SC demonetisation verdict What is delegated legislation (GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Why in news?
- In upholding the Centre’s 2016 decision on demonetisation, one of the key questions to decide for the Supreme Court was whether Parliament gave excessive powers to the Centre under the law to demonetise currency.
- While the majority ruling upheld the validity of the delegated legislation, the dissenting verdict noted that excessive delegation of power is arbitrary.
What is delegated legislation?
- Parliament routinely delegates certain functions to authorities established by law since every aspect cannot be dealt with directly by the law makers themselves. This delegation of powers is noted in statutes, which are commonly referred to as delegated legislations.
- The delegated legislation would specify operational details, giving power to those executing the details. Regulations and by-laws under legislations are classic examples of delegated legislation.
What was the delegation of power in the demonetisation case?
- Section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 essentially gives powers to the Centre to notify that a particular denomination of currency ceases to be legal tender.
- Here, Parliament, which enacted the RBI Act, is essentially delegating the power to alter the nature of legal tender to the central government.
- The Centre exercised that power by issuing a gazette notification, which is essentially the legislative basis for the demonetisation exercise.
Why was this challenged?
- The petitioner’s challenge was this: “In the event that Section 26(2) is held to permit demonetization, does it suffer from excessive delegation of legislative power thereby rendering it ultra vires the Constitution?”
- The Constitution gives law-making powers to the Parliament. While operational aspects can be delegated to statutory bodies, essential powers cannot be delegated. Also, the delegation must be with sufficient guidelines on how the power can be used.
- The petitioners in the demonetisation case argued that since Section 26(2) contains no policy guidelines on how the Centre can exercise its powers, it is arbitrary and therefore, unconstitutional.
Why is excessive delegation power an issue?
- A 1959 landmark ruling in Hamdard Dawakhana v Union of India, the Supreme Court had struck down delegation of powers on the grounds that it was vague.
- A Constitution Bench considered the validity of certain provisions of the Drug and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act that prohibited advertisements of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and dealt with the powers of search, seizure and entry.
- The Court held that the central government’s power of specifying diseases and conditions as given in Section 3(d) is ‘uncanalised’, ‘uncontrolled’, and going beyond the permissible boundaries of valid delegation. Hence, the same was deemed unconstitutional.
- The Court applies the “policy and guideline” test to decide the constitutionality of the delegated legislation.
- The Attorney General for India argued that the RBI Act itself has guidance for exercise of delegated powers. He cited the Preamble and Section 3 of the Act as guidance on the purpose of the law and the Centre’s role in “regulating” monetary policy.
- Section 3 deals with establishment and incorporation of Reserve Bank.
What did the Court decide?
- The majority verdict held that since the delegation of power is to the Centre which is anyway answerable to the Parliament, the delegation power cannot be struck down.
- The dissenting opinion, however, disagreed with this view. First, Justice BV Nagarathna held that Centre could not have exercised its delegated powers because Section 26(2) of the RBI only gives powers to the Centre when the recommendation is “initiated” by the RBI Central Board.
- The judge held that it is clear that the proposal originated from the Centre and therefore the Centre could not have drawn its powers todemonetise from Section 26(2).
- The dissenting view also held that, even if the Centre has the power under Section 26(2) allowing for demonetisation of “any” notes is a vast power that is arbitrary and therefore unconstitutional.
- Justice Nagarathnaemphasised that demonetisation of all series of notes, at the instance of the central government, is far more serious than the demonetisation of particular series by the bank, mandating the need for a legislation as opposed to an executive action.
The stalemate between Telangana and AP
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Context:
- More than eight years after the bifurcation of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, division of assets and liabilities between the two States remain elusive as the States make their own interpretation of the provisions under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014.
- Several bilateral meetings between the two States as well as those convened by the Union Home Ministry failed and the Andhra Pradesh government has now approached the Supreme Court seeking “just, reasonable and equitable apportionment” of assets and liabilities.
What are AP government’s claims?
- The AP Government is firm on the implementation of the recommendations given by the expert committee headed by retired bureaucrat Sheela Bhide for bifurcation of 89 out of the 91 Schedule IX institutions.
- But it lamented that the Telangana government had selectively accepted the recommendations leaving others which was resulting in delays in division of assets and liabilities.
What did the expert committee say?
- The committee has made recommendations with respect to the division of 89 out of the 91 Schedule IX institutions.
- Its recommendations on the division of assets that are not a part of the headquarter assets attracted criticism from the Telangana government which said it is against the spirit of the Reorganisation Act.
- The division of several institutions like the RTC headquarters and the Deccan Infrastructure and Landholdings Limited (DIL) which have huge land parcels in its possession have become the key bone of contention between the two States.
- The committee, for instance, recommended the division of RTC workshops and other assets which do not come under the definition of ‘headquarter assets’. Telangana opposes these divisions. The land parcels held by the DIL do not come under the provisions of the Act either, Telangana contended.
What is the stand of Telangana?
- The Telangana government has contended that the expert committee’s recommendations were against the interests of Telangana. There is a clear definition of division of headquarter assets in Section 53 of the Reorganisation Act.
- The government is firm that the assets located outside the erstwhile united State like Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi could be divided between the States on the basis of population as per the provisions of the Act.
What is the role of the Centre?
- Several meetings of the dispute resolution committee headed by the Union Home Secretary and comprising of the Chief Secretaries of the two States and those convened by the dispute resolution sub-committee headed by the Home Ministry’s joint secretary could not break the impasse.
- The Act empowers the Union Government to intervene as and when needed.
Blackbucks in India are fighting to survive in a unique way
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Blackbucks, the Indian antelope, is braving the climate and human-led disasters in their own way.
- The species is found to be splitting its population into two clusters to spread its diversity and reach, researchers found by analysing the genetic profiles of blackbucks found across the country.
Habitat:
- Blackbucks found only in the Indian subcontinent are mostly seen in three broad clusters across India that pertain to the northern, the southern, and the eastern regions.
- While the males have corkscrew-shaped horns and black-to-dark brown coats, the females are fawn-coloured.
The latest study:
- Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have shed light on how blackbucks in India have fared in the face of natural and human-induced challenges to their survival as indiscriminate cutting of trees and construction across rivers slices up their natural landscapes.
- The study states that the genetic diversity of organisms is an indicator of their long-term survival and can potentially be shaped by the extent of gene flow between populations.
How study was conducted?
- The study looked at the genetic variation in an endemic species, the Antilope cervicapra or blackbuck, throughout its distribution range.
- They collected faecal samples of blackbucks from 12 different locations spread across eight states of India. They extracted and sequenced the DNA from the faecal samples to study the genetic makeup of blackbucks, and deployed computational tools to map the geographic locations with the genetic data.
Findings:
- The genetic data revealed that an ancestral blackbuck population first split into two groups: the northern and the southern cluster.
- The eastern cluster seems to have emerged from the southern cluster. They then found that despite all odds, male blackbucks appear to disperse more than expected, thus contributing to gene flow in this species.
- Meanwhile, the female population appear to stay largely within their native population ranges, which the researchers inferred from unique mitochondrial signatures in each population.
Way Forward:
- Researchers are now looking to unravel the blackbucks’ secrets to surviving in the face of human-induced threats to their landscape, by studying changes in their DNA and gut microbiome.
