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The Supreme Court stopped the execution of an Allahabad High Court decision to appoint a commission to inspect the premises of the Shahi Idgah mosque at Mathura which the Hindus believe to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna.
A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said the High Court order was passed on an “omnibus, vague” application for inspection of the mosque premises.
You cannot make an omnibus application for a Commission,” Justice Khanna addressed senior advocate Shyam Divan, who represented the Hindu plaintiffs.
The court ordered against the setting up of the commission. The commission will not be executed,” Justice Khanna dictated the order of the Bench.
Editorial
Judicial contradiction in Delhi Chief Secretary’s extension (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court of India’s judgment, in November 2023, permitting a six-month extension to Delhi’s Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar is one more instance of the Court’s judicial self-abnegation.
The Court sets out the correct doctrine, but when the government digs in its heels and refuses to follow the law laid down, the Court buckles down and invents a subsequent justification for the government to do as it wants. This kind of reversal renders the Court’s judgments as “writ in water”.
Delhi’s incumbent Chief Secretary has serious charges of corruption and favouritism against him, with the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal writing to the Delhi Lt. Governor seeking the Chief Secretary’s removal.
He was anyway due to retire on November 30, 2023 and the Delhi Government had sought discussions with the Centre on appointing a successor.
On November 29, the Chief Justice asked the Solicitor-General, “Or you (Centre) can let this man superannuate and make a fresh appointment. The Solicitor-General responded that a 2023 Amendment Act gave the Centre statutory authority over the civil services in the national capital. Later the court was informed that the Centre had chosen to extend the Chief Secretary’s tenure by six months.
Opinion
India doesn’t need wolf warriors (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
In an effort to promote tourism in Lakshadweep after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, several social media users ran a campaign with hashtags to boycott the Maldives.
This elicited distasteful reactions from a section of Maldivian officials, including deputy ministers, which in turn led to a further war of words on social media.
The Maldives suspended the deputy ministers — Malsha Shareef, Maryam Shiuna and Mahzoom Majid — for their comments on Mr. Modi and India and also clarified that their views were not official or shared by the government.
However, it is quite possible that the comments of the Maldivian officials were deliberate as they were made before the visit of the Maldivian president, Mohamed Muizzu, to China.
Mr. Muizzu has taken a significant pro-China stand compared to his predecessor. His election campaign in 2023 also contained anti-India rhetoric: he promised to remove Indian troops from the Maldives and balance trade relations, which he claimed were heavily tilted in India’s favour.
During his recent visit to China’s Fujian Province, Mr. Muizzu stated that the Maldives’ number one market before COVID-19 was China and appealed to China to “intensify” its efforts to regain that position.
China and the Maldives also elevated their bilateral ties to a ‘comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership’. In addition, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China “respects and supports the Maldives in exploring a development path suited to its national conditions”.
According to the vocabulary of Chinese diplomacy, this means that China wants the Maldives to emerge out of India’s shadows.
This is consistent with China’s efforts elsewhere, including in the United Nations, to delegitimise existing norms and rules by referring to “national conditions” in its official statements.
The new agreements will in all likelihood increase China’s presence in the Maldives and its waters and allow China an increased digital and physical surveillance capability.
Text & Context
Understanding the Tenth Schedule (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The Maharashtra Assembly Speaker has refused to disqualify 40 MLAs of the Eknath Shinde faction after recognising it as the real Shiv Sena. He held the appointment of whip by this group as valid. He also did not disqualify 14 MLAs of the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) group due to technical reasons under the Tenth Schedule.
The defections of legislators during the 1960s and 70s from their parent parties created political instability in many States, bringing down elected governments.
Therefore, to ensure the stability of elected governments, the 52nd constitutional amendment introduced the ‘anti-defection’ law through the Tenth Schedule in 1985.
This Schedule provides that a member of a House of Parliament or State legislature who voluntarily gives up the membership of their political party or votes against the instructions of their party in a House are liable for disqualification from said House.
This instruction with respect to voting is issued by the ‘whip’ of a party. A ‘whip’ is a member of the ‘legislature party’ in a House who is appointed as such by the respective ‘political party’.
The ‘political party’ is the entire organisation of a party including the legislators, while the ‘legislature party’ is only the members of a political party in a House of Parliament or State legislature.
What are light-emitting diodes and why are they prized as light sources? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In October 2014, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences issued a statement in which it said, “Incandescent light bulbs … lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.”
The occasion was the awarding of the Nobel Prize for physics for that year, for an achievement that paved the way for light-emitting diodes (LEDs), to succeed incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps, as the world’s light-source of choice.
A diode is an electronic component about 5 mm wide. It has two points of contact, or terminals, called its anode and cathode. A diode’s primary purpose is to allow current to flow in only one direction. It achieves this using a p-n junction.
A p-n junction is made of two materials laid next to each other. One material is a p-type material: its primary charge-carriers are holes. The other is an n-type material: its primary charge-carriers are electrons.
You’re familiar with electrons: they are ‘places’ inside atoms that carry negative charge. A hole denotes a ‘place’ in an atom or a group of atoms where there could be an electron but isn’t. Thus, a hole is an electron placeholder but without the electron, so it has a positive charge.
News
India, China tensions continued through 2021, 2022, new details reveal (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Tensions between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) continued through 2021 and till 2022-end, against the backdrop of the stand-off in eastern Ladakh and continued attempts by China to ingress into Indian territory, new details have revealed.
The Army has presented gallantry awards to personnel for acts of bravery in this regard at two investiture ceremonies held in the past few days.
One such act involved relaying of live feed from the enemy side in the Sikkim area by a Major-rank officer for 120 hours for which he was awarded the Sena Medal (Gallantry).
The citation for this November 2022 incident which was read at the Central Command investiture ceremony also noted the tough conditions and high-altitude area in which the officer operated.
As the fresh details of the tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours became public, the Army’s Western Command quickly pulled down the video of the investiture ceremony, while that of the Central Command was available when last accessed by this reporter. The ceremony was for operations between September 2021 and November 2022.
Crash course in new criminal laws, moot court proceedings planned for police officers (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has prepared “crash courses” and “moot court proceedings” to train police officials across the country in implementing the three criminal laws that were passed by Parliament last month.
Three sets of training modules have been developed for officers from the rank of Station House Officer to Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP). The BPRD functions under the Union Home Ministry.
While a two-day crash course has been readied for officers from the rank of Inspector-General (IG) of Police to ADGP, those up to the rank of Superintendent of Police will receive training for three days, and others for five days.
In the training module, the three laws have been divided in sections of nine and 11 with intended outcomes such as “understanding and addressing gender-based crimes”, “proficiency in arrest procedures and rights”, and “legal implications of admissions and confessions and difference between primary and secondary evidence”.
Business
India’s KABIL acquires five lithium blocks in Argentina (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India has announced the acquisition of five lithium blocks in Argentina. Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL), operating under the Ministry of Mines, signed an agreement with Argentina’s state-owned Catamarca Minera Y EnergeticaSociedad Del Estado (CAMYEN) based in Catamarca province.
KABIL, which has obtained exploration and exclusivity rights for the blocks, will start exploration and development of the five lithium brine blocks — Cortadera-I, Cortadera-VII, Cortadera-VIII, Cateo-2022-01810132, and Cortadera-VI — covering an area of about 15,703 hectares. Upon discovery, exploitation rights for commercial production have also been granted.
KABIL was preparing to set up a branch office at Catamarca, officials told businessline, adding that the project cost (for development and exploration) was about ₹200 crore and would be spread over a five-year period.
World
OpenAI not to allow AI for political campaigning, lobbying in elections (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Ahead of general elections, U.S.-based artificial intelligence research organisation OpenAI has said it will not allow its AI to be used for political campaigning and continue to work to prevent misleading ‘deepfakes’ and chatbots impersonating candidates.
The Sam Altman-led firm said it has made a number of policy changes to prevent its generative AI-based technologies such as ChatGPT, Dall-e and the rest from undermining the ‘democratic process’ during upcoming elections.
As we prepare for elections in 2024, our approach is to continue our platform safety work by elevating accurate voting information, enforcing measured policies, and improving transparency.
Besides India, the U.S. and the U.K. will also go to the polls this year. OpenAI said it is working to “anticipate and prevent relevant abuse — such as misleading ‘deepfakes’, scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates”.
Science
What it will take to make science communication work for India (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Last year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Chandrayaan-3, the country’s most recent lunar exploration mission.
Over a span of a few months, people around India tracked its progress and, later, its scientific findings. The lander’s soft-landing was telecast on several channels, making it one of the largest demonstrations of a live scientific experiment in India.
Overall, coverage of Chandrayaan-3 was an exemplar of the public communication of advanced science, and likely contributed to widespread understanding and discourse around the endeavour.
India had a similar focus on scientific information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as governments implemented disaster management laws, the States’ as well as experts’ communication of scientific and healthcare-related information became significant.
A good example is the manual on homemade masks issued by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, which accelerated the use and adoption of reusable and affordable masks.
Similarly, the ‘Indian Scientists’ Response to COVID-19’ initiative shared evidence-based perspectives from experts on social media.
But in spite of these initiatives, the pandemic exposed serious lacunae in the reliable communication of scientific information in India – particularly vis-a-vis accurate data reporting, vaccine hesitancy, and prediction of the resurgence of infections.