Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Social Justice Ministry slammed the aviation regulator, demands guidelines for licensing of transgender persons as pilots.

• The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) denied commercial pilot license to a transgender candidate.
• The actions of the DGCA violates the provisions stated under The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019, as it ends up being discriminatory by denying/ terminating employment or occupation on the basis of gender of the person.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019

Definition of a transgender person:

• The Bill defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth.
• It includes trans-men and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra

Prohibition against discrimination:

• The Bill prohibits the discrimination against a transgender person, including denial of service or unfair treatment in relation to:
• Education;
• Employment;
• Healthcare;
• Access to, or enjoyment of goods, facilities, opportunities available to the public;
• Right to movement;
• Right to reside, rent, or otherwise occupy property;
• Opportunity to hold public or private office; and
• Access to a government or private establishment in whose care or custody a transgender person is.

Right of residence:

• Every transgender person shall have a right to reside and be included in his household.

Employment:

• No government or private entity can discriminate against a transgender person in employment matters, including recruitment, and promotion.
• Every establishment is required to designate a person to be a complaint officer to deal with complaints in relation to the Act.

Education:

• Educational institutions funded or recognised by the relevant government shall provide inclusive education, sports and recreational facilities for transgender persons, without discrimination.

Health care:

• The government must take steps to provide health facilities to transgender persons including separate HIV surveillance centres, and sex reassignment surgeries.

Certificate of identity for a transgender person:

• A transgender person may make an application to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity, indicating the gender as ‘transgender’.

Welfare measures by the government:

The Bill states that the relevant government will take measures to ensure the full inclusion and participation of transgender persons in society.

It must also take steps for their rescue and rehabilitation, vocational training and self-employment, etc.

National Council for Transgender persons (NCT):

• The Council will advise the central government as well as monitor the impact of policies, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons.
• It will also redress the grievances of transgender persons.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Recently, the Supreme Court underlined that “there is a pressing need” for reform in the law related to bail and called on the government to consider framing a special legislation on the lines of the law in the United Kingdom.

What is the ruling about?

• A two-judge Bench of Supreme Court issued certain clarifications to an older judgment delivered in July 2021 on bail reform (Satender Kumar Antil vs CBI).
• Referring to the state of jails in the country, where over two-thirds lodged are undertrials, the Supreme Court underlined that arrest is a draconian measure that needs to be used sparingly.
• Of this category of prisoners, majority of them are poor and illiterate and also would include women.
• The court also linked the idea of indiscriminate arrests to magistrates ignoring the rule of “bail, not jail” to a colonial mindset.

What is the law on bail?

• The CrPC does not define the word bail but only categories offences under the Indian Penal Code as ‘bailable’ and ‘non-bailable’.
• The CrPC empowers magistrates to grant bail for bailable offences as a matter of right.
• Non-bailable offences are cognizable, which enables the police officer to arrest without a warrant.
• In such cases, a magistrate would determine if the accused is fit to be released on bail.

And what is the UK law?

• The Bail Act of the United Kingdom, 1976, prescribes the procedure for granting bail.
• A key feature is that one of the aims of the legislation is reducing the size of the inmate population.
• The law also has provisions for ensuring legal aid for defendants.
• The Act recognises a “general right” to be granted bail.
• For rejecting bail, the prosecution must show that grounds exist for believing the defendant on bail would not surrender to custody, would commit an offence while on bail, or would interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct the course of justice; unless the defendant must be detained for his own welfare or protection; or in other circumstances.

What has the Supreme Court held on reforms?

The court’s ruling is in the form of guidelines, and it also draws the line on certain procedural issues for the police and judiciary.

SEPARATE LAW FOR BAIL:

• The court underlined that the CrPC, despite amendments since Independence, largely retains its original structure as drafted by a colonial power over its subjects.
• The court made this point to signal that despite its rulings, structurally, the Code does not account for arrest as a fundamental liberty issue in itself.
• It also highlighted that magistrates do not necessarily exercise their discretionary powers uniformly.
• The court’s solution on this is the framing of a separate law that deals with the grant of bail.

INDISCRIMINATE ARRESTS:

• The court noted that the culture of too many arrests, especially for non-cognisable offences, is unwarranted.
• It emphasised that even for cognisable offences, arrest is not mandatory and must be “necessitated”.
• Such necessity is drawn to prevent the committing of any further offense, for a proper investigation, and to prevent him/her from either disappearing or tampering with the evidence.
• It held that lower courts must satisfy that these conditions are met and any non-compliance would entitle the accused for grant of bail.

BAIL APPLICATION:

• There need not be any insistence of a bail application while considering the application under certain Section of the Code.
• These sections relate to various stages of a trial where a magistrate can decide on release of an accused.
• The Supreme Court held that in these circumstances, magistrates must routinely consider granting bail, without insisting on a separate bail application.

DIRECTION TO STATES:

The SC also directed all state governments and Union Territories to facilitate standing orders to comply with the orders and avoid indiscriminate arrests.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Nord Stream 1, Germany’s main source of gas from Russia, was shut down on July 11 for 10 days of scheduled maintenance work.

• There are growing concerns in European countries that Russia would extend the temporary suspension of gas supplies in retaliation against the current sanctions leveled against Moscow.

What is Nord Stream 1?

• Nord Stream 1 is a 1,224 km underwater gas pipeline that runs from Vyborg in northwest Russia to Lubmin in northeastern Germany via the Baltic Sea.
• The pipeline is the primary route through which its gas enters Germany.
• It transports 55 billion cubic metres of gas a year, of which most goes directly to Germany, while the rest travels west and southwards through onshore links to other countries and into storage caverns.
• There have been growing concerns that there could be further restrictions to European gas supplies, well beyond the scheduled maintenance that has been imposed.
• European countries rely on Russian energy for their cold winters, but now believe that Russia could weaponize their dependency as a response to their sanction due to the conflict in Ukraine.

What are Europe’s alternative sources of energy?

• As an alternative source for energy, European countries have increasingly turned towards the US, from whom they purchase liquified natural gas (LNG) that comes via ships.
• Since ship delivered gas ends up being far more expensive, there are also attempts to get non-Russian pipeline gas from Norway and Azerbaijan.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, has recommended substantial changes to the Mediation Bill, meant for institutionalisation of mediation and establishment of the Mediation Council of India.

Key Features of Mediation Bill, 2021

Pre-litigation mediation:

• Parties must attempt to settle civil or commercial disputes by mediation before approaching any court or certain tribunals.
• Even if they fail to reach a settlement through pre-litigation mediation, the court or tribunal may at any stage refer the parties to mediation if they request for the same.

Disputes not fit for mediation:

The Bill contains a list of disputes which are not fit for mediation.  These include disputes:

• Relating to claims against minors or persons of unsound mind,
• Involving criminal prosecution, and
• Affecting the rights of third parties.
• The central government may amend this list.

Applicability:

The Bill will apply to mediations conducted in India:

• Involving only domestic parties,
• Involving at least one foreign party and relating to a commercial dispute (i.e., international mediation), and
• If the mediation agreement states that mediation will be as per this Bill.

If the central or state government is a party, the Bill will apply to:

• Commercial disputes, and other disputes as notified.

Mediation process:

• Mediation proceedings will be confidential, and must be completed within 180 days (may be extended by 180 days by the parties).
• A party may withdraw from mediation after two sessions.
• Court annexed mediation must be conducted as per the rules framed by the Supreme Court or High Courts.

Mediators:

Mediators may be appointed by:

• The parties by agreement, or
• A mediation service provider (an institution administering mediation).

Mediation Council of India:

• The central government will establish the Mediation Council of India.
• The Council will consist of a chairperson, two full-time members, three ex-officio members , and a part-time member from an industry body.

Functions of the Council include:

• Registration of mediators, and
• Recognising mediation service providers and mediation institutes

Mediated settlement agreement:

• Agreements resulting from mediation (other than community mediation) will be final, binding, and enforceable in the same manner as court judgments.
• They may be challenged on grounds of: (i) fraud, (ii) corruption, (iii) impersonation, or (iv) relating to disputes not fit for mediation.

Community mediation:

• Community mediation may be attempted to resolve disputes likely to affect the peace and harmony amongst residents of a locality.
• It will be conducted by a panel of three mediators (may include persons of standing in the community, and representatives of resident welfare associations).

Key Issues

• The Bill makes participation in pre-litigation mediation mandatory. Mediation is a voluntary dispute resolution process. On one hand, this could lead to more out of court settlements and reduce the pendency in courts.  On the other hand, mandating mediation goes against its voluntary nature.
• The moment any law is made on the subject it becomes the guiding force.
• The Bill proposes a clause giving the powers to court to make rules for ‘court annexed mediation’, which is unconstitutional.
• It also raises the question on the non-applicability of the provisions of the Bill to disputes/matters of non-commercial nature involving the Government and its agencies.
• The Mediation Council requires prior approval from the central government before issuing regulations related to its essential functions.
• It is not clear why such prior approval is required.
• This may also be questioned since the central government may be a party to mediations.
• The Bill applies to international mediations only if they are conducted in India.
• It does not provide for enforcement of settlement agreements resulting from international mediation conducted outside India.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

NASA has revealed some stunning images of the universe taken from its James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA Webb Space Telescope Images:

• The first image from the Webb has been shared from NASA’s Goddard Space Centre and is the same deep field image of SMACS 0723.
• Some of the cosmic objects in the image are pictured as they were 13.1 billion years ago.
• The second image is a spectrum of the gas giant planet WASP-96b, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth.
• This is the first spectrum of an exoplanet taken by Webb.
• It reveals wavelengths that haven’t been revealed before. The spectrum reveals tell-tale signatures of water vapour on the planet.

• The third image is a near-infrared image of the Southern Ring Nebula or the “Eight-burst Nebula,” a planetary Nebula surrounding a dying star.

• The fourth image is an enormous mosaic of Stephan’s Quintet and the largest image taken by Webb to date.
• The image shows the dramatic impact of huge shockwaves as one of the galaxies smashes through the cluster.
• It also shows a black hole in the Quintet at a detail never seen before.

• The last and final image released by NASA shows a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula called NGC 3324, and its “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars.
• Captured in infrared for the first time by Webb, the new image shows previously invisible areas of star birth.

What is NASA’s James Webb Telescope?

• The telescope has been in the works for years.
• NASA led its development with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
• It was launched aboard a rocket on December 25, 2021, and is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
• It is a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins, as it will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evo

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The futility of the bail order granted by Supreme Court to Mohammed Zubair has bought the focus on Complete Justice as stipulated in Article 142 of Indian Constitution.

Article 142 – It stated that any decree or order passed by the Supreme Court to do complete justice was enforceable throughout the territory of India.

Powers and Challenges of Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court of India is regarded as the world’s most powerful top court, on account of its wide power of judicial review.
• It has the jurisdiction to issue writs under Article 32 of the Constitution.
• It also has the original jurisdiction under Article 131 of the Constitution.
• There is also wide appellate power under Articles 132, 133, 134 and 136 of the Constitution.
• It has the power to “make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it”, as per Article 142 of the Constitution.
• Yet, the top court has shown itself to be helpless when issues of individual liberty have been placed before it on very many occasions.
• The jail jurisprudence of the executive effectively surpasses the Court’s bail jurisdiction.
• The executive is able to register multiple FIRs in different States of India so as to ensure that the dissident is not released from prison even if bail is granted in some of the cases.

Rule by Law

• The criminal justice system in tough times degenerates into rule by law that replaces rule of law.
• The law becomes an effective device in the hands of the Government for the purposes of a witch-hunt and this operates against the opponents of a regime.
• Rule by law indicates that decisions are forced upon a citizenry, while Rule of law is to control the unlimited exercise of the power by the supreme lawmaking authority of the land.
• A constitutional court should be able to evolve a mechanism of its own to preserve the democratic foundation of the country by intervening in the incremental process of nation’s “deconstitutionalisation”.

Create Judicial Atmosphere

• Top court must act as a determined umpire who checks the executive’s excesses.
• The Supreme Court’s intervention in the Centre’s COVID-19 vaccine policy and the Pegasus episode illustrates this point.
• The need is to expand the latter approach and to create and perpetuate a democratic judicial atmosphere that supports the cause of freedom.
• The Indian Supreme Court is constitutionally equipped with the power to invoke its jurisdiction for the larger cause of liberty, even by deviating from the conventional technical route.
• The “complete justice” under Article 142 is meant to be used such scenarios
• In Delhi Development Authority vs Skipper Construction Company (1996), the top court said that the power under Article 142 should remain “undefined and uncatalogued, so that it remains elastic enough to be moulded to suit the given situation”.

Treating them as a class

• It is essential for the Supreme Court of India to treat political prisoners and dissenters facing multiple FIRs and undergoing unjustifiably long incarceration as a class.
• It needs jurisprudence at the normative level to tackle the technical arguments that create a false notion of rule of law
• The Court should immediately ensure that vindictive incarceration does not continue even for a day.

The present case is one that demonstrates the juridical deficits of today’s Supreme Court. It is, therefore, an imperative to evolve an effective jurisprudence of “complete justice” by focusing on personal liberty, and thus preserving the country’s democratic legacy.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

World Population Prospects 2022 was released UN Dept of Economic & Social Affairs

World Population Prospects

• The Population Division of the UN has been publishing the WPP in a biennial cycle since 1951.
• Each revision of the WPP provides a historical time series of population indicators starting in 1950.
• It does so by taking into account newly released national data to revise estimates of past trends in fertility, mortality or international migration.

Takeaways for the global population

• Currently, with 7 billion Asia is the most populous continent and has 61 per cent of the global population, 17 per cent reside in Africa (1.3 billion), 10 per cent in Europe (750 million), 8 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean (650 million), and the remaining 5 per cent in Northern America (370 million) and Oceania (43 million).
• The world’s population continues to grow, but the pace of growth is slowing down: The global population is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
• In 2020, the global growth rate fell under 1% per year for the first time since 1950.
• Rates of population growth vary significantly across countries and regions: More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania.
• The 46 least developed countries (LDCs) are among the world’s fastest-growing.
• Many are projected to double in population between 2022 and 2050, putting additional pressure on resources and posing challenges to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

PM unveils National Emblem cast on the roof of the new Parliament Building.

• The National Emblem is made of bronze with a total weight of 9500 Kg and is 6.5 m in height.

State Emblem

• The State Emblem of India is the national emblem of the Republic of India and is used by the union government, state governments, and other government agencies.
• The State Emblem is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Asoka at Sarnath.
• In the original, there are four lions, mounted back to back, on a circular abacus, which itself rests on a bell-shaped lotus.
• The frieze of the abacus has sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening Dharma Chakras.
• The profile of the Lion Capital showing three lions mounted on the abacus with a Dharma Chakra in the centre, a bull on the right and a galloping horse on the left, and outlines of Dharma Chakras on the extreme right and left was adopted as the State Emblem of India on January 26, 1950.
• The bell-shaped lotus was omitted.
• The motto Satyamev Jayate, which means ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’, written in Devanagari script below the profile of the Lion Capital is part of the State Emblem of India.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Dark matter detector experiment named LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) in South Dakota in the U.S. was recently in news

• As of today, this is the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world.

What is dark matter and why is it so elusive?

• All interactions in the universe are a result of four fundamental forces acting on particles — strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitation.
• Dark matter is made up of particles that do not have a charge — which means they do not interact through electromagnetic interactions.
• So, these are particles that are “dark”, namely because they do not emit light, which is an electromagnetic phenomenon, and “matter” because they possess mass like normal matter and hence interact through gravity.
• Gravitational force, besides not being fully integrated and understood by particle physicists, is extremely weak.
• For one thing, a particle that interacts so weakly becomes rather elusive to detect.
• This is because interactions from other known particles could drown out signals of dark matter particles.

Why do physicists believe strongly that dark matter exists?

• There is strong indirect evidence for dark matter, and this evidence is reflected at various levels (or distance scales).
• The discrepancy between the calculated and observed value of velocities in rotating galaxies proves that there is a certain fraction of matter which exerts a gravitational pull on the rest of the stars in the galaxy.
• This means that there is a definite amount of dark matter in the galaxy.

What are the evidences from other distance scales?

• The second evidence came from observations of the so-called Bullet cluster of galaxies.
• The Bullet cluster is formed through the merging of two galaxy clusters.
• Physicists found from their calculations that the way these mergers took place could not be fully explained if we believed that the visible universe were all that existed.
• Therefore, there should be something like dark matter as well as an estimate of how much dark matter there should be in the universe.

What are the candidates for dark matter particles?

• Postulated entities include the super symmetric partner of the Z boson, a particle that mediates the electro-weak interaction.
• Yet other explanations talk about “hidden sector particles” and Axions, a boson and a condensate of dark matter.
• There are many other theories.

The search is on to find one of these candidates, for the story is one that spins together gravity.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Supreme Court held that Centre was bound to advise the President of India for the exercise of his powers under Article 72 of the Constitution and to release the appellant (Abu Salem).

Background

• The then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister L. K. Advani had given a ‘solemn sovereign assurance’ to a Portugal court that Abu Salem would neither be sentenced to death nor serve more than 25 years in prison.
• The case had triggered concern in the Supreme Court about the “international ramifications” India may face if seen to take back on solemn promises made to foreign powers and their courts while securing an extradition.
• However, the Central Bureau of Investigation, in a recent affidavit, had maintained that Mr. Advani’s assurance was no guarantee.

Article 72

Pardoning Power of the President in India:

• Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence
• Although the President is bound by the Cabinet’s advice, Article74 (1) empowers him to return it for reconsideration once. If the Council of Ministers decides against any change, the President has no option but to accept it.

President to grant pardons to persons who have been tried and convicted of any offence in all cases where the:

• Punishment or sentence is for an offence against a Union Law;
• Punishment or sentence is by a court martial (military court); and
• Sentence is a sentence of death.
• The pardoning power of the President is independent of the Judiciary; it is an executive power.
• But, the President while exercising this power, does not sit as a court of appeal.
• The object of conferring this power on the President is two-fold:

1. to keep the door open for correcting any judicial errors in the operation of law; and,
2. To afford relief from a sentence, which the President regards as unduly harsh.

• Under Article 161, the Governor in India too has pardoning powers.

Difference Between Pardoning Powers of President and Governor:

• The scope of the pardoning power of the President under Article 72 is wider than the pardoning power of the Governor under Article 161 which differs in the following two ways:
• Court Martial: The power of the President to grant pardon extends in cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial but Article 161 does not provide any such power to the Governor.
• Death sentence: The President can grant pardon in all cases where the sentence given is the sentence of death but the pardoning power of the Governor does not extend to death sentence cases.

The pardoning power of the President includes the following:

• Pardon: It removes both the sentence and the conviction and completely absolves the convict from all sentences, punishments and disqualifications.
• Commutation: It denotes the substitution of one form of punishment for a lighter form.
• Remission: It implies reducing the period of sentence without changing its character..
• Respite: It denotes awarding a lesser sentence in place of one originally awarded due to some special fact, such as the physical disability of a convict or the pregnancy of a woman offender.
• Reprieve: It implies a stay of the execution of a sentence for a temporary period.

Its purpose is to enable the convict to have time to seek pardon or commutation from the President.