Throwing ethics to the wind, “divorce” dramas are being enacted on a large scale across the state — and the right time for a divorce, it turns out, is just before the admissions to medical and entrance course admissions.
Call it stage-managed divorces. A large number of the about 2,800 joint petitions filed at the family court for divorce in Thrissur district last year were submitted in order to avail a sharp reduction in the fees for admission to the engineering and medicine disciplines for their children, confided some of the lawyers who handled such “divorce” cases, to this newspaper.
“The petitions are filed in order to negotiate the hefty college fees for students who just about make it to the Kerala Engineering-Agricultural Medical Entrance Examinations (KEAM) and join the rush for admission to self-financing colleges. For instance, a seat for both streams on non-merit basis comes at a rate of `25 lakh and above for students who are supported by both parents.
“For students who have single parents, the amount is less. So, divorce applications come in handy to negotiate a reduced payment,” the counsels explained.
There are a total of 2,150 seats in medical colleges and 33,697 in engineering colleges in the state.
While the admission fees fixed by the GO 2285 issued on July 7, 2012, were `5.50 lakh for management seats and `10 lakh for NRIs, the self-financing colleges which admit students without enough grades, on capitation fee terms, are demanding as high as `15 lakh and above, depending on the management policy.
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Abhishek verma gets bail in forgery case
age correspondent
New Delhi, Oct. 8
A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to businessman Abhishek Verma in a forgery case filed against him by the CBI for allegedly forging Union minister Ajay Maken’s letterhead to write to the Prime Minister seeking relaxation of visa norms for a foreign firm’s executives. Special judge Sanjeev Jain granted bail to Verma after the CBI failed to file its charge sheet in the forgery case within the statutorily stipulated 60 days period.
Verma was also granted bail on similar grounds earlier in a corruption case, lodged against him and his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neascu, for allegedly receiving $5,30,000 from Rheinmetall Air Defence AG for using their influence to stall the firm’s blacklisting by the government here.
Verma and his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neascu, who was granted bail in the case earlier, however, will remain in jail as they are yet to secure bail in two separate cases lodged by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate respectively. “Both the accused were arrested on August 8, 2012 for offences punishable upto maximum seven years,” said the judge.