Packing batteries with more punch
Indian researchers are working on cells that can store more energy, last longer
A recent directive of the Madras High Court in an unusual paternity case advances the progressive spirit of earlier rulings by other courts, including the Supreme Court, in related matters of gender justice. In the most recent instance, the petitioner, Mathumitha Ramesh, who had been legally separated from her husband, had subsequently conceived a child through artificial insemination. But her efforts to get authorities to leave the father’s name blank in the child’s birth certificate were repeatedly rejected, partly due to bureaucratic cussedness but largely because notions of patriarchy are hard-wired into the DNA of officialdom.
Even given the complexities of the case — the name of a male friend of the petitioner’s had been erroneously entered as the child’s father — the officials’ unwillingness to accommodate the petitioner’s repeated requests for name deletion and leaving the ‘father’s name’ column blank betrayed an excessive preoccupation with rules and regulations, unmindful of the human dimension. However, the judge’s directive in the case — directing authorities to leave the father’s name blank — sends out a sterling signal against regressive notions centred around paternity. The Madras High Court directive advances the spirit of other similar rulings, including, famously, by the Supreme Court in a 1999 case. That case, in which author Githa Hariharan was the petitioner, challenged the RBI’s rejection of an application for investments in her son’s name (with her as the “natural guardian”), on the grounds that under Section 6 of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, the “natural guardian” was the father. In her petition, Hariharan argued that the provision discriminated against women in the matter of guardianship rights over their own children. In its ruling, the Court asserted the pre-eminence of the child’s welfare in all considerations, and held that in this instance the mother was the “natural guardian”.
When all else fails, it is courts that have steered bureaucratic rules away from the rigidities of a patriarchal system.
Venky Vembu Associate Editor
Indian researchers are working on cells that can store more energy, last longer
To fix a broken bone, doctors often harvest another bone from the patient’s body or from someone else. It ...
Superconductors from IIScScientists at IISc Bangalore have invented a device with a nanocrystal structure ...
Engineering and construction giant L&T has won a licence from the Council of Scientific & Industrial ...
Option price falls more than it rises for the same change in underlying
A long-term vacation here is worth a check-in
The fund delivered a return of 31.5% in 2020 compared with the category’s 15.5%
Care Health Insurance’s new rider offers no great benefit. We review its pros and cons
In these isolated times when people yearn for a slice of the familiar, amateur and professional chefs are ...
India is ready with two vaccines to beat the deadliest virus of recent times. The immunisation drive, however, ...
The storming of the Capitol on January 6 could be the prelude to yet another chapter in the US’s long and ...
‘Now It’s Come to Distances’ examines the defining moments of the past year — the Shaheen Bagh protests, ...
Digital is becoming dominant media, but are companies and their ad agencies transforming fast enough to make a ...
Slow Network, promoted by journalist-lyricist Neelesh Misra, pushes rural products and experiences
How marketers can use the traditional exchange of festive wishes meaningfully
For Fortune, a brand celebrating its 20th anniversary, it was a rude shock to become the butt of social media ...
Three years after its inception, compliance with GST procedures remains a headache for exporters, job workers ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies are altering the prospects for wooden toys of ...
Aequs Aerospace to create space for large-scale manufacture of toys at Koppal
And it has every reason to smile. Covid-19 has triggered a consumer shift towards branded products as ...
Please Email the Editor