Bulldozing the law and the Constitution (GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Context:
- The Nuh and Gurugram districts of Haryana have just witnessed the demolition of dwellings and business establishments of people who are accused in criminal cases especially offences having communal sensitivity without following the procedure as established by law.
- The Punjab and Haryana High Court made a rare interference by taking judicial notice suo motu and stayed the demolition drive.
- The High Court’s question whether an exercise of ethnic cleansing is being carried out by the State brings to the heart of the issue.
What Indian Constitution says about it?
- Ethnic cleansing is not defined by the Indian Penal Code or international law.
- Its first use is attributed to a UN appointed Commission of Experts (1992) chaired by Prof. Cherif Bassiouni mandated to look into the war crimes in former Yugoslavia.
- In its final report, the five member commission referred to ethnic cleansing as “… a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”
- The commission enumerated state actions like arbitrary arrest and detention, destruction of property, forcible removal, displacement, deportation of civilian population and extra judicia executions in the list of coercive practices that constitute ethnic cleansing.
- Despite the lack of statutory recognition, any such subversive act is grossly inimical to the constitutional guarantees under Part III of India’s Constitution. Hence, the concern and judicial intervention under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Violation of Article 21:
- The High Court took cognisance of the fact that the demolition drive was carried out without “demolition orders and notices”, thereby violative of the procedure established by law.
- Article 21 of Indian Constitution commands that no person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.
- In the Maneka Gandhi case (1978), the Supreme Court had expanded the scope of procedure established by law by ruling that such procedure has to be “fair, just and reasonable, not fanciful, oppressive or arbitrary”, thereby introducing the principle of “procedural due process”.
- Despite such an expansion of the scope of Article 21, it is a constitutional travesty that scant regard for such basic principles is demonstrated by elected governments.
The rule of law or rule by law?
Rule of law:
- While the rule of law is declared a basic feature of the Constitution, rule by law is the antithesis of all that is represented by rule of law. The rule of law is a government run by law, not men.
- The roots of the idea of a rule of law can be seen in Article 39 of Magna Carta (1215) that declares that “No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
- It has found its reflection in Article 21 of Indian constitution and had its contours expanded by the Supreme Court.
Rule by law:
- Rule by law is when the law is used as an instrument of suppression, oppression and social control in the course of implementing a political agenda.
- The administrative act of demolishing dwellings and buildings without issuing notice and hearing the affected, to further selective social control necessarily warrants judicial interference. Any justification to the contrary amounts to the delegitimisation of the constitutional process.
Conclusion:
- “Justice must never take the form of revenge”, recited the then Chief Justice S. A. Bobde in 2019, in a different context when police allegedly took law into their hand and shot dead the accused.
- When the state tends to persecute on the basis of religion, the Constitution suffers a breakdown. Constitutional Courts are expected to prevent such happenings.
Why is India’s Defence Ministry ditching Microsoft Windows for Maya OS?
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- India’s Defence Ministry has decided to replace the Microsoft Operating System (OS) in all its computers that can connect to the Internet with Maya, an Ubuntu-based OS built locally.
- The new OS is currently being rolled out only in the Defence Ministry computers, and not the three Services. While the Navy is said to have cleared Maya for use in its systems, the Army and the Air Force are still evaluating the software.
About Maya:
- Maya has been developed by Indian government agencies within six months.
- It is aimed at preventing malware attacks by cybercriminals who are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure and government agencies.
- The new OS will be backed by a protection system called Chakravyuh. This end point system is also being deployed in the computers that have Maya installed.
How does it differ from Microsoft’s Windows?
- While the two operating systems provide a platform for the user to interact with computer hardware, Maya and Windows differ significantly, both in terms of cost and build.
- Windows is a commercial software sold by Microsoft for a license fee. It is the most widely used OS, and is easy to install and run.
- Devices powered by Microsoft’s OS run on the Windows NT kernel.
- A kernel is the core of an operating system. It runs on a computer’s Random Access Memory (RAM) and gives the device instructions on how to perform specific tasks.
- Prior to building the kernel architecture, progammers used to run codes directly on the processor.
- In the 1970s, Danish computer scientist Per Brinch Hansen introduced the kernel architecture in the RC 4000 multiprogramming system. It separated policy from mechanism in the OS design.
Difference in the core:
- This design was monolithic, meaning a single programme contained all necessary codes to perform kernel-related tasks.
- Limitations in the traditional architecture led to a new kernel design called the microkernel. This design broke down the monolithic system into multiple small servers that communicate through a smaller kernel while giving more space for user customisations. This change allowed developers to run patches easily without rebooting the entire kernel.
- It did have some drawbacks like larger running memory space and more software interactions that reduced the computer’s performance.
- Windows runs on a hybrid kernel architecture which is a microkernel design coupled with additional codes that help enhance performance.
- Apple’s MacOS also uses a hybrid kernel called XNU.
- And Ubuntu, a Linux OS that was used to build Maya, runs on monolithic architecture. Linux versions are called “distributions” or “distro”, and they comprise free and open-source software. In fact, Android is also based on the Linux kernel.
Cyber threats and malware:
- India’s switch to the Ubuntu-based Maya OS comes at a time when cyberspace is increasingly becoming vulnerable to malware and ransomware attacks. An almost three-year old cyberattack made governments around the world rethink their cyber strategy.
- In December 2020, cybersecurity firm FireEye, now rebranded as Trellix, discovered a cyber spy campaign that compromised dozens of government agencies and private organisations in the U.S.
- Additionally, IT software provider SolarWinds’ network management software, Orion, deployed on hundreds of computers globally was used by hackers to plant malware masquerading as a software update from the company. Microsoft’s own systems were breached in this attack.
- The Redmond-based company also sends software patches, similar to the Orion update, to fix bugs and install updates in users’ computers. These kinds of updates are a common affair in proprietary commercial software.
An open source future:
- Such cyber threats arising from proprietary software are once again making global governments look to free and open-source software (FOSS) to develop their own OS.
- Apart from cybersecurity, the reason behind this move is to assist IT modernisation efforts that are underway like digitising government services and making them interoperable.
- While the SolarWinds attack has brought home the graveness of the cyberthreat, the move to Maya underscores the Indian government’s emphasis on using open source software to build on the India stack model.
