The political parties no longer care about him, and some of them will even condemn him, now that he has just a few days left in office. But, try as you can, you cannot dismiss the impact that Dr. P J Abdul Kalam has brought into the largely ceremonial role of President. Now, by statute, the Indian President is mostly powerless, with basically 2 independent powers.
- To select the Prime Minister in the case of a hung parliament. However, this is no longer a case where discretion can be used. With a vigilant media, and with the Supreme Court ready to take cases related to the appointment and dismissal powers of the President, the President can only take a logical decision.
- To return a bill that the President does not consider as right. This is also not an absolute power, since the legislature is capable of discussing the Bill and sending it right back to the President in the same form as it was received. As was seen in the Office for Profits case, when the President sent back a bill, many MP’s reacted with fury, and essentially the same bill was sent back to him. In addition, the Congress leadership decided that this was an indication that the President is not a compliant President and has made a direct attack on Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (since she was the chief beneficiary of the Bill).
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Jul 11
Jul 11
Banks hold funds belonging to customers, and so they have a right to get their money back from people who are unable to repay their loans. The right they do not have is to use non-legal means to get their money back. So, for example, to send musclemen to a person’s house in order to threaten them or to use violence is a crime, unfortunately not something that the current state of our police enforce. However, both consumer courts and courts in the past have come out strictly against such ways of recovering money; the position is that there is a legal way to get the money back, and banks need to use these ways to get the money back instead of harassing or threatening a person.
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