Daily Current Affairs

Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws (GS Paper 2, Governance)

Why in news?

• Recently, a Parliamentary panel has recommended conferring equal rights on mothers as guardians under the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (HMGA), 1956 instead of treating them as subordinates to their husband, and has called for joint custody of children during marital disputes.
• It has also proposed allowing the LGBTQI community to adopt children.

What are the recommendations of the Parliamentary panel on guardianship and child custody?

• The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice tabled its report recently in both Houses of Parliament on the ‘Review of Guardianship and Adoption Laws’.
• In its report the committee has said that there is an “urgent need to amend the HMGA (Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956) and accord equal treatment to both mother and father as natural guardians as the law violated the right to equality and right against discrimination envisaged under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.”
• In cases of marital dispute, the panel says there is a need to relook at child custody which is typically restricted to just one parent where mothers tend to get preference.
• It says courts should be empowered to grant joint custody to both parents when such a decision is conducive for the welfare of the child, or award sole custody to one parent with visitation rights to the other.
• On adoption, the Committee has said that there is a need for a new legislation that harmonises the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA), 1956 and that such a law should cover the LGBTQI community as well.

 

What does the law say on guardianship? How do courts grant child custody?

• Indian laws accord superiority to the father in case of guardianship of a minor.
• Under the religious law of Hindus, or the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, (HMGA) 1956, the natural guardian of a Hindu minor in respect of the minor’s person or property “is the father, and after him, the mother: provided the custody of a minor who has not completed the age of five years shall ordinarily be with the mother.”
• The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 says that the Shariat or the religious law will apply in case of guardianship according to which the father is the natural guardian, but custody vests with the mother until the son reaches the age of seven and the daughter reaches puberty though the father’s right to general supervision and control exists.
• The concept of Hizanat in Muslim law states that the welfare of the child is above all else. This is the reason why Muslim law gives preference to the mother over the father in matters of custody of children in their tender years.

 

Supreme Court’s view:

• The Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Githa Hariharan vs Reserve Bank of India in 1999 challenged the HMGA for violating the guarantee of equality of sexes under Article 14 of the Constitution of India and the court held that the term “after” should not be taken to mean “after the lifetime of the father “, but rather “in the absence of the father”.
• But the judgment failed to recognise both parents as equal guardians, subordinating a mother’s role to that of the father. Though the judgment sets a precedent for courts, it has not led to an amendment to the HMGA.
• The panel's proposals on guardianship have been made by the Law Commission of India in its 257th report on "Reforms in Guardianship and Custody Laws in India" in May 2015 as well as its 133rd report in August, 1989 on "Removal of discrimination against women in matters relating to guardianship and custody of minor children and elaboration of the welfare principle"

 

What about cases of marital disputes?

• In cases of marital disputes, some courts such as the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Bombay High Court have framed rules to grant joint custody or shared parenting.
• But instead of this “patchwork” there is a need to amend the law, including the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 to introduce concepts such as joint custody.

 

Can queer and transgender people adopt children in India?

• The Adoption Regulations, 2017 is silent on adoption by LGBTQI people and neither bans nor allows them to adopt a child.
• Its eligibility criteria for prospective adoptive parents says that they should be physically, mentally and emotionally stable, financially capable and should not have any life-threatening medical condition. Single men can only adopt a boy while a woman can adopt a child of any gender.
• A child can be given for adoption to a couple only if they have been in a marital relationship for at least two years. The HAMA which applies to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists allows men and women to adopt if they are of sound mind and are not minors. Activists say LGBTQI people who seek adoption face institutional discrimination because of stigma.
• Therefore, the law should be amended to include them as eligible candidates including when they apply as non-single parents such as when they are in civil unions or married for which there is no legal recognition in the country as yet even though the Supreme Court legalised gay sex in 2018.

 

SSLV-D1 launch by ISRO

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• Recently, ISRO got ready for the first developmental flight of the SSLV-D1/EOS-2 mission. The launch took place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

 

Details:

• The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) D1/EOS-2 mission, was carrying two satellites — the Earth Observation Satellite-2 (EOS-2) which weighed about 135 kg and AzadiSAT which weighed about eight kg.
• The mission aimed to place the EOS-2 in a circular low-Earth orbit at a height of about 350 km above the Equator and inclined at an angle of 37 degrees. The initial part of the story was successful with the launch vehicle operating smoothly.
• However, the mission failed to place the satellites in their required orbits, and the satellites, as they were already detached from the launch vehicle, were lost.

 

What was the purpose of the SSLV-D1/EOS-2 mission?

• The purpose of this mission was to place the two satellites in circular low-Earth orbits at a height of about 350 km above the Equator.
• The larger one, the EOS-2 which was designed and developed by ISRO, offered advanced optical remote sensing operations. It would have operated in the infrared region and could have served many purposes, from imaging for climate studies to simply keeping an eye on Earth.
• AzadiSAT, on the other hand, was a collective of 75 tiny payloads weighing around 50 grams each, which were integrated by students.
• It carried tiny experiments which would have measured the ionising radiation in its orbit and also a transponder which worked in the ham radio frequency to enable amateur operators to access it.

 

Which part of the mission succeeded and where did it fail?

• The SSLV was composed of three stages powered by solid fuels and these three performed their function as planned. However, when it came to the stage when the satellites had to be set in orbit, there was a glitch which resulted in the satellites being lost forever.
• With a degree of openness that is unprecedented in ISRO, it was announced that there was a malfunctioning of a sensor which resulted in placing the satellites in an elliptical orbit, rather than a circular orbit.
• The ellipse or oval shape of the elliptical orbit is elongated in one direction and compressed in another (the so-called major and minor axes, which are like two radii of the ellipse). The shortest height above the Earth of this oval orbit was only about 76 km.

 

Why were the satellites lost?

• If the closest distance to the Earth is only 76 km, as it happened this time, there is an atmospheric drag experienced by the object at that height.
• Thereafter, unless adequate thrust is applied to overcome the drag, it will lose height and fall towards the Earth because of gravity and may eventually burn up due to friction.

 

What went wrong with the launch?

• Today rocket technology has progressed to such a stage that even if the course of the rocket is altering from its planned course, there will be sensors that feed back this information to a system. This will immediately trigger a course correction which will restore the trajectory of the rocket.
• There are many sensors as well as a built-in redundancy. That is, even if one or two sensors fail, there will be others that take over and effect the course correction.
• In the present case, the announcement was that “failure of a logic to identify a sensor failure and go for a salvage action caused the deviation.”
• This could possibly imply that either redundancy was not built in, which is highly unlikely, or perhaps that it was built in but did not kick off due to a technical glitch.

 

Why do we need to develop an SSLV when we have successfully used PSLV and GSLV?

• The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) are quite powerful and can carry huge loads. To place an Earth Orbiting Satellite in a low Earth orbit, one does not need such power horses.
• The SSLV can easily carry small-to-medium loads from 10 kg to 500 kg. It is less expensive.
• The three stages being powered by solid fuel is another advantage. Solid fuel is easier to handle, whereas handling the liquid propellants used in the PSLV and GSLV is more complex.

 

What is the difference between circular and elliptical orbits?

• Mostly objects such as satellites and spacecrafts are put in elliptical orbits only temporarily.
• They are then either pushed up to circular orbits at a greater height or the acceleration is increased until the trajectory changes from an ellipse to a hyperbola and the spacecraft escapes the gravity of the Earth in order to move further into space for example, to the Moon or Mars or further away.
• Satellites that orbit the Earth are mostly placed in circular orbits. One reason is that if the satellite is used for imaging the Earth, it is easier if it has a fixed distance from the Earth.
• If the distance keeps changing as in an elliptical orbit, keeping the cameras focussed can become complicated.

 

Chile's giant sinkhole

(GS Paper 1, Geography)

Why in news?

• A giant sinkhole in Chile which first appeared in July has now grown large enough to swallow India Gate.

Details:

• At the time of its discovery, the sinkhole covered a diameter of 105 feet. That number has now increased to 160 feet.
• The National Geology and Mining Service, also called Sernageomin, has sent experts to examine the hole which appeared in an area located 800 kilometres north of Chile’s capital city of Santiago.
• Owing to the size of the sinkhole, work has been stopped at a nearby copper mine.

 

 

 

 

Why do sinkholes appear?

• As per the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a sinkhole is a depression in the ground that has no external surface drainage. Basically, when it rains, all of the water gets collected in the sinkhole which typically drains into the subsurface layer of the Earth.
• The sinkholes are more likely to appear in areas that have soluble rocks like salt beds and domes, gypsum, limestone below the land’s surface. These rocks can naturally dissolve into the groundwater that circulates through these holes.
• So, landscapes that have more soluble rocks underneath their soil are highly susceptible to huge underground spaces and caverns. As these rocks dissolve more into the water and are carried away, the cracks widen up until the ground above them collapses.
• Similarly, developmental projects and other infrastructural activities can cause water to collect in certain areas and was away any supporting layer of rocks which can result in sinkholes.

 

How was the sinkhole in Chile discovered?

• The hole appeared on land where Canada-based company Lundin Mining was running a copper mining operation.
• The sinkhole has remained stable since it was detected and the company is closely monitoring the nearby Alcaparrosa mine. Work has been suspended in the mine.

 

Other sinkholes:

• In February 2022, a huge sinkhole developed in a stream located in south Kashmir. The hole disrupted the entire flow of the stream as water from it was draining into the sinkhole.
• In 2021, a sinkhole appeared in Mexico’s Santa Maria Zacatepec. The pit was about 400 feet wide and 150 feet deep. The Mexican government sent soldiers to prevent people from going near the hole.

 

What’s next?

• The National Service of Geology and Mining or Sernageomin said that it is still carrying out an investigation to determine the cause of the sinkhole.
• Sernageomin has installed water extraction pumps at the mine and will soon investigate the mine’s underground chambers for potential over-extraction.

 

Electricity Amendment Bill 2022

(GS Paper 2, Governance)

Why in news?

• Recently, 27 lakh power sector employees and engineers protested against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was introduced in Lok Sabha.
• A Bill to amend the Electricity Act to allow non-discriminatory open access to distribution networks of power suppliers was introduced amid protests by the Opposition, which claimed that it seeks to take away certain rights of state governments.

 

Features of the Bill

• The Bill is aimed at allowing privatisation of electricity on the lines of communication.
• As per the Centre, if the Bill is passed in both the Houses, customers will have the option to choose the supplier of electricity just like one can choose for telephone, mobile and internet services.
• The Bill seeks to amend section 42 of the Electricity Act to facilitate non-discriminatory open access to the distribution network of a distribution licensee.
• Further, the bill seeks to amend section 14 of the Act to facilitate the use of distribution networks by all licensees under provisions of non-discriminatory open access with the objective of enabling competition, enhancing efficiency of distribution licensees for improving services and ensuring sustainability of the power sector.
• The bill also provides for inserting a new section 60A in the Act so as to enable management of power purchase and cross-subsidy in case of multiple distribution licensees in the same area of supply.
• The bill also seeks to amend section 62 of the Act so as to make provisions regarding graded revision in tariff over a year and for mandatory fixing of the maximum ceiling as well as minimum tariff by the Appropriate (electricity regulatory) Commission.
• The draft law also provides for amending section 166 of the Act so as to strengthen the functions to be discharged by the Forum of Regulators.
• The bill will also amend section 152 of the Act so as to facilitate decriminalisation of offence as it would be mandatory to accept compounding. 

 

Why are people protesting the Bill?

• State employees groups are worried among other things about the passing of the Bill resulting in major losses to government discoms, job losses and a few private companies establishing a monopoly in the power sector.
• After all, about 80 per cent of the cost of supply is on account of power purchase, which will be the same for all distribution licensees operating in an area. Besides, having different retailers will open a plethora of operational issues.
• The United Kingdom is a prime example. As per a report of UK auditors, due to adoption of such faulty models the consumers had to pay in excess of 2.6 billion pounds. The cost of such transfers was charged to the ordinary consumer. While the private companies failed, consumers were hit the most.

 

Claim of multiple choice misleading:

• The claim of providing a choice of multiple service providers to power consumers in the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022, is "misleading" and will make state-run discoms loss making entities.
• As per the bill, only government discoms will have universal power supply obligation therefore private licensees will prefer to supply the electricity in profit making areas only i.e.industrial and commercial consumers.
• Thus profit making areas will be snatched from government discoms and government discoms by default will become loss making companies and in the coming days will not have money to purchase electricity from generators.
• About 85 per cent of consumers are farmers and domestic consumers and all these consumers are getting subsidized electricity. There cannot be any competition in such loss making subsidized consumers. Therefore multiple licensees will not be the consumers' choice. Actually this will be the suppliers' choice. Private licensees will be operating only in profit making areas.

 

Way Forward:

• Introducing the Bill, power minister RK Singh urged Lok Sabha Speaker to refer it to a parliamentary standing committee for wider consultations to address Opposition concerns.
• The Bill was then referred to the standing committee.