In 2014, V Surendra Mohan, a practicing advocate, applied for the post of a Civil Judge in Tamil Nadu. His application was rejected on the ground that he was 70% blind. This resulted from Tamil Nadu s policy of reserving the post only for persons whose percentage of blindness did not exceed 40-50%. He challenged this policy before the Supreme Court, arguing that this arbitrary eligibility criteria deprived him of a post that he was otherwise entitled to as per his marks and interview. In 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the state s exclusionary policy as reasonable, just, and fair , given that judicial officers need to possess a reasonable amount of hearing, sight and speech to discharge their functions. Since it was considered extremely difficult, even impossible for a blind person to perform judicial functions, the Court found that reservations were far from advisable to prevent avoidable complications . This judgment is a grim reminder of how ableism, or disc
In China, an interesting new fiction bestseller is mixed with nonfiction and become a point of debate among Chinese readers. In illustrated books, a title for only children has a touching message.
On the banks of the Yangtze in Wuhan, a February 14 shot of citizens out for celebrations of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Ox. Image – iStockphoto: Julien Viry
Controversy Sells
There were six new titles on the Beijing OpenBook overall bestseller list in fiction in January, and in three cases, they moved quite quickly by this market’s standards, having been published within three months of their arrivals on the chart.
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A bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying (MAiD) comes to a Senate vote no later than Feb 17. That leaves a bare working week for the House to consider what may be a number of Senate-approved amendments before a court-imposed deadline for final passage on Feb 26.
Bill C-7 is the Trudeau government’s response to the 2019 Quebec Superior Court Truchon ruling named for Jean Truchon, one of its two disabled, but not dying, plaintiffs which struck down the current euthanasia law’s “natural death is reasonably foreseeable” criterion as too narrow. It asserted the right to MAiD for any Canadian suffering what he or she considers irremediable mental or physical suffering. The government did not appeal the judgment, an indication of its willingness in fact eagerness to meet and, as evidenced in Bill C-7, go beyond Truchon’s request.
Radio Tirana emerged as a global Communist voice in the 1970s, reaching Brazilian guerillas in Araguaia, Maoist factions across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and many other listeners around the world. Elidor Mëhilli explains how this came to be.
“Dear Radio Tirana,” the letter begins, “here in the Alps we can hear you well, and we are especially fond of your propaganda directed at the Italian Communist Party.” The letter is dated April 12, 1976 but its Italian authors are not named. After a final greeting “Viva Mao e Viva Stalin,” they have simply signed off “a group of true Communists.”[i]