BEST offers concession to SSC,HSC students

“Students don’t necessarily get their own schools as examination centres and have to travel that extra mile. Those attending municipal schools come from humble backgrounds and may not be able to afford traveling to their exam centres by auto-rickshaws and taxis,hence this will be useful,” said BEST committee member Kedar Hombalkar from the MNS.

Hombalkar had demanded that travel be made free for Class X municipal school students for the period of their examinations. The proposal was however not accepted owing to financial constraints of the cash-strapped BEST.

“The fare applicable to these students will be the concessional fare declared in the tariff booklet of the BEST. For example,for the first slab it will be Rs 3 instead of the usual Rs 5,” Gupta said.

To avail the benefit,students will have to produce hall tickets and proof that they belong to a municipal school.

The BEST administration has also asked its bus drivers and conductors to permit students giving their Class X and Class XII standard board examinations to board the bus from the front door for the duration of their exams.

HC breather for couple jailed in multiple cases

Bombay High Court has granted reprieve to a city couple undergoing imprisonment in three cases of house break-ins. The court has granted their demand that the sentences for two of the cases should run concurrently and not one after the other.

The couple had asked for leniency on account of their extreme poverty and that they had a eight-year-old son dependent on them. They were sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment in three cases,in which they were held guilty of house break-in in Igatpuri,Thane and Raigad. The child is presently living with his grandparents. They had also contended that the husband was the sole breadwinner of the family.

A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and A P Bhangale noted that the “objective of the criminal justice system is to reform the criminal as well as to prevent a repetition of the crime.” The judges directed that the total period of sentence for the husband and wife should not exceed 36 months.

Lawyer Arfan Sait,who was appointed to represent the couple in the High Court,argued that they had voluntarily pleaded guilty in two of the cases against them and cooperated for the early completion of the trial. The judges also took note that their conduct in jail was recorded as being satisfactory and that they had earned remission of 28 days.

The court recorded in its judgment that the couple did not have any previous criminal cases registered against them and that they had not appealed against them in two cases where they had pleaded guilty to the crime.