Arun District
—  Non-metropolitan district  —
Arun shown within West Sussex
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	South East England
Non-metropolitan county	West Sussex
Status	Non-metropolitan district
Admin HQ	Littlehampton
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Government
• Type	Non-metropolitan district council
• Body	Arun District Council
• Leadership	Leader & Cabinet (Conservative)
• MPs	Peter Bottomley Nick Gibb Nick Herbert
Area
• Total	85.3 sq mi (221.0 km2)
Area rank	159th (of 326)
Population (2010 est.)
• Total	150,600
• Rank	123rd (of 326)
• Density	1,800/sq mi (680/km2)
• Ethnicity	96.7% White 1.1% S.Asian
Time zone	GMT (UTC0)
• Summer (DST)	BST (UTC+1)
ONS code	45UC
OS grid reference	TQ029020
Website	www.arun.gov.uk

Arun Civic Centre, Littlehampton

Arun is a local government district in West Sussex, England. It contains the towns of Arundel, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, and takes its name from the River Arun, which runs through the centre of the district.

History[link]

Arun was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, merging the Urban Districts of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, the municipal borough of Arundel and parts of Chichester and Worthing Rural Districts.

Governance[link]

Arun District Council is a non-metropolitan district council formed of 56 councillors from across the following 26 wards:^[1]

The council has been under the control of the Conservative Party since its first election in 1973. The last elections to the council were held on 5 May 2011, the results of which are shown below:

Civil parishes[link]

The following 31 civil parishes are located within the district:^[3]

Geography[link]

Arun District occupies the central southern area of West Sussex, and is bordered by Chichester District to the west, Horsham District to the north and Worthing borough and Adur District to the east. The district is bisected by the River Arun, and is divided between a broad rural area in the north of the district that contains Arundel and a host of small villages, part of which sits within the South Downs National Park, and an urban coastal strip that includes Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.

Economy[link]

Although set within the typically prosperous county of West Sussex, much of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton are ranked amongst the 20% most deprived areas in the UK as a whole on the Index of Multiple Deprivation.^[4] The district contains a large tourism sector, attracting visitors to the South Downs in the north, and the beaches of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton in the south, the latter of which holds a prestigious Blue Flag Award.^[5] Consequently, the district suffers from high amounts of seasonal employment, with the Office for National Statistics estimating that nearly 11% of the population of Arun is employed in the tourism sector, compared to 8% nationally, whilst 28% of people work in the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector, compared to just 23% nationally. Arun also has a higher number of public sector workers than either the regional or national average, and a significantly smaller finance and IT sector than the rest of the South East and wider UK.

Awards[link]

In 2008, the district council won an Ashden Award for their work on energy efficiency.^[6]

Football clubs[link]

• Arundel F.C.
• Bognor Regis Town F.C.
• Clymping F.C.
• East Preston F.C.
• Littlehampton Town F.C.
• Pagham F.C.
• Rustington F.C.
• Wick F.C.

See also[link]

• List of places of worship in Arun

References[link]

v t e Districts of South East England Berkshire Bracknell Forest Reading Slough West Berkshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham Buckinghamshire Aylesbury Vale Chiltern Milton Keynes South Bucks Wycombe East Sussex Brighton and Hove Eastbourne Hastings Lewes Rother Wealden Hampshire Basingstoke and Deane East Hampshire Eastleigh Fareham Gosport Hart Havant New Forest Portsmouth Rushmoor Southampton Test Valley Winchester Isle of Wight Isle of Wight Kent Ashford Canterbury Dartford Dover Gravesham Maidstone Medway Sevenoaks Shepway Swale Thanet Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Oxfordshire Cherwell Oxford South Oxfordshire Vale of White Horse West Oxfordshire Surrey Elmbridge Epsom and Ewell Guildford Mole Valley Reigate and Banstead Runnymede Spelthorne Surrey Heath Tandridge Waverley Woking West Sussex Adur Arun Chichester Crawley Horsham Mid Sussex Worthing

Coordinates: 50°48′29.7″N 0°32′18.6″W / 50.80825°N 0.5385°W / 50.80825; -0.5385

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Arun Jaitley
Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha)
Personal details
Born	(1952-12-28) 28 December 1952 (age 59) New Delhi
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Residence	New Delhi
Alma mater	University of Delhi
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Religion	Hindu
Signature	Arun Jaitley's signature

Arun Jaitley (Hindi:अरुण जेटली ) (born 28 December 1952) is a prominent Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is currently the largest Opposition party in India. He is the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and has previously served as the Union Minister for commerce, industry, law and justice of the Government of India.

Background[link]

He was born to Kishen and Ratan Prabha Jaitley.^[1] Born to a lawyer father,^[2] he did his schooling at St. Xavier's School, New Delhi from 1969-70.^{[citation needed]} He graduated in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi in 1973. He passed his Law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, in 1977. During his career as a student, he was the recipient of several distinctions for his outstanding performances both in academics and extra curricular activities. He was President of the Students Union of Delhi University in 1974.^[3]

Political career as student union leader[link]

Jaitley was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader in the Delhi University Campus in the seventies and rose to be President of the University Students' Union in 1974. During the period of proclamation of Internal Emergency (1975–77) when civil liberties were suspended, he was under preventive detention for a period of 19 months. He was a prominent leader of a movement against corruption launched in the year 1973 by Raj Narain and Jai Prakash Narayan. He was the Convenor of the National Committee for Students and Youth organisation appointed by Jai Prakash Narayan. He was also active in civil rights movement and helped found PUCL Bulletin along with Satish Jha and Smitu Kothari.^[2][3] After being released from jail he joined Jan Sangh.

Legal career[link]

He has been practicing law before the Supreme Court of India and several High Courts in the country since 1977.^[4] He is a designated Senior Advocate. He was appointed Additional Solicitor General by the V.P. Singh Government in 1989 and did the paperwork for the investigations into the Bofors scandal.^[2] His clients cover the political spectrum from Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal to Madhavrao Scindia of the Indian National Congress to L.K. Advani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has authored several publications on legal and current affairs. He has presented a Paper on Law relating to Corruption and Crime in India before the Indo-British Legal Forum. He was a delegate on behalf of the Government of India to the United Nations General Assembly Session in June 1998 where the Declaration on Law relating to Drugs and Money Laundering was approved.

Political career[link]

Arun Jaitley had been the member of the ABVP, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) during his student days. He became the spokesman of the BJP during the period preceding the 1999 general election. After the Vajpayee Government came to power under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance, he was appointed Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge) on October 13, 1999. He was also appointed Minister of State for Disinvestment (Independent Charge), a new Ministry created for the first time to give effect to the policy of disinvestments under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. He took over the additional charge of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs on July 23, 2000 following the resignation of Ram Jethmalani as the Union Cabinet Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs. He was elevated as a Cabinet Minister in November 2000 and was made simultaneously the Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and Shipping. He was the first Minister of Shipping following the bifurcation of the Ministry of Surface Transport. He demitted the office of the Minister for Shipping with effect from September 1, 2001 and as Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs on July 1, 2002 to join as a Secretary General, BJP and its national spokesman.^[4] He worked in this capacity till January 2003. He rejoined the Union Cabinet as the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice on 29 January 2003. With the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance in May 2004, Jaitley returned to serving the BJP as a General Secretary, and back to his legal career.

He is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat (as of March 2006) and has never contested any election. He was chosen as the Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha on June 3, 2009 by L.K. Advani. On June 16, 2009 he resigned from the post of General Secretary of BJP as per his party's One Man One Post principle.

In his capacity as the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha- he has been credited for his excellent oratory which is matched equally by his intense research into the topic and his ability to succinctly convey the message without being shrill.

Personal income[link]

In a news item on income of Rajya Sabha MPs, Times of India reported that Arun Jaitely's income is Rs. 10 Crore (about US$ 2.15 million) per annum.^[5]

The BJP leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley has disclosed movable and immovable properties worth Rs 158 crore.^[6]

US cable controversy[link]

It was alleged that Jaitley had suggested that the use of right-wing Hindu nationalism was opportunistic and was being done as it was in 'currency' in certain parts of India.^[7]

Jaitley and his party BJP vehemently denied it.

Notable achievements[link]

Legal[link]

He represented the Birla family in their legal battle against R. S. Lodha on the question of ownership of Birla Corporation Limited, the property worth Rs. 5000 Cr and above.

He has represented Ram Gopal Verma in a case against the film-maker who had a distorted version of the National Anthem in his film Rann. He later dropped the song from the film.

84th Amendment[link]

He successfully introduced the eighty-fourth amendment to the Constitution of India in 2002 freezing parliamentary seats until 2026.^[8]

91st Amendment[link]

He successfully introduced the ninety-first amendment to the Constitution of India in 2004 penalising defections.^[9]

Role as strategic planner of BJP[link]

Recently, Arun Jaitley had emerged as strategic planner for his track record of managing a number of victories in state Assembly election for the BJP.

Arun Jaitley as General Secretary has managed 8 Assembly elections as of May 2008. Most recently, he oversaw the BJP's success in the state of Karnataka.

Gujarat[link]

In 2002, Arun Jaitley helped his close associate, Narendra Modi, win the Gujarat Assembly elections with a landslide mandate, winning 126 out of 182 seats. This partnership rewarded him with a Rajya Sabha nomination^{[citation needed]}.

In December 2007, Arun Jaitley orchestrated a well organized campaign to return the incumbent Chief Minister Narendra Modi back to power. The BJP won 117 seats out of the 182 seats. Narendra Modi specifically asked the party high command to depute Arun Jaitley in Gujarat. The primary poll issues were pro-incumbency of Narendra Modi and good governance by the state administration.

Madhya Pradesh[link]

In 2003, Arun Jaitley, managed the assembly elections for theBJP in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He, along with Uma Bharti, won a majority of 173 out of 230 in the MP Assembly.

Karnataka[link]

Arun Jaitley was specifically put in charge of Karnataka, which went to polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha in May 2004. Karnataka is the only southern state in which the BJP has a sizable presence and a positive mandate for the BJP was expected. The BJP won 18 out of 26 Lok Sabha Seats in the State and emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly, capturing 83 seats, as opposed to the Congress' 68 and the Janata Dal (Secular)'s 59. The Congress and the JD(S) forged a coalition to form the Government with the Congress' Dharam Singh becoming Chief Minister. This however, did not last. In January 2006, disgruntled JDS leaders, led by H. D. Kumaraswamy decided to form a coalition government in the state in partnership with BJP. The understanding was that after half the remaining term of the assembly, the BJP would have its own Chief Minister in the State. In November 2007 H.D.Kumaraswamy declined to transfer the power to B. S. Yeddyurappa and assembly was dissolved.

In May 2008, Arun Jaitley oversaw a phenomenal election campaign in Karnataka, outdoing his previous performance. In the 224-member Assembly, the BJP won 110 seats, falling 3 short of a majority. Soon after, Arun Jaitley negotiated the support of 5 independent MLAs thus taking the BJP's strength to 115. All party leaders starting from President Rajnath Singh to colleague Sushma Swaraj and the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate in Karnataka, B.S. Yedyurrappa, credited Arun Jaitley with the victory. The Karnataka victory and the ascendency of Yedyurrappa is widely touted as BJP's entry in South Indian politics.

Bihar[link]

In 2005, after the February elections resulted in a hung verdict, re-elections were held in November in the state of Bihar. This election was fought by the BJP in a coalition with the JD(U). He was the chief strategist of the NDA combine. The BJP, ended up winning an all time high of 58 seats and with the JD(U)'s 88 seats were able to form the government. Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) was instated as Chief Minister and the BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi was installed as Deputy Chief Minister.of Bihar.

Punjab[link]

In February 2007, Arun managed the BJP's campagaign in Punjab and coordinated a strategy between the party and its ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal. Out of the 23 seats the party contested, it won 19, a figure that surpassed all expectations and is the party's best-ever performance in the state.

MCD[link]

Late in 2007, Arun Jaitley was appointed general secretary in-charge of elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Of the 272 member Corporation, the BJP won 184 wards.

Personal life[link]

Jaitley has been married to Sangeeta Jaitley since 24 May 1982. They have two children, son Rohan^[10] and daughter Sonali.^[1][4]

References[link]

• Rajya Sabha Member's Weccb Site: Arun Jaitley
• BJP finds its winning mojo: alliances and incumbency
• India Today Interview: Arun Jaitley

He rejoined the Union Cabinet as the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice on 29 January 2003.

Arunkumar is an Indian film editor and director.

Biography[link]

Arun Kumar is the director of Cocktail and Ee adutha kalathu^[1][2] and , owns to his credit a span of 11 years experience as a Film Editor in this industry. Arun, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram, had done his schooling in the prestigious St.Thomas Residential School, graduation from M.G.College, Trivandrum and later on moved to Chennai to master visual effects from Pentamedia.He started his career as visual effect artist in Pentamedia ^[3]

Arun Kumar has been director Priyadarshan's,^[4] principal editor from ‘Vettam' (2004) onwards] before he turned to filmmaking with Cocktail. He edited Kanchivaram which got National Award for the Best Film in 2008. He had also worked with other well- known directors like T.K Rajeev Kumar, Shaji Kailas, Suresh Krishna.^[5]

Arun had also been nominated for Shantharam Award and National award for best editing (Kancheevaram). Arun is the winner of 2011 Asianet Ujala Film Award & Mathrubhumi-Kalyan Film Award for the Best Editor.

Filmography (director)[link]

Filmography (editor)[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Arun Kumar at the Internet Movie Database

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Arun Shourie
Arun Shourie at Horasis Global India Business Meeting 2009[1]
Personal details
Born	(1941-11-02) 2 November 1941 (age 70) Jalandhar, India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s)	Anita
Alma mater	St. Stephen's College, Delhi Syracuse University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Journalist & World Bank Economist

Arun Shourie (अरूण शौरी) (born 2 November 1941) is an Indian journalist, author and politician. He served as an economist with the World Bank (1968–72 and 1975–77), a consultant to the Planning Commission, India, editor of the Indian Express and Times of India and a minister in the government of India (1998–2004).^[2] He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1984. He is an agnostic^[3].

Early life[link]

Arun Shourie was born in Jalandar, India then Occupied by British Imperialists. He studied at Modern School, Barakhamba and St. Stephen's in Delhi. He obtained his doctorate in Economics from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in the United States.^[4]

Career[link]

In a series of exposés, many of which he wrote himself, Shourie and the Indian Express, where he became Executive Editor in January 1979, uncovered corruption in the highest echelons of the government and exposed several major scandals, including what has been dubbed “India’s Watergate.”^[5] Shourie started a one-man crusade in 1981 against Abdul Rehman Antulay, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, who allegedly extorted millions of dollars from businesses dependent on state resources and put the money in a private trust named after Indira Gandhi. The story caused the eventual resignation of the chief minister and great embarrassment to Gandhi and her ruling Congress Party.^[6]

Shourie's exposés resulted in a prolonged labour dispute at the Mumbai offices of the Indian Express, where a labour organizer with ties to Antulay encouraged workers to strike for a minimum wage double than what was paid at any other newspaper in India. It also resulted in a government crackdown that included a host of legal cases launched against the Indian Express by various agencies. In 1982, the paper's owner Ramnath Goenka fired Shourie as a result of continued government pressure.^[7]

Between 1982 and 1986, Shourie wrote for various newspapers and magazines, at the same time as being General Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties. He was appointed executive editor of the Times of India in 1986 but was lured back to the Indian Express by Goenka in 1987. Shourie launched an attack on then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi over the Bofors howitzer gun purchase scandal. This contributed to Rajiv Gandhi's defeat in the subsequent parliamentary elections.

Among the many battles Shourie fought for press freedom, perhaps the most famous was his crusade against the government’s proposal in 1988 to introduce a defamation bill. It was widely perceived that the bill had been introduced with unusual speed in the Parliament in an attempt to muzzle the Indian Express, and the entire media community joined Shourie and the Indian Express in condemning the move.

At one stage, there were 300 cases filed by the government against the Indian Express, and credit supply from banks was cut off. Shourie, however, continued his battle against government corruption until 1990, when differences on editorial policy forced him to resign from the Indian Express. The differences involved Shourie's opposition to the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report, that sought reservations in government jobs for Other Backward Classes (OBC), which were initiated by then Prime Minister V.P. Singh's government. After that, he devoted his energy to writing books and regular columns, which appeared in different languages in 30 newspapers across India. In 2000, he was named as one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years.^[8]

Shourie is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha and also held the office of the Minister of Disinvestment, Communication and Information Technology in the Government of India under Atal Bihari Vajpayee's prime ministership. As Disinvestment Minister, he led the sale of Maruti, VSNL, Hindustan Zinc among others. His position as Minister was a controversial one, but he and his secretary Pradip Baijal are much respected for kick-starting what people believe was a best-in-class process. In a poll of India’s top 100 CEOs in February 2004, he was ranked the most outstanding minister of Mr.Vajpayee’s government.^[9]

Shourie was one of the loudest voices opposing the nomination of Pratibha Patil as the President of India in 2007. Arun Shourie authored two articles published as a booklet titled 'Does This Tainted Person Deserve to Become President of India?' in which he discussed the highly questionable past of the Congress candidate. In a detailed interview with Karan Thapar, Shourie gave voluminous proofs accusing Pratibha Patil and her kin of embezzling funds from Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank,a bank which she had founded and was in charge of. Reserve Bank of India (RBI), revoked the licence of the bank in 2003 after it was found out that the bank had illegally waived interest on loans given to many of Pratibha Patil’s family members.^[10] Shourie also accused her of obstruction of justice and in a murder case against her brother G.N.Patil.

After the defeat of BJP in 2009 General Elections, Arun Shourie was one of the voices, besides Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh, within the BJP demanding introspection and accountability. Matters came to a flashpoint after the expulsion of senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh because of his book praising Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Shourie defended Jaswant Singh in his articles in the Indian Express and accused the former BJP Party President Rajnath Singh of high handedness using such choice phrases as "Humpty Dumpty" and "Alice in Blunderland".^[11]

Personal life[link]

Shourie is married to Anita Shourie, and they have one son.^[3]

Publications[link]

Arun Shourie has written about 26 books. He is known for his well-researched and thought-provoking writings.^{[citation needed]} His writings have gained him a considerable following around the country, as well as several national and international honours. Among these are the Padma Bhushan, the Magsaysay Award, the Dadabhai Naoroji Award, the Astor Award, the K.S. Hegde Award and the International Editor of the Year Award and The Freedom to Publish Award.^[12]

• In Does He Know a Mother's Heart? Arun Shourie discusses the perennial question that has grappled mankind since eternity: "If there is a kind,compassionate, all-knowing God, how can there be extreme suffering in this world?". Shourie analyses various religious scriptures in his quest for the answer to this question. The book is also a personal narrative of a father whose son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child (Shourie's son Aditya is now 34 years old), and of a husband whose wife is a Parkinson's Disease patient. The personal narrative is particularly heart wrenching.^{[citation needed]}
• In We Must Have No Price, which is a collection of his articles published earlier in The Indian Express, and of his speeches in the Rajya Sabha and several lectures that he delivered at IIT Kanpur and elsewhere, Shourie presses for reforms in the higher education sector, in the economic sector and in political parties (specifically BJP, the party to which he belongs).
• In his book Worshipping False Gods, Shourie criticized B.R. Ambedkar, the leader of Dalits, for alleged complicity with the British and lust for power and wealth. For this book, Shourie was criticized all over India. In pune his face was blackened by Dalit peoples for criticizing Ambedkar in his book.
• In A Secular Agenda (1997, ISBN 81-900199-3-7), Shourie discusses various problems faced by India due to minority appeasement and pseudo-secularism practiced by the Indian politicians.^[13] The book starts with a discourse on the definition of a nation. He cites examples of other nations in Europe to counter the arguments of people who do not consider India as one nation due to its different languages and religions. He argues for a Uniform Civil Code in the book^[13] and the abolition of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. He also discusses the problem related to infiltration from Bangladesh and the inability of the Indian government to solve it.
• Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud (1998, ISBN 81-900199-8-8) discusses the NCERT controversy in Indian politics and attacks Marxist historiography. Shourie asserts that Marxist historians have controlled and misused important institutions like the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Council of Educational Research Training (NCERT) and a large part of academia and the media. He criticizes well-known historians like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib. Shourie argues that Marxist historians have white-washed the records of rulers like Mahmud of Ghazni and Aurangzeb. Shourie presents examples to further his argument of how many of these text books describe in great detail foreign personalities like Karl Marx or Joseph Stalin, while they often barely mention important figures of India or of the Indian states. Shourie writes that this is in contrast to Russian Marxist text books. The standard Soviet work A History of India (1973) is according to Shourie much more objective and truthful than the history books written by the Indian Marxists.
• In Falling Over Backwards: An essay against Reservations and against Judicial populism, Shourie examines the history of reservations as to why they were originally introduced, the relevant sections in the Indian Constitution and the reasoning behind the exact words used. He then cites the rulings of courts to emphasise on the degeneration of judiciary from an upholder of the original values to openly flouting them. He examines how the Constitution was generously interpreted by consecutive court rulings to arrive at conclusions completely opposite to what the Constitution makers originally intended. He cites exact rulings and judgements to make his point. He then proceeds to discuss the introduction of reservations in promotions, the Rooster System, the arrival at the 50% limit and the subsequent flouting of it. Next, he proceeds to the logic behind the Mandal recommendations and the basis on which the same were made. He then examines the base of the commissions rulings, i.e., the 1931 census (the last time caste-based census was held in India), and showcases how the findings, ambiguous to begin with by the census takers' own admissions, was conveniently used by the commission. In the final part of the book, Shourie examines the effects of reservations in bureaucracy and elsewhere, citing specific examples and cases to highlight the absurdness that has set in and its adverse effect on the institutions. He discusses the future that the trend portends, and makes ominous predictions if the slide is not stopped. Shourie ends by quoting Nehru's remarks on reservations 'This way lies not folly, but disaster.'
• Governance and the sclerosis that has set in: Arun Shourie discusses the rot prevalent in the bureaucracy and the inordinate delay that accompanies every task. Various cases are cited along with their timeline and their motion through the various channels bringing home the inefficiency of the structure. Shourie also discusses certain incidents involving his stint as the Disinvestment minister in the Vajpayee government. Lack of efficacy of various state governments, PSUs and departments is also discussed. Shourie suggests doing away with obsolete legislation and simplifying the processes.
• The World of Fatwas or the Sharia in Action: Shourie discusses the concept of fatwas, the premises surrounding the sharia code of laws, its universality and how it is being used as a tool to keep the Muslim masses in a state of agitated isolation. He exposes the secular view of Islam's institutions and its ulemas in India as being incomplete and shrouded in hypocrisy. He discusses the need of a concerted program of reform headed by Muslim Liberals to vitiate the deleterious effects of the all-pervading power of the ulema. He also touches upon some contemporary issues such as the Shah Bano case and dissects the response of the fundamentalists as being symptomatic of the view of women as second class citizens propagated by the Quran and the Hadis. The book also focusses on the conflict between the world view advocated by the fatwas and that of modern science.

Bibliography[link]

• Does He Know a Mother's Heart? [1]
• We Must Have No Price
• Are We Deceiving Ourselves Again [2]
• Where Will All This Take Us [3]
• The Parliamentary System
• Courts and their Judgements: Premises, Prerequisites, Consequences
• Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud
• Falling Over Backwards: An essay against Reservations and against Judicial populism
• Governance and the sclerosis that has set in [4]
• Harvesting Our Souls
• Hinduism: Essence and Consequence
• Indian Controversies
• Individuals, Institutions, Processes : How One may Strengthen the Other in India Today
• Institutions in the Janata Phase
• Missionaries in India [5]
• Arun Shourie and his Christian critics
• Mrs Gandhi's Second Reign
• Only Fatherland : Communists, 'Quit India,' and the Soviet Union
• Religion in Politics
• A Secular Agenda
• Symptoms of Fascism
• These Lethal, Inexorable Laws: Rajiv, His Men and His Regime
• The State As Charade: V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and the Rest
• Will the Iron Fence Save a Tree Hollowed by Termites?
• Worshiping False Gods [6] [7]
• The World of Fatwas [8]

Co-author:

• with Sita Ram Goel, Harsh Narain, Jay Dubashi and Ram Swarup, Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them Vol. I, (A Preliminary Survey) (1990, ISBN 81-85990-49-2)
• with Sita Ram Goel, Koenraad Elst, Ram Swarup, Freedom of expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy, Voice of India (1998).
• with Arun Jaitley, Swapan Dasgupta, Rama J Jois, Harsh Narain-The Ayodhya Reference:Suprema Court judgment and commentaries, Voice of India(1994)

IIT Kanpur[link]

Arun Shourie was nominated from Uttar Pradesh for his two successive tenures as Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (1998–2004 and 2004–2010).In the year 2000, Shourie pledged the entire amount (Rs. 11.90 crore) of discretionary spending available to him under Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) to setting up of Bio-Sciences & Bio-engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. In 2005, he displayed his commitment to the cause by again pledging Rs. 11 crore for developing a separate and well-equipped building for Environmental Sciences and Environmental Engineering at the institute.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Arun Shourie

• Image source
• A short collection of Shourie excerpts
• Interview with Karan Thapar for CNN IBN on the issue of the nuclear deal
• Interview with Karan Thapar for CNN IBN on the issue of reservations
• Interview at rediff.com

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

Justice Markandey Katju
Chairman, Press Council of India Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India
In office 05 October, 2011 – 05 October, 2014
Personal details
Born	(1946-09-20) 20 September 1946 (age 65)

Justice Markandey Katju is the Chairman, Press Council of India. He was formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

Early life and education[link]

Justice Markandey Katju was born on September 20, 1946 in Lucknow, India. Justice Katju topped the merit list of the Allahabad University's LLB examination of 1967, after which he practiced law in the Allahabad High Court specializing in Labour Law, Taxation and Writ Petitions. Justice Katju is keenly interested in academics, and has a wide range of interests, including Sanskrit, Urdu, History, Philosophy, Science, Sociology etc., apart from his interest in Jurisprudence.^[1] He was awarded (Honoris Causa) a Doctorate of Philosophy from Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit University, New Delhi, for his book Mimansa Rules of Interpretation, and a Doctorate of Law from Amity University. He is a Honorary Professor of Law at the National Law University, New Delhi and Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow.

His background is also noteworthy because of his family’s achievements in the fields of Law and Politics. Justice Katju is the son of late Justice S.N.Katju, formerly a Judge of the Allahabad High Court.^[2] His grandfather Dr.Kailash Nath Katju, was one of India's leading lawyers and participated in the country's freedom movement. Dr. K. N. Katju was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, the Governor of West Bengal and Orissa, as well as the Union Law, Home and Defence Minister.^[3][4] Justice Katju's uncle, Justice B.N.Katju, was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.^[5]

Justice Markandey Katju is married to Rupa and has two children, a son and a daughter.

Career[link]

Justice Katju was appointed as a Judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1991. He served as the Chief Justice of three Indian High Courts: The Allahabad High Court, appointed in August 2004 in an Acting capacity; the Madras High Court, appointed in November 2004, and the Delhi High Court, appointed in October 2005.

Justice Katju was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India in April 2006.^[6] He retired from this position on September 19, 2011, after serving the Indian judiciary for 20 years.

His courtroom was one of the fastest in India, disposing off 100-plus matters in a week. Justice Katju is variously described as "brilliant","bold","one of the best","a maverick".^[7] His strong belief in judicial restraint has been contrasted with some unconventional opinions he delivered. The contradiction may be partly explained in his own words: “A judge should restrain from challenging policy decisions in economic matters by the Government, though be an activist in cases of personal liberty.”

Associations[link]

Justice Katju has served as a Member, International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARIJ).

Publications[link]

He has written several books, which include the following:

• Law in the Scientific Era^[8]
• Interpretation of Taxing Statutes
• Mimansa Rules of Interpretation
• Domestic Enquiry
• Justice with Urdu

Some of his Articles and Speeches, include the following:

• Injustice to Urdu in India, published in the Tribune on August 3, 2008^[9]
• Sanskrit as a language of Science, speech delivered in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on October 13, 2009^[10]
• Kalidas-Ghalib Academy for Mutual Understanding^[11]
• The Role of Art, Literature and Media^[12]
• Ideal and reality: media’s role in India^[13]
• Looking back at the Caste System^[14]
• The Ideal of Women's emancipation^[15]
• Importance of Liberty and Democracy in India^[16]
• Global Economic Scenario^[17]
• The Hart-Fuller Debate by Justice Markandey Katju – Judge, Allahabad High Court^[18]
• The Role of Media in India^[19]

Notable Judgements and Opinions[link]

As Chief Justice of Madras High Court, in the case of Rama Muthuramalingam v. Dy.S.P, AIR 2005 Madras 1, on the constitutional question of inter se relationship among judiciary, Legislature and Executive, he emphasized judicial restraint and the impropriety of the judiciary encroaching into the legislative or executive domain. He re-iterated this two years later, while he was a Supreme Court Judge, in the case of Divisional Manager, Aravali Golf Club v. Chander Hass.

In 2005, while still serving as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Justice Katju spoke about judges initiating "Contempt of Court" proceedings. His view was that the authority of judges rests on public confidence, and not on the power of contempt. The Indian jurist Fali S Nariman commended Justice Katju's view in his article "A judge above contempt" published on August 5, 2005 in the Indian Express.^[20]

In January 2009, while hearing a petition filed by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath about violence against Christians in Orissa, Justice Katju observed, "We can't tolerate persecution of religious minorities. If your government cannot control such incidents, then quit office." The Bench directed the government to provide adequate security and compensation to the aggrieved parties.^[21]

In July 2009, Justice Katju apologised for commenting, during the hearing of a case, that students cannot insist on wearing beards as this would lead to the "Talibanisation" of India. The comment led to much controversy and Justice Katju and Justice Raveendran later withdrew the related order, stating "During the hearing, certain observations were made by one of us. His intentions were not to offend anyone. However, if any one's feeling has been hurt, he apologises and expresses regret in the matter."^[22]

In Prafull Goradia V. Union of India, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising also Justice Katju, dismissed petitioner's claim that Haj subsidies provided by the Government of India were unconstitutional. The Bench observed that, "the object of Article 27 is to maintain secularism, and hence we must construe it from that angle."^[23]

Following this judgement, In the case of Md Sukur Ali Vs State of Assam, a division Bench of Justice Katju and Justice Mishra ruled that criminal defendants have a right to counsel. "Article 21 which guarantees protection of life and personal liberty is the most important of all the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the constitution," the apex court bench said. They further observed that, "In the absence of a counsel, for whatever reasons, the case should not be decided forthwith against the accused but in such a situation the court should appoint a counsel who is practising on the criminal side as amicus curiae and decide the case after fixing another date and hearing him," This judgment received both national and international recognition.^[24][25]

Justice Katju's opinion in D. Velusamy vs D. Patchaiammal, delivered on October 21, 2010, relating to the maintenance of a woman in a live-in relationship, was the first time the apex court laid the legal framework for recognizing a woman's rights in a live-in relationship.

In September 2010, while inaugurating a national seminar on 'Freedom of the press and journalistic ethics' in Kerela, Justice Katju said that the media should play an important role in waging a cultural struggle to combat feudal and backward ideas in India.^[26]

Justice Katju issued notices to the Centre and state governments directing them to file compliance reports on steps taken to rehabilitate sex workers in the case of Budhadev Karmaskar vs State of West Bengal. The accused had brutally murdered a sex worker and claimed leniency in his petition in the Supreme Court, citing the victim's profession. The court dismissed the petition, stating that "prostitutes have a right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India." The court further observed that "This is a case of brutal murder of a sex worker. Sex workers are human beings and no one has a right to assault or murder them." ^[27]

In November 2010, in a strong indictment of a judge of the Allahabad High Court for passing orders on extraneous considerations, Justice Katju directed the Chief Justice of the High Court to take action against the judge concerned, and some other judges facing complaints. Making a reference to Shakespeare, Justice Katju famously noted that "something is rotten in the Allahabad High Court". The observation was contested by the Allahabad High Court, but the Supreme Court refused to expunge the remark.^[28]

In a judgement delivered on February 1, 2011, Justice Katju highlighted the malaise of land-grabbing of village community land by private and commercial entities. He noted that the purpose of village community land is community benefit like schools, playgrounds, water storage facilities etc., hence he directed the state governments to prepare schemes for eviction of illegal occupants of this land.^[29]

On March 8, 2011, Justice Katju delivered a "landmark" judgement legalizing passive euthanasia—or withdrawal of life-support systems—for patients who are brain dead or in a permanent vegetative state, and whom doctors have lost hope of reviving even with the most advanced medical aid. The detailed process of passive euthanasia includes strict guidelines that must be met, including a case-by-case review of medical condition by a team of court-appointed doctors and prior approval of the High Court.^[30] The Judge further observed that Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, according to which attempt to suicide was a criminal offence, was archaic and needed review. He said, "A person attempts suicide in a depression, and hence he needs help, rather than punishment. We therefore recommend to Parliament to consider the feasibility of deleting Section 309 from the Indian Penal Code."^[31] The judgement received widespread commendation as "brave", well researched and "path breaking"

On March 16, 2011, in an unusual step, Justice Katju appealed to Pakistan to consider granting remission to Gopal Dass, an Indian prisoner detained in the Lahore central jail for 27 years. He based this appeal on humanitarian grounds and on "the quality of mercy". The supreme court bench headed by Katju noted, "We cannot give any directions to Pakistan authorities because we have no jurisdiction over them", however it went on to quote a couplet by Faiz, “Qafas uddas hai yaaro sabaa se kuch to kaho, Kaheen to beher-i-khuda aaj zikr-i-yaar chale”, to seek mercy for Dass."^[32] Pakistan took cognizance of this appeal of the Indian court, and within a few days the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, decided to remit the remaining jail term of Gopal Das and to release him.^[33]

On May 9, 2011 Justice Katju directed Trial/High courts to award death sentences to perpetrators of "honour killings". Honour killing is the killing of a member of a family, or social group, by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community. In his judgement, Katju said that it was time to stamp out these barbaric, feudal practices, which were a slur on our nation.^[34]

On May 13, 2011, a Supreme Court bench involving Justice Katju said that fake encounters are nothing but cold-blooded brutal murders which should be treated as the rarest of rare cases and police personnel responsible for it should be awarded death sentence.^[35] The observation was made while rejecting bail to Mumbai policemen involved in the fake encounter at Nana-Nani Park at Versova. A similar observation was made while hearing the fake encounter case of an alleged gangster by Rajasthan Police on October 23, 2006.^[36]

On June 17, 2011, Justice Katju made a personal appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to release on "humanitarian grounds" Khalil Chishty, an elderly Pakistani virologist in Indian prison since 1992. Justice Katju expressed fear that if Chishty is not released forthwith, he may die in the jail by the time his appeal is decided by the Rajasthan high court. The move did not appear to go down well with the main opposition party BJP, which found as "odd" the appeal to free 80-year-old Chishty, a murder convict. "It is odd that an SC judge is writing to the PM for securing the release of a Pakistani prisoner, even in his individual capacity," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.^[37] However, other than the BJP, his appeal found widespread support in India. Given the response, the Prime Minister of India instructed the Home Minister to examine the request of Justice Katju.^[38]

External links[link]

• Supreme Court of India official page
• Candid Court
• Never a dull moment
• A few good men
• Supreme Court judges take on corruption
• A year with Justice Katju
• A Judge above contempt
• Walk the talk with Justice Katju

Notes[link]