The Law Commission of India (Chair: Justice B.S. Chauhan) submitted its report on ‘Wrongful Prosecution (Miscarriage of Justice): Legal Remedies’ on August 30, 2018. The report follows a Delhi High Court directive in 2016 where the Commission was asked to examine the remedies for wrongful detention. The Commission noted that currently there is no legislative framework to provide relief to those who are wrongfully prosecuted. Key recommendations of the Commission include:
Legal framework: The Commission recommended amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), to give compensation in cases of miscarriage of justice resulting in wrongful prosecution of persons. Miscarriage of justice refers to wrongful or malicious prosecution, regardless of whether it leads to conviction or detention.
Cause of action: The cause of action (reason) for the claimant to file a compensation claim would be that he was wrongfully prosecuted in a case which ended in his acquittal. Wrongful prosecution would include: (i) malicious prosecution, i.e. where one files a case against the claimant without belief in his guilt for the crime, and (ii) prosecution without good faith, i.e. where one files a case against the claimant negligently without due care and attention.
Who can apply: A claim for compensation may be sought for harm caused to body, mind, reputation, or property because of the wrongful prosecution. Such a claim can be filed by the accused person, or his authorised agent, or his heirs or legal representatives (upon his death).
Special Courts: The Commission observed that claims in relation to wrongful compensation should be settled speedily, keeping in mind the interest of the claimant. Therefore, it recommended setting up of special courts in each district for deciding compensation claims.
Nature of proceedings: The proceedings in the special court will follow summary procedures for speedier disposal of the case. Further, the accused will be required to prove misconduct which lead to his wrongful prosecution. The claim will be decided by weighing the “balance of probabilities”, i.e., the claim will be decided in favour of the party whose claims appear more likely to be true.
Compensation: The Commission observed that it may not be possible at present to lay down a fixed amount of monetary compensation to be paid. It recommended amendments to the CrPC to include guiding principles to be followed by the court while deciding the amount of compensation. These include seriousness of the offence, severity of punishment, length of detention, damage to health, harm to reputation, and loss of opportunities.
Further, the Commission recommended that compensation under the law should include both pecuniary (monetary) assistance and non-pecuniary assistance (such, as counselling services and vocational skill development). It further emphasised that non-pecuniary assistance should include provisions to remove disqualifications attached to wrongful prosecution. These include disqualifications which affect the person’s chances of finding employment and getting admission in educational institutions.
The Commission also recommended that a provision for payment of interim compensation be included in the law, for cases where the claimant may require immediate assistance.
The legal changes in the IPZ are aligned with the Niti Ayog’s proposal for holistic development in the Islands which is being taken forward under the guidance of the Island Development Agency.
Key highlights: It allows eco-tourism projects 20 metres from the high tide line (HTL) in smaller islands like Baratang, Havelock and Car Nicobar, and at 50 metres in larger ones. It allows for eco-tourism activities like mangrove walks, tree huts and nature trails in island coastal regulation zone IA (classified as the most eco-sensitive region of the islands which includes turtle nesting grounds, marshes, coral reefs etc).
The notification also allows for construction of roads, roads on stilts by reclaiming land in exceptional cases for defence installations, public utilities or strategic purposes in eco-sensitive zones. It states that in case construction of such roads pass through mangroves, a minimum three times the mangrove area destroyed during the construction process shall be taken up for compensatory plantation of mangroves elsewhere.
It also allows a number of new activities in the inter-tidal zone between low tide line and HTL. This includes land reclamation and bunding for foreshore facilities like ports, harbours, jetties, wharves, quays, sea links etc, transfer of hazardous substances from ships to ports, manual mining of atomic minerals, and mining of sand for construction purposes with permission from local authorities in non-eco-sensitive sites.
Concerns: The notification relaxes development norms in the islands compared to the IPZ notification of 2011, which stipulated a no-development zone (NDZ) of 200 metres from the HTL for all islands.
This brings the norms for Andaman and Nicobar at par with coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms for other islands close to the mainland and backwater islands where an NDZ only 20 metres from HTL has been stipulated.
Background: The Union cabinet had approved the CRZ notification 2018 in December, which relaxed a number of provisions in the CRZ 2011 to facilitate infrastructure development and construction on the coast, including easing floor area ratio (FAR) in coastal urban areas and slashing the NDZ in densely populated coastal rural areas to 50 metres from HTL as compared to 200 metres earlier.
Sales of Maruti Suzuki, the largest carmaker, and Tractor sales for Mahindra have declined in December 2018. Two-wheeler sales too started crawling since December.
There are signs of a consumption slowdown spreading to non-discretionary items such as food items. Thus far, it was feared to have impacted only discretionary expenditure – in products such as cars and consumer durables. Macro indicators too aren’t presenting any encouraging signs either.
First, eight core segments — steel, cement, fertilisers, coal, electricity, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products, which together make up about 40% of industrial production – grew at 1.8 per cent in January this year, compared with 2.8 per cent in the previous month.
The growth in industrial output itself dropped to 1.7% in January 2019 against a growth of 2.6% in December 2018. In the corresponding month i.e. January 2018, it had grown 7.5%.
The GDP growth rate in the first three quarters (April-June 2018, July-September 2018 and October-December 2018) of the current financial year ending March 2019, the Central Statistics Office estimates, was 8 per cent, 7 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively. This clearly shows a trend of sequential slowing down and these numbers corroborate the signals that have been visible on the ground.
Why is it slowing down? The demand for passenger vehicles slowed down during the second half (beginning September 2018) of this financial year because of many reasons — high interest rates, higher fuel prices and lack of credit. However, many in the industry say consumers have only postponed the decision to purchase vehicles, suggesting that there is no permanent destruction of this demand. At a very broad level, demonetisation — a radical policy decision — and introduction of Goods and Services Tax — a structural reform — naturally had an adverse impact on the economy.
Over the last two years, bank credit slowed down dramatically because banks had to make higher provisions for bad loans. With six public sector banks under the central bank’s prompt corrective action framework, and some others voluntarily having pressed the pause button on lending, retail and businesses found it quite difficult to access credit. Poor bank credit, liquidity crisis and high interest rates all created a huge drag on the economy.
Concerns: A slowing economy always hurts. It affects income of people, and does not create jobs.
The report based its estimates on employment unemployment survey (EUS) 2011-12, done by the National Sample Survey Oganisation (NSSO), International Labour Organization (ILO) studies, and also builds on the first inequality report launched by Oxfam in 2018.
Key observations: Irrespective of employment category (casual and regular/salaried), organised or unorganised sector, and location (urban and rural), women workers in India are paid a lower wage rate.
The gender pay gap was 34 per cent in India, that is, women get 34 per cent less compared to men for performing the same job with same qualifications. In the organised sector, women professionals even in the highest ranks of labour (legislators, senior officials, and managers) are also paid less compared to their male counterparts. However, these women constitute only one per cent of the total female work force and the gap is lowest as they are aware of their rights.
The wage difference is lesser for more skilled workers and more for semi-skilled or unskilled workers. Across enterprise type, wage difference is less for government/public sector and public/private limited company. Large pay gaps in terms of average daily wages exist in male and female wage rates of casual and regular workers in rural and urban areas and the gap is narrower for regular workers in urban areas. On the other hand, for casual workers, wage gap is narrower in rural areas.
While inequality in jobs has increased, inequality in education has decreased between boys and girls. But this situation further exacerbates the crisis in jobs when it comes to women. Even as girls frequently outperform boys in school examinations, they are not finding suitable jobs for the skills that they have.
While both men and women are diversifying out of agriculture, almost 75 per cent of rural women are still engaged in it. A patriarchal ideology and local socio-cultural traditions confine women to the village where agriculture continues to be their most important (but insufficient) source of food and income. Male outmigration has also pushed women into taking on more responsibility of own cultivation and to perform wage labour to ensure households’ daily survival.
Concerns: Women’s labour force participation in India is one of the lowest in the world. Women comprise half of the Indian population but make up less than a quarter of the labour force. Three in four Indian women do not work in the country. Looking at the extremely low levels of participation of women in the labour market makes one wonder whether the phenomenal success of India’s economic transition forgot about its women and left them behind.
Key facts: The ICMR had taken up the mandate to initiate and strengthen the cooperation in the health sector in a structured and organised manner by establishing an India-Africa Health Sciences Collaborative Platform.
The agreement aims to formalise this partnership by establishing a framework. It will pave the way for cooperation in research and development, capacity building, health services, pharmaceutical trade and manufacturing capabilities for drugs and diagnostics.
The programme would focus on training and strengthening capacity of health professionals, researchers, regulators and industry staff, support research collaborations for developing preventive tools and improved diagnostics for diseases which are regional priorities in India and Africa.
About AU: .. The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 countries of the continent of Africa, with exception of various territories of European possessions located in Africa.
The bloc was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa. The intention of the AU is to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory governments. The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.
The AU’s secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa. Key objectives: To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States. To accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent.
Key facts: It is an Alliance between the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Wellcome Trust (WT). The Programme will fulfil the objectives of building and nurturing talent of highest global standards in cutting-edge biomedical research in India, which has led to important scientific breakthroughs and applications to meet societal needs.
BRCP will make it attractive for high quality Indian scientists working abroad to return to India, and has increased the number of locations geographically within India where world-class biomedical research is undertaken. The Programme would continue to build this capacity as also strengthen clinical research and work towards addressing important health challenges for India.
Background: The Wellcome Trust is an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. Established in 1936 and with an endowment of around £15 billion, it is the largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research in the United Kingdom.
Blockchain based market place app for trading of Indian coffees is intended to bring in transparency in the trade of Indian coffee, maintain the traceability of Indian coffee from bean to cup so as the consumer tastes real Indian coffee and the grower is paid fairly for his coffee produced.
What are Blockchains? Blockchains are a new data structure that is secure, cryptography-based, and distributed across a network. The technology supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and the transfer of any data or digital asset.
Spearheaded by Bitcoin, blockchains achieve consensus among distributed nodes, allowing the transfer of digital goods without the need for centralized authorisation of transactions. The present blockchain ecosystem is like the early Internet, a permissionless innovation environment in which email, the World Wide Web, Napster, Skype, and Uber were built.
How it operates? The technology allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure, peer-to-peer, instant and frictionless. It does this by distributing trust from powerful intermediaries to a large global network, which through mass collaboration, clever code and cryptography, enables a tamper-proof public ledger of every transaction that’s ever happened on the network.
A block is the “current” part of a blockchain which records some or all of the recent transactions, and once completed, goes into the blockchain as permanent database. Each time a block gets completed, a new block is generated. Blocks are linked to each other (like a chain) in proper linear, chronological order with every block containing a hash of the previous block.
Benefits of blockchain technology: As a public ledger system, blockchain records and validate each and every transaction made, which makes it secure and reliable. All the transactions made are authorized by miners, which makes the transactions immutable and prevent it from the threat of hacking. Blockchain technology discards the need of any third-party or central authority for peer-to-peer transactions. It allows decentralization of the technology.
With the acquisition of majority stake in REC Ltd, State-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has become the second-largest government-owned financial player in the country based on the current market capital after State Bank of India (SBI) and also PFC will be the third-highest profit-making financial player in India.
Context: Four indigenous Dhanush Howitzer guns were inducted to the Indian Army.
Key facts: Dhanush Long Range Artillery Guns are the first ever indigenous 155 mm x 45 calibre long-range artillery guns. They are equipped with inertial navigation-based sighting system, auto-laying facility, on-board ballistic computation and an advanced day and night direct firing system.
They are improved version of Bofors guns acquired by India between 1987 and 1991. It has a new maximum effective range of 38 kilometers in salvo mode.
Coffee varieties that have received the GI recognition: Coorg Arabica coffee: grown specifically in the region of Kodagu district in Karnataka.
Wayanaad Robusta coffee: grown specifically in the region of Wayanad district which is situated on the eastern portion of Kerala. Chikmagalur Arabica coffee: grown specifically in the region of Chikmagalur district and it is situated in the Deccan plateau, belongs to the Malnad region of Karnataka.
Araku Valley Arabica coffee: grown in hilly tracks of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha region. The coffee produce of Araku, by the tribals, follows an organic approach in which they emphasise management practices involving substantial use of organic manures, green manuring and organic pest management practices.
Bababudangiris Arabica coffee: grown specifically in the birthplace of coffee in India and the region is situated in the central portion of Chikmagalur district. This coffee is also called high grown coffee which slowly ripens in the mild climate and thereby the bean acquires a special taste and aroma.
Significance: The recognition and protection that comes with GI certification will allow the coffee producers of India to invest in maintaining the specific qualities of the coffee grown in that particular region. It will also enhance the visibility of Indian coffee in the world and allow growers to get maximum price for their premium coffee.
Some key facts related: In India, coffee is cultivated in about 4.54 lakh hectares by 3.66 lakh coffee farmers of which 98% are small farmers. Coffee cultivation is mainly done in the Southern States of India: Karnataka – 54%, Kerala – 19% and Tamil Nadu – 8%. India is the only country in the world where the entire coffee cultivation is grown under shade, hand-picked and sun dried.
About GI tag: What is it? A GI is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicrafts and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory. Significance of a GI tag: Typically, such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness, which is essentially attributable to the place of its origin.
Security: Once the GI protection is granted, no other producer can misuse the name to market similar products. It also provides comfort to customers about the authenticity of that product. Provisions in this regard: GI is covered as element of intellectual property rights (IPRs) under Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property.
At international level, GI is governed by WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In India, Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection Act), 1999 governs it.
The hump-backed mahseer is a large freshwater fish also called the tiger of the water and found only in the Cauvery river basin including Kerala’s Pambar, Kabini and Bhavani rivers. Five other species have also made it to threatened categories: two wild orchids, the Arabian scad (a marine fish) and two wild coffee species found only in a few localities in the Western Ghats.
About IUCN red list of threatened species: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. It uses a set of quantitative criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species. These criteria are relevant to most species and all regions of the world. With its strong scientific base, The IUCN Red List is recognized as the most authoritative guide to the status of biological diversity.
The IUCN Red List Categories: The IUCN Red List Categories define the extinction risk of species assessed. Nine categories extend from NE (Not Evaluated) to EX (Extinct). Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) and Vulnerable (VU) species are considered to be threatened with extinction. The IUCN system uses a set of five quantitative criteria to assess the extinction risk of a given species. In general, these criteria consider:
The rate of population decline. The geographic range. Whether the species already possesses a small population size. Whether the species is very small or lives in a restricted area. Whether the results of a quantitative analysis indicate a high probability of extinction in the wild.
Significance: The IUCN Red List brings into focus the ongoing decline of Earth’s biodiversity and the influence humans have on life on the planet. It provides a globally accepted standard with which to measure the conservation status of species over time.
Scientists can analyze the percentage of species in a given category and how these percentages change over time; they can also analyze the threats and conservation measures that underpin the observed trends.
The group will meet on a weekly basis and submit its action taken report regularly.
Composition: The members of TMG will comprise additional DGP, CID, in J&K police, who would also be its chairman, IGP in J&K police, additional director of Intelligence Bureau in J&K and representatives of CBI, NIA, ED, CBDT and CBIC.
Functions: The body will take coordinated action in all registered cases relating to terror and terror financing and bring them to logical conclusion. It will identify key persons including leaders of organisations involved in supporting terrorism in any form and take concerted action against them. The TMG will investigate the networks of various channels used to fund terror and terror-related activities and take coordinated action to stop the flow of such funds.
The group will also take action against hardcore sympathisers amongst government employees including teachers who provide covert or overt support to terror-related activities in J&K.
Need: According to an estimate of the NIA, Pakistan-based terror groups finance terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir by generating millions in donations through their charity organisations. They have been supporting militants and funding terrorism in Kashmir.
These outfits collect donations from people in Pakistan and then pass on the money to finance terrorism in Kashmir through their overground workers. The groups collect millions of dollars in donations through crowd funding in the name of social service.