Murali's Writeups...

Justice Karnan 1. Good lot of a lawyers and Judges will begin their 30 days’ vacation. When the courts reopen, Justice Mr Karnan of Calcutta High court will have retired in peace with full pension. After he retires  what will happen to the contempt proceedings initiated by the Supreme Court?. After all Justice Mr Karnan’s propensity for further judicial mischief will no more be a serious problem. One can never rule out the possibility of Justice Mr Karnan presiding  over judicial commissions or enjoying a post retirement sinecure as a Tribunal Judge somewhere. In all fairness, one must concede that Justice Mr Karnan is not accused of any act of corruption or nepotism. However, his action as a Madras High Court Judge after he was transferred to Calcutta and his reaction as Calcutta High-court Judge  after he received the Bailable warrant from the Supreme Court of India clearly demonstrate that the person concerned had totally missed the most elementary principle of natural jus

1. The cultural and political relations India and Sri Lanka predate the formation of the modern States of India and Sri Lanka. Traditionally, the Tamil Chola Kings had family and matrimonial ties  with the Sri Lankan ruling class. Occasionally, we hear stories of a fugitive Pandya King taking a refuge in the Sinhala Islands (as it was known then). Considering that the distance between Sri Lanka and Dakshin Bharat was not much , it was natural that these two territories enjoyed warm and functional relationships. We have the Ramayana. But even there Ravana is depicted as a king of all good virtues!!! 2. It is a matter of historic record that the Great Mauryan  Emperor Ashoka (also known as Devanampriya Priyadarshi Samrat Ashoka)who became a Buddhist deputed his sister accompanied by the best brains of his nation,  to propagate Buddhism in Sri Lanka. While we can say that Srilanka is a secular country, no one can easily underestimate the importance of the Buddhist cler

1. In another blog, I discussed about the evil effects of invasive alien  plant species. This time for a change I will discuss about one of our home grown domestic evils namely stray dogs in the human habitation.   As a child, the locality in which I lived had humans, cows, bulls, oxen, buffaloes, birds, rats, goats, pigs, fishes and many others. Amongst them dogs have a predominant position. After all, dogs figure among the earliest of the domesticated animals of humanity.   2. When I was a college student I remember that most of us used to pack our food from home. Everyone will have an identified space for us to have our lunch. That there will be sharing and exchanges. One of the uninvited guest of such occasions were stray dogs. I am talking about those days when most of the strays  were not administered anti rabies vaccines as Municipal Corporations routinely do these dogs. Not too many veterinary  doctors know anything about sterilizing these animals. B

1. Mr Vai .Gopalaswamy, an accomplished Tamil politician has not been encountering any success lately. However, he can take reasonable pride in the fact that  it is his litigation that spurned up the Madras High Court to issue orders to all District Collectors and Forest Departments that Seemai Karuvelam  plants must not only be cut and uprooted but also be prevented  from sprouting again by having  burning embers laid on  the root system. In many ways, this is a clear judicial environmental legislation. But citizen groups are not complaining against it. In fact in some cases, the courts has ordered removal of these trees by litigants to secure bail, parole or even in lieu of cost .  Division Bench of Madras High court has frowned upon such practices. But that is a totally different matter altogether. 2. The Seemai Karuvelam ( Prosopis Juliflora)  is not by itself a bad species. It is native to Mexico and now spread to all major continents.Everywhere it has been recognised a

Inadequacies of Indian Industrial Property Rights Regime. Authors: Adv. R. Muralidharan [1] , Advocate and Mediator, Patent & Trademark Attorney, Manu Associates, Bangalore  and Ms. Anupama S Pillai, Advocate, Manu Associates, Bangalore. 1.     Indian IPR policy On 12 th May 2016, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India published the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy 2016 and it was approved by the Cabinet on 13 th May 2016. The Policy is the brain child of a 6 member Committee, the Think-Tank - headed by Justice Prabha Sridevan, a former judge (Madras High Court) and former chairperson of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). Other members of the Think Tank are :- Prathiba Singh [Senior Advocate]; Punita Bhargava[ Advocate, Inventure IP] ; Unnat Pandit, [Cadila Pharmaceuticals]; Rajeev Srinivasan, [Director, Asian School of Business]; and Narendra Sabharwal, [Retired DDG, WIPO].