A case of Flawed Judgement.

Recently, there was a case in US, where a person named Carlos was executed for a crime that he did not  commit !!! Sounds incredulous, but  Carlos De Luna had to pay with his life for a crime actually committed by one Carlos Hernandez.

Though, not completely identical, we have similar cases in our country as well. The Supreme Court has, till now, declared 13 of its death penalty judgments as per incuriam. The convicts are yet to be hanged. But no corrective actions have been taken.

The judgments by which the Supreme Court had sentenced them to death were declared “per incuriam” by subsequent Benches of the Supreme Court. 

per incuriam refers to a judgment of a court which has been decided without reference to a statutory provision or earlier judgment which would have been relevant. The significance of a judgment having been decided per incuriam is that it does not then have to be followed as precedent by a lower court. The words "per incuriam" mean "by carelessness or ignoring the statute or the law". 

It was in 2009 that the Supreme Court made this admission of error in judgement.

VERY IMPORTANT POINT TO BE NOTED HERE IS THAT, UNDER OUR CONSTITUTION:-

These 13 convicts  will go to the gallows,unless their sentences are commuted by the President.

to leave these 13 cases under consideration.

As a nation , its our duty to ensure their fundamental\human rights.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now let us look at some landmark cases that will make clear, the gross injustice that our courts will perpetrate on these convicts, if they are hanged.

Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab : - 

It's a landmark case in the Indian law.

It dealt in detail, with the arguments for the abolition and retention of the capital punishment.

During the discussions, the judges noted that:-

The article  235(2) read with Section 354(3), mandates that while fixing the degree of punishment for various offences,  the courts should not confine its consideration merely to the circumstances connected with the crime, but should also consider the circumstances of the criminal.

Also, Under section 235(2) and 354 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, there is a mandate for recording of “special reasons.

Ravji @ Ramachandran v\s State of Rajasthan:-

is a case whose judgement was later declared per incurium. 

It's a case of flawed judgement.

While deciding the quantum of punishment, it laid emphasis on the gravity of the Crime but not the 

Criminal. This was contrary to the binding dictum in Bachan Singh’s case and hence per incuriam. 

Not only, in this case, this approach was taken in atleast 13 other subsequent cases.

Finally, In 2009, in Santosh Kumar Bariyar vs State of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court noted the error.

One very important observation that we must make here is that :-

The law requires that the accused be heard before deciding on the sentence. It is not meant to be an empty formality. Why hear the accused before imposing the sentence if the circumstances of the offender are not germane to the decision making process? 

The Bachan Singh judgment has laid down the law clearly and the position was reiterated in Bariyar’s case where there is a candid admission that the cases of these 13 men have been wrongly decided.

As a parting note, I would just like to say that the credibility of our criminal justice system and the constitutional promise of equality before law will suffer a terrible blow if they are executed despite erroneous judgments.

Regards,

Ashish Mishra

Dance of Democracy

19 November 2012 , was probably the worst day of this year. Two girls from Mumbai were harassed by a bunch of hooligans, for saying something that they wanted to say. 

I don't want to talk about the person against which the comments were made by the girls. Sad, but I don't think I feel safe in this country anymore. So lets move on.

The problem is not that the girls were harassed. The issue is the active involvement of the state machinery, not to help those girls but to harass them even more, by arresting them. 

Here the charges against the girls stated that they had incited religious sentiments. I ask, isn't this clause against the very basic feature of our constitution - Fundamental Rights ? It's a blatant violation of our right to speech. Why can't a person voice his opinions in this free country ? It sets a very dangerous precedent for our already battered democracy. The self-righteous perpetrators of this act need to be punished immediately with exemplary harshness. 

I understand that the police might have done it to appease the angry hooligans, but it is our very own parliament that has equipped people with such faulty legal re-courses, that it can be mis-utilized  at will. 

They were charged under various sections of the Indian Information Technology Act, 2000. There seems to be a problem with this act itself. This act leaves a lot of things at the discretion of the Police\Investigating agencies\Courts. 

Here, I would like to compare this act with the provision of life penalty under Indian Penal Code. India, is right now among the very few countries, which still have the provision of capital punishment.  Many of the developed nations of the world have abandoned it. There is a reason behind it. You guessed it right !! It too had a lot to do with the discretionary powers of the judge.

                                                                              India still awards capital punishment with great inconsistency in judgement. That is why  Kasab got the noose and hatemonger like Mira Kodnani just got a life sentence, that too by a trial court which is supposed to award a stricter punishment to the offenders.

Well, coming back to the point, the supreme court has quite often struck down laws, that have tried to alter the basic structure of our constitution (read Keshwanand Bharti v\s State of Kerala), and it's high time that it carefully looks into this draconian law, which threatens to gag our beloved democracy.

Regards,

Ashish Mishra 

George S Pattons's Speech

General George S Patton, an army General from USA, was "The Man" of his times. He led the Third army of the allied forces during the last few months of the Second World War and achieved unprecedented capture\kill results. He was famous for this gruff talk and maverick spirit. Here is an extract from one of his speeches given to US Army Soldiers, just before they were to leave for an operation.

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle...Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.

...There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily. All because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did.

...My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.

...I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position.' We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose....

...From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.

Fish or Fishes !!!

Please tell me the plural of fish. In the dictionary it says plural is fish or fishes. When I look in the encyclopedia they use the term fishes a lot.

"Fish" is one of those odd words that's usually both singular and plural—like "deer" and (in Canada) "beer." So we can say:

We caught five fish.
We saw three deer.
We Canadians drank six beer. (See my additional comments in the continuation of this post.)

But we can use "fishes" when we are talking about different species:

The fishes of the Fraser River include salmon and sturgeon.

Power in Watts and its relevance

• A person having a mass of 100 kilograms who climbs a 3 meter high ladder in 5 seconds is doing work at a rate of about 600 watts. Mass times acceleration due to gravity times height divided by the time it takes to lift the object to the given height gives the rate of doing work or power.^{[notes 1]}
• A laborer over the course of an 8-hour day can sustain an average output of about 75 watts; higher power levels can be achieved for short intervals and by athletes.^[1]

• A medium-sized passenger automobile engine is rated at 50 to 150 kilowatts^[2] – while cruising it will typically yield half that amount.
• A typical household incandescent light bulb has a power rating of 25 to 100 watts; fluorescent lamps typically consume 5 to 30 watts to produce a similar amount of light.

• A typical coal power station produces around 600–700 megawatts. A typical unit in a nuclear power plant has an electrical power output of 900–1300 MW.

Dipawali

Festival of Lights.

1) For Jains: Mahavira attained Nirvana on this day. 527 BCE


2) It is  National holiday not only in india but also in countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore etc.


3) Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.


4) Hindus have several significant events associated with Deepawali:


a) The return of Rama after 14 years of Vanvas (banishment). To welcome his return, diyas (ghee lamps) were lit in rows of 20.


b) The killing of Narakasura: Celebrated as Naraka Chaturdashi, one day before Diwali, it commemorates the killing of the evil demon Narakasura, who wreaked havoc. Krishna's wife Satyabhama killed Narakasura during the Dwapara yuga. In another version of the belief, the demon was killed by Krishna or Krishna provoked his wife Satyabhama to kill Narshna, defeating Indra.




c) Govardhan Puja is celebrated the day after Diwali and is the day Krishna defeated Indra, the deity of thunder and rain. According to the story, Krishna saw preparations for an annual offering to Lord Indra and asked his father Nanda about it. He debated with the villagers about what their 'dharma' truly was. They were farmers, they should do their duty and concentrate on farming and protection of their cattle. He said that all human beings should do their 'karma' to the best of their ability and not pray for natural phenomenon. The villagers were convinced by Krishna, and did not proceed with the special puja (prayer). Indra was then angered, and flooded the village. Krishna lifted Mount Govardhan and held it up to protect the people and cattle from the rain. Indra finally accepted defeat and recognized Krishna as supreme. Although this aspect of Krishna's life is sometimes ignored it sets up the basis of the 'karma' philosophy later detailed in the Bhagavat Gita.


The reason behind Laxmi Puja during diwali:-


Diwali marks the end of the harvest season in most of India. Farmers give thanks for the bounty of the year gone by, and pray for a good harvest for the year to come. Traditionally this marked the closing of accounts for businesses dependent on the agrarian cycle, and is the last major celebration before winter. Lakshmi symbolizes wealth and prosperity, and her blessings are invoked for a good year ahead.




Spiritual Significance of Dipawali:-

While Diwali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", the most significant spiritual meaning is "the awareness of the inner light". Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called theAtman. The celebration of Diwali as the "victory of good over evil", refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one's true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With this awakening comes compassion and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings anand (joy or peace). Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Diwali is the celebration of this Inner Light.

While the story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region (festive fireworks, worship, lights, sharing of sweets), the essence is the same – to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying Reality of all things (Brahman).

Ganymede SSH: Executing multiple commands in a single session. The Easy Way

Download the Ganymede ssh jar from www.ganymed.ethz.ch/ssh2/

The below given program acts as if you are working with putty console. The text in bold are doing the input and output work. With the given format of the program, it is highly customizable.

The program goes like this:-

import java.awt.Color;import java.awt.FlowLayout;import java.awt.Font;import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;import java.awt.event.ActionListener;import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;import java.io.BufferedReader;import java.io.File;import java.io.IOException;import java.io.InputStream;import java.io.InputStreamReader;import java.io.OutputStream;import java.util.Scanner;import javax.swing.BoxLayout;import javax.swing.JButton;import javax.swing.JDialog;import javax.swing.JFrame;import javax.swing.JLabel;import javax.swing.JOptionPane;import javax.swing.JPanel;import javax.swing.JPasswordField;import javax.swing.JTextArea;import javax.swing.JTextField;import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

import ch.ethz.ssh2.Connection;import ch.ethz.ssh2.InteractiveCallback;import ch.ethz.ssh2.KnownHosts;import ch.ethz.ssh2.ServerHostKeyVerifier;import ch.ethz.ssh2.Session;import ch.ethz.ssh2.StreamGobbler;

 class MySessionConnector extends Thread { String hostname; String username;
InputStream in =null; OutputStream out =null; InputStream err = null;   public static void main(String[] args)   {   new MySessionConnector();   } public MySessionConnector() { this.hostname = "server"; this.username = "user"; String password = "password"; try { /* Create a connection instance */
Connection conn = new Connection(hostname); /* Now connect */ conn.connect(); boolean isAuthenticated = conn.authenticateWithPassword(username, password); if (isAuthenticated == false) throw new IOException("Authentication failed."); /* Create a session */
Session sess = conn.openSession(); sess.requestPTY("dumb", 90, 30, 0, 0, null); sess.startShell(); Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in); String myinput = null; in = sess.getStdout(); out = sess.getStdin(); err = sess.getStderr(); String myCommand = null; //new RemoteErrorConsumer().start(); new RemoteConsumer().start(); char[] carr = null; while(!(myCommand = scan.nextLine()).equalsIgnoreCase("Exit")) { carr = myCommand.toCharArray() ; for(int i=0;i<carr.length;i++) { out.write(carr[i]); } out.write(13); } } catch(Exception e1) { e1.printStackTrace(); } }//Constructor Ends


class RemoteConsumer extends Thread { public void run() { try{ byte[] buff = new byte[8192]; int len = 0; int i=0; while (true) { len = in.read(buff); for(i=0;i<len;i++) { System.out.print((char)buff[i]); }    }
} catch(Exception e1) { e1.printStackTrace(); } }//run ends }//class RemoteConsumer Ends class RemoteErrorConsumer extends Thread {        public void run()        {         try{ byte[] buff = new byte[8192]; int len = 0; int i=0; while (true) { len = err.read(buff); for(i=0;i<len;i++) { System.out.print((char)buff[i]); }    }
} catch(Exception e1) { e1.printStackTrace(); }        } } }

PHP

PHP Fundas:-


LEARNING PHP


So here it goes, the PHP tutorial:-




1) PHP is a server side scripting language.


2) It initially stood  for "personal Home Page", but now it is known the world over as, "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor".


3) Its a very easy language to learn.


4) The first step is that you should get some php editor (or notepad will also do :) ), mySql(the most frequently used database with php) and apache web-server configured on your machine.


5) Now, the XAMPP is eaily available here: - http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html


6) XAMPP offers a very good control panel application, which greatly simplifies your work of PHP programming, sql database handling and deployment and running the application.


7) PHP language basics:-


A sample PHP program:-




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head><title>Today's Date</title></head>
<body>
Today's day according to the web server is 
<p>
<?php
echo date('l');


?>
</p>
</body>
</html>




here, whatever that comes between the tags <? and > is interpreted by the php engine, while the server is serving to the browser request, asking for this page.


And, the apache server is capable of doing this.


8) A PHP statement ends with a semi colon.


echo "Hello World";


9) Comments in PHP:-
Use // or /**/




10) PHP variable:-


--The normal rules of variable name apply here. That is, it should start with an alphabet or underscore....etc.
--Also, in PHP, we don't  declare variables, before using them. We simply go ahead and use them.




Eg:-


$myCar="Volvo";


After this, the variable named myCar has the value "Volvo".






--PHP automatically converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value.
--Also, while referring to the variable, we precede the variable name with a $ sign.
--The general variable scope rules that make common sense are also applicable in PHP.


--One important example:-


Local Scope Variables:-


<?php
$a = 5; // global scope


function myTest()
{
echo $a; // local scope
} 


myTest();
?>




This program will output blanks, as the $a used in the function is taken to be of local scope, is one created in the function itself.


--To tell the php engine that we are going to refer to the gobal scope variables, this is what we do in a program:-


<?php
$a = 5;
$b = 10;


function myTest()
{
global $a, $b; // This is what we do !!!!!!!!
$b = $a + $b;
} 


myTest();
echo $b;
?>




--PHP also stores all global variables in an array called $GLOBALS[index]. Its index is the name of the variable. This array is also accessible from within functions and can be used to update global variables directly.


Eg:-


<?php
$a = 5;
$b = 10;


function myTest()
{
$GLOBALS['b'] = $GLOBALS['a'] + $GLOBALS['b'];
} 


myTest();
echo $b;
?>




11) Static variable declaration:-


static $rememberMe;


12) 




x) Variables passed in forms can also be caught in PHP. Well.... I am not assuming anything about my readers, and hence I am mentioning everything at its face-value. I say this, because, the function that I just described, is the most primitive stuff, any server side scripting language is expected to do. :)


y) Lets see an example, where in we will have two web pages. The one , a html page having a simple form and the other being a PHP page called from the first one and which will utilize the passed up variables for some random purpose, like printing a welcome message.


z)  The corresponding PHP page that aims to say hello with you name is:-




<?php
$firstName = $_GET['firstname'];
$lastName = $_GET['lastname'];
echo 'Welcome to our website, ' .
htmlspecialchars($firstName, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8') . ' ' .
htmlspecialchars($lastName, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8') . '!';
?>














---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some genral PHP funda from O'Reiley Publications book


Web 1.0 : Simple HTML pages as envisaged by Tim Berner's Lee.


Web 1.1 : Advent of  Java Script , JScipt (Tweaked version of java script by Microsoft). On the server side, we had CGI+Perl and PHP+MySQL primarily.


Web 2.0 : When PHP allies with MySQL to store and retrieve this data, you have the fundamental parts required for the development of social networking sites and the beginnings of Web 2.0.






With PHP, it’s a simple matter to embed dynamic activity in web pages. When you give pages the .php extension, they have instant access to the scripting language. From a developer’s point of view, all you have to do is write code such as the following:




<?php
echo "Hello World. Today is ".date("l").". ";
?>




Output:-
Hello World. Today is Thursday.


PHP enabled web-servers have actually got a PHP interpreter with them. Eg. Apache






--Using PHP, you have unlimited control over your web server. Whether you need to modify HTML on the fly, process a credit card, add user details to a database, or fetch information from a third-party website, you can do it all from within the same PHP files in which the HTML itself resides.




-- PHP is vastly complemented by MYSQL and JavaScript.


let’s take a quick look at how you can use basic JavaScript, accepted by all
browsers:


<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("Hello World. Today is " + Date() );
</script>




The result will look something like this:


Hello World. Today is Sun Jan 01 2012 14:14:00




** It’s worth knowing that unless you need to specify an exact version of
JavaScript, you can normally omit the type="text/javascript" and just
use <script> to start the interpretation of the JavaScript.




As previously mentioned, JavaScript was originally developed to offer dynamic control over the various elements within an HTML document, and that is still its main use. But more and more, JavaScript is being used for Ajax. This is a term for the process of accessing the web server in the background.




***
Ajax is the main process behind what is now known as Web 2.0 (a term coined by Tim O’Reilly, the founder and CEO of this book’s publishing company), in which web pages have started to resemble standalone programs, because they don’t have to be reloaded in their entirety. Instead, a quick Ajax call can pull in and update a single element on a web page, such as changing your photograph on a social networking site or replacing a button that you click with the answer to a question.


***
Some common PHP syntax  examples:-


$username = "Fred Smith";//String


$count = 17;//integer


$team = array('Bill', 'Joe', 'Mike', 'Chris', 'Jim');//array


$oxo = array(array('x', '', 'o'),
array('o', 'o', 'x'),
array('x', 'o', '' ));


echo $username;
echo $count;
echo $team[3]; // Displays the name Chris
echo $oxo[1][2];






**
In PHP, Variable names are case-sensitive.


**
Logical Operators in PHP:-


if ($hour > 12 && $hour < 14) dolunch();






**
Variable Assignement
$x += 10;
$y -= 10;
++$x;
--$y;


**
String Concatenation


String concatenation
String concatenation uses the period (.) to append one string of characters to another.
The simplest way to do this is as follows:




echo "You have " . $msgs . " messages.";




Just as you can add a value to a numeric variable with the += operator, you can append one string to another using .= like this:


$bulletin .= $newsflash;






**
String Types in PHP : Under Single Quotes , Under Double Quotes:-


PHP supports two types of strings that are denoted by the type of quotation mark that you use. If you wish to assign a literal string, preserving the exact contents, you should use the single quotation mark (apostrophe) like this:




$info = 'Preface variables with a $ like this: $variable';


In this case, every character within the single-quoted string is assigned to $info. 


If you had used double quotes, PHP would have attempted to evaluate $variable as a variable. On the other hand, when you want to include the value of a variable inside a string, you do so by using double-quoted strings:




echo "There have been $count presidents of the US";






**
Using Escape Characters in Strings:-




$text = 'My sister's car is a Ford'; // Erroneous syntax


$text = 'My sister\'s car is a Ford';//Correct Usage






**
Variable Typing:-


PHP is a very loosely typed language. This means that variables do not have to be declared before they are used, and that PHP always converts variables to the type required by their context when they are accessed.




Example 3-10. Automatic conversion from a number to a string


<?php
$number = 12345 * 67890;
echo substr($number, 3, 1);
?>






At the point of the assignment, $number is a numeric variable. But on the second line, a call is placed to the PHP function substr, which asks for one character to be returned from $number, starting at the fourth position (remembering that PHP offsets start from zero). To do this, PHP turns $number into a nine-character string, so that substr can access it and return the character, which in this case is 1.




The same goes for turning a string into a number and so on.




**Constants
Constants are similar to variables, holding information to be accessed later,  except that they are what they sound like—constant. In other words, once you have defined one, its value is set for the remainder of the program and cannot be altered.




define("ROOT_LOCATION", "/usr/local/www/");


Then to read the contents of the variable:-


$directory = ROOT_LOCATION;





The main two things you have to remember about constants are that
they must not be prefaced with a $ sign (as with regular variables), and 

that you can define them only using the define function.

Current Events Primer Series: MGNREGA

MGNREGA
(Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act )

1) is an Indian job guarantee scheme.

2) Enacted in 2005. (Initially named only NREGA).


3) The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year.

4) It is meant for adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work.

5) The minimum wage is Rs120/day.

Group Discussions Primer Series: OverPopulation

Points to underline the problem:-
1)  Where there is dearth of space and not enough production of food, increase in population is certainty a burden on those who have to deal with these matters.

2) In India today, the problem has assumed serious proportions. There has been phenomenal increase of population within the last few decades, reaching upto one hundred crore at the turn of the century. The density per square mile is about 350. In USA, it is about 41 per square mile. Current Population of India : 117 Crore.


3) If the density of population be large, the pressure on the means of subsistence will also be unduly heavy. There will not be enough food to go round, and high prices of foodgrains will keep the lowest income groups on the verge of starvation.

4) The Malthusion law held that population increases far more rapidly than the means of subsistence does. At last a time comes when the growth of population has to be checked if the people are to be adequately fed.

5) Aided by superior knowledge of science, man has mastered the threat of famines and epidemics, and wars may soon be a thing of the past with the nuclear threat as a deterrent. The application of science to agriculture has increased production of food to an extent that could not have been dreamt of by Malthus. Today, in advanced countries, the increase in the means of subsistence ha6 outstripped the rate of population growth. But same is not the case with developing and under-developed countries.




Points to re-mediate the problem:-

1) In India, the problem of over-population will be best met by increase in the food resources of the country.

2) Secondly, an intensive effort must be made to bring waste lands under human settlement.

3) The propaganda for artificial birth control will be of doubtful value as long as the lower income group man, for whom family planning is most needed, does not respond adequately.

4) The world is slowly and surely coming together, to form a single global unit. Economic needs are dictating national policies to a large extent. There is also a useful shift towards an international outlook. The re-distribution of surplus food under the aegis of the, UNO and Food and Agricultural Organisation point out the way to larger adjustment on the basis of international co-operation.

5) A time may soon come when under-populated countries like Australia, America or Russia may willingly welcome and receive the excess population from other countries, irrespective of colour and custom. And who knows that the moon will not be colonised? In any case, an intensive efforts at developing the national resources remain a primary condition as well as responsibility.



Hope the article helped.
Till Next Time,
Take care and Bye,
Ashish Mishra


Credits:
Wikipedia
CETKing