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Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud summoned the government’s top law officers — the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General —to convey that the court was “deeply disturbed” by a video showing two women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted in strife-ridden Manipur.
The Chief Justice, speaking for the court, gave the Union and Manipur governments an ultimatum to either bring the perpetrators to book or step aside for the judiciary to take action.
Using women as instruments of perpetrating violence in a charged atmosphere is simply unacceptable in a constitutional democracy,” the court emphasised in its order.
The court is deeply disturbed by the visuals which have appeared in the media since yesterday depicting the perpetration of sexual assault and violence on women in Manipur,” the three-judge Bench, headed by the CJI, said, addressing the two law officers.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the video, the court said the visuals indicate “gross constitutional violations and infractions of human rights”.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said that it did not matter that the video was not a recent one, but rather of an incident that occurred in May, when the violence initially broke out.
Constitution Bench to take up Delhi govt.’s challenge to Centre’s ordinance on services (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court referred the Delhi government’s challenge to a Central ordinance — which effectively returns power over the civil services in the Capital to the Lieutenant-Governor — to a Constitution Bench. The reference to a Constitution Bench coincided with the opening of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
The Centre urged the court to hold its hand, as the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, would be introduced in Parliament during the session. “We will refer this to the Constitution Bench,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said, addressing the lawyers.
The three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud, however, did not accede to a request by the Delhi government to take up this case before another Constitution Bench hearing, slated for August 2, on the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, who represented the Delhi government along with Shadan Farasat, reasoned that the whole system of governance in the national capital was in a state of paralysis.
No bureaucrat is taking order and 437 consultants to the Legislative Assembly have been fired by the Lieutenant-Governor… We have to request this case to be taken up before the Article 370 one.
The Chief Justice, however, said it was too late to make any changes. The Article 370 case was already scheduled for August 2 and preparations and study for the hearing were already under way.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the L-G, said that the 437 consultants were “rank illegal appointments”. He countered, “They somehow happened to be party workers.” Mr. Salve agreed with the court’s decision to refer the case to a five-judge Bench.
States
Bill prohibiting protests with corpses passed in Rajasthan (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 2, Govewrnance)
The Rajasthan Assembly passed a Bill prohibiting protests by relatives of deceased persons, sitting with the bodies, on roads or public places and demanding compensation or jobs. All of this will become an offence, punishable with maximum imprisonment of up to five years.
The Rajasthan Honour of Dead Body Bill, 2023, also seeks to ensure that every dead person has the right to last rites with dignity. Replying to the debate on the Bill, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said the need for introducing the legislation had arisen because of an increase in the number of protests being held with bodies and protesters pressing for “unjustified demands”.
These protests, staged by relatives of the deceased following unnatural deaths, are often supported by political parties and social and community organisations. The Bill was passed by voice vote in the House.
Mr. Dhariwal said the Bill also contained provisions for protection of genetic data information through DNA profiling as well as digitisation and confidentiality of information.
The Minister said there were 82 incidents of demonstrations and dharnas, with corpseson the streets or outside the police stations, between 2014 and 2018. This increased to 306 between 2019 and 2023, though 91 cases were registered in the police stations, he said.
The Bill imposes a liability on the family members to perform last rites of the deceased “as soon as possible” unless there are exceptional reasons.
If the family members don’t perform the last rites despite orders of the local police officer or Executive Magistrate, it will be done by the public authority.
The Bill has laid down the punishment for this with imprisonment ranging from six months to five years for different offences.
Raise Katchatheevu, Tamils’ issue during Sri Lankan President’s visit, CM tells PM (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Ahead of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to raise two issues — the retrieval of Katchatheevu and the aspirations of the Tamil-speaking people in the neighbouring island nation — with the Sri Lankan leader.
Meanwhile, DMK MPs have requested the Union Ministry of External Affairs to arrange for a meeting with the Sri Lankan President during his visit to the national capital, sources said.
In his letter, Mr. Stalin recalled the history behind ceding the Katchatheevu islet to Sri Lanka in 1974 “without the State government’s consent”, and contended that it had deprived Tamil Nadu fishermen of their rights and adversely impacted their livelihoods. He also underlined the resolutions adopted in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in favour of the retrieval of Katchatheevu.
Our fishermen face highly restricted access to traditional fishing grounds, increased harassment by the Sri Lankan Navy, and arrests by the Sri Lankan Navy on trespassing charges.
Restoring the right to fish in the traditional fishing grounds of the Palk Bay has always been among the top priorities of the Government of Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Stalin said, and urged the Union government to initiate diplomatic efforts to revisit the agreement transferring the islet.
Highlighting the demands of the Tamil Nadu government and the DMK for upholding the rights and fulfilling the aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, Mr. Stalin said, “It is imperative to protect the social, political, cultural and economic rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka so that they can lead dignified lives as equal citizens.
For this purpose, there must be adequate and meaningful devolution of powers to the provinces, which fulfils the genuine and unfulfilled aspirations of the Tamils in the island nation.”
Editorial
In impasse in wrestlers’ case, the loser is the rule of law (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The autonomy and the supremacy of the law cannot be taken for granted, because it is dependent on political commitment and a robust rule of law culture.
Contemporary Indian society is passing through a phase of an all round weakening of the rule of law, mainly on two counts: first, a trust deficit in the colonial model of the rule of law, and second, a faith-oriented majoritarian re-imagination of laws that locate their essence in the divine providence.
The malaise of such weakening is best exemplified by the case of the Indian medal-winning wrestlers and their complaints of alleged sexual harassment, where there has been no resolution even after their long sit-in protest in the national capital.
For almost a decade now, women trainee wrestlers — this also includes award-winning sportspersons — have faced and put up with alleged sexual advances and grave indignities during their training.
In January 2023, some of the wrestlers began their sit-in/dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. Despite the Sports Ministry referring the batch of complaints to an oversight committee, there was no concrete and satisfactory outcome.
After being subjected to insensitive probings during the depositions, the wrestlers decided to resume the sit-in in late April. This time the protest appeared to be better organised; there was more public support and the survivors also approached the Supreme Court of India, where the Chief Justice of India passed orders relating to the registration of the First Information Report (FIR) under the relevant laws and providing security to the wrestlers.
As a sequel to the orders of the Court, the Delhi Police registered two FIRs: the first, under Sections 354, 354A, 354D and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and the second, under the provisions of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act in connection with the minor wrestler’s allegations.
With the registration of the two FIRs for the first time, the sexual harassment complaints came into the domain of criminal justice, making them the subject of police investigation as well as judicial oversight.
Following this, the alleged perpetrator and his followers began a campaign to vilify the wrestlers following growing public and even some political support.
India’s data protection law needs refinement (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
India is no Europe, and this seems especially true in the face of a task such as drafting and conceptualising a data protection law for over 1.4 billion Indians.
The European Union’s (EU) data protection law, i.e., the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), came into force in the middle of 2018 and achieved widespread popularity as arguably the most comprehensive data privacy law in the world.
However, the GDPR has been saddled with challenges of implementation and risks being relegated to the status of a paper tiger.
Although the EU’s challenges may be due to its unique legal structure, India must guard against the risks of enacting a law that is toothless in effect.
This deliberation becomes increasingly relevant as the Indian government is likely to table India’s fresh data protection law in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament (July 20-August 11).
Late last year, the government released the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022 for public consultation. This is its third recent attempt at drafting a data protection law. While the draft released for public comments was not as comprehensive as its previous versions, news reports suggest that the government may present a Bill that is largely similar. Considering this, critical gaps remain in the DPDP Bill that would affect its implementation and overall success.
In its scope and definition, the DPDP Bill only protects personal data, that is any data that has the potential to directly or indirectly identify an individual.
In the modern data economy, entities use various types of data, including both personal and non-personal data to target, profile, predict, and monitor users.
Often, this non-personal data when combined with other datasets can help identify individuals, and in this way become personal data, impacting user privacy.
Explainer
Why is Kerch Bridge attack significant? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The Kerch Bridge, which links the Russian mainland to the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea, came under attack last week. One section of the bridge was damaged in what the Russians called an attack by two Ukrainian sea drones. Ukraine hasn’t taken direct responsibility for the attack, but its security services SBU said details of what happened to the bridge would be revealed after “Ukraine has won the war”.
In retaliation, Russia carried out a massive airstrike at the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa. Russia also announced, hours after the attack, that it was withdrawing from an UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grain via the Black Sea, where Russia has enforced a naval blockade.
According to Russian authorities, one of the sections of the bridge was blown up killing two people and injuring a child. A video footage released by local media showed a portion of the bridge tilted and hanging down.
The Kerch bridge, across the Kerch Strait, is 19 km long and has two parallel rail and roadways. It was opened in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin with great fanfare, four years after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine through a contested referendum.
Six hours after the attack, the rail service was restored, but the road remains shut. This is not the first time the bridge is being targeted.
Last October, a massive truck bomb damaged the bridge and killed three people. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later termed the attack on the bridge one of the successful operations of the Ukrainian forces.
The bridge is important for Russia for symbolic, administrative and operational reasons. When Russia swiftly moved to annex Crimea in 2014, after a pro-Russian elected government in Kyiv fell amid West-backed anti-regime protests, there was no direct connectivity between the Russian mainland and Crimea.
News
SC urges Centre to transfer cheetahs to another location (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court (SC) told the Union government that the deaths of 40% of the 20 cheetahs brought from South Africa and Namibia to the Kuno National Park (KNP) within a year does not present a good picture.
A Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai urged the government to move the big cats to a more conducive environment, if required, and not make it a “prestige issue”.
“Eight cheetahs dying out of a total 20 brought here in just one year does not present a good picture. Last week alone, two died. You should look at other possibilities, like transferring them to other sanctuaries irrespective of which State government is running them.
Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati, for the Centre, said the deaths, though unfortunate, were expected. She said there were several reasons leading to the deaths. The cheetah project was prestigious and the authorities are exploring various options for the well-being of the animals.
The court asked the law officer to file a detailed affidavit on the circumstances leading to the deaths and posted the case for further hearing on August 1.
This took the total number of cheetah deaths at the park in Sheopur district since March to eight. Another male cheetah, Tejas, brought from South Africa in February died on July 11.
Centre bans export of non-basmati white rice to control price rise in India (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Union government banned the export of non-basmati white rice on Thursday. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Union Commerce Ministry announced in a notification that the ban would come into effect immediately and exemptions would be given only if the loading of non-basmati rice on the ship had commenced before the notification or the shipping bill was filed and vessels had already berthed or arrived and anchored in Indian ports.
The Union Food Ministry, in a statement, said the step was taken to ensure adequate availability of non-basmati white rice in the domestic market and to curb the price rise.
Non-basmati rice was exported under the category ‘Free with export duty of 20%’. “The retail prices have increased by 11.5% over a year and 3% over the past month.
Export duty of 20% on non-basmati white rice was imposed last year to lower the price and to ensure availability in the domestic market.
However, the export of this variety increased from 33.66 lakh tonnes (September-March 2021-22) to 42.12 lt (September-March 2022-23) even after imposition of 20% export duty,” the Centre said, adding that in 2023-24, about 15.54 lt of this variety was exported against only 11.55 lt during 2022-23.
This sharp increase in exports can be ascribed to high international prices due to geo-political scenario, El Nino sentiments and extreme climatic conditions in other rice-producing countries, etc.