It took her 24 years to prove her mettle against the powerful

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism

“Better late than never” is an old adage. Seventy-six-years-old Mary Roy has won the landmark case on women’s property rights in India after 24 years of legal battle. For the mother of Booker Prize-winner Arundhati Roy, it was a fight for justice. However, she donated hard-won family share, near Aymenem in Kottayam district, worth Rs 1.8 crore to a charity. Mary Roy, a divorcee and a mother of two children had walked out on her marriage and settled down in her maternal house in Ootty. But, her misery took a new turn in 1965 when her brother asked her to move out of the house because a married woman was not supposed to enjoy her father’s property. Thus started her legal battle for the property rights for Christian women. Her father was no more at that time.

Her brother’s action was based on two laws — the Travancore Christian Succession Act 1916 and Cochin Succession Act 1921 — which restricted a Keralite Syrian Christian daughter’s property rights to one-fourth son’s share or Rs 5,000, whichever was less.

Mary approached the court and, after a 21-year battle, got the Supreme Court to scrap the two laws in 1986. The case shot into fame as “Mary Roy case” in the history of Indian jurisprudence. The judgment brought all Christians in the country under the Indian Succession Act which gives equal property rights to sons and daughters, enabling thousands of Keralite Christian women to regain their share of property which had been denied to them in the past. Only two Christian women dared to implead along with her, namely, Elikkutty and Mariakkutty; two social activist organisations like Women’s Forum for Social Action and Lawyers Collective also supported her.
Yet Mary Roy’s wait for her small piece of land prolonged to nearly a quarter century longer. She approached the Kottayam sub-court seeking implementation of the apex court order in the midst of her brother’s objections. She should have got the land after her mother’s death in 2000. But one of her brothers, who had sold a part of his share for Rs 5 crore, sought to prevent the partition by dragging her to Kerala High Court.

After the high court cleared the legal hurdles, the Principal Sub-judge ordered execution of the verdict and sent court officials to carry it out. Last week, she took the possession of the land, in the midst of a cheering crowd. “I am relieved that my long struggle for justice has yielded result. My battle was not for a piece of land alone but to ensure that women in this country enjoy the rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” Mary Roy said.

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Political Appointments may ruin PSEs, feel experts

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism

“The Chairman of the Corporation should not be a political/private person. His appointment should be transparent. Corporation should be run strictly on a professional basis.”

The above guideline regarding appointment of chairpersons of civil supply corporations of all states is mentioned in the recommendations of Justice Wadhwa Committee constituted by the Supreme Court in 2008. But surprisingly, the Orissa government has chosen to ignore this guideline by nominating Mahesh Sahoo, a former MLA and a ruling party leader as the chairman of the Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC).“How could the government overlook one part of the recommendation while implementing another on streamlining of the Public Distribution System?” wonders Chiraranjan Das, an advocate at Orissa High Court.

The recent announcement of appointment of chairpersons and chiefs of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), cooperative bodies and development trusts by the state government are not in accordance either with Wadhwa Commission recommendations or with the governance manual adopted by it. Interestingly, the list of persons to be appointed as chairpersons of the PSEs, mainly include political persons of ruling party, who had lost elections or were denied party ticket! The Corporate Governance Manual for PSUs (CGMP), which was accepted by the Orissa government in 2009 after due approval of the cabinet as the manual for organisation and management of state-owned corporations, is very categorical about the appointment of experts of the PSEs.

“How could the government ignore the guidelines adopted by it last year? This guideline, drafted by a professional body like Administrative Staff College of India, is meant to improve the accountability and transparency in the corporations. The government should not violate its policy,” says Basant Das, a senior political analyst.

Rehabilitation of partymen in corporations has landed the Orissa government in troubled waters as nominated persons are not experts in required field. A PIL has been filed in the Orissa High Court urging it to direct the government not to go ahead with its plan until disposal of the writ petition. Terming the yet-to-be-made appointments as “arbitrary” and “illegal”, the petitioner maintained that in case the decision is given effect to, it would be made in violation of the principles of the Orissa Public Enterprises Reform Programme as protected in the MoU signed by the state and the Union governments on public sector re-organisation.

At least 21 PSEs are identified as profit-making while nine are incurring losses and the remaining two are operating on no-profit-no-loss basis. on them. “The Naveen Patnaik government is giving the slogan of ‘good governance’, but no one will agree to these appointments as fare and honest. We will protest against this in the proper forum for the larger interest of the state,” reacts Sivananda Ray, VP of Congress.

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