for distributing electricity to consumers. The integration was attained through the commissioning of the RaichurSolapur 765 kilovolt (kV) single-circuit transmission line by state-owned Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd. With this, the Indian power system has become one of the largest operating synchronous grids in the world with about 232 GW (gigawatts) of installed power generation capacity. India has achieved its ONE NATION-'ONE GRID-'ONE FREQUENCY objective.

How would linking the southern-region with the national grid help?

There is a problem of power shortage in the southern states of India. Power-starved states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were waiting for the line to be interconnected to enable them to transmit power purchased from surplus states in the north and eastern regions. As per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Indias highest power sector planning body, Puducherry, Karnataka and Kerala had a peak power shortage of 8.1%, 5.8% and 5.5% respectively in August 2013. However, with the linking of this region with the national grid this problem can be tackled more efficiently as the surplus power from East and West grids could be diverted to power-deficient south. Besides, it will also improve transmission and facilitate better management of demand, ensuring the stability of the electricity grid.

Where are the major grids in India?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Northern Southern Eastern North-eastern Western

There are five regional grids in the country:

One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency:

The Indian Power system for planning and operational purposes is divided into above mentioned 5 regional grids. The integration of regional grids, and thereby establishment of National Grid, was ideated in early 90s. The integration of regional grids which started with asynchronous HVDC back-to-back inter-regional links facilitating limited exchange of regulated power was subsequently advanced to high capacity synchronous links between the regions. The early inter-regional links were planned for exchange of operational surpluses amongst the regions. However, later on when the planning philosophy had graduated from Regional self-sufficiency to National basis, the Inter-regional links were planned associated with the generation projects that had beneficiaries across the regional boundaries.

By the end of XI plan the country has total inter-regional transmission capacity of about 28,000 MW which is likely to boost to about 65000 MW at the end of XII plan.

How would National Grid help?

The National Grid which enables synchronization of all regional grids will help in optimal utilization of scarce natural resources by transfer of Power from Resource centric regions to Load centric regions. Besides, this shall pave way for setting up a vibrant Electricity market facilitating trading of power across regions. One Nation One Grid shall synchronously connect all the regional grids and there will be one national frequency. Furthermore, the integrated national grid will also help towards interconnecting countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) that consists of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives. The SAARC grid ideates meeting electricity requirement in the region. India already has power grid links with Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, and plans to develop power transmission links with Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

How did the evolution of National Grid take place?

The chronological sequence of events that took place towards the evolution of National Grid is as follows: Grid management on regional basis started in 60s. Initially, State grids were inter-connected to form regional grid and India was demarcated into 5 regions namely Northern, Eastern, Western, North Eastern and Southern region. In October 1991 North Eastern and Eastern grids were connected. In March 2003 WR and ER-NER were interconnected . August 2006 North and East grids were interconnected thereby 4 regional grids Northern, Eastern, Western and North Eastern grids are synchronously connected forming central grid operating at one frequency. On December 31, 2013, Southern Region was connected to Central Grid in Synchronous mode with the commissioning of 765kV Raichur-Solapur Transmission line thereby achievingONE NATION'ONE GRID-'ONE FREQUENCY.