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Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three Bills in the Lok Sabha to repeal the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Indian Evidence Act (IEA), and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC).
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, which replaces the IPC, prescribes capital punishment as the maximum sentence for mob lynching and suggests 10-year imprisonment for sexual intercourse with women on the false promise of marriage.
The Bill, however, states that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 18 years of age, is not rape”.
Mr. Shah said the section on sedition has been repealed. “The Bill for the first time defines terrorism and offences such as separatism, armed rebellion against the government, challenging the sovereignty of the country, which were earlier mentioned under different provisions of law.
The Bill proposes 313 amendments that will bring revolutionary changes to the criminal justice system, Mr. Shah said.
The Minister introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Bill, 2023; and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023, that will replace the IPC, 1860; Criminal Procedure Act, 1898; and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, respectively.
States
T.N. to move top court as Karnataka refuses to share Cauvery water (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Tamil Nadu government said it would move the Supreme Court over its due share of Cauvery water from Karnataka, as the neighbouring State has refused to share the water with Tamil Nadu during a meeting of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) in New Delhi.
There is no situation in Karnataka where it has no water. Karnataka does not have the intention to share the water with Tamil Nadu.
Those who are aware of the Cauvery’s history know that this is not a recent trend. It is unfortunate that Karnataka has been maintaining this stand since the beginning.
Though it was unanimously decided during a meeting of the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee on August 10 to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka revised its stand during the meeting of CWMA in New Delhi on August 11.
Tamil Nadu walked out of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) meeting on Friday after Karnataka reportedly refused to agree to the release of 37.9 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) that is due to Tamil Nadu.
In a brief interaction with the media in Delhi, Sandeep Saxena, Additional Chief Secretary to government, Water Resources Department of Tamil Nadu, said that the State pointed out that 37.9 tmc ft water was deficit as on August 9, 2023.
Luna-25 will not affect Chandrayaan: Russian space agency (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, which launched the Luna-25, has said that its landing on the moon would not impede India’s Chandrayaan-3, which was launched on July 14, 2023, as the two missions had different landing areas and there was enough space on the moon for everyone.
Luna-25 was launched from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in the country’s far east region on Friday. Its lunar lander is expected to reach the moon on August 23, the same day on which Chandrayaan-3 is also expected to land on the lunar surface.
“Luna-25 and Chandrayaan-3 have different landing areas planned. There is no danger that they will hamper each other’s functions or collide. There is enough space on the moon for everyone.
Luna-25 is static, it will not move on the surface of the moon,” Ilya Morozov, Center of internal and external communications, State Corporation Roscosmos.
Launching Luna-25 onto the flight trajectory to the moon will take one hour and 20 minutes. The duration of the flight from earth to the moon is five days. Stay in lunar orbit — from five to seven days, depending on the landing area. Three areas are selected for the lunar landing.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to have the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover touch down near the lunar south pole region at 5.47 p.m. on August 23.
According to ISRO, there were six active lunar orbiters as of July 2023. “Currently, the only operating rover is China’s Yutu-2 rover released by Chang’e 4, which operates on the far side,” ISRO said on August 9.
Editorial
In ‘demolition raj’, the High Courts as beacons (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
In the districts of Gurugram and Nuh in Haryana, there have been clashes between Hindu and Muslim communities. People have been killed and public property damaged. Tensions are running high.
A good administration would have moved in to restore law and order, maintain peace, arrest the culpable, and commence the legal process of charge and prosecution. It would have also housed people left on the streets due to property damage.
However, in today’s India, good administrations are not the norm. Following the example of its peers in Uttar Pradesh, the Haryana government has taken to demolishing the houses of persons it suspects to have been involved in the violence.
And although there has been loss of both Hindu and Muslim lives, it is only the houses of the Muslim community that are targeted. Selectively and exclusively.
More people are left on the streets. And the rule of law is also demolished, most notably Article 14 enshrining the equality of law and equal protection of law.
That has given way to political expediency and capital, the electoral advantages of teaching a lesson to the minorities, to the rising crescendo of hate-politics, all with an eye on the next general election.
In all this, where do the courts sit, the guardians of the Constitution and protectors of the rights flowing therefrom? When the bulldozers in Uttar Pradesh were rampaging, the Supreme Court of India was moved.
Its response was tepid, hearing the government say that these were illegal constructions and the law was taking its course. And it stopped with making a general observation that all procedures should be followed.
India needs a new economic policy (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The National Statistical Office (NSO) has released the 2022-23 GDP fourth-quarter growth rate figures. Measured against fourth-quarter figures of the previous year, the data give a gloomier picture than what the media publications of the Press Information Bureau present.
According to NSO data, in the first COVID-19 pandemic quarter of 2020-21, i.e., April 1 to June 30, 2020, GDP growth rate was minus 23.8% when compared to GDP of the same period in 2019-20.
Three conclusions based on NSO data since 2014-2015 are important for a reality check. First, the growth rate of GDP, since 2015-16 had been declining annually, and has fallen in the fourth quarter to what it was earlier, and sneeringly referred to by economists as “The Hindu Rate of Growth” — 3.5% growth rate in GDP.
Second, it is essential to recognise that since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s widely publicised “Vikas” in reality achieved the so-called “Hindu rate of growth” in GDP of what had been achieved in the period 1950-77 — the socialism period.
Third, during the tenures of P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, GDP growth rates rose for the first time to between 6% to 8% per year over a 15-year period, i.e., 1991-96 and 2004-2014 (with the usual cyclic ups and downs).
That is, it took Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh as Prime Ministers to understand and reform the Indian economic system, to reduce state participation and increase incentives for capital and labour providers, thus achieving a higher and faster growth of the economy.
What is alarming today is the serious and continuous decline in GDP growth rates which began in 2016. And that decline continues even now. The Modi government has failed to structure economic policy coherently and which has prevailed during the period 2014-2023.
News
Parliament paves way for 28% GST on online gaming (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Parliament cleared amendments to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) laws to facilitate the levy of 28% GST on the face value of all bets made in casinos, horse-racing and online gaming.
Along with amendments to the Central and Integrated GST laws that were cleared without discussion by the Lower House, States will also have to make legislative changes to their respective GST Acts for the 28% levy to kick in. The Rajya Sabha returned the Bill to the Lok Sabha by Friday afternoon, paving the way for its enactment.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had indicated an October 1 target date to roll out the tax and an assured review of the levy six months after implementation.
Approved by the GST Council earlier this month, the legislative changes, moved through the Integrated GST (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Central GST (Amendment) Bill, 2023, include a provision that makes it mandatory for offshore online money gaming firms providing services to Indian users to register in India and pay taxes or face blockages.
While the Council had approved a 28% GST levy on wagers made in these sectors at its meeting in July 11, it was reconvened on August 2 to review the move in light of representations from industry and the Electronics and IT Ministry that is in charge of the e-gaming policy.
The Council decided to stick to its decision despite dissent from States like Sikkim and Goa that wanted the tax to be levied on gross gaming revenues as is the current practice, rather than the face value of bets. It, however, clarified that earnings from bets would not face repeat taxation.
SC Collegium firm on transfer of 24 HC judges (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the transfer of 24 judges from High Courts across the country despite requests from several of them to reconsider its decision.
While some judges urged the Collegium to rethink their transfers, others sought a shift to High Courts in neighbouring States. A few gave the apex court body the names of cities they did not mind moving into. One of the judges wrote to the Collegium about his younger son’s final board examination due in February 2024.
The Collegium has declined to retract any of the 24 proposed transfers. One of them, Justice C. Sumalatha, a Telangana High Court judge who was proposed to be shifted to Gujarat, made a request to the Collegium to move her to either Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka.
The Collegium suggested her for Karnataka. Similarly, Justice M. Sudheer Kumar, also from Telangana, was chosen for transfer to Calcutta High Court.
But the judge urged the Collegium to move him to the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka or the Madras High Courts. The Collegium has now suggested Madras for him.
Similarly, Justice Narender G, who was picked for transfer from Karnataka to Orissa, urged the Collegium to retain him in Karnataka for three or four months, or in the alternative, shift him to Telangana, Madras or Andhra Pradesh. He has now been proposed for Andhra Pradesh.
The Collegium turned down a request by Justice Munnuri Laxman, a Telangana High Court judge whose name was proposed for transfer to Rajasthan, to “either postpone or drop the proposal” or shift him to Karnataka. Justice Laxman’s colleague, Justice G. Anupama Chakravarthy, was also denied her request to be shifted to a nearby High Court. She was named for a transfer to Patna.
Business
June industrial growth slows to 3.7% (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Industrial production growth slowed to a three-month low of 3.7% in June, from May’s revised 5.3%, with consumer durables’ output sliding back into contraction, and manufacturing growth easing to 3.1% from 5.8% in May.
Electricity generation, which posted a 0.9% uptick in May after two months of contraction, accelerated to 4.2%, while mining output quickened to 7.6%, from 6.4% in the previous month. Industrial output, however, shrank 1.2% sequentially.
Consumer durables, which had recovered to post its first uptick in six months of 1.23% in May, shrank 6.9% in June. Production of durables remained 2.8% below last year’s levels in the first quarter of 2023-24.
Overall consumer demand remained tepid with even non-durable items’ growth slowing to just 1.2% in June, from 8.4% in May.
Capital goods output, a signal of investment intentions, grew 2.2% in June, the slowest pace in eight months, although in absolute terms, production levels were 4% above May and the highest since April.
As many as 14 of the 23 manufacturing sectors tracked by the National Statistical Office (NSO), which released the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data on Friday, saw a contraction in June, rising from 12 sectors that reported a drop in May.