Lawfully yours: By Retd Justice K Chandru

Confusing court orders to blame for lack of scientific save-elephant approach

Since the Madras High Court has clarified that no temple or private person can acquire any elephant anymore, what stops the government from shifting these elephants to state-run rehabilitation camps? Similar to jumbo electrocutions at farmlands — for which the government is making no efforts to find a permanent solution — the captive elephants are driven to death by drunk mahouts who chain them 24x7 and subject them to third-degree torture. At least, can’t the court order the states to set up elephant parks or larger enclosures where they can roam around and sufficient food crops are grown so that they won’t maraud neighbouring villages?

— Karthikeyan, Mahabalipuram

Domesticating wild animals will make the species extinct. Maintaining elephants by private persons is neither feasible nor affordable. Most of the time, such elephants, including the ones dedicated to the temples, were made to beg in the streets by their mahouts (caretakers). Sending them to dedicated camps is no answer. Most of the time, the confusing orders passed by the courts were responsible for not having a proper scientific stand on the elephant issue. Even the corridors meant for their movements have been narrowed to make space for concrete jungles. Finally, the courts have openly declared that no temple can buy or maintain an elephant. No doubt, due to constraints of space and lack of food, the elephants stray into the farmhouses and fields and damage the crops to the detriment of the agriculturists. This is an area where the forest department should take appropriate steps to provide water and food inside the reserve forest so that the elephant herds do not stray around.

Siblings with no income cannot be evicted from inherited house

I am a spinster, now staying alone since the demise of my father last year. My two brothers, who are staying in their own homes, hint at partitioning the ancestral property, i.e. the house where I reside and its premises where my parents are cremated. I don’t have the money to buy their share. They are busy with their lives and have already made it known through someone that I will have to find a place to stay on my own. For me, the painful part is parting with the cremation spots of my parents. Is there anything in our law books that could come to my aid?

-- Savithri, Mylapore

Since you are staying in the ancestral house, the same cannot be sold for effecting a partition. As long as you want to stay there, no one including your brothers can evict you from the house. Further, without your consent, it cannot be sold. Even if they file a partition suit, the court can only pass a preliminary decree. Passing the final decree and allowing the house to be sold or purchased by one of the partners will take its own time. If any sale is made with the outsider without your consent, the same is not valid and you can resist selling the ancestral house.