Justice Kannan's Legal speak

The news of death of 4 infants after measles vaccination at a medical camp in Tiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu (TOI, April 24, 2008) is poignant not only for the deep sense of deprivation that the parents of the children must be experiencing but also on account of the fact that episodes of such tragedy do no more than capture the headlines of print and electronic media without matching remedial measures to prevent its recurrence. The nurses have been suspended, notices will be sent to the Institute which has supplied the batch of vaccines and the Chief Minister has announced ex gratia payments to the families of victims. Ad hocism is a cultivated trait of our bureaucracy that no one has any time beyond raising a mild whimper. The health policies of government and sometimes the directives of International health organizations, like WHO, may dictate the adoption of vaccination against polio, small pox, measles etc. The massive scale of operation may include administration of drugs at sc...

Is there a property in a dead body? The question is not in the realm of philosophy but in law. The heritability, transferability, ownership and the value of a thing are the property that we are talking about. The person that is dead cannot be the owner of his own body since the component of enjoyment is absent. The legal heirs do not inherit it as property since the idea of possessing it as a thing of value does not exist. It may be illegal to transact in a dead body and hence to talk about its transfer would be unheard of. There is no title in a corpse to own it. All that the laws, especially the municipal/corporation laws, guarantee is the right of the nearest relative to take possession of a corpse for burial or cremation. Ever since the advancement in science recognizes the possibility of organ transplantation from a dead person, dead body has become a thing of value. Scarlett, a teenager, was found dead in Callangute beach in Goa. A month after the body was flown to UK, her mother...

Take a drive down the road in the early morning during monsoon, when the city sleeps, that is when the buildings are drenched in rain and look washed and clean. Or jog along on a wintry morning over the dew kissed meadow. Or think of an occasion when a beautiful painting remains draped by a curtain and someone pulls the strings that unfold the lovely manifestation of the objet d'art. Just as exhilarating was the experience when, thanks to the Supreme Court judgment vacating the order of stay of removal of hoardings and upholding the validity of Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Licensing of Hoardings and Levy and Collection of Advertisement Tax Rules,2003, the hoardings came tumbling down. It all started with tearing away of the vinyl sheets with large iron frames standing tall. Next came those valiant men of the Chennai Corporation working on huge structures and shearing metal frames with gas cutters. Suddenly the buildings are visible; the trees look greener; the roads seem broader; ...