The Bombay High Court asked Maharashtra government to provide vocational training in various courses to juveniles of children remand homes so that their minds were occupied and they learn to be independent.

The suggestion was given by a bench of Justices V M Kanade and Reveti Mohite-Dere which said that instead of providing books, the inmates of remand homes should be shown cartoon films on television.

“Now-a-days, the children are interested in watching television rather than reading books,” said the Judges who did not seem to approve government’s argument of providing a library in such remand homes.

The court was hearing a petition by taking suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the dilapidated condition of the Children’s Observation Home at Umerkhadi in Dongri, South Mumbai.

Looking at photographs of the Umerkhadi Observation Home, the Judges said the toilets and bathrooms appear to be clean.

They also expressed satisfaction that after the court orders good food was being provided to children by the new caterer.

The HC also noted that the number of children had come down to 200 from 400 by shifting inmates to other such institutions and that computer and carpentry training was being imparted to the children.

Government pleader Anjali Helekar informed that the government would construct a new building at Umerkhadi and until such structure comes up it would build a pre-fabricated building in six months.

The High Court then asked the state to file an affidavit within four weeks on what it proposed to do about the building of children’s home at Umerkhadi.

Justice Kanade said the HC was independently getting reports from the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) about the observation homes built by the state and the condition of the buildings.

The High Court also directed the CMM to file a report in four weeks about the same.

The court had earlier directed the government to shift the children from Umerkhadi building and asked it to reconstruct the home at the earliest.

Some 339 children, including 250 boys and 84 girls, were directed to be shifted to alternative accommodation. The girls were shifted to nearby Asha Sadan while the boys to the Matunga home.

Post the ‘award-wapsi’ campaign across the country during which a slew of writers returned their Sahitya Akademi awards to protest against “growing intolerance”, Akademi President Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari said the writers must respect the awards they win.

Conferring the ‘Yuva Puraskar’ on young authors from two Indian languages in a ceremony here, Tiwari laid emphasis on the importance of Sahitya Akademi awards.

“Such honours are an acceptance by the society and it is on the basis of society’s acceptance that institutions like Sahitya Akademi gives away these awards, which our writers should respect,” Tiwari said in his speech delivered in Hindi.

The Akademi had on November 14 in a function in Mumbai presented the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2015 to writers for their contribution to Children’s Literature.

“Lately, awards have been in media headlines. Four days ago, Bal Sahitya awards were conferred upon in Mumbai. Hosting such awards twice in a single week is a indeed a celebration, and this gives me immense pleasure,” Tiwari said.

The Yuva Puraskar was given to 23 authors under the age of 35 years and includes a cheque of Rs 50,000 besides an engraved copper plaque.

“For such occasions, honour is a more befitting term than awards, for the latter term gives a materialistic impression. But honour is above all this. The money that we receive can be shared with our children but the honour that we earn is extremely personal and cannot be shared. We cannot sell it, neither can we return it,” Tiwari said.

In the recent past, a number of filmmakers, scientists, writers and historians returned their awards to protest against the “climate of intolerance” in the country.

At least 38 authors including Nayantara Sahgal, Ashok Vajpeyi, Uday Prakash, Keki N Daruwalla had returned their Akademi awards. The 2012 Yuva Purasakar awardee Aman Sethi had also joined in the protests by returning his award.

A gold medal was instituted in the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai, to mark the 114th birth anniversary of the legendary filmmaker V Shantaram.

The medal will be given to a student who comes first in the two years Master of Arts (Film Studies) programme being run in the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai.

In addition, any researcher doing a research dissertation or project on a cinematic aspect of V Shantaram’s film will be get a grant of Rs. one lakh.

The Department of Communication and Journalism and the V Shantaram Motion Picture Scientific Research and Cultural Foundation will clear the research project.

“Mumbai is the heart of Indian cinema. The gold medal and the research scholarship have been instituted to promote research and academic study into cinema. I would like to see film studies and research emerge as a significant area of study in the University of Mumbai,” said Kiran Shantaram, who handed the hologram for the gold medal to the Vice Chancellor, Sanjay Deshmukh said.

Kiran Shantaram is the chairperson of the V Shantaram Motion Picture Scientific Research and Cultural Foundation.

In his seven-decade long career in films, Shantaram produced 92 films out of which 55 he directed. The legend acted in 25 films.

“The University of Mumbai is honoured to have this award instituted in the name of such a legendary figure as V Shantaram and I am grateful to Kiran Shantaram for the gesture,” said R Deshmukh while accepting the hologram for the gold medal.

The kin of Thane’s prominent builder Suraj Parmar, who committed suicide last month, have allegedly received threats from an unidentified caller, police said.

Parmar’s 20-year-old son Abhishek claimed to have received a call on Monday evening from an unidentified person who asked him not to pursue the case any further, they said. Naupada police station’s senior inspector M D Survase said an offence under section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of IPC has been registered in this regard.

He also said that Assistant Commissioner of Police Dilip Gore, who is investigating the Suraj Parmar suicide case, has also recorded the statement of Abhishek. As a part of the probe, the police also summoned former Thane Municipal Corporation Commissioner Nanakumar Jantre on Monday and recorded his statement in connection with the case.

Parmar, a leading city-based builder, had shot himself on October 7. His suicide note alleged that a nexus of corporators and officials was harassing him for bribes. Thane Police had later registered a case of abetment of suicide under the IPC and ‘criminal misconduct’ under the Prevention of Corruption Act as the suicide note allegedly named four corporators – Vikrant Chavan (Congress), Najib Mulla, Hanumant Jagdale (both NCP) and Sudhakar Chavan (independent).

All the four corporators had later approached the Bombay High Court for anticipatory bail after their pre-arrest bail pleas were rejected by Thane sessions court. The High Court had last week granted them interim protection from arrest and posted the hearing of their pre-arrest bail pleas to November 23. As his death sparked nationwide protests by realty developers, Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis had last month asked the Thane Commissioner of Police to take stern action in connection with the case against the guilty.

The CM had also directed that his kin should not be troubled during the course of investigation.

Debt-laden Air India will soon sell four residential flats in Mumbai to public sector lender SBI for about Rs. 90 crore as the airline looks to raise funds by sale of certain assets.

The proposal, which has been in the works for some months, was recently approved by the Cabinet, sources said.

Air India would be selling four residential flats to SBI in Mumbai soon and the sale is expected to fetch around Rs. 90 crore, they added.

These flats are the Sterling Apartments on the upmarket Peddar Road in South Mumbai. Earlier efforts to sell the four posh flats did not materialise.

Faced with substantial debt burden, the national carrier has been exploring various options to raise money to meet its funding requirements. These include proposed sale of properties and land parcels.

In August 2013, the national airline had floated bids for e-auctioning of these four flats. Each of these 3-BHK flats measures 2,033 sqft in carpet area.

The effort, part of its Rs. 5,000 crore land monetisation programme, however, did not elicit good response.

Under the land monetisation plan, Air India expects to mop up Rs. 5,000 crore over a 10-year period in its bid to bridge the widening mismatch in its revenue and expenditure.

Air India, whose debt burden is about Rs. 40,000 crore, is surviving on a bailout package approved in 2012.

The erstwhile UPA dispensation had approved Air India’s turnaround plan, with a committed public funding of Rs. 30,231 crore, staggered over a period of nine years, with some specific riders.

We want to hear the common man’s views, the Bombay High Court said allowing a petitioner to put forth his arguments after he contended that rape cases have risen due to the “kind of clothes” worn by women, prompting angry lawyers to object and ask whether it would also explain child rapes.

A division bench of Justices Naresh Patil and S B Shukre, which was hearing a bunch of petitions on the issue of women safety in the city, then asked the petitioner Chandrakanth Palav, a senior citizen, to stop his argument and posted all the petitions for further hearing next week.

Palav, while appearing in court, today told the bench that rape cases have increased because of the kind of clothes women wear.

“Women these days wear tight clothes like jeans, kurtas and short tops,” Chandrakanth said, adding that this was leading to rise in rape cases.

All the other lawyers appearing in the matter including petitioners’ advocates Rajeev Chavan, Maharooq Adenwala, Madhav Jamdar and the government pleaders P P Kakade and Geeta Shashtri took objection to Palav’s argument.

“How does a woman’s attire affect crime against women? We take objection to such a line of argument. This is putting the entire blame on the victim (woman),” Chavan and Adenwala said.

To this, Justice Naresh Patil said, “Let him speak. We want to hear the common man’s view.”

Chavan, however, said if as per Palav’s case, rapes occur due to the revealing clothes then what about rapes on minor children.

“Three and four-year-old girls are raped. What revealing clothes did they wear?” Chavan questioned.

Government pleaders Kakade and Shashtri also told the court that Dharmadhikari committee set up to look into the issue of women safety called for a change in the mentality of men in order to curb rapes and other crimes against women.

The court then asked Palav to stop his argument and posted all the petitions for further hearing next week.