QUOTABLE QUOTES
QUOTABLE QUOTES from, “Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer on the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1987 Eastern Book Company, 34, Lalbagh, Lucknow.
In Srinivas Iyer v. Saraswati Amma, Hon'ble Madras High Court quoted [Renolds v. United States, (1879), 98 U.S. 145 at 166167]
“ Laws are made for the Government of actions and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part of religious worship, would, it be seriously contended that the Civil Government under which he lived could not interfere to prevent a sacrifice? Or if a wife religiously believed that it was her duty to burn herself upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband would it be beyond the power of the Civil Government to prevent her carrying her belief into practice?
“So here, as a law of the organization of society under the exclusive dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural marriage shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his practice to the contrary because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every man to become law unto himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances.”
Regarding Sec.4 of the MW(PRD) Act, 1986 Hon'ble Justice at Page 14 observed:
Section 4 clumsily drafted and craftily designed involves litigative double dealing, with linguistic hopes and litigative dopes. An old British jingle fits the Ministry's drafting skill, although the victim is the talaqed tribe. So runs the verse:
“ I'm the parliamentary draftsman
I compose the Country's laws
And of half the litigation
I am undoubtedly the cause.” {Renton Committee on Westminster drafting method}
At Page 16: Hon'ble Justice observed: “As if to mollify the anti-woman injustice an amendatory provision, which has been described by the cynics as the joke of the year, has been passed in Sec.5. Here we enter the theater of the absurd.
Law may be an ass as Dickens said. But can it also be a fox? Section 5 is.”
He further observed,”..................Since no Muslim is expected to commit anti-Koranic harakiri by submitting to be sued contrary to Islam, this provision is still-born with none to benefit by it and many to laugh at it.”
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REGARDING HINDU SUCCESSION ACT
The learned scholar J.D.M. Derret made the following observation in his book “Introduction to Modern Hindu Law.”---
“In India the law of inheritance has been so recently and so comprehensively reformed that no one need fear dying intestate, that is to say, without leaving a will which capable of taking effect. In a sense Parliament has made, in the Hindu Succession Act a will for everyone, and whoever proposes to make a will should consider whether every eventuality bas not been foreseen by Parliament, and whether his own preferences would be an improvement………….”
TORTURE
“Torture” has not been defined in the Constitution or in other penal laws. “Torture” of a human being by another human being is essentially an instrument to impose the will of the “strong” over the “weak” by suffering. The word torture today has become synonymous with the darker side of human civilization.
“Torture is a wound in the soul so painful that sometimes you can almost touch it, but it is also so intangible that there is no way to heal it. Torture is anguish squeezing in your chest, cold as ice and heavy as a stone, paralyzing as sleep and dark as the abyss. Torture is despair and fear and rage and hate. It is a desire to kill and destroy including yourself.”
D.K. Basu v State of West Bengal 1997 1 SCC 416 (Para 10)
POWER can be measured. Its volume, its weight, its momentum can all be brought within the purview of mathematics. So it is the endeavour of those who hold power to be supreme, to increase in bulk. They would repeatedly multiply numbers,--the number of men, the number of coins, the number of appliances. When they strive for success they sacrifice others' wealth, others' rights, others' lives; for sacrifice is the essence of the cult of Power; and the earth is running red with the blood of that sacrifice.
The distinctive feature of materialism is the measurability of its outward expression, which is the same thing as the finiteness of its boundaries. And the disputes, civil and criminal, which have raged in the history of man, have mostly been over these same boundaries. To increase one's own bounds one has necessarily to encroach upon those of others. So, because the pride of Power is the pride of quantity, the most powerful telescope, when pointed in the direction of Power, fails to reveal the shore of peace across the sea of blood. - Rabindra Nath Tagore.
DARKNESS is that which isolates our consciousness within our own self. It hides the great truth of our unity with the world, giving rise to doubt and contention. Groping in the dark, we stumble against objects to which we cling, believing them to be the only things we have. When light comes we slacken our hold, finding them to be mere parts of the all to which we are related. This is freedom--freedom from the isolation of self, from the isolation of things which impart fierce intensity to our sense of possession. Our God is that freedom, for He is Light, and in that light we find out truth, which is our perfect relationship with all. - Rabindra Nath Tagore
FEAR assumes unlimited dimensions in the dark, because it is the shadow of the self which has lost its foothold in the all; the self which is a doubter, an unbeliever, which puts its emphasis upon negation, exaggerating detached facts into fearful distortions. In the light we find the harmony of things and know that our world is great and therefore we are great; we know that, with more and more extensive realisation of truth, conflicts will vanish, for existence itself is harmony. - Rabindra Nath Tagore
SOME QHOTES OF MAHATMA GANDHI
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self defeating to think of myself as need, I was deprived. They told me deprived was a bad image, I was under privileged. Then they told me underprivileged was over-used, I was disadvantaged. I still don’t have a dime. But I sure have a great vocabulary. Jules Feiffer.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton.
Our judgements judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows. Paul Valery.
The greater our knowledge increases, the more our ignorance unfolds.
John F. Kennedy.
I am better off than he (a man reputed for wisdom) is, for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know. The truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise. Plato.
If truth be told, ivory tower intellectuals are not intellectuals at all. Intellectuals that do not have a sense of engagement with their surroundings eventually produce the most ordinary drivel in the most bombastic fashion.
Dipankar Gupta Stakes and ladders T.O.I. 18.9.03
Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.
Mahatma Gandhi.
Poor indeed is the garden in which birds find no homes.
ABRAHM L. URBAN
To the ass, or the sow, their own offspring appears the most beautiful in creation. A Latin proverb.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead.
Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.
Margaret Thatcher.
When eating fruits, think of the person who planted the tree.
A Vietnamese proverb.
The dog is a yes animal, very popular with people who can’t afford to keep a yes man. Robertson Davis.
Let us realize that engagement and detachment aren’t opposite – the more engaged we become, the more detached we will have to be. Deepak Chopra.