Owaisi hits back at Mamata for indirectly calling him 'minority extremist'

News Network

November 19, 2019

Kolkata, Nov 19: A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned against "minority extremism" in an obvious attack on the AIMIM, party chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit back on Tuesday, saying Muslims in the TMC chief's state are ranked "worst" on development indicators.

Marking a shift in her rhetoric on religious extremism, Banerjee had, at an event in Cooch Behar on Monday, asked people to refrain from listening to "minority extremists" who have their base in Hyderabad, apparently targeting Owaisi, a Lok Sabha MP from that city.

Without naming the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul- Muslimeen (AIMIM), Banerjee said, "There are some extremists among the minorities. They have their base in Hyderabad. Don't listen to them. Don't trust these forces".

The TMC boss's comments did not go down well with Owaisi, who took to Twitter to criticize her.

"It's not religious extremism to say that Bengal's Muslims have one of the worst human development indicators of any minority," he wrote.

Later, while talking to a news channel, Owaisi said the message by the TMC supremo only goes on to establish the fact that AIMIM has become a "formidable force" in the state.

The BJP had clinched the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, which has a sizeable minority population, from the TMC earlier this year.

The BJP, which has emerged as the main challenger to the TMC in West Bengal after the Lok Sabha polls, has often alleged that Banerjee and her party's "appeasement policy" had led to the "rise of minority extremism" in the state.

Owaisi has been trying hard to expand his party's footprint in the east and recently pocketed the Kishanganj seat in Bihar in a bypoll to make its maiden entry into the state assembly.

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You are exposed long before when you send your brother to have a meeting with Daku amit shah in wee hours.. DIDI is wright

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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