📰 Penal law soon on triple talaq
The government plans to bring in legislation in winter session of Parliament.
•The Union government has set up a ministerial committee to frame a new law that would attract penal provisions in the case of use of triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat for divorce between Muslim couples, and will be bringing the new Bill in the winter session of Parliament.
•Top government sources confirmed that the committee will likely include a high-profile list of Ministers – Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and at least two Ministers of State.
Set aside by SC
•The Supreme Court had, in August this year, in a majority judgement set aside the practice of talaq-e-biddat, an arbitrary and unilateral decision by a Muslim husband to end the marriage by utterance of the word talaq three times.
•A senior government official said that the need for a new law was felt after it was found that divorce by way of talaq-e-biddat was taking place even after the SC judgment.
•Also read: What is triple talaq?
•This, said officials, could be because of ignorance of the judgment or because there didn’t exist a strong enough deterrent in the law.
•“In a recent incident of talaq-e-biddat, it has been reported that a person in a leading educational institution divorced his wife through WhatsApp and short message service and the wife had to approach the police,” said the official.
•“As the law stands today, the victims have no option even after approaching the police as there exists no provision in law to take action against the husband,” added the official. The Centre in its affidavit during the case before SC (Shayara Bano vs Union of India and others) had advocated the end of this practice.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been championing the cause of Muslim women, repeatedly speaking out in party and other public forums for equality and justice for Muslim women in this regard. At the BJP’s national executive meet in Bhubhaneswar, just before the SC judgment, he had said, “When we speak of social justice, our Muslim sisters too should get justice. We are not questioning the validity of triple talaq or want to create conflict within a community, but want to highlight the need for justice and end exploitation.”
📰 No need for privacy in court: Supreme Court
Justice Goel turned down objections to audio and video recording of proceedings
•Judges have no need for privacy inside the courtrooms they preside in, Supreme Court judge, Justice A.K. Goel, said, giving the thumbs-up for audio and video recording of court proceedings.
•Unlike the legislature, proceedings inside courtrooms have been a zealously guarded affair. The to and fro between lawyers and judges, submissions made by the advocates and questions asked from the Bench have hitherto been beyond the eye of the camera or the ear of a recorder.
•Signalling a paradigm shift, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices Goel and U.U. Lalit had, in August, mooted the possibilities of having audio and video recordings of proceedings in the constitutional courts — the Supreme Court and the high courts.
CCTVs in district courts
•This was a follow-up to their March order to have CCTVs installed inside courtrooms and at vantage points within court complexes in at least two districts across States and Union Territories.
•Dismissing apprehensions raised that such recordings would intrude into the privacy of judicial minds in action, Justice Goel responded, “There is no privacy in a court. We are sitting here for all.”
•Appearing for the government, Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand submitted that the government has “already taken steps” and the financial outlay of the project is under preparation.
•Justice Goel said the government should “not prolong matters”. The court sought a report from Ms. Anand in two days’ time on the progress made so far.
•The Bench had asked why the judiciary in India should be considered any different from the judges of other countries who do not consider recording of proceedings a violation of privacy of court proceedings. The Bench has even mulled the possibility of recording tribunal proceedings.
•The court has expanded the scope of a petition filed by Pradyuman Bisht for installing CCTV cameras in criminal courts as a measure to ensure fair trials.
Not under RTI
•On March 28, the Supreme Court had directed that at least “two districts in every State/Union Territory (with the exception of small States/Union Territories where it may be considered to be difficult to do so by the concerned High Courts) CCTV cameras (without audio recording) may be installed inside the courts and at such important locations of the court complexes as may be considered appropriate”.
•“Monitor thereof may be in the chamber of the District and Session Judge concerned. Location of the district courts and any other issues concerning the subject may be decided by the respective High Courts. We make it clear that the footage of the CCTV camera will not be available under the RTI and will not be supplied to anyone without permission of the High Court concerned,” the Supreme Court had ordered.
•The court had ordered that the installation of such cameras should be completed within three months. The court said the Registrar Generals of the respective High Courts should hand over a status report to the Secretary General of the apex court a month after the installations are completed.
📰 SC refuses TN's plea for immediate release of 30 tmc of Cauvery water
However, the court asked senior advocate Fali Nariman, counsel for Karnataka, to enquire with the State as to the ground situation.
•The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused Tamil Nadu's plea to direct Karnatakato forthwith release Cauvery river water from its reservoirs to make good a shortfall of 63 TMC ft at Billigundulu.
•Making an urgent mention before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Tamil Nadu government counsel G. Umapathy said there is an acute shortage of water and asked the court to direct Karnataka to forthwith release 30 TMC ft. of water at Billigundulu out of the above shortfall within the next 10 days so as to sustain the cultivation in the Cauvery basin of Tamil Nadu.
•In September, the Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Misra (as he was then) had reserved its judgment on the appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal in 2007 on the allocation of the river water to the three States.
•In the mentioning, Chief Justice Misra made it clear to Mr. Umapathy that since the judgment is reserved, the court will not pass any interim orders.
•However, the court asked senior advocate Fali Nariman, counsel for Karnataka, to enquire with the State as to the ground situation.
•The court had ordered Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu everyday as an interim measure till the appeals are finally decided by it.
📰 SC reserves orders on plea against lawyers’ verification
Over 6 lakh enrolled advocates have submitted forms: BCI
•The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved orders on a batch of petitions challenging the Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules of 2015 which requires a mass verification of lawyers’ credentials to weed out fake practitioners.
•The Bar Council of India (BCI) submitted before a Bench led by Justice R.K. Agrawal that the verification was still on and reports have been received from various State Bar Councils. The BCI informed the court that out of over 15 lakh enrolled advocates, over six lakh have submitted verification forms.
•The BCI said a high-level verification committee has been formed under former Supreme Court judge, Justice Anil R. Dave. The panel has already met with State Bar Councils.
•The Bench however, expressed concern that the verification process could stall elections to the State bar councils and said it would pass orders on the petitions on November 24.
•The petitions have alleged that the resolution by the apex lawyers’ body on January 13, 2015 titled 'Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules 2015’ was unconstitutional and violative of the Advocates Act.
•“The BCI does not have the power to add to the conditions of enrolment as expressly laid down under Section 24 (1) of the Advocates Act,” one of the petitions argued.
📰 India pulls off a diplomatic coup, wins prized ICJ seat
With Justice Dalveer Bhandari's re-election, this will be the first time in the 70-year history of the U.N.that the U.K. will not be on the world judicial body.
•India scored a major diplomatic victory on Monday as its nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Dalveer Bhandari, was re-elected after the United Kingdom withdrew its candidate, Christopher Greenwood.
•The U.K. chose to withdraw after it became clear that it would not win the contest in the General Assembly (GA) and it did not have adequate support in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for its attempts to derail the voting process itself.
•This is the first time in the 70-year history of the United Nations that the U.K. will not be on the ICJ; and this is the first time that one of the five permanent members of the UNSC lost out to an ordinary member in a race. This is also the first time that one sitting member of the ICJ lost to another sitting member.
•The winning candidate required a majority in both the GA and the UNSC, but 11 rounds of voting until last week ended, with India winning in the GA and the U.K. winning in the UNSC. With the U.K. announcing its exit from the race in the 12th round, Justice Bhandari received 183 of the 193 votes in the GA and secured all the 15 votes in the UNSC after separate and simultaneous elections were held at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
•The U.K. had nine of the 15 UNSC votes in the previous rounds, leading to a stalemate though India had an overwhelming majority in the GA. It initially wanted to suspend the voting process and move to a conference mechanism that has never been used in the history of the U.N. to break the stalemate. But this move needed the approval of the UNSC in an open voting while voting for the ICJ is through a secret ballot.
•As Monday progressed it became clear that the U.K. would not have nine members to publicly support the proposal to suspend further rounds of voting, sources familiar with the developments told The Hindu. “Some members who voted for Britain’s candidate told them that they could not vote for the suspension of the voting process,” a U.N. insider said.
India's diplomatic outreach
•Meanwhile, India’s diplomatic outreach led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Syed Akbaruddin was gathering more support for India in the GA. “It had become clear that India was moving towards getting two-thirds of the votes, 128 of them, in the GA. No judge could have occupied the position on the ICJ after two-thirds of the member countries voted against him,” said a source.
•Around noon, presidents of the UNSC, GA, Mr. Akbaruddin and British Permanent Representative to the U.N. Matthew Rycroft informally met to take stock of the situation. India made it clear that it had no intention to back off, as its support among the member states was clear and demonstrated. By then, some members of UNSC had assured India that they would not support the British proposal to suspend voting and institute an unprecedented conference mechanism.
•One hour before the voting was to begin at 3 p.m., Mr. Rycroft wrote identical letters to the presidents of the UNGA and UNSC that Mr. Greenwood would withdraw from the contest. The presidents read out the letter as the GA and the UNSC met at 3 p.m. for the 12th round of voting. As per rules, voting proceeded simultaneously, with only Justice Bhandari’s name on the ballot.
•All other permanent members of the SC — USA, Russia, France and China — were understood to have been throwing their weight behind the fifth. So was Japan, a non-permament member. But at least some of them were hesitant to vote for suspension of the voting, which stalled the British plans. Mr. Rycroft said in the letter that the current deadlock is unlikely to be broken by further rounds of voting.
Pleased to see 'close friend' win: U.K.
•Congratulating Justice Bhandari, the U.K. said it would continue to cooperate closely with India at the U.N. and globally. “The U.K. has concluded that it is wrong to continue to take up the valuable time of the UNSC and the GA with further rounds of elections,” Mr. Rycroft said.
•“We are naturally disappointed, but it was a competitive field with six strong candidates,” Mr. Rycroft said. “If the U.K. could not win in this run-off, then we are pleased that it is a close friend like India that has done so instead. We will continue to cooperate closely with India, here in the United Nations and globally,” he said.
📰 WTO: India resolute on food security
At Ministerial Conference next month, will push back on ‘severe’ curbs on right to give price subsidies
•At the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) highest decision-making body, India will not agree to severe restrictions on its right to give price subsidies to farmers through the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to procure grains from them for food security purposes, according to highly-placed official sources.
•The WTO’s Ministerial Conference is slated to take place at Buenos Aires in Argentina next month.
•“Food security and protection of low-income and resource-poor farmers are top priority items for India [at the WTO meet], and we will hold our ground to protect our interests to the maximum extent possible,” an official privy to the developments said. Currently, an interim mechanism called the ‘Peace Clause’ is in place, per which WTO members had agreed not to challenge developing nations at the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism if they breached the cap of the product-specific domestic support (which is 10% of the value of production).
Peace clause
•The ‘Peace Clause’ is available to developing nations, including India, till a permanent solution is found to public stockholding for food security purposes. Official sources said India would fight to ensure that at least the ‘Peace Clause’ is made the permanent solution, and will not accept any ‘terribly stringent or onerous’ conditions. However, the ‘Peace Clause’ is learnt to be difficult to invoke even in its current form because prior to using it, the country concerned will have to first admit that it ‘is breaching’ or ‘is about to breach’ the ceiling entitlement to give product-specific domestic support.
Difficult to invoke
•Also, the ‘Peace Clause’ can be used only for public stockholding programmes that have been in existence on the date at which it was agreed upon at the Bali Ministerial Conference in December 2013, and not for new programmes on public stockholding for food security purposes.
•According to Abhijit Das, head and professor, Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, the prospects of an agreement on a permanent solution are not that bright due to three roadblocks. “First, the U.S. has not been engaging actively on the matter till recently, and if the U.S. does not give its nod, it will be difficult to arrive at a decision.
•“Second, the European Union has tried to link the permanent solution with outcomes including stringent disciplines on domestic support given by developing nations,” he said.
•Lastly, most WTO members are of the opinion that there should be a commitment on prohibition of exports from public stockholding saying such exports would be trade-distorting.
📰 Low tariffs slowing new bids for wind, solar energy projects: ICRA
‘Capacity addition hit due to migration from feed-in tariff to bid tariff route’
•The renewable energy sector is in the midst of a lull after the storm, as bidding for wind and solar energy projects is seeing a short-term slowdown, said rating agency ICRA on Tuesday.
•“With very limited progress on the firm bidding plans by the State-owned distribution utilities to award the wind energy projects, this particular sector is facing near term headwinds and the capacity addition in the near term remains adversely impacted due to migration from feed-in tariff to bid tariff route,” ICRA said in a note.
•“The wind energy sector is now following a bid based regime since February 2017, given the success of a reverse auction under two rounds of 1GW each by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) with a bid tariff discovery at ₹3.46/kwh in February 2017 & ₹2.64/kwh in October 2017,” said Sabyasachi Majumdar, senior vice-president & group head at ICRA Ratings.
•This option is being preferred by the State utilities since the bid tariff level is significantly lower than the approved feed-in tariffs by State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) for wind power projects. “The recent increase by about 15% (i.e. 6-7 cents/watt) in imported PV module prices, if sustained, could have an adverse impact on the viability of solar power projects with tariffs lower than ₹3.5 per unit,” the note added.
•According to ICRA, a 6 cent/watt increase in the PV module price is estimated to result in an increase of about 11% in the capital cost for a solar power project with a tariff of ₹2.5 per unit.
•“The bidding activity for award of solar projects has slowed down in calendar year 2017 (till Oct.) as reflected in awarded project capacity of 3.75 GW as against 7.2 GW in the corresponding period of CY 2016.”
📰 Blue whales are mostly ‘right-handed’: study
This is to catch maximum food.
•Blue whales, the world’s largest animals, usually favour their right side when they lunge to catch food — a preference similar to right-handedness in people, researchers said.
•But on certain occasions, while moving upward in shallow water, these righties will almost always shift to their left to keep a good eye on their favoured prey — tiny crustaceans known as krill.
•The reason for this situation-specific choice is likely simple: to get as much food in their mouths as possible, said the report published in Current Biology.
•“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example where animals show different lateralised behaviours depending on the context of the task that is being performed,” said co-author James Herbert-Read of Stockholm University in Sweden.
•The report was based on analysis of the movement of 63 blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) off the coast of California.
•These giant creatures are almost as long as three school buses and weigh as much as 25 elephants.
•Scientists analysed more than 2,800 feeding plunges, in which whales make sharp turns or rolls when passing a patch of krill, in order to eat as many as possible.
Visual contact
•Most blue whales veer right in deep water, where it is dark and there are a lot of krill, so visual contact is not as important.
•But when the water is between 10 and 100 feet, most prefer to roll left at a steep angle.
•Researchers think this happens because prey tend to be less plentiful at shallow depth, and moving left allows whales to keep their right eye on their target.
•Researchers say that lefties are unusual in the animal kingdom.
📰 India calls for stronger treaties to protect space assets
Foreign Secretary calls for international cooperation
•Stressing international cooperation in space as in all domains of global commons, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Tuesday called for strengthening global treaties to protect space-based assets and prevent militarisation of outer space.
•“International cooperation is critical in the space domain as in other global commons. Our approach therefore goes beyond national considerations. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to state that international cooperation is today hard-wired into India’s space programme,” Dr. Jaishankar said addressing a conference on the space programme jointly organised by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Over 200 treaties
•In line with this, Dr. Jaishankar said India had more than 200 international cooperation agreements with more than 40 countries and international organisations, and called the maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-I, a “successful example of international cooperation with international payloads”.
•“The South Asia satellite is a matter of particular pride as it literally raises the heights to which we had taken our ‘neighbourhood first’ policy,” the Foreign Secretary said.
•In May, ISRO launched the communications satellite GSAT-9, also called SAARC satellite, meant to provide connectivity and disaster support to countries in South Asia.
•The satellite cost around ₹235 crore and had a life span of 12 years.
•Saying India is party to all the legally binding instruments on outer space, Dr. Jaishankar said, “India has also noted with concern the growing diverse threats in this frontier and is sensitive to these challenges.”
📰 Oldest stars in our galaxy discovered
•Astronomers have discovered some of the oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy by determining their locations and velocities. Just like humans, stars have a life span: birth, youth, adulthood, senior and death.
•Scientists at Georgia State University in the U.S. focussed on old or “senior citizen” stars, also known as cool subdwarfs, that are much older and cooler in temperature than the Sun.
•In a study, astronomers conducted a census of our solar neighbourhood to identify how many young, adult and old stars are present. They targeted stars out to a distance of 200 light years, which is relatively nearby considering the galaxy is more than 1,00,000 light years across.
•A light year is how far light can travel in one year.
•This is farther than the traditional horizon for the region of space that is referred to as “the solar neighbourhood,” which is about 80 light years in radius.
📰 Himalayan upgrade
The elections in Nepal will complete the democratic transition. India must play an enabling role
•Elections on November 26 and December 7 in Nepal mark a historic moment in its tumultuous transition from a 240-year-old monarchy to a multi-party democracy.
•The first general election to be held under the 2015 Constitution, it is also the first time that federal Nepal will elect seven provincial assemblies. Parliament and the provincial assemblies will in turn elect a new president and vice president. Coming after the elections to the 753 local bodies (municipalities, sub-municipalities and village development committees) held earlier this year after a 20-year gap, these will complete the political process and go a long way in consolidating hard-won democratic gains.
Beginnings of political change
•Political transition towards multiparty democracy began with the Constitution of 1990, an outcome of the first Janandolan, which introduced constitutional limits on the powers of the monarchy. After a brief period of three years, the monarchy successfully reasserted itself largely due to the squabbling among political leaders and manipulations by the Palace, leading to frequent changes of government. The current Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, who took charge in June, is the 25th Prime Minister in the last 27 years.
•A Maoist insurgency erupted in the mid-1990s which lasted a decade and claimed nearly 15,000 casualties. Eventually, in 2005, the political parties and the Maoist leaders signed an accord which laid the foundations for a more formal agreement under which the Maoists came overground and joined mainstream politics. It was a difficult process, given the mistrust between the political parties and the Maoist leadership, with both sides resorting to frequent brinkmanship.
•Following elections in May 2008, a 601-member Constituent Assembly (CA) came into being with a two-year mandate to draft a new Constitution for a ‘federal republic’. The 240-year-old institution of the monarchy was abolished. Two new political forces emerged, the Maoists with 229 seats in the CA and the Madhesi parties with 80 seats. Differences within the CA led to a stalemate. After 2010, the CA extended its life four times till, finally, the Supreme Court intervened and the CA lapsed in May 2012 without having completed its mandate.
•A major problem was that the Maoists had come to power too soon without having fully disarmed or demobilised. The first Maoist government, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, quickly set about infiltrating other state institutions, particularly the Army. Eventually Mr. Prachanda’s coalition cracked and he resigned in May 2009.
•Political leaders were busy playing musical chairs instead of addressing Constitution drafting issues. In the process, the new political forces underwent a process of fragmentation. The Maoists split twice and the Madhesi parties also fragmented. Importantly, the process of rehabilitation of the demobilised Maoist militants was concluded, removing the threat of intimidation that had cast a shadow over the 2008 elections.
•Elections for a new CA were finally held in November 2013, with significantly different results. The Maoists were down to 81 seats and the Madhesis to 40; the older parties, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), emerged stronger with 201 and 175 seats, respectively. These two formed a coalition under NC leader Sushil Koirala on the understanding that the prime ministership would pass to UML leader K.P.S. Oli once a new Constitution was concluded.
•The devastating earthquake in 2015 which caused nearly 10,000 casualties and inflicted economic losses of over $7 billion on an economy still recovering from a decade-long Maoist insurgency compelled the political parties to rush through the long-delayed Constitution. One reason was that the international community which had collectively pledged $4.4 billion of reconstruction assistance made it clear that disbursements could only happen if local systems were in place so that the relief and rehabilitation funds were not be siphoned off.
•The hastily concluded Constitution enjoyed the support of the NC, UML and the Maoists but left the Madhesis and the Janjatis deeply unhappy. Mr. Oli was quick to claim the prime ministership in October 2015 but did little to pacify the protesters in the Terai. Nearly 50 lives were lost in the violence. Sympathetic to the Madhesi cause, India declared that unless peace was restored in the Terai, normal movement of goods across the border was not possible, leading to shortages of critical items such as petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas and medical supplies. Instead of starting a dialogue with the Madhesis, Mr. Oli accused India of imposing an “economic blockade” and reverted to the age-old tactic of flirting with China to expand supply systems across the Tibetan plateau.
•Eventually, his coalition collapsed and Mr. Prachanda pulled back his support in order to join with the NC in July last year. After a tenure lasting 10 months during which he conducted the first phase of the local body elections, he handed over power to NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, who became the tenth Prime Minister in Nepal’s nine years as a republic.
Keeping on track
•The new Constitution provides for a National Assembly of 160 directly elected members (first-past-the-post system) and an additional 110 through proportional representation (PR), making for a more manageable House compared to the earlier 601. Further, in order to gain a PR seat, a political party must have 3% of the national vote, which has forced smaller parties to consolidate.
•Once certain that the elections were on track, Mr. Prachanda announced a tie-up with the UML, creating a left alliance and extracting 63 out of 160 seats. If the Maoists — Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) —manage to win in 35, it will enable Mr. Prachanda to emerge as kingmaker, and he could well return to the NC, depending on the deal. The UML is hoping to ride the wave that propelled it to the top position in the local body elections earlier this year. The NC has managed alliances with the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) — a Madhesi grouping — as well as the two conservative factions of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), led by Kamal Thapa and Pashupati Rana. This is presented as the democratic front and if the NC manages 60 seats, it will have better prospects of cobbling together a coalition than the UML. Much will depend on how the Madhesi candidates fare in the Terai.
Retrieving lost ground
•One of the important challenges for the new government will be to revive the constitutional amendment to address Madhesi grievances; Mr. Deuba had pushed it through in August but failed to muster the necessary two-thirds majority. Having realised that its overt support to the Madhesi cause in 2015 had hurt India-Nepal relations and was being exploited by the UML, India softened its position. For the last year, it has been urging the Madhesi leadership to work through the political process rather than through agitation or boycott of elections.
•The anti-India sentiment generated in 2015 was exploited by Mr. Oli in wooing China, which is interested in expanding its presence as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. The first ever visit by a Chinese Defence Minister, General Chang Wanquan, to Nepal took place earlier this year, followed by a joint military exercise. Two major hydel projects, West Seti and Budhi Gandaki, were awarded to Chinese companies though the latter was cancelled subsequently. China is exploring a rail link to Nepal as well as opening a new road link at Rasuwagadhi while expanding the existing Araniko highway.
•Once the new government takes charge in Kathmandu, it is likely that the new Prime Minister will visit India, perhaps in early 2018. A reciprocal visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, focussing on connectivity and project delivery, later in 2018 would help in reviving the positive sentiments generated by his first visit in 2014, and in keeping with the spirit of the ‘neighbourhood first’ policy.
