Video link speeds up hearing of 51,000 trials.

The Maharashtra government's decision to link select jails and courts through video-conferencing has paid off.Not only has it ensured a speedy hearing for the 51,000 undertrials,but technology has also helped the state government save Rs 8 crore,which would have been spent on shuttling prisoners to the courts and back.Maharashtra was amongthe first states to announce the video-conferencing link-up with 3 jails-Arthur Road,Byculla and the Thane prison-withas many as 14courts.Home Minister R.R.Patil had then said that the use of technology would save time,manpower and money spent on moving prisoners to the courts.This systemwas launched in February2006 till May 2007 the Home departmentsave Rs8.57crores.Legal

Mother can sue civic corporation says lawyer

The delivery of a child born in a taxi,after a pregnant woman was denied aid at a civic hospital in Bandra on Saturday during a doctors' strike, has put the spotlight back on the legal obligations of doctors and hospitals in India.The MCI stipulates that doctors must treat all patients in need of emergency medical care.Legal exerts say that a full-term pregnancy qualifies as an emergency case which ought to have received immediate attention at the hospital even when the doctors were on strike.Jamshed Mistry a counsel said it was the duty of the poor at charitable hospitals to ensure that ptients were guided properly during a strike.Emergency care cannot be denied in a strike and the hospital should transferred to a private hospital immediately.Legal