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Supreme Court deserves applause for directing the lower judiciary to complete criminal trials against sitting MPs and MLAs within a year of framing charges against them.

March 12, 2014 12:05 AM IST First published on: Mar 12, 2014 at 12:05 AM IST

* Apropos of ‘Fast-track trials of legislators, wrap in a year: SC’ (IE, March 11), the Supreme Court deserves applause for directing the lower judiciary to complete criminal trials against sitting MPs and MLAs within a year of framing charges against them. But why should the quick dispensation of justice be limited to the trial stage? Even if a trial court disposes of the case on time, what happens if the cases languishes in a high court? Why shouldn’t high courts also be directed to fast track cases? It would have been much better if the Supreme Court had prescribed a time limit within which high courts have to decide on appeals as well.
—Hemant Kumar
Ambala

Serial hurt

* This refers to ‘Doniger’s book On Hinduism put on hold’ (IE, March 11). This is what happens when one allows someone to get “hurt” — they start getting “hurt” even more often. Now Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti has trained its guns on another one of Wendy Doniger’s books. Dina Nath Batra seems to believe that Doniger harbours a special grudge against his pet causes, and that all her academic energies are directed solely towards hurting him and other Hindus. In a diverse country such as ours, freedom of speech and opinion needs to be defended fiercely in order to protect our unity and integrity in the long run.
— Arsh Panwar
Bathinda

The consensus

* This refers to ‘N Korea: Not a single vote cast against Kim’ (IE, March 11). In the recent so-called elections in North Korea, which is ruled by the autocratic Kim Jong-Un and his band of loyal officers, the incumbent leader was apparently “re-elected” unanimously, with 100 per cent of the votes being cast in his favour. Kim won the election unopposed as there was no other name on the ballot. No one dared come forward to oppose Kim. The unfortunate fate of dissenters and people who in any way threaten Kim’s supremacy was made clear when the leader executed his own uncle in the most barbaric fashion.
— Vijay D. Patil
Pune

Finger of blame

* Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has made no secret of his displeasure with the performance of the Indian team and has called for the sacking of chief coach Duncan Fletcher. Further, he has suggested that Rahul Dravid be appointed the next coach of the Indian team. The performance of the Indian side has steadily been going downhill ever since Fletcher took over. The authorities would do well to heed Gavaskar’s plea.
— N.J. Ravi Chander
Bangalore