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In a move that could effectively fast-forward some crucial cases, including challenges to demonetisation (2016) and reservations to the economically weaker sections (2020), the Supreme Court Wednesday picked 25 cases that will be heard by five-judge Constitution benches starting next week.
This takes effect from August 29, two days after Justice UU Lalit takes over as the Chief Justice of India. CJI N V Ramana retires August 26.
“Take notice that the following five judges bench matters shall be listed before the concerned courts from Monday, the 29th August, 2022 for directions including filing of common compilation, filing of short written submissions and tentative indication with regard to time taken by learned counsel. The matters shall thereafter be listed as per directions of the court,” a notification of the Supreme Court stated.
Significantly, in an interview to The Indian Express on August 14, CJI-designate Lalit spoke about the need to ensure crucial cases are listed on priority.
Among the key cases likely to be taken up are those challenging the exercise of updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam (pending since 2016); challenge to the establishment of the Central Bureau of Investigation (pending since 2016); and the case challenging the demonetisation scheme (pending since 2016).
Also listed for hearing are crucial cases concerning religion including the case seeking classification of Sikhs as a minority community in Punjab (pending since 2010); the PIL challenging the constitutional validity of religious practices of NikahHalala and polygamy (pending since 2018); the challenge to the practice of ex-communication in the Dawoodi Bohra community (pending since 2004); and the validity of a state law declaring all members of the Muslim community in Andhra Pradesh as part of Backward Classes (pending since 2006).
Nitish wins trust vote; slams BJP: bid to finish us since 2020 election (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The new Grand Alliance government in Bihar won the trust vote with ease on Wednesday with JD(U) leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launching a sharp attack against his former ally BJP, accusing it of “trying to finish” his party since the 2020 polls leading to his decision to break their tie-up. Nitish also said that he had “no ambition other than serving Bihar”.
The government won the trust motion with 160 votes in its favour and none against as the BJP, with a strength of 77 MLAs, staged a walkout before voting began.
All the seven non-BJP parties in the Assembly voted in favour of the government. Four MLAs were not present in the House, which has a current strength of 242.
The session was presided over by Deputy Speaker MaheshwarHazari after Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, a senior BJP leader, resigned from the post before the vote.
With the trust motion held in the backdrop of the CBI raids against RJD leaders, Nitish’s speech targeted the “current leadership” of the BJP, saying that its previous leaders A B Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi used to “like me, care for me and listened to me”.
In contrast, he said, the current BJP leadership did not even concede the state’s “simple demand” to grant Central university status to Patna University.
He recalled that the Vajpayee-led NDA-I government had approved the proposal for converting the Bihar College of Engineering into the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in a special Union Cabinet meeting.
Without naming anyone, Nitish said the BJP’s present leadership “does little except pracharprasar (publicity)… Yehcheezkyahain (What is this?)”
Citing other points of discord, he said, “Everyone knows that HarGharNalKa Jal is a state government programme and the Centre launched it later. But we were being pressured to take money spent on the programme and declare it a Central government scheme. We refused to do so.”
After the 2020 poll results, we were told Nand Kishore Yadav (JDU) would become Speaker but someone else was made. Our old friends like (BJP leaders) Sushil Kumar Modi, Prem Kumar and some others, too, were not made (state) ministers.”
The City
Anang Tal lake declared monument of national importance (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
The Anang Tal lake in South Delhi, believed to have been built a thousand years ago, has been declared a monument of national importance through a gazette notification by the Ministry of Culture.
The notification, issued on August 22, stated: “The central government is of the opinion that the ancient mound including Anang Tal, Tehsil Mehrauli, district South Delhi, National Capital Territory Delhi.
It is an ancient site and remains of national importance; Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (24 of 1958), the central government hereby gives notice of its intention to declare the said ancient site and remains to be of national importance.
The notification also invites objections or suggestions over the next two months. “Any objection or suggestions, to the declaration of the said archaeological site and remains to be of national importance, may be made within a period of two months from the date of issue of this notification, by any interested person in the said ancient site and remains; to the director general of ASI, with respect to said draft notification within the period specified shall be taken into consideration by the central government.
Reacting to the development, former National Monuments Authority chairmanTarun Vijay, who had submitted the proposal in 2019 to the Ministry of Culture for declaration of the site as a monument of national importance.
Recently, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had visited the Anang Tal Baoli inside Sanjay Van, and directed officials to restore the heritage stepwell within the next two months.
Union Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal, who visited the site in May, had asked the Delhi Development Authority, under whose jurisdiction the area falls, to restore the historic lake in Mehrauli.
The minister asked officials to expedite conservation work so the site could be declared a national monument.
As per the website of National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities, a government agency, Anang Tal is situated “to the north of Jog Maya temple and approximately 500 metres to the northwest of Qutub Complex”, and dates back to 1,060 AD.
Tradition ascribes this tank to a Tomar King, Anangpal II, the builder of Lal Kot. It is said to have been a place of a general resort but now it is dried up and used for cultivation.
Govt. and Politics.
Govt to provide health insurance for trans persons (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
Transgender persons will get yearly health insurance of Rs 5 lakh each under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Union government said. The insurance policy will also cover sex reassignment surgeries.
The National Health Authority, under the Health Ministry, signed a memorandum of understanding on this scheme with the Social Justice Ministry.
“The Rs 5-lakh cover is for an entire family under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. But we have changed the definition of the family to provide the total yearly coverage to transgender persons,” said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, calling the scheme a landmark step.
According to officials, health cards issued to trans persons will not cover their family members.More hospitals will be empaneled to provide sex reassignment surgeries. The minister, at the signing of the MoU, also said provisions were being made to offer services at AIIMS and other hospitals.
There are 4.8 lakh transgender persons in India who will be eligible for benefits under the scheme, the Health Minister said.
The Social Justice Ministry has a database of 4.8 lakh transgender persons. This will be added to the Ayushman Bharat database and they will be able to avail of benefits.
Those not already included can get their names added to the Social Justice Ministry database or use their Aadhaar card, with their gender mentioned, to avail of the scheme.
The scheme will cover all transgender persons not receiving such benefits from other centre/state sponsored schemes,” said a statement from the Health Ministry.
The statement also said benefits will be extended to those holding a transgender certificate issued by the national portal for transgender persons. As per the online portal, only around 8,000 certificates have been issued so far.
Medical professional and transgender activist Dr Aqsa Shaikh said: “The 4.8 lakh figure is as per the 2011 census and only 2 per cent of this number have been issued the certificate by the Social Justice Ministry so far.
However, even (if) others are able to get their cards, the challenge is that sex reassignment surgeries are not offered by many institutions, and there are very few trained plastic surgeons in the country.”
Now, Ayushman cards can be used for state schemes (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
The beneficiary card for Ayushman Bharat-–Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) can now be used to avail benefits for any existing state health insurance schemes as well, with the National Health Authority (NHA) allowing co-branding with logos and names of both schemes on the new cards.
At least 31 states and union territories have already agreed to the scheme, with final concurrence awaited from Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Delhi, West Bengal, and Odisha have stayed away from the scheme.
The same card can be used by beneficiaries under Ayushman Bharat and the state scheme. If a state wants to provide more than Rs 5 lakh benefit, partial funding for upto R 5 lakh will be provided by the Centre as per the existing scheme. If states have additional beneficiaries (other than those identified under the 2011 socio-economic and caste census), they will be also be able to use the same card,” said an official from the health ministry.
The co-branded cards will allot space to both PM-JAY ad state specific logos. At the bottom of the card, the name of the scheme will be mentioned as “Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojna-MukyamantriYojna (or the name of the state scheme).
The co-branding concept was introduced as the scheme is running in parallel with around 20 state schemes in India. NHA will provide full financial support for issuance of such co-branded cards to not just the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) beneficiaries identified under the scheme by the Centre but state-specific non-SECC beneficiaries as well.
The AB PM-JAY scheme provides R 5 lakh annual healthcare coverage to over 10 crore families across the country. So far, over 14 crore individuals have been issued Ayushman cards.
And, 3.75 crore hospital admisions amounting to Rs 45,000 crores have been authoried under the scheme, according to data from the union health ministry.
The NHA aims to achieve a saturation of Ayushma cards, with the SECC database being enriched using the verified data from the government’s LPG connection Ujjwala scheme and National Food Security database.
‘Incomprehensible’: Supreme Court sets aside a Himachal Pradesh HC judgement, calls for lucidity (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court has set aside an “incomprehensible” judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and advised judges to maintain lucidity and brevity in their writing.
The bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna also touched on aspects of judgment writing, reminding judges that their verdicts “must make sense to those whose lives and affairs are affected by the outcome of the case”.
The bench said it “found it difficult to navigate through the maze of incomprehensible language” in the high court decision. “Incoherent judgments have a serious impact upon the dignity of judicial institutions.”
It added: “A litigant for whom the judgment is primarily meant would be placed in an even more difficult position. Untrained in the law, the litigant is confronted with language which is not heard, written or spoken in contemporary expression”.
Writing for the bench, Justice Chandrachudsaid: “Language of the kind in a judgment defeats the purpose of judicial writing. Judgment writing of the genre before us in appeal detracts from the efficacy of the judicial process”.
The bench noted that it had to return two other judgments to the Himachal Pradesh High Court earlier and had also faced difficulties with an order of the Allahabad High Court.
The purpose of judicial writing”, Justice Chandrachud wrote, “is not to confuse or confound the reader behind the veneer of complex language. The judge must write to provide an easy-to-understand analysis of the issues of law and fact which arise for decision.
Judgments are primarily meant for those whose cases are decided by judges. Judgments of the High Courts and the Supreme Court also serve as precedents to guide future benches.
A judgment must make sense to those whose lives and affairs are affected by the outcome of the case. While a judgment is read by those as well who have training in the law, they do not represent the entire universe of discourse.
Underlining the importance of the written word, the SC in its August 16 order, said: “Confidence in the judicial process is predicated on the trust which its written word generates. If the meaning of the written word is lost in language, the ability of the adjudicator to retain the trust of the reader is severely eroded”
“Judgment writing”, said Justice Chandrachud ‘is” also “a critical instrument in fostering the rule of law and in curbing rule by the law’.
The Editorial Page
Always on trial (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Granting anticipatory bail to writer and social activist Civic Chandran in a sexual harassment case, the Kozhikode sessions court in Kerala has observed that the charge under Section 354 (A) (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code would prima facie not be attracted if the woman was wearing “sexually provocative” dresses.
Chandran, who had furnished some photographs of the complainant with his bail plea, was granted anticipatory bail on August 12. Earlier, on August 2, he had obtained anticipatory bail in another sexual harassment case.
According to the prosecution, the alleged incident took place on February 8 this year at a camp convened by Chandran and others near Koyilandy in Kozhikode district.
When the participants were returning after the camp, Chandran allegedly groped her and touched her inappropriately. The woman filed a complaint on July 29 and Chandranwas booked under sections 354A (2), 341 and 354 of the IPC.
Granting anticipatory bail to Chandran, District Sessions Judge S Krishna Kumar said, “In order to attract Section 354 A (sexual harassment), there must be physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures. There must be a demand or request for sexual favours. There must be a sexually coloured remark.
The photographs produced with the anticipatory bail application by the accused reveal that the complainant herself is exposing to dresses which are sexually provocative. Section 354 A will not prima facie stand against the accused,’’ said the court.
The court further said that it was impossible to believe that a 74-year-old physically disabled man could forcefully do things which he had been accused of. “…So, it is a case where an accused can be granted bail,’’ said the court.
The court observed that from the wordings of Section 354, it is very clear that there must be an intention on the part of the accused for outraging the modesty of a woman.
In order to attract this Section, there must be a physical contact and unwelcome, explicit sexual overtures…there must be a demand or request for sexual favours. There must be sexually coloured remarks.
Alleging that the woman had raised a false complaint against him, Chandran had questioned the delay in filing the complaint, claiming that it was a false case “cooked up by his enemies”.
The complainant had come to the camp with her boyfriend in the presence of many others, and nobody had raised such complaints against him.
The Idea Page
Stepping back from justice (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The remission of the life sentences of the 11 convicts in the BilkisBano case comes as a powerful reminder of a key dimension of the post-2002 Gujarat violence scenario — the guilty men and women went to jail only because of the then Supreme Court.
Bilkis, who was five months pregnant when she was gang raped by neighbours on March 3, 2002, after witnessing the murder of 15 members of her family including her three-year-old daughter, had tried to lodge a complaint the following day for rape and murder.
While recording her complaint, the police only mentioned seven of the deaths, claiming that the bodies of the other people could not be found, and refused to record her complaint for rape. The case was closed in January 2003 for lack of evidence.
Bilkis, with the support of several NGOs, including Janvikas and the National Human Rights Commission, petitioned the Supreme Court (SC), which ordered the government of Gujarat to reopen the case in September 2003.
The police then began a campaign of moral harassment, even waking her in the middle of the night to return to the location of the rape and murders to re-enact the events.
In December 2003, the SC directed the CBI to reopen the case. It finally arrested 12 people for rape and murder and six police officers for obstruction of justice.
Facing threats, Bilkis sought the transfer of the case in July, to which the SC agreed and a public prosecutor was appointed by the Centre in August 2004. Eventually, the case was tried in Mumbai and in 2008, 13 of the 20 accused were convicted, with 11 of them being given life sentences.
The SC did not stop there. The Best Bakery Case, named for a bakery in Vadodara where 14 people were burnt alive on March 1, 2002, had persuaded the apex court that, in this case too, victims would not get justice in Gujarat.
On April 12, 2004, invalidating the High Court decision, the Court ordered a retrial outside Gujarat and took the government, police and High Court of Gujarat to task: “When the investigating agency helps the accused, the witnesses are threatened to depose falsely and the prosecutor acts in a manner as if he was defending the accused, while the Court was acting merely as an onlooker, there is no fair trial at all and justice becomes the victim…”
A retrial was held in Mumbai starting in October 2004. In February 2006, based on incriminating evidence gathered by the CBI (which was finally charged with the investigation), nine of the 17 accused were given life sentences.
Explained Page
PMLA verdict review (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
On Thursday, the Supreme Court will hear in open court a review of its judgment upholding key provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
A three-judge Bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar (who has since retired), Dinesh Maheshwari, and C T Ravikumar had ruled on a batch of over 240 petitions challenging the special law against money laundering.
In Vijay MadanlalChoudhary&Ors v Union of India, a judgment delivered on July 27, the Supreme Court upheld the key provisions of the PMLA.
In the 540-page ruling, the SC accepted the government’s arguments on virtually every aspect that was challenged by the petitioners: from reversing the presumption of innocence while granting bail to passing the amendments as a Money Bill under the Finance Act to defining the contours of the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A ruling by the Supreme Court is final and binding. However, Article 137 of the Constitution grants the SC the power to review its judgments or orders.
A review petition must be filed within 30 days of pronouncement of the judgment. Except in cases of death penalty, review petitions are heard through “circulation” by judges in their chambers, and not in an open court.
Lawyers make their case through written submissions and not oral arguments. The judges who passed the verdict decide on the review petition as well.
The SC rarely entertains reviews of its rulings. A review is allowed on narrow grounds to correct grave errors that have resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
A mistake apparent on the face of record” is one of the grounds on which a case for review is made. This mistake, the court has said, must be glaring and obvious — such as relying on case law that is invalid.
Amendments introduced as Money Bills: In 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019, amendments including on bail and classification of predicate offences were made to the PMLA through the Finance Act.
The petitioners argued that the PMLA amendments do not qualify as a Money Bill as defined under Article 110 of the Constitution.
While the Court agreed that this could be a valid contention, it did not decide on the issue since the question of what qualifies as a Money Bill has been referred to a larger seven-judge Bench in another case.
Ulchi Freedom Shield (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills since 2017 this week. A Reuters report said the military drills included the resumption of field training. These joint military drills are designed to test readiness against North Korea’s missile tests.
The drills, called the Ulchi Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run until September 1. They are tri-service drills involving thousands of troops as well as live-fire exercises. North Korea has said these joint drills are a rehearsal of invasion.
These drills had been scaled back significantly because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and because South Korea’s former President Moon Jae-in had attempted to restart diplomatic talks with Pyongyang to get it to denuclearise.
South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk-yeol has a markedly different approach to North Korea in comparison to his predecessor. After taking office in May this year, Yoon had vowed to “normalise” these joint exercises.
During the campaign before elections, Yoon had been critical of President Moon’s efforts to engage with North Korea and accused him of being “submissive” to Pyongyang.
Also, former US President Donald Trump considered these joint military drills as being too expensive and too provocative. He too had tried to reach out to North Korea, and had met the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore for a summit in 2018.
Experts had predicted that South Korea’s policies towards North Korea under Yoon’s presidency would shift to those that previous conservative governments had adopted.
In addition to these joint drills, South Korea has also started the four-day Ulchi civil defence drills this week that is scheduled to end on Thursday (August 25).
According to a Reuters report, Yoon had said these military and civil drills “are aimed at improving the country’s preparedness to match the changing patterns of war, with evolving cyber threats against key facilities such as chip factories and supply chains”.
Yoon had called for these drills citing the need for more exercises designed on real scenarios. “Maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula is built on our airtight security posture,” the report quoted Yoon as saying.
Tomato flu and the enterovirus behind outbreak (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
With cases of tomato flu reported from at least four states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Odisha — the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday (August 23) issued a set of guidelines on prevention, testing, and treatment of the infection.
Attention was drawn to the condition, which has been intermittently reported from Kerala earlier, after a correspondence was published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine recently.
Researchers believe that it is a different clinical presentation of hand-foot-and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by a group of enteroviruses (viruses transmitted through the intestine).
Tomato flu or tomato fever is characterised by fever, joint pain, and red, tomato-like rashes usually seen in children below the age of five years.
This is accompanied by other symptoms of viral fevers such as diarrhoea, dehydration, nausea and vomiting, and fatigue.
This was thought to be an after effect of dengue and chikungunya that is commonly seen in Kerala. However, researchers now believe that it is HFMD caused by enteroviruses like Coxsackievirus A-6 and A-16.
Tomato flu could be an after-effect of chikungunya or dengue fever in children rather than a viral infection. It could also be a new variant of the viral hand, foot, and mouth disease, a common infectious disease targeting mostly children aged 1–5 years and immunocompromised adults.
DrEkta Gupta, professor of virology at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, said, “HFMD is not a new infection, we have read about it in our textbooks. It is reported from time to time across the country, but it is not very common.”
Dr Gupta said, “Perhaps there is more attention on the infection because more cases are being reported this year — this could either be because there actually are more cases or because we are more vigilant about viral infections and testing after Covid-19.”
She explained that since the disease is self-limiting, doctors do not usually test for it. There are so many viral infections in children, but we cannot — and there is no need to — test for each and every one of it.
However, we are now seeing more and more viral infections because testing for viral infections has increased over the last five years with virology labs being set up across the country. And the pandemic has given a further push to such surveillance.
Roots and Meaning of Mandala, now in display in park in liverpool (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
A spectacular ‘Mandala’ art installation, bigger than the size of a football field, currently covers a public park in Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Unveiled on August 12, the piece of land art called The Knowsley Mandala is made of natural elements, and is expected to last a month after which it will slowly fade away.
The artist behind the creation at Halewood Park Triangle is Yorkshire-based James Brunt, who is known for using natural materials found in forests, parks, and on beaches to create elaborate artworks that he photographs to document before they wither.
Mandala patterns are motifs that are centuries old, and are used to depict the cosmos. They have been adapted by artists the world over, each of whom has added their own interpretation to these designs.
Literally meaning the “circle” or the “centre” in Sanskrit, mandala is defined by a geometric configuration that usually incorporates the circular shape in some form. While it can also be created in the shape of a square, a mandala pattern is essentially interconnected.
Mandala is rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism. Mandala imagery first appeared in the Vedas (c. 1500-500 BC), and Buddhist missionaries travelling along the Silk Road are believed to have taken it to regions outside India.
By the sixth century, mandalas were recorded in China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Tibet. Separately, native American peoples are believed to have used the mandala as representation of a deity or the cosmos, and as a spiritual form.
It is believed that by entering the mandala and moving towards its centre, one experiences a cosmic process of transforming the universe and that of moving from emotions of suffering to the feeling of joy.
In Hindu philosophical systems, a mandala or yantra is usually in the shape of a square with a circle at its centre.A traditional Buddhist mandala is a circular painting that is meant to help its creator discover their true self.
There are various elements incorporated within the mandala, each of which has its own meaning. For instance, the eight spokes of the wheel (the Dharmachakra) represent the eight-fold path of Buddhism that brings liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
The lotus flower depicts balance, and the sun represents the universe. Facing up, triangles represent action and energy, and facing down, they represent creativity and knowledge.
Deep-rooted in ancient philosophy, the mandala has attained varied forms in the hands of modern and contemporary Indian artists.
While it continues to appear in Buddhist Thangka paintings, it has a central place in the works of even mainstream artists associated with tantric and neo-tantric spiritual movements.