Recently, the Law and Justice Minister, stated that there is a growing voice in favour of reintroduction of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill.

Background:

• The NJAC Act, 2014 was enacted by the incumbent government to regulate the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending names for appointment as Chief Justice of India and other judges of Supreme Court and Chief Justices and judges of High Courts and for their transfers.
• However, in October 2015, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an amendment to the Constitution establishing the NJAC.
• Replying to the debate on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021, which was passed by the House with a voice vote, Law minister said, There has been a huge support regarding NJAC.
• The appointment process of judges in the higher judiciary is going on smoothly. From the government side, there is no effort to scuttle or to create any kind of slow down in the process of appointments.
• Some of the allegations are also not correct to say that the government is stopping some of the names recommended by the Collegium.
• The minister also appreciated the performance of the judiciary during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

Recently, Karnataka Chief Minister informed the Centre that the state is opposed to the Kasturirangan Committee report on Western Ghats.

Concerns of Karnataka Government

• It said that declaring Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive zone would adversely affect the livelihood of people in the region.
• The experts called the state’s opposition disastrous for the ecologically fragile Western Ghats.
• The recommendations of the Kasturirangan committee report
  • The committee report proposes 37 per cent of the total area of Western Ghats, which is roughly 60,000 square kilometres, to be declared as eco-sensitive area (ESA).
    • Out of this, 20,668 sq km of the area falls in Karnataka covering 1,576 villages.
  • The report recommended a blanket ban on mining, quarrying, setting up of red category industries and thermal power projects.
  • It also stated that the impact of infrastructural projects on the forest and wildlife should be studied before permission is given for these activities.
  • It also stated that the UNESCO Heritage tag is an opportunity to build global and domestic recognition of the enormous natural wealth that exists in the Western Ghats.
    • The 39 sites are located across the Western Ghats and distributed across the states (Kerala 19), Karnataka (10), Tamil Nadu (6) and Maharashtra (4). The boundary of the sites, are in most cases, boundaries of the legally demarcated national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves and forest divisions and therefore, already accorded with high level of protection.

High pendency of cases, large number of vacancies and the collegium system of appointment were among the key issues raised by Lok Sabha members recently while debating a Bill that seeks to bring clarity on when Supreme Court and High Court judges will get enhanced pension on attaining a certain age.

Some Critical Observations on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill 2021

• The judiciary failing to stem the tide of majoritarianism.
• Judiciary’s “inaction” always favours those in power.
• A number of examples such the judicial challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 and Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
• The “insensitivity” shown by higher judiciary while dealing with the plight of migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown.
• The issue of transfer of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee from the Madras High Court to the Meghalaya High Court by the SC Collegium, and said that the decision was tantamount to “wasting a property of the nation”.
• Opposition called for a mechanism to ensure accountability for corruption in the judiciary.
• Several members also stressed the need to increase the retirement age of High Court judges and bring it on a par with the retirement age of SC judges. As of now, HC judges retire at 62 and SC judges at 65.
• Some members called for a cooling-off period for judges, saying two former Chief Justices of India were “demoted” — one was appointed a Governor and the other became a Rajya Sabha member.

Context:

Amid talk of MSP guarantee and Punjab’s urgent need to break away from the wheat-paddy cycle, experts feel that the state must follow cropping pattern as per its agro-climatic and soil conditions to protect the environment while increasing farmers’ income.

About the Six Agri Zones of Punjab

• According to Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, there are six agro-climatic zones in Punjab which include
  • Sub-Mountain Undulating Region,
  • Undulating Plain Region (UPR),
  • Central Plain Region (CPR),
  • Western Plain Region (WPR),
  • Western Region (WR) and
  • Flood Plain Region (FPR).
• These regions have rainfall variations from 165 mm to 2000 mm annually and climate from humid to cold-arid to arid and extreme arid.
• The variations in soil range from hill soils, tarai, brown hill, alluvial to desert.
• In these zones all agro-climatic conditions, rainfall pattern, distribution, soil texture are taken into account to have a suitable cropping pattern.
• Temperatures and humidity levels are also little bit different from each other in all these zones.

Defence Minister recently highlighted the challenges faced by India due to what he termed ‘unprovoked aggression” on the northern border.

More on the news

• Addressing the first India-Russia 2+2 ministerial meeting, Defence Minister urged to discuss in detail the emerging challenges India is confronted with and the enhanced requirement of India for closer military-to-military technical collaboration with Russia. The pandemic, the extraordinary militarization and expansion of armament in our neighborhood and unprovoked aggression on our northern border since early summer of 2020 has thrown in several challenges.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has urged the State Governments to follow the crime analytics model of Delhi Police in preventing street crimes against women through crime mapping and identification of hotspots for reinforced action.

Key Points

• The Crime Mapping Analytics and Productive System and related tools were deployed on the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).
• As part of the initiatives to strengthen the capacity to deal with cases of crimes against women, it was recommended that the SOP on registration of FIRs should include guidelines to police to record reasons for delay in reporting of crimes by the complainants to the police.
• A provision was made for recording this statement in the FIRs on the CCTNS.
• The States and Union Territories were told to widely circulate the BPR&D’s handbooks on ‘Women’s Safety & Security’ and ‘First respondents and Investigators’ to police personnel, and include the guidelines in the training modules.

Even as the southwest monsoon began to retreat from the subcontinent, Kerala and Uttarakhand received record rainfall in October.

• Over the last few years, there have been variations in the pattern and intensity of rainfallin both these States and others.

What explains the torrential rain in Kerala and Uttarakhand?

When the atmosphere and the ocean is considered as a whole, rain everywhere is the result of moisture rushing up to fill differences in temperature between oceans and the land.

• Warming oceans are contributing to intense spells of rainfall in pockets followed by long rainless spells.

But specific instances — such as what is being seen in Kerala and Uttarakhand — aren’t unprecedented.

The monsoon cycle is prone to large variations, and every year, regional factors get accentuated which then lead to extreme climate events.

Context: As Sri Lanka battles to revive its Covid-battered economy, New Delhi and Colombo have agreed on a four-pronged cooperation package comprising urgent food and health security, energy security, currency swap and Indian investments.

More in the news

• The short- to medium-term plan was decided during the Sri Lanka Finance Minister visit to India recently.
• Sri Lankan met his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, among others.
• The brother of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister and President, the Finance Minister is considered a political strategist.
• Both sides expressed satisfaction over the evolving trajectory of the bilateral relationship. During the discussions, they identified ways and means through which the existing bilateral economic relationship between the two countries could be further broadened and deepened.
• The Indian ministers expressed solidarity and reiterated that the country has always stood by Sri Lanka.
• According to the statement it was agreed that modalities to implement these objectives would be finalised within a mutually agreed timeline.
• The ministers also agreed to open direct lines of communication to coordinate the initiatives.
• According to a statement issued by the Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, the two sides discussed “four pillars” for short- and medium-term cooperation.

Over the last few sessions, MPs mainly from the Opposition have often alleged their questions have been disallowed.

How are questions admitted?

• In both Houses, elected members enjoy the right to seek information from various ministries and departments in the form of starred questions, unstarred questions, short notice questions and questions to private members.
• Usually, MPs’ questions form a long list, which then go through a rigorous process of clearance. The admissibility of questions in Rajya Sabha is governed by Rules 47-50 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States.
• Once a question that fulfils the conditions of admissibility is received, the Secretariat sends it to the ministry concerned.
• Once the facts are received from the ministry, the question is further examined for admissibility. A final list of questions is circulated to ministers, on the basis of which they frame their answers.
• In Lok Sabha, once the notice for questions is received, ballots determine priority.
  • Starred, unstarred and short notice questions are entered into software, separately.
  • Next, the questions are examined for admissibility under Rules 41-44 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
• For answering the questions, ministries and departments have been divided into five groups (I to V) that have been allotted Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays respectively.

The 1817 Paika rebellion of Odisha could not be called the first war of Independence, but considering it as a beginning of a popular uprising against the British, it would be included as a case study in the Class 8 National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) history textbook, according to the Union Culture Minister.

• The Culture Ministry had received a reference from the Odisha Chief Minister asking that the Paika rebellion be declared the first war of Independence.

Paika rebellion of 1817

• Paikas had been recruited since the 16th century by kings in Odisha from a variety of social groups to render martial services in return for rent-free land (nish-kar jagirs) and titles.
• After entering Odisha in 1803, the British introduced new revenue settlements, due to which many Odia proprietors ended up losing their lands to absentee Bengali landlords.
• Changes in the currency and revenue systems meant the Odias had to pay taxes in silver, which was more expensive for them, and resulted in their further marginalisation and oppression.