1. will a national judiciary work?

https://prepmate.in/

https://youtu.be/vR4OP9EVhYY

For updates on WhatsApp, share your Name, City & Email ID on WhatsApp No. 88986-30000

Website: www.prepmate.in Telegram Channel: @upscprepmate

Prepmate Cengage Books Preview:https://prepmate.in/books/ Youtube channel: PrepMateEdutech

1. Will a national judiciary work?

Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; Polity & Governance

The Union government appears to be steadfast in its resolve to implement reforms in recruitment and appointment to the subordinate judicial services. In 2019, it spearheaded a consultative process for the creation of the All India Judicial Service (AIJS). Initially, only four States and two High Courts supported the proposal. Eight States rejected it, five suggested changes, and 11 are yet to respond. Recently, the Centre took the ordinance route to effect changes in the appointment of members to various tribunals. In a single stroke, it abolished several tribunals. The manner of appointment of members to the remaining tribunals underwent a sea change. It is likely that the ordinance may not pass judicial scrutiny in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment in Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank (2019). Constitutional perspective Article 233(1) of the Constitution lays down that “appointments of persons to be, and the posting and promotion of, district judges in any State shall be made by the Governor of the State in consultation with the High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to such State”. The 42nd Constitutional amendment in 1976 amended Article 312 (1) empowering Parliament to make laws for the creation of one or more All-India Services, including an AIJS, common to the Union and the States. However, Clause 3 of Article 312 places a restriction that such a service shall not include a post inferior to that of a district judge. The amendment also brought about a significant change in the Seventh Schedule — Entry 3 of List II in its entirety was placed as Entry 11A in List III. This paves the way for Parliament to enact laws with regard to ‘Administration of Justice; constitution and organisation of all courts, except the Supreme Court and the High Courts’. Post-Emergency, amendment to Article 312 (1) has escaped parliamentary scrutiny. A dichotomy exists with regard to Articles 233 and 312. What was essentially intended to be the prerogative of the State will now be the prerogative of the Union. If the fundamental power of the States to make such rules and govern the appointment of district judges is taken away, it may be against the principle of federalism and the basic structure doctrine. The First Law Commission deliberated upon this, but it was only in 1972 that the issue gained momentum. The views of the Chief Justice of India and the Law Commission reports perhaps paved the way to bring in the 42nd constitutional amendment. It was only in 1986 that the Law Commission resurrected the issue and deliberated upon the objections. The primary fear was that promotional avenues of the subordinate judiciary would be severely curtailed. Fifty per cent of the posts of district judges are to be filled by promotion from the subordinate judicial service, thus leaving open the remaining for direct recruitment. Another fundamental concern was the language barrier.

http://www.prepmate.in/

https://telegram.me/upscprepmate

https://prepmate.in/books/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy_z-FjcG4CcCTYpn2DGhA




The Union Law Minister has extolled AIJS to be an ideal solution for equal representation of the marginalised and deprived sections of society. Most States already have a reservation policy in force. Tamil Nadu provides for a roster-based reservation of 69%, of which 30% is for women. Uttar Pradesh merely provides 20% reservation for women and the AIJS may therefore benefit States like U.P. Arguments that the AIJS will reduce judicial delays do not hold water as the subordinate courts are the crucial point of delays owing to the existence of large vacancies. In the early 1960s, the issue was debated during the Chief Justices Conference and was favoured by the eminent body, but many States and High Courts opposed it. The First National Judicial Pay Commission found that it would be in the interest and the health of the judiciary to form an AIJS. The report supported and reiterated the recommendations of the 14th Law Commission. In the All-India Judges case in 1992 the apex court had opined that the recommendations of the Law Commission should be examined and implemented. The issue was again discussed in All India Judges Association Vs. Union of India (2002). The court accepted most recommendations of the Shetty Commission and directed the government to implement the judgment. Any groundbreaking reform is bound to receive criticism. The National Commission constituted for review of the Constitution headed by luminaries including Justice H.R. Khanna, Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy and K. Parasaran, the then Attorney General, had suggested a paradigm shift in the approach of the Union. The feasibility of the AIJS in the current context requires to be studied, especially when reliance is placed upon archaic reports of the Law Commission. It is for the Union to dispel doubts and at the same time give wings to the aspirations of all stakeholders when implementing the proposal. It, however, remains to be seen if the AIJS would be like the proverbial curate’s egg.

Source: The Hindu

2. CBSE divides 2021-22 academic year into two terms

Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper I; Social Issues

With continuing school closures and examination disruptions due to COVID-19, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued a new assessment scheme for Class 10 and 12 students this year. In 2021-22, it will reduce the syllabus, hold board examinations twice during the year in different formats, and ensure continuous recording of internal assessment scores in order to have a variety of options to calculate a final score at the end of the year, according to a notification issued on Monday night.








This comes after widespread uncertainty during the 2020-21 academic year, when the second wave of COVID-19 caused the postponement and then cancellation of year-end board examinations, with CBSE finally asking schools to use a combination of Class 10,11 and 12 scores and internal marks to calculate the final results. “The syllabus for the Board examination 2021-22 will be rationalized similar to that of the last academic session,” said the notification. Last year, the examination syllabus was reduced by 30%. CBSE has divided the 2021-22 academic year into two terms with 50% of the syllabus to be covered in each term, with board exams to be held at the end of each term,according to the notification. The first term exam will be held on a flexible schedule between November-December 2021 with a flexible schedule, with a window period of 4-8 weeks for schools situated in different parts of the country. It will be a 90 minute paper with multiple choice questions only, likely to be conducted in schools with the supervision of external superintendents. The second term exam will be held in March-April 2022 in examination centres, and is likely to be a 2-hour exam with various question formats. In case the pandemic situation is not conducive for such a long, descriptive exam to be held, the second term exam will also be conducted with a multiple choice question format. The CBSE will issue guidelines to make internal assessments, practicals and project work more credible and valid to ensure fair distribution of marks. Schools must create a student profile for all assessment undertaken over the year and retain the evidence in digital format, with marks uploaded onto CBSE’s IT platform, said the notification. The CBSE has made provisions for different assessment scenarios depending on the pandemic situation. If both term exams are held, the final theory marks will be equally split between the two. If the pandemic forces complete school closures in November and December, the first term exams will be conducted online or in homes, and would carry reduced weightage in the final results. If the second term exams cannot be held, the final results would be based on an increased weightage for the first term exam scores and internal assessment marks. If schools are completed closed, and both the first and second term exams have to be conducted at home, the final results will include weightage for the scores in internal assessment, projects and practical work, as well as both term-end examinations.








“In all the above cases, data analysis of marks of students will be undertaken to ensure the integrity of internal assessments and home based exams,” said the notification issued by CBSE academic director Joseph Emmanuel. Source: The Hindu

3. OPEC’s output pact proposal: How will decision affect India?

Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper III; Economics

The latest round of meetings among the OPEC+ group of oil-exporting countries has stalled as the UAE has pushed back proposals making an increase in crude oil supply conditional on an extension to an output agreement. Another round of discussions between OPEC+ countries scheduled for Monday was reportedly called off as key players failed to make any progress in resolving key issues. What is the background?

The OPEC+ group of countries had, in April 2020, entered into a two-year agreement, which entailed steep cuts in crude production to deal with a sharp fall in the price of oil as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The price of Brent crude hit an 18-year low of under $20 per barrel in April 2020 as economic activity around the world crashed as countries dealt with the pandemic. The initial production cut by OPEC+ was about 10 million barrels per day or about 22 per cent of the reference production of OPEC+ nations. In November 2020, however, the price of Brent crude started climbing consistently and has, now, risen to $76.5 per barrel — up from about $40 per barrel at the end of October — buoyed by the steady rollout of vaccination programmes around the world. OPEC+, however, maintained lower levels of production despite crude oil prices reaching pre-Covid levels, with Saudi Arabia, notably, announcing a further cut in production of 1 million barrels per day for the February-to-April period, which helped boost rising prices even further. The OPEC+ group ran into sharp criticism from developing economies, including India, for deliberately maintaining low supply levels to raise prices. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had even said the high price of crude oil was slowing down the economic recovery of developing economies post the pandemic. In April, OPEC+ agreed to gradually increase crude production as prices reached $64.5 per barrel including a phased end to Saudi Arabia’s 1 million barrel per day cut in production by July. What is the issue? According to the UAE’s official news agency, Emirates News Agency, the UAE agreed that there was a need to increase crude oil production from August, but did not agree to a condition by the OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) that the two-year production agreement be extended by six months.








The UAE government said that it made “no sense to attach conditions to increase in August,” noting that the only option offered by the JMMC included an extension to the current agreement. The UAE’s key objection to the existing agreement is the reference output used to calculate the total production apportioned to each oil-exporting country. The UAE noted that the baseline production level reference used in the current agreement was not reflective of the UAE’s production capacity and, therefore, led to the UAE being apportioned a lower share of total production of crude oil. The UAE noted that the baseline reference production levels were unfair and that it would be open to extending the agreement if baseline production levels were reviews to be fair to all parties. How will this impact India?

If the UAE and other OPEC+ nations do not reach an agreement to increase production in August, expected relief in the form of lower crude oil prices could be delayed. India is currently facing record-high prices of petrol and diesel, with pump prices of the former exceeding Rs 100 per litre in 13 states and Union Territories. High crude prices have led to Indian oil marketing companies hiking the price of petrol by about 19.3 per cent and that of diesel by about 21 per cent since the beginning of 2021. Pradhan noted last week that he had recently had productive conversations with OPEC member nations and was hopeful that crude oil price would “sober” after the current set of meetings. Source: The Indian Express

4. Triumph of the Party-state

Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; International Issues

The story of the Chinese Communist Party, which turned 100 this month, is a testimony to its ability to survive, adapt, and stay in power. What are the landmarks in its journey from humble beginnings to ruling a global superpower? How has its relationship with India evolved, and what does the future look like? The beginning: What was the historical context, in China and in the world, of the

birth of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?

The CCP was formed in the crucible of a China beset by domestic upheaval, economic backwardness and a floundering experiment with a democratic republic that followed the fall of the Qing Empire. It was obvious to Chinese intellectuals that their country’s imperial greatness was a thing of the past, and multiple ideologies competed in the search for a national revival. The newly minted Soviet Union was keen to have more support in the east, and sent cadre — including at one point, the Indian revolutionary M N Roy — to support the growth of Chinese communism.








The CCP also views the May Fourth student movement of 1919 as a seminal influence on many of its founders. The students were protesting the Chinese government’s inability at the Treaty of Versailles to get Western imperial powers and Japan to give up their territories and privileges in China. With the students also seeking a complete cultural and political overhaul, and calling for the adoption of science and democracy in place of traditional values, the May Fourth movement has found an echo throughout the history of Communist China, down to the present. Early decades: What political and ideological imperatives guided Mao Zedong in the

decades of the 50s and 60s? What did the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural

Revolution achieve for Mao and the CCP? In October 1949, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the CCP, announced the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The road to his declaration in Tiananmen Square was littered with the detritus, both intellectual and physical, of intense ideological struggles within the Party, as well as of a brutal civil war with the ruling Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek. In the process, the intellectuals who led the CCP were forged as soldiers and generals who fused their ideas of communism with Chinese nationalism, and learned strategy and statecraft along the way. These experiences also created in these men an acute sense of the difficulties of dealing with human nature and frailties, of guiding the masses, and of governance. Mao was in a hurry to change China’s conditions to strengthen it against the threats he perceived from the outside of Western and, later, Soviet imperialism, as well as the internal threats of cultural backwardness and lack of commitment to Marxism-Leninism. He thought big but seemingly without much thought to the consequences — and was more likely than not to consider opposition to him as opposition to the CCP and its ideology. Thus, it was that Mao launched such mass campaigns as the Great Leap Forward — to transform the Chinese economy — and the Cultural Revolution — to transform the very thinking of the Chinese people, to rid the country of the last vestiges of what he believed were conservative, feudal and anti-communist elements. Mao was certainly the undisputed leader of the Party, charismatic and with a fertile intellect, but there were other capable men with similar life experiences who were devoted to the Party — and while being loyal to him, had their own views about the CCP’s direction. Such differences with Mao’s thinking were inevitably punished with imprisonment and torture — ‘struggle sessions’ or ‘reeducation’ aimed at reforming such thinking — approaches that have persisted and been scaled up today. Mao was no economic planner, and while he inspired millions to ferment — to “bombard the Party headquarters” — both the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were, unsurprisingly, massive failures with the economy and administration falling into a shambles, and scores of millions losing their lives.








The Deng turn: In what ways did Deng Xiaoping alter the guiding philosophy of

Chinese Communism? Why was this turn needed, and what did it achieve for China? Deng Xiaoping possessed a pragmatism born of surviving the early years of the CCP and two purges by Mao. He understood well the need to reassess China’s strategies in the post-Mao world. While alive to popular aspirations, he calculated that the masses were more interested in economic well-being than in political freedoms. To this end, instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, he allowed China’s many localities and provinces to experiment with different economic models, and to implement what worked. He prioritised agricultural reforms; threw the country open to foreign capital, beginning with that from the Chinese diaspora; mended fences with neighbours, launching a process of settling several boundary disputes and keeping the intractable ones for later; and expanded channels of political communication with the two superpowers as well as other countries, arguing that China needed to integrate better with the world in order to secure its economic prosperity. Yet, Deng was no less committed to the perpetuation in power of the CCP than Mao. He dealt with opposition ruthlessly, purging his own chosen successors and ordering the People’s Liberation Army to deal with student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. In many ways, Deng built on Mao’s legacy of the destruction of feudalism and gains in education and public health infrastructure to drive economic growth, and of the centralised but extensive reach of the political apparatus to maintain political control. This created for China an opportunity to both clock rapid economic growth and to remain politically stable despite growing regional and personal income inequalities, environmental degradation, and political disaffection. Following Deng, China was able to gradually convert its economic strengths into regional and global political influence under General Secretaries Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The Xi era: What is CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s idea of the China dream, and how has he gone about seeking to achieve it? Why is he considered by some to be

China’s most powerful leader since Mao? The ‘China dream’ might have been introduced as a concept by Xi but it is a long-standing one. Put simply, it represents a model in which a growing economic capacity based on innovation and modern technology supports a strong single-party state in power. This CCP model in its foreign avatar is sold as ‘Chinese wisdom’ or referred to as the ‘Chinese model’. Despite the Chinese rhetoric to the contrary, it is fundamentally anti-democratic, and views alternative political systems as threats its own existence and legitimacy. Xi has centralised power to a greater extent than any leader since Mao by adopting multiple approaches.








One, on taking office, he launched a vigorous and sustained anti-corruption campaign that has also appeared to target political rivals. Two, he has actively taken charge of practically all sectors of the Chinese Party-state — the economy, military, intellectual spaces. The Party “is above all”, and state institutions have been undermined or have lost power. He has achieved this by a strong ideological campaign to recentre the Party in the life of the people and the country. And three, Xi has been bold in foreign policy, using it to convert China’s economic heft into global political advantage and in turn using his successes, including territorial aggrandisement, to boost his nationalist credentials at home. However, it remains too soon to say that Xi is China’s most powerful leader since Mao. The future: Where is the CCP headed in the years to come, with China’s miracle growth engine slowing, its working-age population declining, and a global coalition

of democracies preparing a pushback against its military and technological

assertion?

The capacity of the CCP to learn from its — and others’ — mistakes and to course-correct should not be underestimated. China’s challenges are many but its leadership. with their combination of technical education and political acumen, have so far managed to remain ahead of the problems, including even such long-standing and serious ones as the country’s massive environmental degradation, and the high levels of local debt. While such changes as abandoning the one-child policy might appear to have come too late, it is important to remember that the quality of China’s working age population — in terms of skills, health, and longevity — remains robust. A declining population in an age of fast technological progress, including a sharp focus on robotics, AI and other frontier technologies, also opens up other possibilities for the Chinese Party-state. It is true that global opposition to China’s political, economic and military assertiveness is growing, but the Chinese leadership anticipated this — and used mechanisms like the BRI and its huge diplomatic capacity to target vast areas in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, to build coalitions of its own against any putative concert of democracies. This is for the moment, a fight that China is reasonably well-placed in. CCP & India: How has the relationship between the CCP/China and India evolved

from the Nehruvian decade of the 50s to now? What are the major milestones in this

evolution, and what does the journey ahead portend?

For both the CCP and India, the conflict of 1962 is in the past, though its legacy lives on. From about the late 1970s to perhaps the early 2010s, India certainly had cause to believe that the direction of Sino-Indian relations had potential to progress in a positive direction despite regular pinpricks such as the Chinese support for Pakistan and their lack of support for India’s international ambitions.








The 1988 visit by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the conclusion of the boundary agreements of 1993, 1996, and 2005 are the major milestones of this period. But this phase is well and truly over. The beginnings of a new phase were evident in the 2013 Depsang incident and is now explicit in the incidents in eastern Ladakh beginning in April-May 2020. In both countries, internal dynamics have a major impact on how the relationship will proceed. This being the case, the future of India-China ties is fraught — military confrontation will continue, economic competition will increase and, above all, ideological competition will sharpen. Source: The Indian Express

5. Reading Section 43D(5): How it sets the bar for bail so high under

UAPA

Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; Polity & Governance

Just two days before his death, Stan Swamy had moved the Bombay High Court challenging Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) — a provision Swamy termed “illusory”. The provision makes grant of bail virtually impossible under UAPA since it leaves little room of judicial reasoning. In the case of Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, the Supreme Court in 2019 confirmed that courts must accept the state’s case without examining its merits while granting bail. In string of rulings, however, courts have taken an alternative reading of this provision, emphasising the right to a speedy trial and raising the bar for the state to book an individual under UAPA. What the provision says

The UAPA, enacted in 1967, was strengthened by the Congress-led UPA government in 2008 and 2012. The test for denying bail under the UAPA is that the court must be satisfied that a “prima facie” case exists against the accused. In 2019, the SC defined prima facie narrowly to mean that the courts must not analyse evidence or circumstances but look at the “totality of the case” presented by the state. Section 43D(5) reads: “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code, no person accused of an offence punishable under Chapters IV and VI of this Act shall, if in custody, be released on bail or on his own bond unless the Public Prosecutor has been given an opportunity of being heard on the application for such release. “Provided that such accused person shall not be released on bail or on his own bond if the Court, on a perusal of the case diary or the report made under section 173 of the Code is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such person is prima facie true.”








When courts granted bail

In Union of India v K A Najeeb in January this year, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana upheld the grant of bail under UAPA when the accused had undergone incarceration for a significant period even as it recognised that bail under UAPA was an exception. “Courts are expected to appreciate the legislative policy against grant of bail but the rigours of such provisions will melt down where there is no likelihood of trial being completed within a reasonable time and the period of incarceration already undergone has exceeded a substantial part of the prescribed sentence. Such an approach would safeguard against the possibility of provisions like Section 43D(5) of UAPA being used as the sole metric for denial of bail or for wholesale breach of constitutional right to speedy trial,” the Bench held. The court noted that the accused, Najeeb, had spent over four years as an undertrial and the trial was yet to begin. In February, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Telugu poet Varavara Rao — an accused in the Elgar Parishad case along with Swamy — holding that bail under UAPA can be granted by constitutional courts purely on grounds of sickness and advanced age. Rao is 80 and had tested positive for Covid-19. Swamy, 84, and a Jesuit priest, suffered from Parkinson’s disease and had tested positive for Covid-19. He was arrested in October last year. On June 17, the Karnataka High Court granted bail to over 115 accused charged under UAPA for the 2020 East Bengaluru riots holding that the NIA court had extended the time for investigation without hearing the accused. The court cited that the fundamental right to be treated fairly under the law of the accused was violated as reason for granting bail. Appeals against HC rulings

On June 15, the Delhi High Court, in granting bail to three student-activists Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, and Asif Iqbal Tanha, circumvented the stringent bail provision under UAPA by questioning if the alleged offences qualified as “terrorist offences” to be booked under UAPA in the first place. “… The phrase ‘terrorist act’ has been defined in a very wide and detailed manner within Section 15 itself, in our opinion, the court must be careful in employing the definitional words and phrases used in Section 15 in their absolute literal sense or use them lightly in a manner that would trivialise the extremely heinous offence of ‘terrorist act’, without understanding how terrorism is different even from conventional, heinous crime,” the Delhi High Court said. However, after the government appealed, the Supreme Court said that the High Court ruling cannot be used as a precedent till the appeal is decided. But it allowed the three student-activists to remain on bail.








In Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali v NIA in 2018, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court led by Justice S Muralidhar held that trial courts must not act “merely as a post-office of the investigating agency” but should “scrutinise the material with extra care” in determining whether a prima facie case exists. Watali, a Kashmiri businessman, was accused of being involved in unlawful acts and terror funding in conspiracy with others. However, when an appeal was move against this ruling, the Supreme Court in 2019 rejected the High Court’s decision that the material by the investigation agency must be carefully examined. It instead lowered the bar for courts to examine the veracity of agency’s case, holding that bail can be denied by relying upon prosecution documents even though they would be inadmissible in evidence during the trial. Source: The Indian Express





1. will a national judiciary work?

Documents