SurvivingInfedelity.Com

Here is the link to the site:

http://survivinginfidelity.com/

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SC – Police Or Courts Cannot Impound Passports

Here is the link to the judgment:

SC – Police Or Courts Cannot Impound Passports

Excerpts:

12. It may be mentioned that there is a difference between seizing of a document and impounding a document. A seizure is made at particular moment when a person or authority takes into his possession some property, which was earlier not in his possession. Thus, seizure is done at a particular moment of time. However, if after seizing of property or document the said property or document is retained foursome period of time, then such retention amounts to impounding of the property/or document. In the Law Lexicon by P. Ra m a n a th a Aiyar (2 nd Edition), the word “impound” has been defined to mean “to take possession of a document or thing for being held in custody in accordance with law”.
Thus, the word “impounding” really means retention of possession of a good or a document, which has been seized.
13. Hence, while the police may have power to seize a passport under Section 102 Cr. P.C. if it is permissible within the authority given under Section 1 0 2 of Cr.P .C., it does not have power to retain or impound the same, because that can only be done by the passport authority under Section 1 0( 3) of the P a s sports Act. Hence, if the police seizes a passport (which it has power to do under Section 1 0 2 Cr.P .C.), thereafter the police must send it along with a letter to the passport authority clearly stating that the seized passport deserves to be impounded for one of the reasons mentioned in Section 10(3) of the Act. It is thereafter the passport authority to decide whether to impound the passport or not. Since impounding of a passport has civil consequences, the passport authority must give an opportunity of hearing to the person concerned before impounding his passport. It is well settled that any order which has civil consequences must be passed after giving opportunity of hearing to a party vide State of Orissa Vs. Binap ani Dei[Air 1967 SC 1269 ]

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RTI India – Right To Information.org

http://www.rtiindia.org/

The Sakshi Trust Guide To Filing An RTI (To Be Used As A Template/Example)

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Committee To Protect Bloggers

Here is the link to the committee to protect bloggers:

http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org

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Orkut In Cahoots With The Indian Police

Here is the link to the Indian Express News article:

Mumbai Police tie up with Orkut to nail offenders

An Excerpt:

Anti-Shivaji forums or anti-Ambedkar postings or “hate India” campaigns on Google’s social networking site, Orkut, have been confounding authorities for quite some time now. Other than blocking the objectionable forums, the Mumbai Police could do little, except wait for the next one to pop up on the web, say, a “fan club” of wanted underworld dons. The Mumbai Police is finally equipped to track down such offenders and bring them to book. A single e-mail between the DCP in charge of the Enforcement Branch and the California-based company will now nail such persons. Following a meeting between representatives of the site and the Enforcement Directorate last month, the Mumbai Police and Orkut have entered into an agreement to seal such cooperation in matters of objectionable material on the web.

Fantastic !! Except the Indian police have lived up to their reputation for being hare-brained, corrupt and torturous. To understand what I am saying, please read this story about Lakshmana Kailas, the Indian engineer who was arrested and tortured by the Indian police, who accused of him of defaming the long dead, but heroic Shivaji. Except, the police had the wrong guy.

Here is the picture of Lakshmana Kailas:

Here is the link to the story from TOI about his arrest:

Pune cops book Orkut user2 Sep 2007, PUNE:

A Bangalore-based computer engineer has landed in the police net after he allegedly uploaded a blasphemous matter about Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji on the social networking site Orkut. The cyber cell of city police, investigating the crime for the last ten months on a complaint registered by BJP workers here last November, zeroed in on the IT professional Laxman Kailas K and arrested him in Bangalore yesterday, police said. The accused who was brought to Pune subsequently has been remanded to police custody by a court here. Cyber crime squad of the police traced Laxman by contacting Google office in Banglore and further investigations into the matter revealed his Internet Protocol Address(IP), giving the sleuths clues about his telephone number. After Pune police pointed out the aberration on part of Laxman to Google office, the matter which he posted on the website on October 29 last using his PC at home, was removed.

Here is the link to his complete story from TOI:

MUMBAI: In the early hours of August 31, Lakshmana Kailash K was asleep at his home in Bangalore. He was woken up by eight policemen from Pune who came knocking on his door and waved the Information Technology Act, 2000, in his sleepy, terrified face. Get dressed, he was told, we are taking you to Pune for having defamed Shivaji. Lakshmana protested that he didn’t know anyone called Shivaji. The policemen said that they were talking about Chhatrapati Shivaji and that an insulting picture of him had been uploaded on the Internet networking site, Orkut. The trail had led them to his computer in Bangalore. Turning a deaf ear to his protests, the cops took him to Pune and put him behind bars. Along the way, the 26-year-old Lakshmana, who works with HCL, learned that what he was being arrested for was a case that had triggered riots in Pune in November 2006. Political parties had forcibly closed cybercafes and gone on a rampage over the posting of the illustration which had poked fun at Shivaji. Lakshmana was released after spending 50 days in jail, three weeks after the cops claimed to have nabbed the “real culprits”.

More links to this unfortunate story:

• http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1370919.php/Techie_jailed_due_to_Airtel_mistake_police_Lead_
• http://www.nartv.org/2007/11/07/google-handing-over-ips/
• http://www.indiauncut.com/iublog/article/just-one-bowl-for-lakshmana-kailash/
• http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2007/09/10/indian-orkut-user-arrested/

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