Justice Markandey Katju

Justice Markandey Katju is the Chairman, Press Council of India. He was formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. Before being elevated as a judge to Supreme Court, he had earlier served as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Madras High Court and as acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court.

Early life and Education

Justice Markandey Katju was born on 20 September 1946 in Lucknow, India, in a Kashmiri Pandit family. Justice Katju topped the merit list of the Allahabad University's LL.B. examination in 1967, after which he practised law in the Allahabad High Court specializing in Labour Law, Taxation and Writ Petitions. He was awarded Honoris Causa a Doctor of Philosophy from Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit University, New Delhi, for his book Mimansa Rules of Interpretation, and a Doctorate of Law from Amity University. He is an Honorary Professor of Law at the National Law University, Delhi and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow. Katju's background is related to law and politics. Justice Katju is the son of late Justice S. N. Katju, formerly a Judge of the Allahabad High Court. His grandfather Dr. Kailash Nath Katju, was one of India's leading lawyers and participated in the country's freedom movement. Dr. K. N. Katju was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, the Governor of West Bengal and Odisha, as well as the Union Law, Home and Defence Minister. Justice Katju's uncle, Justice B.N.Katju, was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Prashant Bhushan

Prashant Bhushan (born 1956) is an advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India in Delhi and a social activist. He has been involved in many Public Interest Litigation cases and is a senior member of "Team Anna", which supports Anna Hazare in his anti-corruption campaign. He has drawn controversy over various statements, including accusing chief judges of corruption and supporting a plebiscite for Kashmir separatists.

Prashant is the son of Shanti Bhushan, who was union minister for law in the government of Morarji Desai between 1977 and 1979. Bhushan dropped out of studying mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras after a semester. He then studied first economics and then philosophy of science at Princeton University but left before graduating and returned to India where he received a law degree from Allahabad University .

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering. According to the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics, the precise definition of euthanasia is "a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering."

Euthanasia is categorized in different ways, which include voluntary, non-voluntary, or involuntary and active or passive. Euthanasia is usually used to refer to active euthanasia, and in this sense, euthanasia is usually considered to be criminal homicide, but voluntary, passive euthanasia is widely non-criminal.

The controversy surrounding euthanasia centers around a two-pronged argument by opponents which characterizes euthanasia as either voluntary "suicides", or as involuntary murders. (Hence, opponents argue that a broad policy of "euthanasia" is tantamount to eugenics). Much hinges on whether a particular death was considered an "easy", "painless", or "happy" one, or whether it was a "wrongful death". Proponents typically consider a death that increased suffering to be "wrongful", while opponents typically consider any deliberate death as "wrongful". "Euthanasia's" original meaning introduced the idea of a "rightful death" beyond that only found in natural deaths.

Euthanasia in India

Passive euthanasia is legal in India. On 7 March 2011 the Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state. The decision was made as part of the verdict in a case involving Aruna Shanbaug, who has been in a vegetative state for 37 years at King Edward Memorial Hospital. The high court rejected active euthanasia by means of lethal injection. In the absence of a law regulating euthanasia in India, the court stated that its decision becomes the law of the land until the Indian parliament enacts a suitable law. Active euthanasia, including the administration of lethal compounds for the purpose of ending life, is still illegal in India, and in most countries.

Section 97 Indian Penal Code 1860

Right of private defence of the body and of property

Every person has a right, subject to the restrictions contained in Section 99, to defend-

First-His own body, and the body of any other person, against any offence affecting the human body;

Secondly-The property, whether movable or immovable, of himself or of any other person, against any act which is an offence falling under the definition of theft, robbery, mischief or criminal trespass, or which is an attempt to commit theft, robbery, mischief for criminal trespass.

Section 96, Indian Penal Code 1860

Nothing is an offence which is done in the exercise of the right of private defence.