Maintainability of the Bail Applications in High Court: Time to Ponder

Through this detailed article I make an endeavour to show that the bail applications being filed in the High Courts entire the country are not maintainable and the Hon’ble High Courts do not have any jurisdiction to even entertain the bail petitions, what to talk of passing any order.

It is a known fact that Chapter 23 of Cr.P.C. deals with provisions specifically related to bail but the epicentre of my article shall not be all the provisions related to bail but shall be Clause 1 of Section 439 Cr.P.C. Before trying to interpret Clause 1 of Section 439 Cr.P.C it becomes pivotal to mention here that bail applications in the courts, across the whole country, are firstly filed in the court of Magistrate. When the bail applications get dismissed from the court of Magistrate then bail applications are moved, u/S 439 Cr.P.C., in the court of Sessions. If the Court of Sessions grants bail to an accused-applicant then the matter ends but if the Court of Sessions rejects the bail then an accused-applicant rushes to the High Court for seeking bail u/S 439 Cr.P.C. This trend is being followed in all the courts of the country. Now reverting to Section 439(1) Cr.P.C., it reads as follows:

Section 439: Special powers of High Court or Court of Session regarding bail-
(1) A High Court or Court of Session may direct-
(a) That any person accused of an offence and in custody be released on bail and if the offence is of the nature specified in sun-section (3) of Section 437, may impose any condition which it considers necessary for the purposes mentioned in that sub-section.
(b) That any condition imposed by a Magistrate when releasing any person on bail be set aside or modified.


Under Section 439 Cr.P.C. concurrent powers have been conferred to the High Court and Court of Session in matters relating to the grant of bail as the word ‘or’ provides equal powers to both the courts. This remains an undisputed fact. Now, the question which always trickles and boggles my mind is if the bail application has been moved by an accused person in the Court of Sessions u/S 439 Cr.P.C. then can he move another bail application before High Court also u/S 439 Cr.P.C.? I think that the answer to this query should be ‘NO’ as Section 439(1) Cr.P.C. provides an option to an accused person to move the bail application, once it gets rejected from the court of Magistrate, either in the Court of Session or before the High Court.

Through Section 439 Cr.P.C. legislature wanted to confer an option to an accused person to move the bail application, once it gets rejected from the Court of Magistrate, to either the Court of Session or the High Court. That’s why it had used the word ‘or’ conferring equal powers to both the courts in matters relating to the grant of bail. If the accused person did not want to move the bail application in the Court of Sessions, because of certain unavoidable reasons, then he could have moved the bail application in the High Court. This is what Hon’ble Apex Court has also said in Gurcharan Singh and others v State(Delhi Administration)((1978)1 SCC 118)(Para 24) :

“24. Section 439(1) Cr.P.C. of the new Code, on the other hand, confers special powers on the High Court or the Court of Session in respect of bail. Unlike under Section 437(1) there is no ban imposed under Section 439(1) Cr.P.C. against granting of bail by the High Court or the Court of Session to persons accused of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life. It is, however, legitimate to suppose that the High Court or the Court of Session will be approached by an accused only after he has failed before the Magistrate and after the investigation has progressed throwing light on the evidence and circumstances implicating the accused. Even so, the High Court or the Court of Session will have to exercise its judicial discretion in considering the question of granting of bail under Section 439(1) Cr.P.C. of the new Code. ….”


Let me illustrate a very simply paradigm to explain the things clearly. Suppose a father says to his son “Son, you can spend your summer vacations of 2010 in Canada or in London.” This will provide a choice to the son to choose his summer destination which can be either Canada or London. This interpretation will never mean that son has been provided with an opportunity to visit both Canada and London during summer vacations. He has been allowed only to visit either of the two places. Suppose Son spends his part summer vacations in London and returns to his house and then seeks leave from his father to visit Canada. The father will straightaway refuse to grant any leave to visit Canada because he had only provided one of the two places for summer vacations. He never intended both the places. Here the word “or” cannot be interpreted as word “and”. The same thing must be considered in Section 439(1) Cr.P.C. Unfortunately instead of the intention of the legislature being followed, in letter and spirit, a wrong custom has developed in all the High Courts to entertain and decide the bail applications only after they get rejected from the Court of Session. It looks as if High Court sits as a court of appeal over the Court of Session in matters relating to the grant of bail, confirming, reversing, altering the findings and order recorded by the Court of Session, which is legally not tenable.

The Constitution Bench of the Hon’ble Apex Court has further defined the word ‘or’ in M/s Ranchhoddas Atmaram and another v The Union of India and others(AIR 1961 SC 935)to mean either of the two. Para 13 of the aforesaid ruling states

“ 13. It is clear that if the words form an affirmative sentence, then the condition of one of the clauses need only be fulfilled. In such a case “or” really means “either” “or”. In the shorter Oxford Dictionary one of the meanings of the word “or” is given as “A particular coordinating two(or more) words, phrases or clauses between which there is an alternative.” It is also there stated, “The alternative expressed by “or” is emphasised by prefixing the first member or adding after the last, the associated adv. EITHER.” So, even without “either,” “or” alone creates an alternative. If, therefore, the sentence before us is an affirmative one, then we get two alternatives, any one of which may be chosen without the other being considered at all. In such a case it must be held that a penalty exceeding Rs.1,000 can be imposed.”

Through the above mentioned case Constitution Bench of the Apex Court clarified way back in the year 1961 as to what word “or” really connotes. A 3 Judges (Division) Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court further got an opportunity to interpret the word “or”. In Manmohan Das Shah and others v Bishun Das(AIR 1967 SC 643) the Division Bench tried to interpret and differentiate between the word “or” and “and”. Para 6 reads as follows

“6.In our view Clause (c)of Section 3(1) cannot bear the construction suggested by Mr. Desai. The clause is couched in simple and unambiguous language and in its plain meaning provides that it would be a good ground enabling a landlord to sue for eviction without the permission of the District Magistrate if the tenant has made or has permitted to be made without the landlord’s consent in writing such construction which materially alters the accommodation or is likely substantially to diminish its value. The language of the clause makes it clear that the legislature wanted to lay down two alternatives which would furnish a ground to the landlord to sue without the District Magistrate’s permission, that is, where the tenant has made such construction which would materially alter the accommodation or which would be likely to substantially diminish its value. The ordinary rule of construction is that a provision of a statute must be construed in accordance with the language used therein unless there are compelling reasons, such as, where a literal construction would reduce the provision to absurdity or prevent the manifest intention of the legislature from being carried out. There is no reason why the word “or” should be construed otherwise than in its ordinary meaning. ……”

Section 24 I.P.C. defines Dishonestly as “ Whoever does anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person, is said to do that thing dishonestly.” Here also the interpretation of the word “or” shall be done in the same way as it was done earlier in the other cases. Thus, causing only wrongful gain or only wrongful loss to any person shall be sufficient to come within the definition of dishonestly. This has been affirmed by the Supreme Court in Dr. Vimla v The Delhi Administration(AIR 1963 SC 1572).Para 5 reads as follows:

“…………To illustrate, in the definition of “dishonestly, wrongful gain or wrongful loss is the necessary ingredient. Both need not exist, one would be enough………..”.

In the same way Section 397 Cr.P.C. provides the concurrent powers of revision to both the Sessions Court and the High Court by virtue of the word “or”. But in revision opposite trend is followed. A person moves a revision petition either in the Court of Session or the High Court and not in both the courts. This is the prevalent trend in all the courts of the country. The noticeable thing is that the word “or” is there in both the Sections- Section 397(1) Cr.P.C. and Section 439(1) Cr.P.C. but is being interpreted in a different way in both the sections. A revision petition once filed in the Court of Session and dismissed is not filed again in the High Court as both enjoy concurrent powers in matters relating to revision but a bail application moved before the Court of Session if gets dismissed is again moved in the High Court though both the Courts enjoy equal powers in matters relating to the grant of bail. In C.B.I. V State of Gujarat ((2007)6 SCC 156)(Para 4) SC has clarified that against the order of C.J.M. under Section 397 Cr.P.C. either the Sessions Court or the High Court could be approached. Lawyers and Judges are aware that once revision gets dismissed another revision does not lie. This is by virtue of Section 397(3) Cr.P.C., which debars any further revision by the same person whose revision has been dismissed earlier. There is no such provision in Section 439 Cr.P.C., which debars filing of further bail application if the bail application gets rejected once. Absence of any such provision would not change the interpretation of word “or”. So, if any such provision would have been there in the statute then there would not have been further bail petitions, once the bail application is filed before the Court of Session.

The next question which makes my mind anxious is that can the High Court entertain the bail application directly after it gets rejected from the court of Magistrate? The answer should be a big yes as u/S 439 Cr.P.C. it can be approached directly bypassing the court of Session but I fear it might invite wrath of the Hon’ble Judges and the reporting section of High Court as it has been mandated by law to annex the bail rejection order of the Court of Session in the bail petition. Clause 1 of Rule 18 of the Chapter 18 of Allahabad High Court Rules,1952 says

18. Application for bail----(1) No application for bail shall be entertained unless accompanied by a copy of the judgment or order appealed against or sought to be revised and a copy of the order passed by the Sessions Judge on the bail application for the applicant and unless the accused has surrendered except where he has been released on bail after conviction under Section 389(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973.


So, Rule 18(1) of the High Court Rules mandates to annex the copy of the bail rejection order passed by the Sessions Judge, which indirectly implies that one has to move the bail application first before the Court of Session and then the High Court. The Rule thus tries to interpret the word “or” used in Section 439 Cr.P.C. as the word “and”, which is legally not feasible. It is also widely known that if there is a conflict between any Central law and the State law(local law) then it is the Central law, which prevails. The way High Courts are entertaining and deciding the bail applications, it appears as if they are sitting in a court of appeal in matters relating to the grant of bail. The Sessions Judge dismisses the bail application but the High Court allows the bail application. Can the High Court entertain and pass any order opposite to the order passed by the Court of Session, though both enjoy the concurrent powers? If not, then why this rampant practice is not being curtailed. It is further relevant to mention here that Supreme Court too grants and cancels bail. Supreme Court is not permitted by any law to do that as there is no specific provision in the Cr.P.C. which confers powers on the Supreme Court to grant or cancel bail. Supreme Court derives such powers by virtue of Article 142 of Constitution. It is an extra constitutional power conferred upon the Supreme Court to do any act for the sake of justice but the High Court does not enjoy any such powers in matters relating to bail. High Court enjoys only vast powers under writ jurisdiction and 482 Cr.P.C.

High Court is governed by Chapter 23 of Cr.P.C. only in matters relating to bail. It is governed by provisions of statute. In matters relating to bail High Court does not enjoy any vast or inherent powers where it can do anything for the sake of justice. I don’t say that High Court does not have powers to grant bail nor can I dare to say that. Question is when and how can High Court exercise the powers to grant or refuse bail. If the word “and” would have been used in place of the word “or” in Clause 1 of Section 439 Cr.P.C. then position would have been much different. If word ‘and’ would have been used in lieu of ‘or’ then u/S 439 Cr.P.C. both the courts would have powers(not concurrent powers) to grant or refuse bail. Then if the bail application of a person would have been rejected from the Court of Session then definitely he would have got a statutory right to move the bail application in the High Court. But apex court further says that penal provisions are to be interpreted strictly and not leniently as has been held in U. Suvetha v State by Inspector of Police and another (2009(3)ACR 2889(SC))(Para13) and R. Kalyani v Janak C. Mehta and others (2009)1 SCC 516)(Para 36).So, the word “or” cannot be interpreted as word “and”. Moreover, the word “or” can prove to be more beneficial as allowing an incarcerated person to move the bail application in only one of the two courts u/S 439 Cr.P.C. would not only save his time and money but it will also reduce the burden of cases in the courts.

I hope my effort today would prove to be fruitful, open the eyes of readers and will force the legal think tanks to delve into the issue and understand the concepts in a correct way. There are many other topics on which I wish to write. There are many issues which need reconsideration; after all it’s a dynamic field of law.

Cross Border Mergers and Takeovers: Recent Trends

Introduction

Mergers and Takeovers are the important ways of non-organic restructuring a corporate entity, which can only be achieved by an efficient process. Such restructuring is done for achieving a greater growth and this is done by utilizing the strengths and potential of other entities. Moreover the shareholders of a Company cannot always finance the Company’s growth and therefore mergers and takeovers/acquisitions become the other good option. After the advent of the Globalization in the early nineties, improved market access, the adoption of the policy of liberalization by countries such as India and the enforcement of some much desired statutes e.g. the Competition Act of India in 2002, Sarbanes Oxley Act in USA etc global mergers and takeovers have become a common visible feature. Across the world low interest rates, pressure of competition and the advent of ever bigger private equity funds have spurred a huge number of mergers and takeovers. According to Thomson Financial, the year 2006 only witnessed a worldwide Merger and Acquisitions activity of $3,760 billion compared to $3,400 billion in 2000.United States Corporations did 1878 cross-border transactions in 2006, valuing at $186 billion. The Year 2006 thus set a record for M&A activities which reached historic highs. Merger & Acquisition activities will continue to increase in Asia Pacific region (India having the fastest growing market after Japan) because of the improved market access, followed by the desire to create combined business and coordinated strategies. In the year 2006, India had a mere 0.7% share with only 876 deals taking place totaling $27.7 billion in value but now India is now among the eighth largest market for M&A market. USA and UK countries are the number one and two in M&A activities. The article divulges in detail with the recent trends of global mergers and takeovers of the corporate world in the current scenario.

Since the terms Merger, Acquisition and Takeover have become very common today therefore it becomes pivotal to define them. Merger or amalgamation in simple terms means nothing but a consolidation of two or more enterprises by way of purchase of business, acquisition of shares, absorption of one entity into another etc. Though the term ‘take over’ has not been defined legally but in commercial parlance, the term may be defined as the process whereby the majority of the voting capital of a company is bought through private arrangements, public offer or otherwise. An acquisition on the other hand connotes the purchase of shares of a target company. When such a purchase is done with an intention to take over management or control of the target company, such an acquisition becomes a take over.

Periods of Merger Activities

Five periods of high merger activity have taken place in the history of mergers and acquisitions:
The first wave occurred in the early part of the 20th century, when companies undertook M&As with the explicit objective of dominating their industries and creating monopolies. The second wave coincided with the rising market of 1920s, when firms again embarked on M&As as a way of extending their reach into new markets and expanding their market share.

The third wave occurred in 1960s and 1970s, when firms focused on acquiring firms in other lines of business, with the intent of diversifying and forming conglomerates.

The fourth wave occurred in the mid 1980s, when firms were acquired primarily for restructuring assets. This wave ended as deals became pricier and it became more difficult to find willing lenders. The era of reforms under Mr. Rajiv Gandhi saw the emergence of large scale corporate ambition and the last fifth wave occurred towards the end of 1990s when firms focused on the acquired firms with the aim of restructuring. It saw the commencement of the selling of the non-core businesses too.

Cross border mergers imply the merging of two companies incorporated in different countries:

1. Merger of Foreign Company with an Indian Company-Section 2(7) of the Companies Act, 1956 includes foreign company within the definition of a body corporate and as such, a foreign company can merge with an Indian Company.

2. Merger of Indian Company with a Foreign Company-Section 394(4) (b) of the Companies Act, 1956 expressly excludes a foreign company from the expression ‘transferee company’. Thus, an Indian Company cannot merge with a foreign company although the vice-versa is permissible.

Recent Trends

Mergers and Takeovers are a normal feature of a vibrant economy and in 2006 it reached historic records. The mega deals-totaling more than $10 billion are back and as the economy of India is becoming more free, liberalized and dynamic the M&A scenes are going to get hot. A certain trend has been observed in Mergers and Takeovers activity during the current years. It is as follows:


1. Horizontal Mergers and Takeovers

Well, the mergers can be vertical, conglomerate and horizontal but most of the Mergers and Takeovers taking place currently are horizontal i.e. between firms and Companies manufacturing the same goods or services. The Tata Steel of India acquired the Anglo-Dutch Steel company Corus, Tata Tea Group acquired Tetley Tea of UK in 2000, Vodafone Telecom Company of United Kingdom acquired the assets of Hutchinson Essar(One of the biggest telecommunication companies of India), Hindalco of Kumar Mangalam Birla acquired Novelis (Aluminium Company of Canada), Tata Tea acquired Eight O’clock Coffee (Coffee producing company of USA), Tata Motors acquired the truck assets of Korea’s Daewoo Motors Company, Dr Reddy’s Lab acquired the Betapherm of Germany (which is also a pharmaceutical company), Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals too acquired Romania’s Terapia (A pharmaceutical company), Essal Packaging which used to manufacture toothpaste tubes took over Propack, Suzlon Energy purchased Hansen Transmissions of Belgium, Tata chemicals acquired the UK based Brunner Mond in Dec 2005, VSNL’s purchased Teleglobe etc. What is pertinent here is that the businesses of the most of the entities which have been acquired are similar to that of the companies which have acquired them. Thus, today a company wants to merge with or have a control over that company which deals in the same business. This tendency is on the rise. Horizontal mergers also remain the most challenged and the disputed one.

2. Merger between Topmost Companies

The mergers and takeovers which have taken place in the last few years have been almost among the topmost companies i.e. between No.1 and No.2 companies or between No.1 and No 3 or between No.2 with No.4. Previously the trend was that mergers used to take place between lower ranked companies e.g. No. 8 and No.10 companies or between No.12 with No.16 but the same condition is not the general rule now. The Laxmi Niwas Mittal’s Steel Company acquired Arcelor Steel (The biggest steel producer Company) and thus L.N. Mittal became the owner of biggest Steel Company. Similarly, the Vodafone Telecom Company, which is the biggest telecom company of UK acquired Hutchinson Essar (The fourth largest telecom company of India), Bharat Forge acquired Germany’s largest forging company CDP etc. Thus the recent M&A’s took place among the topmost and high ranked companies. Thus in merger and acquisitions the topmost Companies are being looked out for the deals.

3. India’s expansion of Activity

In all the major recent mergers and takeovers one of the bidders have always been an Indian company. As Indian companies have the potential, worth and resources to buy the global companies therefore the mergers and takeovers activity of India will certainly expand. While the primary focus of the Indian foreign acquisitions will likely be in the energy sector, growth potential for Indian Mergers and Acquisitions activity also exist in the following sectors:

a) Mining

b) Information Technology as exemplified by the recent transactions involving Celestica with HCL Technologies and Aditya Birla Group’s indirect acquisition of Minacs worldwide.

c) Automotive, with Indian auto manufacturers such as Bharat Forge, Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra looking to gain a foreign foothold.

The big involvement of the Indian companies in the global Mergers and Acquisitions is because they have benefitted a lot from the policies of Liberalization and delicensing. They have got the sufficient experience and they now want to compete at an international level. The previous successful mergers and takeovers of the other companies provided a sort of impetus and encouragement to the companies to work at a global level.


4. Acquisition at higher prices

Most of the takeovers of the alien companies by the Indian companies have been at very higher prices. The recent acquisition of Novelis (Aluminium Company of Canada) by Hindalco of India was done at about $6 billion. Analysts say that the Kumar Mangalam Birla paid too high a fee for the company which was in losses. The price Hindalco paid translates to a market capitalization/profit before tax (PBT) multiple of 36. This is really high.

Similarly the UK based Telecom Company Vodafone purchased 67% stake in Hutchinson Essar for $11.08 billion. In this deal the Company had edged out Hutch’s 33% partner Essar Group, Reliance Communications and Hinduja Group of UK. The market capitalization/profit before tax (PBT) multiple in this case came out to be 18. This deal was also considered to be an expensive one. Sony also overpaid by about $1 billion in acquiring Columbia pictures.
Another paradigm of acquisition at the higher price is that of the Corus by the Tata Group. The Tata Group had acquired the Corus Company for an excessive amount of $10.4 billion. The enterprise value/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA) value for Tata Steel is 4.6. Laxmi Niwas Mittal too paid 5.8 EBITDA for Arcelor.

5. Size of the company acquired

If we examine the long-run value to book, we find that low value-to-book firms buy high value-to-book firms. In fact, the long-run value to book component of M/B for targets is three to five times higher than that for acquirers. Thus big companies are acquiring the bigger companies by paying the excessive amount and taking big risks e.g. Mittal’s Steel Company purchased world’s largest steel producer Arcelor Steel Company, Tata Steel which used to be at no. 56 in the pecking order picked up Corus, ranked no. 9. Corus used to make four times more steel than Tata Steel. It has become a trend now to swallow a bigger fish rather than looking for smaller entities by utilizing all the energy, potential and talent. The availability of finance easily is one of the important factors which has made the Companies to acquire even bigger companies.

6. Mega Deals

The current global Merger and Acquisition activities have been a big deal. Now the M&A activities are not done with a small some of lucre. Rather it involves a very big amount of money. The major M&A activities ran into billions of dollars. The Tata Steel Company acquired the Corus Company for $ 10.4 billions. Similarly, Hindalco paid an excessive amount of $6 billion for purchasing the assets of Novelis, Videocon Industries made a bid of $731 million for Daewoo Electronics, Dr. Reddy’s acquisition of Betapherm in Germany stood for a heavy $572 million. Ranbaxy too paid Terapia an amount of $324 million. Suzlon Energy paid Hansen Transmissions of Belgium $565 million. The number of deals taking place is increasing, as is their value. In 2005, the total number of outbound deals was 136, which generated a total deal value of $4.3 billion. The deal which was largely restricted to the IT and telecom sectors in 2004 has now spread to all sectors.

7. Finance Availability

The Companies like Tata and Vodafone today are acquiring much larger companies. The deal is exorbitant in most of the cases and the acquisition price runs into billions of dollars. Generally the acquirer company does not have that much assets and money and thus it resorts to the help of banks and other financial methods for the purpose of finance. Today, after considering the credibility and paying capacity of a company banks lend a part of money needed easily for the transaction. Besides banks the finance is also arranged through junk bonds, equity, senior term loans, cash reserves, external borrowings etc. Moreover, high economic growth has left Indian companies with surplus funds. India Inc is already exploring exchanges like the Alternative Investment Market of London Stock Exchange, TSZ of Toronto etc to take advantage of liberal listing norms which is a quicker listing process and better valuations from wider range of international investors. Indian companies can raise at least ₤2-3 billion from AIM alone.

In the Corus acquisition by Tata Group, Tatas are paying only a third of the acquisition price. It is being routed through a special purpose vehicle called Tata Steel, UK. Tatas have indicated that the group holding company Tata Sons will pump in $4.1 billion (one third) as equity into the SPV. The balance $8 billion will be raised by junk bonds and loans by banks.
Similarly in the acquisition of Novelis, the Hindalco is borrowing $2.85 billion (a part of the money will be raised as debt from the group companies and another part would be mobilized through its own cash reserves. Therefore the companies have the plethora of options open today for the purpose of getting finance. This has also proved to be a boon for the companies for the purpose of making big acquisitions.

Conclusion

With the effects of Globalization at its peak and the boom in the economy the Mergers and Acquisitions activities will witness a further upsurge. The deals of the first quarter of the year 2007 are already 24% more than the value of the deals of the year 2006. Decline in the stock markets have also spurred deal activities because of the lowering of the price of the takeover targets. Some mergers of prominent banks and companies are on the way and most probably they will take place in the current year only. The Mergers and Takeovers activities help the companies to work and compete globally. It also provides an opportunity to understand the global business aura. The trends discussed above have been described with the Indian perspective and I hope that the future deals shall set up more new trends.

Communal Ragging in Aligarh Muslim University

After discussing the draconian experiences of ragging it would be pertinent here to mention the communalism of Aligarh Muslim University in ragging, which is a particular trait of this varsity. The type of queries asked by the senior Muslim students and the way with which the questions are put lucidly proves the students to be very communal and their revulsion for others. The queries generally involve the religious angle and are often derogatory and hurting to the sentiments of the Hindu students.

The compendium of the queries which are asked by the senior students from the Hindu students are as follows:

1. “Why have you come from Mathura/Ayodhya/Banaras to Aligarh? Why did you not go to Banaras Hindu University”?
2. “Why don’t you use the word “Banaras” in place of Varanasi?” (This is done so that the other Muslim students may get confirmed that a Hindu lad hails from a pure Hindu religious place)
3. “How do you perform Puja?”
4. “How is Puja different from Pooja?”
5. “Why do you worship crores of gods and not one like us and how god can be in crores?”
6. “What is the relevance of Gayatri Mantra?”
7. “Why are the temples of Northern India so congested?”
8. “How can you say that Sita was chaste and pure even though she remained in Ravana’s captivity for a long time?”
9. “If Ram was god and had extraordinary powers then why he could not fathom the true nature of the deer, which he chased for a long time?”
10. “Why is Ganesha having trunk of an elephant?”
11. “How is “Sun” or “Surya” a god”?
12. “Why do you burn a corpse?”
13. “Who composed the Vedas”?
14. “If you do not know the real author of the Vedas then why do you have faith in it?”
15. “What crime did Kanchi Sankaracharya commit because of which he was arrested on Diwali?”
16. “Why do the Naga sadhus holler and remain naked?”
17. “What is the significance of having a Tilak on the forehead?”
18. “Did Mahabharata really happen or is it a Myth?”
19. “What favour did Akbar do for the Hindus?”
20. “Why has Mahatma Gandhi called Hindus as cowards?”
21. “Why do you worship idols”?
22. “Do you vote for BJP”?
23. “Who is better- Sir Syed Ahmad Khan or Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya”?
24. “Have you learned the Tarana of AMU”?
25. “Why Hanuman looks like a Bandar”?

Such queries are asked by the senior skunks not only to regale themselves but also to confuse and humiliate the Hindu students. One of another reason for asking these questions is to show the Hindu religion in a deteriorated way. A common Hindu student gets stupefied and perplexed after listening to the questions and majority of them remain mum. Even some of the above mentioned queries were put to me and I was too unable to answer them at that point of time.

Albeit ragging for a new co-religionist is generally not severe because he comes up to be a relative or crony of any senior student or he has some known hidden well wishers there but it is severe for Hindu students because majority of them are new and do not know anyone and their well wishers remain absent. This provides an impetus to the Muslim students to ask ignominiously communal questions. The severe ragging includes within itself hurling frequent abuses and invectives with name-calling, calling Hindu students unwanted and undesired guests, using word “Kandhu” (which means “Kafir” or “Non-Muslim”) for them. Some Hindu students even receive thrash or blow for no mistake. I have personally witnessed students being beaten up or scolded simply because of being Non-Muslim (This is not done directly but indirectly, under the garb of some suitable event or opportunity). This humiliating demeanor is never done with any Muslim student, reason being the religion.

Imposition of the new Culture

A Hindu student in the University is directed many times during ragging to adopt the culture of the Varsity, which means that they should greet the others with the word “Salam-e-walequm” and “Walequm Salam” and never by “Namaste” because they are obligatory here. The students will have to follow the Muslim culture and traditions. The students should not worship their Gods or have any images or calendars (religious) in their rooms because it is strictly prohibited in Islam. Hindu girls are asked by their seniors to wear salwar, dupatta etc and not Jeans or T-shirts. Skimpy and revealing clothes are strictly prohibited. Though wearing burqa is never asked for but being too much modern is often restrained. Students are asked not to wear “Kalawa” or have “Tilak” on their forehead. Shorts are hated the most. Hindu students are asked by the seniors not to break any tradition or custom of the Varsity but they themselves do the same. All this confirms how much disgracing, torturing and communal ragging is done in the precincts of the Aligarh Muslim University with Non-Muslim students, especially with the Hindus.

Draconian Experiences of Ragging

It’s big difficult to recapitulate all the incidents which I experienced personally almost five years ago during ragging but I shall confine myself only to the indelible incidents. Though I had heard and read a lot about ragging in various periodicals during my senior secondary studies but I had a personal experience of it when I made an entry in one of the hostels of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

Ragging in AMU has been given the synonym of “Intro” or “Introduction” by the students because of its being banned expressly by the Supreme Court through its judgment of 2001. Ragging, through another name of Intro commences from July every year after the admissions are over. It takes place every Saturday night from about 10 pm and lasts till 5 or 6 am in the next morning. This traumatic period of more than 6 hours is really hard to bear with. So called Intro never has had any characteristics of Introduction. While a fresher student is asked about his background details at the very beginning but other seniors, who take ragging are never introduced to him. This frustrates the very objective of the so called introduction, which as the senior students claim is to get introduced the seniors and the fresher’s to each other.

In the name of introduction a fresher student is asked to perform many undesired and unwanted activities which an educated person and a man of prudence and self respect would never like to perform. The senior students of the varsity, who feel proud of their seniority and standing also ask illogical, irrelevant and non-sense queries which any person would find hard to answer. Some of the paradigms are “How will you have sex with another girl, how will you propose a girl, how will you prove that you are a man etc.” If a fresher refuses to answer or is unable to answer or unable to perform any desired activity then he is shouted and abused at and is asked to become a “Murga”, which is ultimately very humiliating and a clear violation of human rights.

Frequent abusing, chiding, castigating, shouting ruthlessly, behaving like uncivilized and rustic persons are all common traits of senior students of AMU who are involved in ragging. Some students are also beaten up for they refuse to submit to the wills and desires of the seniors. I have personally seen students spending their cold nights in an open field or library so as to escape from being ragged. This whole drama lasts till 5 or 6 am in the morning when senior students get tired and feel drowsy. The fresher students who escape from ragging on Saturday are made to undergo a severe punishment in Sunday afternoon. This all creates a felling of fear and depression among the new young lads. This draconian more of AMU continues till 17th October when the Varsity celebrates Sir Syed day.

Ragging in AMU is almost undue harassment and vexation of the fresh students by the seniors. The senior students who take pride in humiliating and asking illogical queries and irritating and teasing every fresh student are hardly afraid of the authorities. Though there are Provost, Wardens, Proctor etc for controlling this menace but they have all proved to be a paper tiger. The authorities are not at all interested in curbing ragging, which affects almost every fresher. One of the reasons for it is that the University does not want to take action or suspend any student in the name of ragging. University is never willing to put at stake the career of any student but it can tolerate such open hooliganism in its campus, clearly defying the orders of the Supreme Court. University also does not want to hog the media limelight for cases of ragging. These all factors cause majority of the ragging incidents to go unreported. Even if any complaint is done, it ultimately proves to be futile. Action is taken only in rare cases when any major incident takes place e.g. suicide by a fresher student, breaking of limbs of any student etc.

It is now high time that a strict administrator should be appointed in Varsities and colleges for controlling this menace. Students should also be given the leeway to move to NHRC or National Commission for Women, Police etc for getting the matter reported besides the University authorities. Strict and exemplary action should be taken against the students who are found involved in ragging.