Essay on a road accident

Our life is like a bubble in a river, like the dew it falls in night and disappears in the morning. Like sound/it comes and goes away. Who knows what is in store for us? Who knows what is going to happen the next moment?

I can never forget the last year's 17 August. It was a day when I witnessed a road accident between a bus and a truck. It filled me with great horror and I remained upset for many days. I saw death very close to life.

I was going to Jalandhar with my father by bus. Our driver was very harsh. He appeared to be in some undue hurry. The young people felt thrilled. Even I was too very excited. But the aged persons felt alarmed at the high speed of the bus. They requested the driver to slow down the speed. But he did not pay attention. He kept on driving in his own way.

In the meantime it so happened that another bus tried to overtake our bus. Our driver took it as a challenge far behind. God knows why people take risk in such situations. None of the drivers was ready to compromise.

As a result both the buses began to run parallel on the road. All the passengers were very much horrified because it such was really very risky. Soon a truck came from the opposite side. The drivers of the buses might have tried to apply brakes at this juncture. But it was too late and within seconds we saw a head-on collision between the overtaking bus and the truck. The driver of our bus also stopped.

We all rushed to the spot of accident. It was a very serious accident. Many passengers including the drivers of both the vehicles died on the spot. Many passengers got serious injury. They were moaning and groaning in pain.

There was a lady who was crying bitterly because the accident took the lives of her husband and son. It was really a very pathetic scene. I had never seen such a heart-rending sight in my life. I had become speechless. But it was not a moment to stand and watch the scene. I went to nearby booth and telephoned the police about the accident.

Soon police party from Phagwara reached the spot with a team of doctors. The injured were put into the ambulance van and driven to a nearby hospital. The dead were sent for postmortem. Those who had got minor injuries were given first aid.

Most horrible was the scene of disaster. Accidents are always dreadful because they lead to injuries, loss of life and property. In no time a person loses everything. Like the lady whose beautiful dream was shattered in seconds with the death of his husband and son. I feel pained whenever I am reminded of the accident. The drivers must be considerate. They must follow the traffic rules to avoid such accidents.

essay on Intellectual Property Rights

At present, the international system for the protec­tion of intellectual property rights is embodied in the legal framework pro­vided by the World Intellectual Property Organization, but such existing laws are perceived to be inadequate by the West.

Therefore, the West has launched a strong pressure and campaign in the Uruguay Round negotiations to create more strict laws for international system for the protection of intellectual property rights, with provisions for dispute settlement and enforcement as part of the multilateral trading system.

Article 27.3 of the Trips agreement stipu­lates that the patent should be given to micro organisms, which will mean to patent life. It will have far reaching consequences for the developing coun­tries.

Development of Thought:

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) particularly on product patents has been viewed by India as a barrier to foreign investment and an irritant in our trade relations with the USA. And other developed countries. Most countries have accepted stringent rules.

The laws in India, relating to copy right and trade marks are very strong, it is in the enforcement that there is a weakness. The major controversy relates to the product-process patenting. India allows process patent but not product patent­ing.

Indian companies therefore are legally in the right when they market international products, through slight modification in the process of manufac­turing. This is what has been targeted by the USA. Product patenting can adversely affect the Indian Pharmaceutical scenario, but it is not long before. India too must comply with the world trend.

Conclusion:

It is time India stands on its own feet and gives lead­ership to the developing countries as we have been doing in the past.

The attitude towards Intellectual Property Rights adopted by any group or political formation will be the touchstone of its patriotism in the face of a serious attempt by US imperialists to decolonize us and take us back to the days of the British Viceroys and Governor Generals.

Like physical property, ideas can also belong to the people who conceived them. These ideas result in popular names for products, books and articles, films, music, processes for manufacturing products, and products themselves.

There is a tension between the original conceiver of the idea who wants to earn the maximum incentives for his invention and the desire of the public to have that invention at the lowest possible price at the earliest time.

Society feels it neces­sary to provide incentives to the inventors because without such incentives there is not sufficient idealism around for inventions to arise in all fields. A steady flow of inventions is essential for progress and a better quality of life for human beings.

At the same time, poor countries have difficulty in paying incentives, which become more expensive for more recent inventions. There is, therefore, a tendency in such countries for inventions to be copied and made available to the public at low prices.

Laws relating to copyright, trade marks and patents are intended to moderate this tension and to prevent copying without reward to the inventor.

They provide protection to the inventor for a given period of time and also enable propagation so that a larger section of the public is able to derive benefit from the invention. Ultimately, after a period of time, the invention becomes available to everybody without having to pay further incentives to the inventor.

The controversy between India and the U.S.A. which Ms. Carla Hills has symbolized relates of the Indian laws about intellectual property, the protection afforded to the inventors, and the ways in which these laws are administered and enforced.

India is not a country with much invention. This is evidenced by the far fewer number of patents filed in India, as against the number in many other countries, especially Japan and the U.S.A. Yet we also want our people to enjoy I the benefits of many of the inventions of other countries.

This has led to a considerable amount of copying through legal means, such as collaboration and licensing, and illegal means. Almost any film in the world is available op a copied video tape in India. Most recorded music is available on "pirated" audio tapes.

There are many printers who copy bestselling books. Sometimes new books are written and published in the names of bestselling authors, in which the authors had no hand many products manufactured abroad, are copied and some­times have been sold under the trade mark name of the original product.

In the eyes of the USA and many other countries, this copying without the permission of the inventor amounts to theft of intellectual property. The Indian copiers and Indian customers enjoy the benefits of these inventions without any reward accruing to the original inventor.

The laws in India, relating to copyright and trade marks are very strong in protecting the original owner of the trade mark and the copyright. It is in the enforcement that there is weakness. The Indian administration, police and judi­ciary are overburdened with having to enforce a large number of laws.

They do not regard copying as a serious crime unlike the many other crimes they have to deal with. To the slowness of the Indian legal system is added the problem of easy corruption-the copier has so much to gain that he can offer a substantial sum to the law enforcer who sometimes succumbs to the temptation.

Yet there are many companies that have themselves established strong surveillance and taken the copiers to court. Their vigilance has to a large extent protected them from this kind of theft.

Prominent among these companies are the large multi­nationals. Those that are not able to protect themselves, suffer because others copy their inventions without any benefit to the owner.

The major controversy relates to the patenting of products vs. processes, the inventor can patent a final product or the route to make it. There could be other routes. In India, at present it is legal to search for discover, make and market, the product through a different route.

Our law does not provide for patenting of certain products. The USA. And others have argued that we must allow product patents and for a longer period than we even allow today lot process patents.

We are not for product patents because they prevent us far undertaking our own research and development to develop alternatives routes to reacts the same product.

After all, "imitative" inventions were the secret of the Japan's success for a long time until recently. Many other countries, including Italy, Spain. Greece have amended their laws only in the last few years to permit product patents.

A poor country must have a long enough period in which it can "Imitate" the inventions and products of other countries and invent new pro­cesses to make them. This period of imitation is a prelude to original invention Thus, breathing time is essential and India must have it before India can all product patents.

The problem arises only for drugs, chemicals and agricultural product Agricultural products in India are in the public domain. Research is large conducted in governmental laboratories. The propagation of new seeds and methods quickly at low cost to the user has resulted in the substantial growth that has taken place in Indian agricultural production.

Under no circumstances can India permit product patents for agricultural products and specially for seeds since that will hit at the very base for the growth of agricultural production in India.

Some research in the USA shows that the original patented drug continues for many years after the expiry of the patent, to dominate the market through its trade mark name. Since Indian trade mark laws are strong, the patent owner in effect has a product patent through his trade mark.

If we allow product pate for drugs and chemicals only and for the same period as we now do proc patents, the owner of the patent will be able through his trade mark to enjoy dominance even after the expiry of the patent.

At the same time, it is essential that all such patents be filed in India and that there is a procedure to compel the owner to license the patent for Indian use,

India can, in the case of drugs and chemicals, permit product patents for a limited period. Our registration procedures could be speeded up from the present five years or so between application and granting of patent. If that cannot he done the patent period can be accounted from the date of registration and not from the date of application.

In this way, the patent owner can enjoy the benefit of the patent for the full period, which he is not able to do at present because of the long interval between filing and granting of patent. The controversy over IPR was avoidable. Unfortunately, it became politicized and issues of national sovereignty came up for debate.

It can be nobody's case that India wants to progress merely by copying and without payment. Nor can anybody in the world argue that India should not enjoy similar benefits as other countries that are how rich but which were able to imitate and progress.

Essay on an Hour in a Library

The formal education received in schools and colleges is not of much value, unless it is supplemented by as wide a reading as possible. So many good books are published nowadays that it is impossible to buy and possess even a small part of them. Lovers of books have no alternative but to depend on a good library.

There is a good public library in my town of which I am a member. I have cultivated the habit of spending at least an hour in that library every evening. To the countless hours I have spent there I owe the broadening of my mental horizon, my general knowledge, which often elicits warm compliments from my teachers, and the wealth and variety of ideas which help me in writing an essay or speaking at a debate. Let me describe my hourly routine in the library.

On entering the library I first go to the stand where the daily newspapers are put up for perusal. I stand before it for about fifteen minutes, reading the headlines, scanning the interesting news items, and sometimes going through the letters to the editor, if they happen to pertain to education or any other interesting subject. I am very much annoyed if some aggressive person by my side thrusts himself forward or turns a page when I am absorbed in reading an interesting news item. Then I move on to the table where the weeklies and magazines are kept. I glance at some of them and finally select one in which there are articles or short stories I would like to read. I settle myself in an easy chair, preferably in a cozy corner, and read the articles or short stories for about half an hour. (I sometimes find, to my disappointment, that no easy chair is vacant.) Before rising from my comfortable seat I look around and observe what others are doing. One gentleman is snoring in an easy chair, his face covered with a large magazine. Some people evidently come to the library more to relax than to read. Some people, I notice, cannot resist the temptation to comment loudly, apparently for the benefit of their neighbours, on what they are reading, and sometimes even to enter into a discussion with them on some point or other. An old man who must be on the wrong side of eighty is standing before a newspaper, earnestly jotting down something in his small note book. I wonder what he is taking down and how it can be useful to him when he is on the threshold of the grave.

I then go to the stacks containing books and stand before them, gazing at the titles and attractive covers of some of them. There are novels and plays and books on history, science, religion and so forth. How is it possible to read even a fraction of these books? I derive a certain pleasure from knowing the titles and authors of several books, as though it were a substitute for reading them. I sometimes borrow a book and take it home.

Difficult Words: Dissemination - spreading, elicits-draws out. Perusal-reading, scanning - reading rapidly, not very carefully, pertain to - relate to, threshold -entrance.

essay on Painting and Sculpture

Painting and sculpture also underwent a great change in the age of Reason or Enlightenment. In the development of these arts the aris­tocracy played a leading role and their tastes greatly influenced the outcome, portrait painting became very popular. In England most of the beauties and prominent men got their portraits painted in a grand manner through Sir Joshua Reynold or Thomas Gainsborough.

William Hogarth in England and Francisco de Goya in Spain tried to project the things around them in a very realistic manner and even drew attention to the prevailing evils. Hogarth in his painting-Harlot's Progress, The Rake's Progress, and Marriage a la Mode, shrewdly exposed the various vices of London life. Likewise Goya in a series of etchings of the Napoleonic invasion and occupation of Spain called The Disasters of war, portrayed in powerful and shocking fashion the bestiality and misery wrought by the War.

As regards the sculpture produced during this period they were mostly imitations of the classical forms. However, the French produced some original pieces of sculpture as well. For example Houdon's Portrait of Voltaire is one of the best specimen of the neoclassical sculpture.

Essay on the development of Chemical and Allied Industries in India

The industries play a major role in the national economy, by way of supplying raw materials to several basic industries such as steel, textiles, paper, synthetic fibres, rubber, plastics, paints, soaps and detergents, fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, explosives etc.

There are two types of chemicals viz. (i) Heavy inorganic chemicals including sulphuric and nitric acid, alkali chemicals like soda ash, caustic soda, chlorine, calcium carbide, etc. (ii) Light chemicals including photographic material, drugs, paints etc.

The pesticide industry has developed substantially, contributing significantly towards India's agriculture and health.

There are two public sector units in the chemical sector (i) Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. and (ii) Hindustan Insecticides Ltd.

HOCL, the Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. was set up in 1960 at Rasayani, Raigad district in Maharashtra. It has two units at Rasayani (Maharashtra) and Kochi (Kerala). The company has floated a subsidiary company called Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd. for manufacturing PTFE.

HIL, the Hindustan Insecticides Ltd. established in 1954, has three units at Delhi, Udyogmandal (Kerala) and Rasayani (Maharashtra). The company also has subsidiary company namely the Southern Pesticides Corporation Ltd. (Hyderabad) and a factory at Kowur.

HIL manufactures DDT, Malathion, Endosulfan and other insecticides. The Government of India has been liberal in issuing licences to companies for manufacturing chemicals except the dangerous and hazardous chemicals.

HIL manufactured over 15,000 tonnes of pesticides worth Rs. 132 crores. The Delhi unit of the HIL has been closed and re-located at Bhatinda in Punjab.

Essay-An hour at the Railway station

Railway Station is that place from where trains go and come. India has the largest network of railway stations spread through the length and breadth of the country.

Most of the big towns and cities are linked with each other and quite a few villages that fall in the way of the rail tracks are connected for movement by rail.

A train is the most convenient and affordable mode of travel for the majority of people of the country that is India. When we have to go hundreds of kilometres away from home on work or to meet our near and dear ones, we travel by train which gives us a fairly comfortable movement to and fro.

This train moving for hundreds of kilometers stops at several places small and big, and it is at stations there that we get down. From the station we go out to the town and proceed to our destination in the town. The passengers who have to go out of the town also go to the station from where they board their train.

The scene and aura of the railway station starts from the very front of the station where we come to board the train. There is a crowd in front of the station, there are taxi stands, scooter stands, and even rickshaw stands for passengers to take to move out of the station.

In front of the station there is thus, a crowd all the time, and loud shouts of drivers of all kinds calling passengers to their conveyance. This is obviously because the station is the boarding and halting place for both incoming and outgoing passengers. The noise and rush of the station start showing itself from outside the station.

As we move into the station premises, the scene becomes more interesting to watch. We can see trains coming in and going out from different platforms: People can be seen rushing into the station and also rushing out of it. Hoards of them are coming in to receive friends or relatives coming and similar crowds coming to see their own, off in the trains.

Thus the first thing that strikes a person seeing a railway station is a medley of types of crowds, with different objectives. Some to go, some are coming, some are there to see off people and some are at the station to welcome people.

There is a rush of a continuous crowd on every platform of a railway station. Wherever the eye can see, there is a see of mankind. With the noise of the ever increasing crowd, at the station there is a continuous noise of the announcements on the loudspeaker. The announcements are about the trains, their coming and going is announced for the benefit of the travellers, but, it has its nuisance value of adding to the noise.

To add to the noise of people's movement and announcements, at the platforms of the station, there is a perpetual call of the vendors of different kinds of wares. There are the vendors of foodstuffs, toys, water bottles and many more.

This is also for the passengers but it adds further to the loud clamour of noises at the venue of each platform. Besides the mobile trolley vendors, there are also some other mobile vendors and then there also are some shops fixed in places which have foodstuffs to offer, with tea and coffee.

At the railway station together with these noises, we find a fusion of emotional touches given by parting friends and relatives. At times, we find a person coming out of compartments with tearful eyes or even sobbing, which shows that, they have parted from a very much loved one.

On the other hand we also sometimes see people rejoicing and happy as if they have got the world in their laps and arms. It may be that they have met a dear one after a long time or, it may be that for them, someone has brought happy tidings.

At the railway station we see such a variety of sights that; an hour or so spent at the station shows one the life that is. At the station we can see a lot of humankind and humanness.

The place is full of life and gusto, even at the dead of night. This is because at least at big stations, trains come at all the times in the twenty four hours of the day. The railway station is buzzing with life all the time of day and night and that also every day.

I feel that, whenever one feels bored or lonely, a visit to the railway station will surely pep up one's spirits, and he will become lively and happy once again. The station is one place which unknowingly joins people long separated, and even helps people to go away and separate - what a place of diverse utilities. This is my rendezvous with the railway station.

Essay on Inadequate Database and Research on Environment

Environmental studies are a new area that is of prime concern to us. You will be supervised to know that even at the International level attention to environment was not being given ill the sixties. Very few people attached any importance to the Stockholm Conference, which was held in 1972 however, some activities started in the field of environmental sciences. Conference brought the problems of deteriorating to the notice of the world leaders. Earlier to this, the environmental problems were generally considered to be local problems.

The developed and industrial countries have been facing tremendous environmental problems on account of their unplanned industrialization and growth in developmental activities.

Consequently, they started turning their attention to environmental management much earlier. They also had enough resources to support these activities. The developing countries, which on the other hand, has just started industrialization and development activities, did not face such problems so acutely.

The environmental problems of the developing countries were generally related to underdevelopment, poverty and lack of resources. For them, demands such as drinking water, food, shelter, clothing and health were much more important, and for this reason, they could not pay proper attention towards environmental management.

Also, the subject of environment being new, very little was known about its relationship to other sciences such as climatology, sociology, geography, economic, health and hygiene. Only recently, people have started realizing that management of the environment is not possible unless we have information on other areas related to environment.

Database is the collection of interrelated data. Whenever required the data or a part of it can be retrieved. Database is generally, based on computerized information.

However, information or data stored in any other from also forms database for example, the cards used in a library to locate a book. The cards contain requisite information about all the books, journals, magazines, etc., available in the library.

Similarly, compiling information about the individuals in a city, state or a country is also generating a database; it is difficult to use the information available in the form of cards, reports, books files, etc., if the information is large. The same information, if fed into a computer in a proper way may become easily manageable and we can retrieve the desired information very fast. This is why the term database is generally used in relation to computerize information.

Essay on unseen problems of Pollution

Plato the great philosopher lamented the destruction of soils and forests in ancient Greece. Dickens and Engels discussed eloquently the conditions created by industrial revolution. However, the surge about environmental quality over the last three decades has been a concern for everybody. Man on the earth realized the value of environmental purity. Perhaps the most dramatic intellectual shifts are taking place in the third world where the ecological under spennings of human life lost in the struggle for industrialization. The progress-oriented thoughts are favoring fast growth even if it is harmful to human races. The theories are more of relief for underfed and protection to environment. This can be the mutually supportive goal for our activity.

The concept affected the thinking of bigger nations who as much opted for new laws, altered aid programmes and the trend was to bring change in international treaties. Even then, the response remained inadequate to the needs. The I need f the day is to protect whatever is in balance. An action I towards the goal can be taken up effectively if we understand 1 the actual meaning of pollution.

The literal meaning of pollution is to make dirty, act of making something foul etc. In its normal sense, the pollution depicts environmental pollution. It is more of unfavorable alternation of our surroundings. The causes are changing fuels and energy patterns, physical and chemical combination and abundance of organisms. It pollutes the air and renders it unsuitable for breathing, spoils the water and the soil.

Cooking over wood and cow dung cakes spoils the atmosphere. May rural areas and cities are engulfed with smoke and foul smell. This causes respiratory diseases (asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis). Those staying near refineries are exposed cancer due to toxic substances.

Pollution is cropping in air, water arid sound and has disastrous effect on humanity and other animation around Pesticides, fertilizers and solid or semisolid garbage spoil the connected food, plants, air, water and soil. The unhealthy effects are for stomach infections, skin diseases and other hazards.

The modern world has another pollution to face that is nose pollution. The loud-speakers, loud music, vehicle horns contribute large share and, in between, the loud sound of marriage “band” affects the mind of those who are exposed to such factor. The next and the most dangerous cause is the continuously increasing population. The earth has a heavy load of people. This creates wastes and consumes resources extensively.

The limit fixed has already been crossed in countries in Asia. In the same way, urbanization is fatly increasing and, thus, our cities or metros are getting faster pollution. Industrialization also attracts the rural population to shift rapidly and cause damages. The overpopulation disturbed the solar radiation. This all adds more stresses to biosphere. Some metros have so much enlargement of population that it is difficult for the municipalities to maintain the proper provision for civic facilities.

The problems are socially, economically and politically so deep rooted in the society that the dependents of political structures or vote banks fail to take any effective action. In reality, cleaning measures fall upon the industries or groups who are not in the position to spare anything out of their profits. The legal aspects and cost of controls as needed are tangible and easily figures, but there are no ways existing for assessment the benefits of pollution reduction. People apt to bypass the law can repeat the factors contributing to pollution.

‘Cigarette smoking’ and propaganda against it is opposed by the industry for their own motive. They move the boat in the reverse stream and follow anti-pollution-policies with a purpose to ignite inquisitiveness about smoking in common man’s mind. Thus, while these people are appearing to do good for the society, they are, in fact, getting easy publicity in disguise.

Despite best arrangement of boards and departments, the problem has very faint and dim results. None of the Govt. agencies can explain the causes of this failure.

The importance of clean environment has been realized well in India. Government is providing funds in fiver year plans for the purpose. It is, however, felt that unless the fixed legislations are enforced with sufficient political will, all the laws enforced are rendered futile. Creation of better awareness and mass education about pollution can possibly help to make the measures effective. Policies and voluntary efforts can certainly restrict the causes if done and followed with dedication.

Environmental choices must be guided by the vision of a desirable human society and of the quality of the ‘natural environment needed to support the concept. People have to accept the vision for it and make up a mind to fight against pollution.

essay on Christmas

For Christians the feast of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. Its popularity the world over has suf­fered much and has been distorted by artificiality from the commercial world. For the uninitiated it is a time full of loud, complacent, ribald, care-free people who shake hands, slap one another on the back and lift their tankards in a merry shibboleth; "All the best and happy days !" to the chink of mugs and hollow laughter.

The artificial Christmas crib, sprinkled over with artificial snow and artificial light, and artificial silver and gold trimmings is totally destructive of the bare, stark and mortifying truth of the great feast. What is worse are the artificial ideas, especially the romantic ideas that we associate with the naked but sublime facts of the Christmas story.

When we study the absolute beggary of the Christmas Cave where Christ was born and its attendant circumstances, we find no time to indulge in romantic trivialities. For those who know its secret know how its reality has been all but shattered and soiled with artificiality, by a commercialism that knows not the real meaning of Christmas.

The Christ­mas Feast is not a time to soothe and flatter our compla­cency, if we look squarely at its reality. Ever since the great Francis of Assisi gave the Crib to the world, men have wrongly come to think of Bethlehem merely as a picture of soft, sweet-smelling straw and stardust, of shepherds and angels and kings, a beautiful Babe and beneficent peace.

The home that Joseph and Mary had to improvise was a stable or a cave in one of the hill-sides of Bethlehem. It was not the fantastic cottage that the facile fancy of the Christmas card makers liked to imagine; roofs bedaubed with red paint and snow-white walls, and a broad-funneled chimney opening to the sky.

Actually it was a noisome hole in the shoulder of a hillock where cattle came to feed and moo and bellow in the night. On the rough walls spiders traced their gossamer webs in profusion and the floor lay bespattered with dry dung and straw and barley. Like many a hovel of today there was not an article of the most primitive furniture in that wretched cave except a small manger that was used for feeding cattle.

A Child in a foul stable

Where the beasts feed and foam,

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home?

-G.K. Chesterton

In just such an unbelievably destitute place as a wretched cow-shed was the Christ-Child born. Only where He was homeless are you and I at home. Even the poorest of us has a home of sorts with morsels of luxury and comfort to help us face the grim struggle of existence.

The stalwart worship­pers of Bacchus and Croesus must feel unsupportable hu­miliated before the Crib in all its unvarnished reality. Such a picture of utter poverty and want is not meant to destroy all the supernatural beauty and profundity of the historical fact of Christmas. If it is meant to teach us anything, it should make us realise things as the naked words of the Gospel story relate the great event of the world's history and help us to dispense, at least for an hour, with all these com­mercial trappings, with which an artificial civilization has learned to treat it as an artificial thing. If it is meant to do anything, it should awaken us from our self-complacency and lethargy and disclose to us the native and imperishable spiritual grandeur of Christmas. Then only may we speak of a real Christmas and invoke a real humanitarianism out of the depths of humanity.

essay on death penalty

The Indian penal code provides for capital punishment for criminal conspiracy, waging or attempting to wage war against the Government of India, abetment of mutiny giving or fabricating false capital evidence in officers leading to the conviction, abetment of suicide committed by a child or insane or delirious person or a person who is intoxicated and murder in decoity.

In India, death penalty is discretionary rather than mandatory in all capital offences except in case of murder by a life correct Section 303 of an IPC lays down "whoever, being under sentence of imprisonment for life, commits murder shall be punished with death."

For various capital offences the judges no doubt take into account the background of the crime, the age of the offender and the mental and physical condition of the accused.

Moreover the appellate courts also show some leniency. And top of all there is the executive clemency exercised by the President of India. The fail that only 25 to 40 percent of convicted offenders are hanged every year, goes to prove that both of judicial process and executive clemency are available to a significant percentage of offenders condemned to death.

Meanwhile the President of India has rejected the mercy petition field on behalf of Dhananjay Chattarjee and he was sent to gallows.

The recent announcement by the Government that it was not in favour of abolishing the death penalty has again highlighted the question raised by many human rights activists. Is it consistent with human dignity?

The question was raised even in 1946 on the eve of independence. Since then we have been discussing the relevance of capital punishment. Does it really solve problems?

The opposition to abolition of the death penalty stems from the myth that it will lead an increase in the number of murders. The fact is that in the state of Travancore there were 162 murders between 1946 and 1950 when the death penalty was not in force, But in the five years from 1950 when it was re-imposed. There were 967 murderers. It has been argued that it is not possible to fight such crimes by framing law. What we need is to target the root of a I crime. Discontent in a society is one of the reasons for such crimes.

Those who do not support capital punishment often quite ignore incidents like Mumbai or attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's convoy in Tirupati. But we should remember that terrorist and suicidal maniacs responsible for the blasts and other such crimes also do not care about the extremely of punishment. They are already beyond the pale of humanity and have to be fought using innovative ideas and methods of counter terrorists.

It was 1931 where the death penalty was seriously challenged in the Bihar Assembly. A member of the Assembly unsuccessfully sought to introduce a bill seeking its abolition. In 1946, on the eve of independence the then Union Home Minister stated that the Government did not think it was to abolish capital punishment. Ten years late when the government asked the states for their opinions; most of them expressed support for the death penalty.

In the 35th report produced in 1967 the Law Commission took the view that capital punishment acted as a deterrent to crime. But the statistics did not prove these so called deterrent have any effect the Supreme Court traditionally has not questioned the death sentence per se. In the Jagmohan Singh case (1973) it agreed with the Law Commission that capital punishment should be retained.

But subsequently cases such as those of Eliga Anawana (1974) and Rajender Prasad (1979) saw dissenting voices being raised in the Apex Court. These led (1980) case by Constitution Bench. The Bench concluded by four to one vote that the death penalty did -not violate Article 14 or Article 21 of the constitution. But some liberal judges tried to develop the alternative by holding that the consent could involve Article 21 in the event of the death sentence not being carried out even after two years and demanded that it be quashed.

Amnesty International, a strong opponent of the death penalty world wide, cites the Boldus report prepared in the U.S. to argue that capital punishment is socially oppressive. It found, that if the homicide victims were white, the killers were four times more likely to get the death sentences that if those murdered were black.

It can not be disputed that the outcome of any trial depends to a large extent on the quality of legal advice that the accused receive. This loads the scales in favour of the rich the arbitrariness of the sentencing mechanism in India persuades one to strongly argue against releasing the death penalty but it is the Parliament who has the right to take capital punishment.