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The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the constitution of the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission to readjust constituencies in the new Union Territory.
“Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution enable the Parliament to create new States and Union territories. Accordingly, the two new Union territories have been created.
The J&K Reorganisation Act which created the two new Union territories assigns the role of readjustment of constituencies to the Delimitation Commission under the Delimitation Act, 2002, a law made under Article 3 can always provide for readjustment of the Constituencies in the newly constituted States or Union territories through the Delimitation Commission.
Hence, we hold that there is no illegality associated with the establishment of the Delimitation Commission under the order of March 6, 2020,” a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and A.S. Oka held.
The petition was filed by Srinagar residents, Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr. Mohammad Ayub Mattoo.
Geo-sciences community calls for broad panel of experts to power heritage Bill (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
A draft Bill, aimed at protecting India’s geological heritage that includes fossils, sedimentary rocks, natural structures, has raised alarm in India’s geo-sciences and palaeontology community.
The Draft Geo-heritage Sites and Geo-relics (Preservation and Maintenance) Bill, 2022, while deemed necessary by several researchers, vests powers entirely in the Geological Survey of India (GSI), a 170-year-old organisation that comes under the Ministry of Mines.
Provisions of the Bill give it the power to declare sites as having ‘geo-heritage’ value, take possession of relics (fossils, rocks) that rest in private hands, prohibit construction 100 metres around such a site, penalise — with fines up to ₹5 lakh and possibly imprisonment — vandalism, defacement, and violations of directives of a site by the Director General of GSI.
We welcome a Geo-heritage Bill, however, rather than have all authority in the Director General, GSI, there needs to be a broader committee of experts from a wider range of institutions.
This would mean that the interests and difficulties faced by researchers, who actually work in the field, are kept in mind,” G.V.R. Prasad, palaeontologist and head of Delhi University’s geology department.
States
U.K. for tie-up in high-end defence technologies (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The perception of the biennial expo Aero India has changed and it is India’s strength. It is a show that not only showcases the scope of the defence industry but also the self-confidence of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Monday while inaugurating the 14th edition of Aero India.
Setting a target to take defence exports from $1.5 bn to $5 bn by 2024-25, Mr. Modi said the defence sector has seen a transformation in the last 8-9 years.
From here, India will take rapid strides to be included among the largest defence manufacturing countries and our private sector and investors will play a big role in that.
He said the country which was the largest defence importer for decades has now started exporting defence equipment to 75 countries in the world.
The India of today thinks fast, thinks far and takes quick decisions, Mr. Modi said, an analogy that India in Amrit Kaal is soaring like a fighter pilot.
This year’s expo has the participation of more than 80 countries along with 800 defence companies, which include around 100 foreign and 700 Indian companies.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a CEOs’ round table where he reiterated that India does not want to remain an assembly workshop and that manufacturing cutting-edge products was the need of the hour to attain Aatmanirbharta.
Mr. Modi referred to the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and aircraft carrier INS Vikrant as examples of India’s successes in self-reliance.
Addressing the CEOs’ round table, Mr. Singh listed out the series of “far-reaching” reforms undertaken by the Defence Ministry to create a business-friendly climate in the country.
Editorial
House rules and the weapon of expunction (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The expunction of portions of the speeches made by some Opposition politicians in Parliament recently is an issue that has sparked off a debate on an action taken by the Speaker (in the speech by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi), and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (in the case of the speech made by Congress President and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge).
Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Kharge were both speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the President of India for her address to the Members of Parliament of both Houses.
This is customary practice although the Constitution does not provide for any such motion, except direct that each House shall discuss the matters contained in the address. This is a practice adopted from the British Parliament.
When such a motion is discussed, MPs are generally permitted to speak on anything under the sun. It is an occasion to point out lapses on the government’s part and discuss the gamut of issues that concern the governance of the country.
Speeches are generally political and the Chair never insists on relevance. Since the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to Parliament, MPs have the right to critically scrutinise the performance of the government.
Accountability to Parliament requires the government to respond adequately to the questions raised by MPs in the debate. Under the Rules of the House, it is the Prime Minister who replies to the debate in both Houses.
Article 105 of the Constitution confers on members, freedom of speech in the House and immunity from interference by the court for anything said in the House.
Thus, freedom of speech in the House is the most important privilege of a Member of Parliament which is subject only to the other provisions of the Constitution relating to the running of the House and the House Rules.
Rule 380 of the Rules of procedure of the Lok Sabha and Rule 261 of the Rules of the Rajya Sabha give the power to the presiding officers of these Houses to expunge any words used in the debate which are defamatory, unparliamentary, undignified or indecent.
Once expunged they do not remain on record and if anyone publishes them thereafter, they will be liable for breach of privilege of the House.
Hill or city, urban planning cannot be an afterthought (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3. Disaster Management)
On December 24, 2009, a tunnel boring machine in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, hit an aquifer about three kilometres from Selang village.
This resulted in the loss of nearly 800 litres of water per second (enough to sustain the needs of nearly 30 lakh people per day). Soon after, groundwater sources began drying up even as the water flow reduced but never stopped.
Meanwhile, Joshimath has no system to manage wastewater. Instead, the large-scale use of the soak-pit mechanism could exacerbate land sinking. Ongoing infrastructure projects (the TapovanVishnugad dam and the Helang-Marwari bypass road) may also worsen the situation.
Land subsidence incidents in hilly urban India are becoming increasingly common —an estimated 12.6% of India’s land area is prone to landslides, especially in Sikkim, West Bengal and Uttarakhand. Urban policy is making this worse, according to the National Institute of Disaster Management (and highlighted in the National Landslide Risk Management Strategy, September 2019).
Construction in such a landscape is often driven by building bye-laws that ignore local geological and environmental factors. Consequently, land use planning in India’s Himalayan towns and the Western Ghats is often ill-conceived, adding to slope instability. As a result, landslide vulnerability has risen, made worse by tunnelling construction that is weakening rock formations.
Acquiring credible data is the first step toward enhancing urban resilience with regard to land subsidence. The overall landslide risk needs to be mapped at the granular level.
The Geological Survey of India has conducted a national mapping exercise (1:50,000 scale, with each centimetre denoting approximately 0.5 km).
Urban policymakers need to take this further, with additional detail and localisation (1:1,000 scale). Areas with high landslide risk should not be allowed to expand large infrastructure; there must be a push to reduce human interventions and adhere to carrying capacity. Aizawl, Mizoram, is in ‘Seismic Zone V’, and built on very steep slopes.
An earthquake with a magnitude greater than 7 on the Richter scale would easily trigger over 1,000 landslides and cause large-scale damage to buildings. But the city has developed a landslide action plan (with a push to reach 1:500 scale), with updated regulations to guide construction activities in hazardous zones.
Opinion
Constitutional oath is not a mere formality (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
A Constitution is the basic law that lays the foundation for the governance of a country. It lays down broad policy/directives for the authorities and institutions tasked with its implementation.
Basic eligibility criteria for appointment to several high constitutional offices are prescribed in the Constitution. Yet, many silent disqualifications operate.
These are implied and read into the eligibility criteria by courts, solely guided by the objective of upholding the Constitution and the law and the integrity of the institution for which the functionary is chosen.
In B.R. Kapur v. State of Tamil Nadu (2001), the Governor’s appointment of Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister despite her conviction for a criminal offence was called in question.
Article 164(1) of the Constitution does not prescribe any disqualification for the appointment of a Chief Minister. Article 173, however, disqualifies a person with prior conviction from being a member of the Legislature.
The court was confronted with the question of whether it could import a disqualification for a person being appointed as a Chief Minister, when none was prescribed.
The Supreme Court said yes. It held, “The will of the people as expressed through the majority party prevails only if it is in accord with the Constitution.
The Governor is sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the laws (Article 159). The Governor cannot... do anything that is contrary to the Constitution and the laws.” The Governor’s act of administering oath to Jayalalithaa after her conviction was declared unconstitutional.
The oath to be taken by a judge of a High Court under Schedule III of the Constitution requires a declaration of allegiance to the Constitution and performance of duties “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”.
The appointee must also declare that she will “uphold” the Constitution and the laws. Such an oath is unique to the judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court, since they are the sentinels of the Constitution.
News
‘Worried’ about pending transfers, SC says a ‘lot more’ needs to be done (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The government’s delay in clearing certain pending transfers, including that of Orissa High Court Chief Justice S. Muralidhar to Madras and the reiterated collegium recommendation of senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal for appointment as a Delhi High Court judge, saw a “worried” Supreme Court observe that a “lot more” is needed to be done, though “some developments” have happened since the last hearing on February 3.
Justice Kaul was accompanied by Justices Manoj Misra and Aravind Kumar, two new appointments to the Supreme Court. Justice Misra was among a batch of five judges whose appointments were cleared on February 4, after a wait of nearly two months since the collegium recommended their names for top court judgeships on December 13 last year.
Justices Kumar and Justice Rajesh Bindal took oath as top court judges on Monday, about two weeks after the collegium recommended their names on January 31. The court had in the past wondered how some names were cleared “overnight” while others took ages.
A note submitted by senior advocate Arvind Datar and Amit Pai features Justice Muralidhar’s name as first in a list of nine High Court judges recommended by the collegium for transfer to other High Courts in September-November last year.
In fact, the collegium had recommended the transfer of Justice T. Raja, the current Acting Chief Justice of the High Court, to Rajasthan on November 24, 2022.
Mr. Datar urged the top court to lay down a timeline for the government to notify a transfer in the interest of the administration of justice.
Business
India discussing with G-20 nations on SoP to regulate crypto: FM (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India was discussing with the G-20 member countries the need to develop a standard operating protocol (SoP) for regulating crypto assets.
Ms. Sitharaman said crypto assets and web3 were relatively new and evolving sectors, and required significant international collaboration for any specific legislation on these sectors to be fully effective.
The FM said crypto mining, assets or transactions were completely driven by technology and a standalone country’s effort in controlling and regulating it was not going to be effective.
In the G20, we are raising it and having detailed discussions with members so that a standard operating protocol emerges which results in a coherent, comprehensive approach where all countries work together in bringing some regulation.