📰 Govt. not required by Supreme Court to frame triple talaq law
Majority judgment of the SC in August 2017 had declared the practice null and void; extinct practice is now a crime
•There was no pressure whatsoever on the government from the Supreme Court to enact a law on triple talaq.
•A close look at the three separate opinions delivered by the Constitution Bench on August 22, 2017 shows that it was only the minority judgment of the Supreme Court which had directed the government to bring an “appropriate legislation” on triple talaq.
•The majority opinions of Justices Rohinton Nariman, U.U. Lalit and Justice Kurian Joseph — which became the law of the land and superceded the minority opinion of then Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer — had declared triple talaq “manifestly arbitrary”, illegal and void.
Ceased to exist
•In short, triple talaq had ceased to exist from August 22, 2017. The majority judgment did not require the government to bring the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, making an already extinct triple talaq a crime.
•The issue was brought to fore in the Lok Sabha debate on the Bill on Thursday when several members including Revolutionary Socialist Party leader N.K. Premachandran said the Supreme Court has already declared talaq-e-biddat as void and the government’s stand that it enjoined a law to be passed on the matter did not hold much water. “It was a minority judgment of the SC that mentioned a law, the majority opinion did not direct Parliament to frame a law,” he said.
‘Bill is about justice’
•“Don’t weigh the Bill on the scales of politics. The Bill is about humanity and justice… What is held to be bad in holy Quran cannot be good in Sharia and in that sense what is bad in theology is bad in law as well,” Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in his response in the Parliament.
•The minority opinion of the Supreme Court had nudged the government to consider framing a law which was in tune with the “modern advances” in Muslim personal law globally.
•“We hope and expect, that the contemplated legislation will also take into consideration advances in Muslim ‘personal law’, ‘Shariat’, as have been corrected by legislation the world over, even by theocratic Islamic States,” Justice Khehar had written in one of the concluding paragraphs in his judgment.
•It had “beseeched” different political parties to keep their individual political gains apart, while considering the necessary measures requiring legislation on triple talaq.
•It had injuncted Muslim husbands from declaring triple talaq for six months, giving time for the legislature to enact a law. The injunction would cease to operate had the legislature failed in bringing a law.
•But the majority opinion had overawed the minority view of Justices Khehar and Nazeer by striking down instant talaq as not protected by Article 25 (freedom of religion) of the Constitution and violative of Article 14 (right to equality).
📰 Snooping or saving? on proposed online surveillance
Proposed rules for online monitoring should balance legitimate interest with privacy
•Laws seeking to regulate online activity, especially on social media, will have to be tested against two fundamental rights: free speech and privacy. Regulations that abridge these rights tend to operate in both positive and negative ways. For instance, statutory norms relating to data protection are seen as essential to protect citizens from any breach of their informational privacy; but attempts to regulate online content are seen with suspicion. The latter category evokes doubt whether they violate their freedom of expression (as enforcement of such rules may involve blocking websites, disabling accounts, removing content and intercepting communication), and amount to surveillance that breaches privacy. Two official documents, one of them a draft proposal, that seek to introduce changes in the way rules for interception and monitoring of computer-based information are applied have caused a furore. The first was an order authorising 10 agencies under the Centre to implement Section 69(1) of the Information Technology Act, as amended in 2008, which allows interception, monitoring and decryption of information transmitted through or stored in a computer resource. The other is a draft proposing changes to the rules framed in 2011 for “intermediaries” such as Internet and network service providers and cyber-cafes. While the order listing 10 agencies does not introduce any new rule for surveillance, the latter envisages new obligations on service providers.
•A critical change envisaged is that intermediaries should help identify the ‘originator’ of offending content. Many were alarmed by the possibility for surveillance and monitoring of personal computers that this rule throws up. The government has sought feedback from social media and technology companies, but it appears that even services that bank on end-to-end encryption may be asked to open up a backdoor to identify ‘originators’ of offending material. There is justified concern that attempts are on to expand the scope for surveillance at a time when the government must be looking at ways to implement the Supreme Court’s landmark decision holding that privacy is a fundamental right. Some of these rules, originally framed in 2009, may have to be tested against the privacy case judgment, now that the right has been clearly recognised. It is indeed true that the court has favoured stringent rules to curb online content that promotes child pornography or paedophilia, foments sectarian violence or activates lynch-mobs. While the exercise to regulate online content is necessary, it is important that while framing such rules, a balance is struck between legitimate public interest and individual rights. And it will be salutary if judicial approval is made an essential feature of all interception and monitoring decisions.
📰 Centre extends deadline to update NRC
Enumeration of Assam’s citizens cannot be completed by December 31, says Registrar General
•The Centre has given an extension of six months to complete the ongoing exercise for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam by June 30.
•In a notification, the Registrar General of India Sailesh said the decision was taken as the exercise to enumerate citizens in the NRC, a list of Assam’s residents, could not be completed within the specified date of December 31, 2018.
•On December 6, 2013, the government issued the first notification setting a deadline of three years for completion of the entire NRC process. Since then, five extensions have been given by the government. The draft NRC was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.9 crore people of the total 3.29 crore applicants.
📰 MEA upbeat over China ties
•Restoring relations with China and bringing back a “balance” to ties in the neighbourhood are considered achievements of the government’s foreign policy in the year 2018, while challenges ahead in 2019 will include keeping the balance between the U.S.-Europe axis on one hand and the Russia-China axis on the other.
•According to a year-end review of the government’s policies, sources said, the establishment of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) by India ranked amongst its biggest successes as it is the first multilateral organisation — with as many as 71 member countries already signed on — that is headquartered in India.
•“In the neighbourhood, the restoration of balance in our relationship with Nepal, as well as the reconnection with the new leadership in the Maldives are positive outcomes. The fact that the new Bhutan Prime Minister is making his first visit to India within a month is a positive,” said a government source briefing journalists on foreign policy achievements, adding that India was not “the subject of domestic politics in the region, and the government has taken great care to ensure this in the recent political developments both in Sri Lanka and in Bangladesh.” However, no forward movement is expected with Pakistan, where talks over the Kartarpur corridor were described as a “cultural initiative” but not diplomacy.
•Describing the Wuhan Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as three subsequent meetings between the leaders this year as “unprecedented”, the official said that relations with China had returned to the “normal track” with progress made with high-level visits, the resumption of defence ties suspended last year after the Doklam standoff, restoration of peace at the India-China boundary and forward movement on trade where Beijing is actively considering Indian requests for more market access on agricultural and pharmaceutical products in particular.
•While ties with the United States have seen an upward swing, the sources said some concern was felt about the recent developments over Afghanistan, with reports of a possible pullout of US troops and moves to engage the Taliban along with visits to Pakistan by special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad being studied closely. Meanwhile, the government acknowledged that there was a relatively lower amount of contact at the level of PM Modi and US President Trump, who only met once in the year in a trilateral format with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but said that there had been must closer contacts between the Foreign, Defence and Commerce Ministers and their counterparts than before.
📰 Karmapa kept India in the dark
Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who travelled to U.S. last year, didn’t inform India before taking foreign citizenship
•India was not informed by Ogyen Trinley Dorje before he took the passport of another country (the Commonwealth of Dominica), government sources said on Thursday, indicating a rift with the Lama who claims to be the Karmapa, who had travelled to the United States last year and has not returned despite saying on several occasions that he would do so.
•Sources aware of the developments also reiterated India’s “neutral position” on which the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage is, given the rival claimant Trinley Taye Dorje. The Dalai Lama as well as the Chinese government had, in 1992, recognised Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the rightful heir to the position, but India has not accepted that.
•“The government of India does not recognise Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the 17th Karmapa Lama. There are other contenders,” said one highly placed source, clarifying the circumstances around the Karmapa’s travel documents. “He has secured the passport of the Commonwealth of Dominica. He didn’t share this information with India. He doesn’t need to, but in good faith he ought to have, since he was our guest. What was the reason for not sharing this with the government of India?” the source added, in the first such official reaction to Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s move.
•Earlier this month, The Hindu reported that the two sides had reached an impasse over the documents required by the Karmapa to travel to India for a conference of religious leaders in November. While Tibetan officials had claimed the Karmapa was being asked to return to India on the original Identity Certificate (IC) issued to him and surrender it, government sources denied the claim, saying he could use his newly acquired passport to apply for a visa at the New York consulate.
•“There is no issue over the IC, as the IC is invalid the moment the holder acquires a foreign passport. He has indicated time and again to the media, but he has not yet presented his passport for a visa, and there is no visa application. There are specific motivations by certain quarters to put out a story that he is not getting a visa. There should be no doubt that he is free to come to India and get a visa on the Dominica passport,” the source said.
•The conference that Ogyen Trinley Dorje was due in India for was put off owing to the death of the head lama of another, Nyingma sect. However, it is likely that the conference will be rescheduled once Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s travel document issue is resolved, officials dealing with the conference said.
•The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and is based at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. Ogyen Trinley Dorje escaped from Tibet in 2000 as a 14-year old. His rival Trinley Taye Dorje had allegedly escaped to India from Tibet some years before, but was never officially recognised in Dharamshala as the Karmapa.
•Making matters more complex for New Delhi is the fact that Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Taye Dorje met in France in October this year and vowed in a public statement to “heal the divisions” within the Karma Kagyu sect and to “bring the lineage together,” indicating that the two might resolve the issue without India’s help.
•Some differences over the Karmapa issue have arisen in the government between the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs in recent years over who should have the final word on the modalities of the Karmapa’s return. Intelligence agencies are also believed to be divided over whether Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s allegiances remain with China, where he still has many supporters, or with the United States, where he has set up residence on a large estate for nearly two years now. Differences persist in the government about whether Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s Tsurphu Labrang office should be given a permanent place for a monastery as well as clearance to receive foreign donations under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, officials told The Hindu.
📰 Bhutan to focus on development during talks with India
In his first visit to Delhi, new PM Tshering set to discuss 12th five year plan
•Bhutan’s development agenda is expected to feature in bilateral talks that will be held during the visit of the country’s newly elected Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, that began on Thursday. Sources said the 12th five year plan of the Himalayan country is among several topics expected to come up during the official level talks.
•“The visit by Prime Minister of Bhutan is essentially to get to know him and also to have a discussion on how we can be supportive of the 12th five year plan,” said an official source here. The visit by the Bhutanese leader is the first since he took charge of the post of the Prime Minister on November 7.
•Dr. Tshering, a well-regarded surgeon in Bhutan, led his party Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa to victory in the October 18 election, in which the party won 30 of the 47 seats of the Bhutanese national assembly. The victorious party had presented an agenda of development during the poll that is the agenda of the government in Thimphu.
•The Indian source hinted that India is aware that Prime Minister Tshering has to deliver on his development promises. It was also known that both sides will discuss the details of the ongoing hydro electricity projects in Bhutan.
•The visit, the first foreign trip by the leader since he took charge, also highlights the special relation that exists between Bhutan and India.
📰 Indians suffer pay gap in U.K., shows report
‘Black and Asian minorities losing out’
•Indians, along with black and Asian minorities in the U.K., face an unfair pay gap in comparison to their white counterparts, said a new report released on Thursday.
•The Resolution Foundation report stated that, overall, Britain’s 1.9-million ethnic minority workers have lost out on £3.2 billion a year due to the “pay penalty” suffered as a result of their background.
•“We find that between 2007 and 2017 the total annual cost of pay penalties experienced by black, Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi men and women would amount to £3.2 billion per year,” says the report.
•“All things held equal, Indian non-graduate women earned 44 pence an hour and black non-graduate women 61 pence an hour less than their white counterparts,” the report found.
Difference in pay
•Pay gaps refer to the average difference in pay that exists between groups and pay penalties cover the average difference in pay that persists after personal and work-related characteristics are accounted for.
•The Resolution Foundation concludes that both taken together represent a significant living standards issue for individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. The report found the biggest impact was on black male graduates, who were paid 17% or £3.90 an hour less when compared to their white peers. Pakistani and Bangladeshi male graduates earned an average of 12% less an hour.
📰 River Dolphins go missing in Sunderbans as water salinity rises
•Rise in salinity in the water system that makes the Indian Sunderbans has resulted in the decrease of population of the Ganges River Dolphins in the region.
•A recent study covering 100 km of rivers and channels around the Sunderbans have revealed that the national aquatic animal is no longer sighted in the central and eastern parts of the archipelago. Only in the western part of Sunderbans, where the salinity is lower, could researchers find some evidence of the species.
•The details of the study have been published in Journal of Threatened Taxa, in an article titled Possible Range Decline of Ganges River Dolphin Platanista Gangetica in Indian Sundarban. The paper, authored by Sangita Mitra and Mahua Roy Chowdhury, states that “sighting records in the present study reveal that distribution of GRD (Ganges River Dolphin) is influenced by the salinity level of the waterways”.
•“The study is indicative of how natural changes including the phenomenon of climate change and human interventions in the Indian Sunderbans are having an adverse impact on the habitat of the species” Ms Mitra told The Hindu.
•Ms. Roy Chowdhury, the other researcher who carried out the study from 2012- 2016, said that because of its unique body shape, it becomes difficult for the dolphin to remain submerged in waters with high salinity. According to her, freshwater flow to the Sunderbans is crucial for the subsistence of these species. She pointed out the hyper-saline zone in the central part of the Sunderbans, which includes areas such as Raidighi and Patharpratima, have lost connectivity with the upstream freshwater flow. Though there is some fresh water connectivity and flow in the eastern part, salinity levels were still high and thus there was no evidence of the Ganges River Dolphin in this region.
•The rise in sea level, triggered by climate change, is one of the reasons for the increase in salinity of waters of rivers and channels. “Hydrological modifications like water diversion and commission of large barrages upstream have had a great impact on the salinity profile of the rivers downstream in the Sunderbans,” the publication stated.
•In the study, the researchers noted a higher rate of encounter with the species in rivers and stretches that had limited use of motorised boats, less river traffic and more country boats. The encounter rate was higher by almost 55 % in such stretches, the publication stated.
•Classified as endangered by the IUCN Red List, the freshwater species was also once found in different tributaries of the Ganga in West Bengal. Researchers and experts pointed out that the sighting of the Ganges River Dolphin has decreased over the years in the 534-km stretch from Farakka Barrage to Sunderbans.
•“An adult species requires a minimum mid-channel depth of 5.2 metres, and for young ones the depth is 2.5 metres. At present the population of the Ganges River Dolphin is confined to some pockets like Nabadweep, Kolaghat, Diamond Harbour and Namkhana,” Ms. Mitra said. She said there was an urgent need for more detailed and comprehensive studies to asses the population and factors resulting in the decline of the species.
