Topic 1: Centre seeks more social diversity in judges’ appointment

Context: Law Minister informs Lok Sabha that 454 of the 604 High Court judges appointed since 2018 belong to general category.

Appointment of Judges:

• As per the Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of Judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts, the government appoints only those persons who are recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium
• Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed under Articles 124, 217 and 224 of the Constitution of India, that do not provide for reservation for any caste or class.
• As per information provided by the recommenders, out of 604 High Court Judges appointed since 2018 till now, 458 Judges belong to the General Category.
• 18 judges belong to the SC category, nine are from the ST category, 72 from OBC category, 34 from Minority category and for the remaining 13 judges.

 

What prevents the judiciary from ensuring social diversity?

• A report prepared by the American bar Association’s Center for Human Rights, published, reveals the “persistence of implicit biases of upper-caste judges toward their colleagues from the Dalit community”. It quotes a former Chief Justice of a high court as disclosing that “he faced resistance from his upper-caste colleagues whenever he considered a Dalit lawyer for appointment as a judge in that High Court.”
• A retired upper caste Supreme Court judge quoted in the report admits the existence of a bias against Dalit judges in the higher judiciary that they are less meritorious since they are appointed through reservation, and which is why they don’t get easily promoted.

How did Parliament seek to ensure social diversity in judiciary?

• The Report by the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of SCs and STs submitted in 2001, recommended in this regard, that Articles 124 and 217 of the Constitution be suitably amended to include the judiciary within the ambit of reservation, and simultaneously a Judiciary Act may be enacted to spell out the governing principles of the proper functioning of the Judiciary, especially the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
• The Report by the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, submitted in 2006 considered this issue in depth and categorically recommended reservation in favor of the SC, ST and OBCs in the higher judiciary, as with recruitment to all other public services in the country.
• Another recommendation is the formation of an All-India Judicial Service to recruit judges for the subordinate judiciary across the country, with reservation being applicable to the post of District Judges in all states. But there have been strong reservations against this proposal on the ground of federalism.

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Topic 2: ‘Impose President’s Rule in Manipur’ Opposition demands

Context:

• Several organizations have demanded imposition of President’s Rule in the State owing to perceived and known biases in the State administration and security forces.
• Women face sexual violence in Manipur, video clip surfaces.

About President Rule:

What is President Rule?

• Article 356 of the Constitution of India gives President of India the power to suspend state government and impose President’s rule of any state in the country if “if he is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution”.
• The central government takes direct control of the state and the governor becomes its constitutional head.
• Also there would be no Council of Ministers.
• The Vidhan Sabha is either dissolved or prorogued
• Even the chief minister’s office will be vacant, compelling the election commission to conduct re-election within six months.

What happens after President’s Rule is imposed?

• The governor carries on with the administration of the state on behalf of the President. He or she takes the help of the state’s Chief Secretary and other advisors/administrators whom he or she can appoint.
• The President has the power to declare that the state legislature’s powers would be exercised by the Parliament.
• The state legislative assembly would be either suspended or dissolved by the President.
• When the Parliament is not in session, the President can promulgate ordinances with respect to the state’s administration

When is President’s Rule imposed?
It has been seen that the President’s Rule has been imposed when any one of the following circumstances have occurred:

• The state legislature is not able to elect a leader as the Chief Minister for a time prescribed by the state’s governor.
• Breakdown of a coalition in the state government, that leads to the CM having minority support in the legislature, and the CM is unable to prove his majority within the time prescribed by the governor.
• A no-confidence vote in the legislative assembly leading to a loss of majority.
• Postponement of elections owing to unavoidable reasons such as a natural disaster, epidemic or war.

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Topic 3: Online portal launched to report violation of ban on e-cigarettes

Context:  Electronic cigarettes continue to be sold on e-commerce sites, even to children below 18, warn experts working in the area of tobacco control.

About Electronic cigarettes:

• E-cigarettes are the most common form of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS). 
• These are basically devices that do not burn or use tobacco leaves. Instead, they vaporize a solution using a battery.
• This vapor is then inhaled by the user.
• The main constituents of the solution, in addition to nicotine when nicotine is present, are propylene glycol, with or without glycerol and flavoring agents.
• Electronic cigarettes and similar devices are battery-operated systems that heat a substance (in liquid or solid state), which contains nicotine and often flavors, to create an aerosol for inhalation. 
• The Union government, considering the harmful effects of electronic cigarette and the alarming rise in its prevalence among youth, so under Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act, 2019.

Impacts on Health:

• It can have adverse effects during pregnancy and may contribute to cardiovascular disease.
• It may function as a tumor promoter.
• Nicotine seems involved in fundamental aspects of the biology of malignant diseases, as well as of neurodegeneration.

The Ethical Dilemma

• ENDS, more specifically e-cigarettes, were introduced and popularized by forwarding the argument that they are effective in helping people quit smoking tobacco.
• However, there are no concrete large-scale studies to show their effectiveness in helping people quit smoking.
• Meanwhile, proponents of e-cigarettes have come under attack from health activists who demand complete abolition of tobacco use. They argue that these products “undermine the efforts to de-normalize tobacco use”.

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Topic 4: India forex reserves top $600 billion, rise to near 15-month high

Context: India’s forex reserves see the biggest weekly jump in four months, as they went up by $12.74 billion to $609.02 billion, as per the Reserve Bank of India’s update.
 

Forex:

• The FCAs include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
• Gold reserves rose $1.14 billion to $45.20 billion, while SDRs increased by $250 million to $18.500 billion.
• Reserve Position in the IMF moved up by $158 million to $5.18 billion.
   

Supporting Factors:

• Strong software services export growth was witnessed across key vertices such as IT services, business process management (BPM), and engineering research and design (ER&D), supported by a rise in global capability centers.
• A major portion of the week-on-week jump in Forex reserves is driven by revaluation gains due to dollar weakness and reduction in U.S. Treasury yields.
• Rise in investment by foreign portfolio investors and increased foreign direct investments (FDIs).
• Dollar outflow from overseas remittances and foreign travels have fallen steeply.

Importance of Increasing Foreign Exchange Reserves

• Comfortable Position for the Government: The rising forex reserves give comfort to the government and the RBI in managing India’s external and internal financial issues.
• Appreciation in Rupee – The rising foreign exchange reserves has helped the rupee to strengthen against the dollar.
• It Assist the government in meeting its foreign exchange needs and external debt obligations.
• Managing Crisis: It serves as a cushion in the event of a Balance of Payment (Bop) crisis on the economic front.
• Confidence in Market: Reserves will provide a level of confidence to markets and investors that a country can meet its external obligations.

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Topic 5: India mulls green power trade with SE Asia

Context:  India is in talks with several Southeast Asian nations, including Singapore and Thailand, for cross-border trade of renewable energy (RE) electricity.

• The move will help expand cross-border sale of electricity by India manifold. Currently, cross-border interconnections exist with Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar, and these facilitate total power transfer of about 4,423 megawatts (MW).
• New Delhi is also considering trading power with West Asian countries, including the UAE.
• India plans to boost its renewable and big hydropower capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, from 177 GW currently. Solar parks are expected to account for much of the new capacity.
• The effort could help ease fossil fuel dependence by making solar power available for more hours of the day, the ministry officials said.
• India already exports some power to Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan along with very small amounts to Myanmar that would be stepped up massively under the new plan

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Topic 6: Varanasi court orders ASI survey of Gyanvapi mosque

Context: The court instructed the Archaeological Society of India to conduct the survey of the mosque barring the barricaded ‘wazukhana’ where Hindu litigants had claimed that they had found a ‘shivling’.

The wazukhana – a small pool inside the mosque where Hindu litigants claim that a shivling exists – will not be part of the survey, in the wake of an earlier Supreme Court order to protect the area.

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Topic 7: Surat Diamond Bourse

Context: Prime Minister of India is expected to inaugurate the Surat Diamond Bourse, claimed to be the world’s biggest office space in a single project, on November 21.

Key details:

• The Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) has been planned to expand and shift the diamond trading business from Mumbai to Surat, the hub of cutting and polishing diamonds.
• The thematic landscaping is based on the ‘panch tatva’ theme, comprising the five elementsof nature:
  • air,
  • water,
  • fire,
  • earth, and
  • sky
• Significance:
  • A major part of the diamond trading happens in Mumbai which has the amenities for international buyers.
  • Mumbai has a space crunch and office real estate is pricey.
  • A major chunk of the diamond traded in Mumbai is manufactured in Surat, from where local angadias carry them to Mumbai on trains, taking over 4.5 hours.

Who are the Angadias?

• The Angadia system is a century-old parallel banking system in the country where traders send cash generally from one state to another through a person called Angadia that stands for courier.
• It is by and large used in the jewellery business with Mumbai – Surat being the most popular route as they are two ends of the diamond trade.
• The cash involved is huge and it is the responsibility of the Angadia to transfer cash from one state to another for which they charge a nominal fee.
• Generally, it is the Gujarati, Marwari and Malbari community that are involved in the business.
• While the Angadia system per se is legal, there hangs a cloud over the activity as it is suspected that a lot of times it is used to transfer unaccounted money.
• Since the business deals in cash and there is no account maintained for the same, there have been suspicions that it is also used for transfer of black money like the hawala transaction which is generally used across countries.

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Topic 8: Judicial Recusal

Context: Recently a judge recused himself from a hearing.

About Judicial Recusal:

• When a judge withdraws from a case due to a conflict of interest, it is known as judicial recusal.
• When there is a conflict of interest, a judge can withdraw from hearing a case to prevent creating a perception that she carried a bias while deciding on the matter.
• This recourse is taken by the judges to ensure that the case is decided fairly.
• The practice stems from the cardinal principle of due process of law that nobody can be a judge in her own case.
• Any interest or conflict of interest would be a ground to withdraw from a case since a judge has a duty to act fair.

Types of recusal:

• There are two kinds of recusals:
  • automatic recusal where a judge himself withdraws from the case, or
  • discretionary recusal when a party raises a plea for recusal highlighting the possibility of bias or personal interest of the judge in the case.

Automatic recusal	Discretionary recusal
When a judge is required to recuse themselves by law.	When a judge has the discretion to recuse themselves.
Example – A judge must recuse themselves if they have a financial interest in the outcome of the case.	Example – A judge may recuse themselves if they have a close personal relationship with one of the parties.

Process for recusal

• The decision to recuse generally comes from the judge herself as it rests on the conscience and discretion of the judge to disclose any potential conflict of interest.
• In some circumstances, lawyers or parties in the case bring a request for recusal up before the judge themselves.
• If a judge recuses, the case is listed before the Chief Justice for allotment to a fresh Bench.
• There are no formal rules governing recusals, although several Supreme Court judgments have dealt with the issue.
  • In Ranjit Thakur v Union of India (1987), the Supreme Court held that the tests of the likelihood of bias is the reasonableness of the apprehension in the mind of the party.
  • The SC in State of West Bengal v. Shivananda Pathak (1998), defined judicial bias as a preconceived opinion or a predisposition or predetermination to decide a case or an issue in a particular manner, so much so that such predisposition does not leave the mind open to conviction.
    • Thus, it is a condition of mind which renders the judge incapable of impartiality in a particular case.  
  • Formulating a more definite rule in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India (2015), the Court observed that where a judge has a pecuniary interest, no further inquiry is needed as to whether there was a ‘real danger’ or ‘reasonable suspicion’ of bias.
    • However, other cases require such an inquiry, with the relevant test being the ‘real danger’ test— whether there is a ‘real danger’ of bias, to ensure that the court is thinking in terms of possibility rather than the probability of bias. 

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Topic 9: FASAL and NADAMS

Context: The government is implementing various projects related to Crop Production Forecasting and Drought Assessment such as FASAL and NADAMS.

About FASAL and NADAMS:

• Meaning of the acronyms:
  • FASAL : Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro- meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL) project for crop production, forecasting of field crops and
  • NADAMS: National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS) for Agricultural drought assessment.
• FASAL and NADAMS are operationalized by Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC).
  • It is an attached office of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare.
• FASAL:
  • Under FASAL programme, MNCFC regularly generates crop forecasts at District/State/National level for 9 major crops of the country
  • The nine crops namely rice, wheat, rabi pulses, rapeseed & mustard, rabi, jowar, cotton, jute, tur and sugarcane are covered under FASAL project.
  • Significance:
    • This improves accuracy in crop estimation surveys, Disaster management and relief, Crop insurance, and Farm level advisories.

• NADAMS:
  • NADAMS provides near real-time information on prevalence, severity level and persistence of agricultural drought at state/ district/sub-district level.
  • Currently, it covers 17 states of India, which are predominantly agriculture based and prone to drought situation

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Topic 10: Portal to report violation of ban on e-cigarettes

Context: The Health Ministry has launched an online portal to facilitate reporting of violations under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act (PECA).

About e-cigarettes:

• E-cigarettes are the most common form of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).
• These are basically devices that do not burn or use tobacco leaves.
• Instead, they vaporise a solution using a battery.
• This vapour is then inhaled by the user.
• The main constituents of the solution are:
  • nicotine
  • propylene glycol,
  • glycerol and
  • flavouring agents
• These solutions and emissions also contain some solutions that are considered to be “toxicants”.

Concerns:

• Similar to traditional cigarettes:
  • Once nicotine is used in the solution of an e-cigarette, the difference between it and a conventional cigarette blurs.
  • If the nicotine delivery is quick and powerful, the e-cigarette would be no different from a conventional cigarette.
• Addiction:
  • When it comes to their addictive power, the use of nicotine solutions (a highly addictive substance) in e-cigarettes can be equally addictive as conventional cigarettes, if not more.
• Health hazards:
  • It can have adverse effects during pregnancy and may contribute to cardiovascular disease.
  • Although nicotine itself is not a carcinogen, it may function as a tumour promoter.

The Ethical Dilemma

• ENDS, more specifically e-cigarettes, were introduced and popularised by forwarding the argument that they are effective in helping people quit smoking tobacco.
• However, there are no concrete large-scale studies to show their effectiveness in helping people quit smoking.
• Proponents of e-cigarettes have come under attack from health activists who demand complete abolition of tobacco use.
• They argue that these products undermine the efforts to de-normalise tobacco use.

Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act (PECA) The Act seeks to prohibit the production, trade, storage, and advertisement of electronic cigarettes.Definition of Electronic cigarettes:The Act defines electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) as electronic devices that heat a substance, which may contain nicotine and other chemicals, to create vapour for inhalation. These e-cigarettes can also contain different flavours and include all forms of electronic nicotine delivery systems, heat-not-burn products, e-hookahs, and other similar devices.Any production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale (including online sale), distribution or advertisement (including online advertisement) of e-cigarettes shall become a cognisable offence in India.This will be punishable with an imprisonment of up to one year or fine up to Rs 1 lakh or both for the first offence.In case someone is caught flouting the law again, the punishment would be imprisonment of up to three years and fine up to Rs 5 lakh.Those found storing e-cigarettes will be punished with an imprisonment up to 6 months or fine up to Rs 50,000 or both.Those who have existing stocks of e-cigarettes will have to declare and deposit them with the nearest police station on their own before the ordinance comes into effect

Way Forward

• Banning traditional cigarettes too:
  • India has taken an even more stringent option than the US by completely banning the product, while inexplicably having no extra restrictions on traditional cigarettes, which are proven to be multiple times more harmful.
  • The long-term harm of e-cigarettes is less than 5% compared to other tobacco products.  
• Black marketing regulation:
  • There are thriving underground or black markets for all of these substances banned by the government and it is no different with e-cigarettes.
  • People can buy e-cigarettes online quite easily on various portals.
  • Hence the government should regulate such markets and portals effectively. 
• Taking lessons from abroad:
  • It would behove the government to learn the lessons from the UK and the US and choose a harm reduction approach, which would involve developing a regulatory plan for e-cigarettes that maximises smoking cessation among adults while limiting youth uptake.
• Other steps that can be taken:
  • levying appropriate taxes,
  • issuing public use guidelines,
  • providing information about the product,
  • enforcing a minimum age for sales,  
  • individual product restrictions surrounding flavour choices
  • nicotine concentration in e-cigarette products