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Editorial
The Supreme Court of India’s order on May 1, seeking to recall its own decision in Ritu Chhabaria vs Union of India upon the insistence of the Solicitor-General of India, Tushar Mehta, that central investigation agencies were ‘facing difficulties’, has caused concern among legal professionals.
Besides the questionable legality of the Court ‘recalling’ its own decision, what is of concern too is how this order would impact the rights of the accused to be released from custody.
On May 12, in its interim order, the Supreme Court clarified that courts could grant default bail independent of and without relying on the Ritu Chhabaria judgment.
However, the Court’s decision to suspend the rights of defendants in criminal cases would lead to further erosion of the constitutional rights of the accused and deviate from fundamental principles of criminal procedure.
The right to statutory bail, often known as default bail, is available to accused persons in cases when the investigating agency fails to complete its investigation within the stipulated time.
Under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the maximum time available to investigators is 60 or 90 days, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
If the authorities are unable to complete the investigation within this time period, the accused can seek to be released from custody by applying for default bail under the first proviso to Section 167(2) of the CrPC. Notably, the ‘default’ characteristic of this bail comes from the fact that the application is unrelated to the merits of the case, and is designed to prevent long-term detention of the accused.
The right to default bail has been characterised by the Court in multiple judgments as an indefeasible right, flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty.
Therefore, in cases where the investigating authorities attempted to circumvent this procedure, the Court rightly called out these tactics and refused to extend custodial detention of the accused.
In Achpal vs State of Rajasthan (2018), the Court held that an investigation report, albeit complete, if filed by an unauthorised investigating officer, would not bar the accused from availing default bail.
In S. Kasi vs State (2020), the Court further stated that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the investigating agencies would not be allowed any relaxation towards computing the maximum stipulated period of investigation, which could lead to additional detention of the accused.
Safety, in line of duty (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Medical science is so advanced today, it has extended longevity and enhanced quality of life in ways thought impossible in the past, and yet, life must end in death.
For those who lose someone dear to them, there is anger, disbelief and lack of acceptance, and this is sometimes unleashed on the hospital, doctors and nurses.
This is why Kerala’s move to amend the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, to fortify defences against attacks on health-care institutions and workers is not only welcome but is also essential intervention.
The death of a young house surgeon, Vandana Das, at the hands of an ‘inebriated’ patient during a routine medical examination in Kerala has not only shocked the community but has also revived fear among health-care workers about their own safety.
Doctors have organised protests across the country, condemning this attack and urging authorities to ensure protection. While this particular incident might have been an outlier in terms of how it occurred, recent history in the country is replete with instances of co-ordinated assaults on health-care workers by irate patients or their attendees disappointed with health outcomes.
The warriors in the hospitals, unlike those battling on enemy lines, do not sign up for assault in the line of duty. It is the duty of the state and the community to protect them and ensure they are shielded from assault and abuse, verbal and physical.
The Kerala amendment is progressive in that it proposes to bring verbal abuse and violent acts causing simple and grievous hurt under the purview of the Act. Enhanced jail term (up to three years) and a hefty fine (up to ₹50,000) for those found guilty are also being prescribed.
The government has proposed time-bound speedy disposal of such cases besides designating one court in each district as a special court to deal with these cases.
Opinion
Evaluating DNA report as evidence (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
In its recent judgments, the Supreme Court has been critical of admitting DNA report as clinching evidence in criminal cases. In Rahul v. the State of Delhi, Ministry of Home Affairs (2022), the Court said “the collection and sealing of the samples sent for examination were not free from suspicion.”
It objected to the fact that the Delhi High Court and the trial court did not examine the underlying basis of the findings in the DNA reports and also did not examine whether the expert reliably applied the techniques.
Based on this reason, despite the ‘match’ result of the DNA analysis, and other findings, the Court acquitted all the three persons who were accused of rape and murder.
In Manoj v. State of Madhya Pradesh (2022), where the expert explained the technique of DNA analysis, but did not mention the ‘random occurrence ratio,’ the Court held that there was the likelihood of contamination as one of the reference samples was collected from an open area.
The first responder on the scene of crime needs to ensure that the biological sample is dried under room temperature and sealed in a paper, and not plastic, bag.
The sample should be free from any contamination due to humic acid, which is a primary constituent of the soil. Touching areas where DNA may exist, and talking, sneezing and coughing over evidence must be avoided. No other human contact should be allowed, and stained articles must be packed separately.
Liquid blood samples must be collected using blood collection cards or EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid) vials in a vaccination box with coolants to maintain low temperature.
Other body fluid samples may be collected in indicator cards. The investigating officer (IO) must ensure that the properly sealed samples reach the forensic science laboratory (FSL) in the stipulated time period, maintaining proper chain of custody.
In fact, the Union Home Ministry had provided a sizeable number of sexual assault evidence collection kits containing blood collection cards and EDTA vials in 2020 to all the States so that the biological samples are collected and preserved in the best possible manner for DNA analysis. The States need to continue with this good practice.
Explainer
On sexual harassment in the workplace (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Ten years after the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH) came into force, the Supreme Court Bench of India has said there are “serious lapses” and “uncertainty” regarding its implementation.
In 1992, Bhanwari Devi, a social worker with the Women’s Development Project of the Rajasthan government was gang-raped by five men after she tried to prevent the marriage of a one-year-old girl.
While hearing pleas filed by activist groups against the crime, the SC, noting the absence of any law “enacted to provide for effective enforcement of the basic human right of gender equality” guarantee against “sexual harassment at workplaces”, laid down a set of guidelines in 1997, christened the Vishakha Guidelines, to fill the statutory vacuum till a law could be enacted.
These were to be “strictly observed in all workplaces” and were binding and enforceable in law.
After this, the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill was introduced by then Women and Child Development Minister, Krishna Tirath, in 2007.
It was later tabled in Parliament and went through amendments. The amended Bill came into force on December 9, 2013, as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) or PoSh Act.
The PoSH Act defines sexual harassment to include unwelcome acts such as physical contact and sexual advances, a demand or request for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.
Under the Act, an employee is defined not just in accordance with the company law. All women employees, whether employed regularly, temporarily, contractually, on an ad hoc or daily wage basis, as apprentices or interns or even employed without the knowledge of the principal employer, can seek redressal to sexual harassment in the workplace.
What are the gaps in the AePS transaction model? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Pushpendra Singh, a popular YouTuber, in a Twitter thread, shared how his mother’s bank account was drained using an Aadhaar-linked fingerprint without needing a two-factor authentication.
His mother was not informed of the transactions by her bank, via message or otherwise. A quick search on Google reveals that similar incidents have been reported in different parts of the country.
Cybercriminals are now using silicone thumbs to operate biometric POS devices and biometric ATMs to drain users’ bank accounts.
The Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) is a bank-led model which allows online financial transactions at Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices and micro ATMs of any bank using Aadhaar authentication.
The model removes the need for OTPs, bank account and other financial details. It allows fund transfers using only the bank name, Aadhaar number, and fingerprint captured during Aadhaar enrolment, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Neither the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) nor NPCI mentions clearly whether AePS is enabled by default. Cashless India, a website managed and run by the MeitY, says the service does not require any activation, with the only requirement being that the user’s bank account should be linked with their Aadhaar number.
Users who wish to receive any benefit or subsidy under schemes notified under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, have to mandatorily submit their Aadhaar number to the banking service provider, according to the UIDAI.
While Aadhaar data breaches have been reported in 2018, 2019, and 2022, the UIDAI has denied any breach of data. In response to media reports, the UIDAI said that the Aadhaar data, including biometric information, is fully safe and secure.
However, UIDAI’s database is not the only source from where data can be leaked. “Aadhaar numbers are readily available in the form of photocopies, and soft copies, and criminals are using Aadhaar-enabled payment systems to breach user information. Scammers have, in the past, made use of silicone to trick devices into initiating transactions,” cybersecurity expert Rakshit Tandon, told The Hindu.
Text & Context
What is a transformer, the machine learning model that powers ChatGPT? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Machine learning (ML), a subfield of artificial intelligence, teaches computers to solve tasks based on structured data, language, audio, or images, by providing examples of inputs and the desired outputs.
This is different from traditional computer programming, where programmers write a sequence of specific instructions. Here, the ML model learns to generate desirable outputs by adjusting its many knobs — often in the millions.
ML has a history of developing methods with hand-crafted features that may work only for specific, narrow problems. There are several such examples.
In text, classifying a document as scientific or literary may be solved by counting the number of times certain words appear. In audio, spoken text is recognised by converting the audio into a time-frequency representation.
In images, a car may be found by checking for the existence of specific car-like edge-shaped patterns. Such hand-crafted features are combined with simple, or shallow, learning classifiers that typically have up to tens of thousands of knobs. In technical parlance, these knobs are called parameters.
In the first part of the 2010s, deep neural networks (DNNs) took over ML by storm, replacing the classic pipeline of hand-crafted features and simple classifiers.
DNNs ingest a complete document or image and generate a final output, without the need to specify a particular way of extracting features.
While these deep and large models have existed in the past, their large size — millions of parameters — hindered their use. The resurgence of DNNs in the 2010s is attributed to the availability of large-scale data and fast parallel computing chips called graphics processing units.
Furthermore, the models used for text or images were still different — recurrent neural networks were popular in language understanding while convolutional neural networks (CNNs) were popular in computer vision, that is, a machine understanding of the visual world.
News
Railways gets on track to overhaul signage system (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
The Indian Railways is planning to overhaul the signage system at railway stations for better travelling comfort of passengers, on the basis of fresh design principles.
Up to 1,275 stations have beenselected under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. They are those located in major cities and places of tourist and pilgrimage importance. Work is in progress at 88 stations. Tendering and planning is in progress for 1,187 Stations.
Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “It was felt to issue standard guidelines on signage at stations that will be consistent and adequate. The Indian Railways will adopt modern, standard signages which are divyang-friendly (disabled- friendly).”
The Railways now prioritises simple language, clear font, easy-to-see colours and intuitive pictograms. “It is made keeping in mind the requirements of all passengers, including the elderly, women, children, divyangjan etc. The colours of signage, type and size of fonts have been standardised.
The current system of signage is inconsistent and inadequate, it was felt. An internal presentation of the Ministry of Railways had pointed out that there is lack of uniformity in some cases.
In others, signage overlaps with advertisements and not in the visual scheme of commuters. Some signage are not aesthetically designed and at other places, they are absent.
New tertiary boards displaying station names with tricolour backgrounds have been introduced. Emphasis has been laid on providing intuitive signage at key decision-making points.
The concept of grouping of signage has been introduced to help commuters find their way easily. Grouping would provide the hierarchy of how information is shared starting with essential journey information, including train travel and platform; directional information like transport interchange and navigating the station; amenities and facilities like toilets and water; commercial facilities like restaurants and retail; and lastly exit information.
Pictograms for water taps, wheelchair assistance, ramps, tourist information, mobile-charging points, escalators etc. have been standardised.
Three railway stations— Rani Kamalapati, Gandhinagar Capital, and Sir M. Visvesvaraya Terminal have already been commissioned along these lines.