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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Legal Weapon

The death of Sahil Wakode at IIT Bombay is undoubtedly a tragic incident. It also raises a difficult question that should not be lost amid the understandable anger on campus: when does a genuine allegation of caste discrimination become a criminal charge, and what happens when the extraordinary force of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is invoked before the facts have been established? Wakode, a second-year student, died by suicide last week, hours after he was caught using a mobile...

Legal Weapon

The death of Sahil Wakode at IIT Bombay is undoubtedly a tragic incident. It also raises a difficult question that should not be lost amid the understandable anger on campus: when does a genuine allegation of caste discrimination become a criminal charge, and what happens when the extraordinary force of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is invoked before the facts have been established? Wakode, a second-year student, died by suicide last week, hours after he was caught using a mobile phone during an examination. IIT Bombay says he had uploaded the question paper to ChatGPT, but that no disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against him. He was counselled and assured that the incident would not damage his academic career. His parents have subsequently alleged that Wakode had been subjected to caste-based harassment for several months and named Professor Suryanarayana Doolla in an FIR alleging abetment to suicide, along with provisions of the SC/ST Act. The institute has denied that any complaint of caste discrimination was made by Wakode during his tenure. Its SC/ST cell has also said it received no such complaint. The investigation has now been transferred to the Crime Branch. The SC/ST Act exists because caste oppression is real, and victims require a law capable of confronting it. But precisely because the law is stringent, its invocation cannot become a substitute for evidence. The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasised that the statutory ingredients of an offence must actually be made out. The court has also held that where a complaint does not prima facie disclose an offence under the Act, its stringent restrictions on pre-arrest bail do not automatically apply. Teachers must be able to enforce examination rules without fearing that every disciplinary confrontation could acquire a caste dimension. The tendency to turn a student’s caste into the explanation for every institutional conflict involving an SC/ST student is disturbing and must be resisted. If every disciplinary action involving a reserved-category student is presumed to be caste discrimination, the distinction between discrimination and ordinary institutional accountability begins to disappear. Equally, an institute cannot hide behind procedure if evidence eventually establishes discrimination or harassment. If Professor Doolla did indeed use casteist language, threatened Wakode or treated him differently because of his caste, those allegations must be investigated fully and dealt with under the law. But the answer cannot be to criminalise the invigilator first and investigate later. IIT Bombay now has two obligations: establish, without prejudice, what happened in those crucial hours and examine the broader pressures facing its students. The police must establish whether the allegations under the SC/ST Act have factual and legal substance. The institute must ensure that teachers can enforce academic integrity while students have credible avenues to report genuine discrimination. The tragedy demands accountability. It does not demand a predetermined culprit.

How Safe Are Ships and Shipping?

Writer: Capt. Naveen S Singhal
Capt. Naveen S Singhal
Oct 12, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Ships and Shipping

On 26th March 2024, a 9900 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ship DALI, sailing with 21 Indian crew, allided with the Baltimore Bridge, causing significant structural damage to the 1972 built Francis Scott Key (FSK) Bridge.


The collapse of the bridge tragically resulted in the loss of six workers who fell into the river while on duty. This disaster has also severely disrupted Baltimore’s port operations, cargo movement, businesses, and social life.


While the ship owner and ship management company managing the vessel DALI have claimed for limiting their liability to about US$ 43 million as per an 1851 act, however, two US Congressmen are sponsoring a bill, “Justice for Victims of Foreign Vessels Act,” to increase the liability for foreign-flagged ships up to 10 times the value of the ship. If passed, the law would apply retroactively from 25th March 2024, which is a day before DALI’s allision with the bridge.


What went wrong with vessel DALI and what caused the incident is still under investigation by NTSB (US Marine Investigation Agency) and the FBI. The initial reports suggest a failure of the ship’s propulsion machinery to restart promptly from a state of blackout. 


 DALI’s incident should be seen as the last straw that broke the camel’s back regarding the outdated and strained ISM Code (International Safety Management Code), the bible of the shipping industry. “Established in 1998 by the IMO (International Maritime Organization), the 26-year-old code is not in sync with the 21st-century complexities of the shipping industry. The ship owner controls the operational expenses but cleverly shifts the responsibility for the vessel’s safe management and operation to a ship management company. It is like the ship owner who owns a gun, but the license is in the name of the ship management company. Thus, by using the shoulder of the ship management company, the ship owner fires the budgetary cuts, at the cost of the safety of the crew, vessel, and cargo. This practice has flourished over the past 20 to 25 years due to intense competition in the ship management industry. Furthermore, by transferring the management and operation of the vessel to a ship management company, the ship owner absolves themselves of responsibility due to a lack of privity or knowledge.


In the past centuries, ships sank more because of nature’s fury; however, in the 21st century, more ships are floundering due to ‘depleting management system standards and practices’ under a flawed ISM code.


Indian ship owners, such as SCI and Great Eastern predominantly, spend quality resources and money to manage the operation of their vessels. In the charter market, ship owners may struggle as those who transfer their vessels to ship management companies incur lower operational costs, often compromising ship safety and crew welfare. This highlights the need for the DG of Shipping (India) to propose these changes that create a level playing field.


1. Shipowners must appoint a  Designation Owners representative (DOR) to monitor vessel activities, ensuring owner accountability for safety and operations.

2. The Chief Engineer must be given the authority to stop a vessel from sailing or divert it for urgent safety repairs.


Shipowners must be aware of the vessel’s condition, including any machinery or equipment issues.

Charterers must be notified if the vessel is in poor condition and requires urgent repairs. Seafarer contracts should be limited to six months to improve performance and well-being. Shipping companies must annually assess how much they have benefitted from implementing quality and safety practices.


 The deadline for filing claims in U.S. courts for the DALI incident was September 24. Various parties, including the Maryland state government, the city mayor, and affected individuals, have filed claims, along with the insurance company covering the bridge for $300 million. However, the estimated cost of a new bridge exceeds $2 billion, and it may take years to resolve these claims, with neither side likely to receive everything requested. If regulators fail to address the shortcomings of the ISM code and ignore the lessons from the DALI incident, the shipping industry will bear the greatest cost, sacrificing ‘safer ships and cleaner oceans.


(The author is a Marine and Shipping Consultant. Views personal)

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