L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Towards healthy growth of students

While one should agree with Dr V. Eshwar Anand’s view in his article (Saturday Extra, March 28) that there is an urgent need to frame a tough law for tackling ragging in colleges and universities, it is also necessary that our educational institutions have well-planned programmes for the acceptance of freshers by their seniors.

The seniors should, in fact, arrange a cultural programme and a feast to welcome the new comers and provide them the joy of acceptance by a new social group.

With a view to enabling the freshers to do better in studies, they should share their experiences with them at least twice in the first year. A harmonious and happy institutional environment promotes healthy development of students.

Dr P.S. CHANANA, Chandigarh

Policing the police

I read B.S. Thaur’s article, “Who will police the police?” (Spectrum, April 5). He narrated some incidents which left an indelible impression on the memory of the author Sardar Avtar Singh Gill, a retired Sessions Judge.

I would like to enlighten the readers on Justice A.N. Mulla’s ruling in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. He dismissed the petition for expunging certain remarks made by him against the police force.

He rejected the state’s contention that the remarks made by him were too wide and sweeping in range that the observations were likely to humble the position of the nation before the world, endangering the security of the state and demoralising the police and other public services.

Unfortunately, the style of functioning of the UP Police remains the same as it was decades earlier.

MULTAN SINGH PARIHAR, Jalari (Hamirpur)

Making fun of death

“Making fun of death” (Saturday Extra. May 2) by Khushwant Singh, was informative. Death is a simple phenomenon and has no significant event attached to one’s life.

There is very little that is laughable or funny about philosophers breathing their last. But they felt strange in their daily chores before death.

Here is a marvellous legend in the Mahabharat, when all Pandu brothers with Draupadi, except Yudhishtra, perished in the Himalayas, Yudhishtra was rewarded having been carried away with body to heaven for his good Karma ignoring the ban to enter any one. The moral of the story is simple: ‘One should do good.’n

RIKHI DASS THAKUR, Palbhu

Irretrievable breakdown of marriage as ground for divorce I read Virendra Kumar’s piece, “Reconciling the spouses” (Sunday Oped, March 29). Being a member of legal fraternity, I would like to point out that though in 1981, acting on the 71st Report of the Law Commission, an amendment Bill was tabled in Parliament for amending the Hindu Marriage Act for suitably incorporating “Irretrievable breakdown of marriage” as an additional ground for granting divorce, it did not pass through. Successive governments have not pursued it for reasons best known to them. As the feminist bodies have always opposed this, fearing possible misuse, suitable safeguards need to be discussed and incorporated for taming vested interests. Some may find this ground as a cakewalk to get relieved of their spouse without going through the present cumbersome legal process for obtaining divorce. A balance needs to be maintained for protecting the sanctity of the institution of marriage as also addressing the individual interests of the aggrieved party. Last year, the Supreme Court, while refusing divorce to a hapless person, asked him to live with a dead marriage though he had been living separately from his wife for past 17 years. Many a time, it granted relief to aggrieved couples by granting divorce on the aforesaid ground. However, as every case had its own specific facts and circumstances, it can’t be cited as a precedent for obtaining similar relief from the court. HEMANT KUMAR, Ambala City