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Of humane verdicts
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Has the law that bans smoking in public places simply gone up in smoke? Justice K. Narayana Kurup, who was part of the bench that passed the law, talks about the slackness in implementation.
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CIGARETTE SMOKING is injurious to health. We all know that, sans this statutory warning, don't we? But people continue to smoke and pass on the smoke to non-smokers too, making them passive smokers. All that would change, one thought, in 1998, when there came a landmark judgement, by the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court (Ag CJ AR Lakshmanan and Justice K Narayana Kurup), that smoking in public places should be banned. The Supreme Court ratified it later.
But the man who penned that judgment, Justice K. Narayana Kurup, former acting Chief Justice and senior most judge of Madras High Court also, is not so sure things have changed much. That the law on smoking is not very seriously taken is common knowledge. True, an odd policeman does take people to task at railway stations for smoking, but most tend to look the other way. Yes, there is slackness in implementing it, Justice Kurup agreed, during a recent interview. But there are provisions to implement it properly, in the Indian Penal Code, he pointed out. In IPC Section 166, it says that `a public servant disobeying law with intent to cause injury to any person is liable for punishment with simple imprisonment up to one year or with fine or with both.' Unless the State Government takes it really seriously, it is bound to go the way of several other laws that largely remain on paper. That other States took the cue and passed similar orders is creditable for the State.
Justice Kurup is just back from Qatar, where the Anti-smoking Society there and the Government honoured him. He is no smoker, but not that he did not ever taste tobacco. For a brief while, he smoked, very early in his career, but reading a lot of medical literature made him quit the habit.
"Reading will give you all," his mentor, Panampilly Govinda Menon would say, and that is the secret of his success, Justice Kurup feels.
His love for animals made him take a leading role in the judgment against the public display of carcasses. Also, by a separate judgement upholding a Government notification banning the training and display of five animals, which include lion, tiger, bear and monkey. That Division Bench judgement ( Justice Kurup and Justice Shankaranarayanan) had very good things to say about animals, that they `sometimes behaved better than man, they kill to eat and eat to live.' It was a very animal-friendly and humane judgement. But whether that is implemented is in the hands of the government and public-spirited people. The basic rights of animals should always be recognised, he says and went back to his childhood days, when at North Parur, he had 32 cats at home! .
There was this instance when he brought a dog all the way from a relative's house, when he was only 12. "I brought him in a bus and a train. All the while, I was praying he would not bark and cause problems," he reminisced, laughing.
Medical jurisprudence is his forte. Reading medical journals has given him so much that he feels the law course should have more of medical subjects. That will give an edge to lawyers and judges dealing with medico-legal cases and also, while deciding the compensation.
Which brings us to the Muhamma boat tragedy, into which he is looking at now, as the Commission. The inspection of the boat is over. Unfortunately, boats do not come under the Motor Accidents Tribunal.
That there is usually so much overloading is unfortunate, he says. But the irony lies in the fact that when the authorities concerned spend Rs 10,000 crores to buy 40 aircraft, why can't it afford to buy a boat for Rs 25 lakhs and avoid such tragedies? Are some lives more important than others?
Justice Kurup says the newspaper has played a big role in his life. Newspaper in education is something that is close to his life. Reading one newspaper gives you knowledge but reading more than one gives you several viewpoints, he said. Children who read newspapers always better than those who do not form that habit, he said. His habit of accumulating newspaper cuttings has not stopped even after the advent of the net.
A collector of Vinayaka figurines, Justice Kurup seems to be not `all work and no play' either. He loves listening to Carnatic music, goes for long walks and of course reads...and reads. He is not an avid moviegoer, but remarks that the way the judiciary and the lawyer fraternity are depicted in movies is not real life, but reel life. One cannot just come running into a courtroom and divulge crucial evidence, as you see in movies, he said. But then, that's cinematic license, akin to the poetic one.
PREMA MANMADHAN
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