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The Centre told the Supreme Court that the demand for legal recognition of same-sex marriage is merely a voicing of “urban elitist views” for the purpose of social acceptance.
The court should not try judicially to create a “new social institution” by endorsing same-sex marriages. The judges should leave the task to Parliament, the people would decide whether such a “marriage of a different kind” is socially and religiously acceptable or not, the Centre said in an affidavit filed on the eve of the hearing of the same-sex marriage case before a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud.
Creation or recognition of a new social institution cannot be claimed as a matter of right/choice, much less a fundamental right.
The right to personal autonomy does not include a right for the recognition of same-sex marriage.
The court would adjudicate solely on the basis of petitions containing “elitist views”, while the legislature, on the other hand, would take into consideration broader views and voices of the rural, semi-rural and urban population, the religious denominations, personal laws and customs and effect of same-sex unions on other laws governing marriage.
The existing concept of marriage as a heterogenous institution has the sanctity of law and religion.
Editorial
Chinese shenanigans on Arunachal Pradesh (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
For the third time in recent years, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, on April 2, made a provocative move by releasing new names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh under the fig leaf of standardising geographical names in “Zangnan” (a phoney term invented by Beijing to claim that Arunachal Pradesh is “South Tibet”).
According to media reports, these names include “two residential areas, five mountain peaks, two rivers, and two other areas”. In 2017, China had ‘renamed’ six places that lie in Arunachal Pradesh.
It had also ‘standardised’ the names of 15 places in 2021, which had similarly included population centres, mountains, rivers, and a mountain pass.
Taken together, and on the face of it, some of the places are located along the Pangchen-Tawang-Jang-Sela axis running down from the Line of Actual Control; others are near old Buddhist pilgrimage circuits near Taksing in Upper Subansiri district, Menchuka-Tato tehsil in West Siang, and still others towards the Lohit and Anjaw districts, near Walong.
Whether it is in the Himalayas or the East and South China Seas, China’s depredations and unfounded irredentist claims are legion.
In 2020, China gave names to 80 geographical features in the Paracels and Spratlys in the South China Sea, where China is embroiled in maritime disputes with several states.
In 1983, it had named 287 geographical features in the South China Sea. It began using the term “Diaoyutai” for the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in the 1950s, even before raking up the Senkaku issue with Japan.
Often, the Chinese modus operandi is to lay the groundwork through fictional renaming of alien territories as a basis for sham “historical” claims which are then pursued using the “three warfares” strategy — of waging propaganda, psychological and legal warfare.
China also struck a jarring note in the wake of the apocryphal exercise concerning place names in Arunachal Pradesh by naming several under-sea features in the Indian Ocean, ironically using the names of Chinese musical instruments.
Explainer
The petitions around same sex marriage (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
On April 18, a five-judge Supreme Court Bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, is scheduled to hear a series of petitions seeking legal recognition of same sex marriage even as a host of statutory organisations, religious bodies and NGOs have rushed to court seeking an opportunity to be heard.
Their submissions touch upon various issues from the definition of “marriage” to the “psychological impact” growing up with two men or two women as parents would have on children.
While some have cautioned judges that Indian society is not ready to accept same sex marriage others have linked it to sexual liberation movements in western countries.
Main petitioners Supriyo and Abhay Dang, represented by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, advocate Arundhati Katju and Govind Manoharan, argue that the non-recognition of same sex marriage amounted to discrimination that struck at the root of dignity and self-fulfillment of LGBTQIA+ couples.
They reminded the court that LGBTQ+ citizens form 7 to 8% of the population of the country. The petitioners point out that the legal protection available in about 15 legislations guaranteeing the right of wages, gratuity, adoption, surrogacy, etc, were not available to LGBTQIA+ citizens.
In a related vein, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) said that same sex couples would make equally good parents as heterosexual parents.
By depriving legal status to homosexual marriages, the state is denying the legal security of dual parenthood and guardianship to the child.
Text
How coastal species are living on plastic debris in the ocean (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
“The Anthropocene epoch”. This is the name some scientists have proposed for a new period in history characterised by the influence of one species on the planet’s geology, ecosystems and even its fate — none other than Homo sapiens.
Scientists are still figuring out when this epoch really began; some candidates include the first nuclear weapon test and rapid industrialisation after the Second World War.
Yet another contender is the creation of plastic trash which is abundant in our urban refuse, rivers, and forests, from the slopes of the highest peaks to the depths of abyssal trenches.
Ocean life has washed ashore at beaches with stomachs of plastic debris. Plastic has provided ample evidence of its persistence in the natural universe, but of late, scientists have also been uncovering evidence that it is becoming one with nature in troubling new ways.
In a study published on April 17, researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.S. have reported that coastal lifeforms have colonised plastic items in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
There are some water currents in the ocean that, driven by winds and the Coriolis force, form loops. These are called gyres. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) is one such, located just north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean.
It consists of the Kuroshio, North Pacific, California, and North Equatorial currents and moves in a clockwise direction. These currents flow adjacent to 51 Pacific Rim countries. Any trash that enters one of these currents, from any of these countries, could become part of the gyre.
News
Chhattisgarh CM writes to PM seeking inclusion of higher quota Bills in Ninth Schedule (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the inclusion of two amendment Bills allowing for higher quota in jobs and educational institutions, in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Ninth Schedule includes a list of Central and State laws which cannot be challenged in courts. In Chhattisgarh’s case, the two amendment Bills — that pave the way for a 76% quota for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes — were passed unanimously by the Assembly last December, but are yet to receive a nod by the Governor.
Mr. Baghel, in his letter, presented the demographics of the State and wrote that the “socio-economic and educational condition of the OBC people of the State is as weak as that of the SC/ST people.
Three-fourths of these classes are farmers, marginal and small farmers and a large number of them are agricultural labourers”.
Keeping in view the special circumstances of the State of Chhattisgarh also, it is only by including the amended provision in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution that the people of the deprived and backward classes will be able to get justice. It is requested that all the concerned may kindly be directed in this regard.
Last September, the Chhattisgarh High Court struck down a 2013 State government order to allow a 58% quota, holding that reservation above the 50% ceiling was “unconstitutional”, followed by the passage of the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Bill and the Chhattisgarh Educational Institutions (Reservation in admission) Amendment Bill.
However, among the many reasons mentioned by former Governor Anusuiya Uikey for refusing to sign the Bills was a Supreme Court ruling on capping the reservations at 50%.
The stalemate between the government and the Raj Bhavan has continued over the past four months despite a change in guard.
Chief Minister Baghel again urged Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan to either give his assent or return the Bills to the Assembly.
In the letter, the Chief Minister cited the example of other States and a 2022 Supreme Court ruling to argue in favour of lifting the 50% cap.
Pittas find new haven in Odisha districts (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
In the first-ever census of mangrove pitta birds carried out in two coastal districts of Odisha, 179 such birds were sighted.
Mangrove pitta birds are a nearly threatened species found in a few pockets of eastern India, including Bhitarkanika in Odisha and the Sundarbans in West Bengal.
The first census of mangrove pitta (Pitta megharencha) birds was focused on the mangrove patches all along the coasts of Kendrapara and Jagatsingpur districts.
The mangrove pitta is found in coastal mangrove forests of India, foraging on the ground and resting on the trees,” Gopinath Sudarshan Yadav, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Rajnagar Mangrove Forest Division.
Mr. Yadav said information had been collected on the distribution, habitat and breeding of the birds along the coastal mangroves. “In this exercise, a total of 32 teams were deployed in 32 pre-identified segments.
The census was carried out by point count method, either by walking in the forest or using country boats in the creeks. A total of 179 individual mangrove pitta birds were counted.
The highest concentration of the birds has been found in the mangroves near the Mahipura river mouth inside the Bhitarkanika National Park.
Business
WTO panel rules against India in IT tariffs row with EU, others (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel said India had violated global trading rules in a dispute with the European Union (EU), Japan and Taiwan over import duties on IT products. “We recommend India bring such measures into conformity with its obligations.
In 2019, the EU challenged India’s introduction of import duties of between 7.5% and 20% for a wide range of IT products, such as mobile phones and components, as well as integrated circuits, saying they exceeded the maximum rate.
Japan and Taiwan filed similar complaints that same year. The EU is India’s third-largest trading partner, as per the European Commission.
India’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would appeal against the ruling.
If it does, the case will sit in legal purgatory since the WTO’s top appeals bench is no longer functioning due to U.S. opposition to judges’ appointments.
The panel said India had already brought some of the challenged tariffs in line with global trading rules since last year. It, however, rejected Japan’s claim that New Delhi’s customs notification lacked ‘predictability.’