💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (July Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

GS Paper: GS2

  • Global Drug Policy Index inaugurated

    The first-ever Global Drug Policy Index was recently inaugurated.

    Global Drug Policy Index

    • It is released by the Harm Reduction Consortium, ranks Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK and Australia as the five leading countries on humane and health-driven drug policies.
    • It is a data-driven global analysis of drug policies and their implementation.
    • It is composed of 75 indicators running across five broad dimensions of drug policy:
    1. Criminal justice
    2. Extreme responses
    3. Health and harm reduction
    4. Access to internationally controlled medicines and
    5. Development

    Highlights of the 2021 ranking

    • The five lowest-ranking countries are Brazil, Uganda, Indonesia, Kenya, and Mexico.
    • Norway, despite topping the Index, only managed a score of 74/100.
    • And the median score across all 30 countries and dimensions is just 48/100.

    India’s performance

    • India’s rank is 18 out of 30 countries
    • It has an overall score of 46/100.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • India-Eurasia Relations

    Context

    Delhi’s Indo-Pacific strategy has acquired political and institutional traction, thanks to intensive Indian diplomacy in recent years. It must now devote similar energy to the development of a “Eurasian” policy.

    Need for Eurasian strategy and challenges

    • This week’s consultations in Delhi on the crisis in Afghanistan among the region’s top security policymakers is part of developing a Eurasian strategy.
    • National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has invited his counterparts from Pakistan, Iran, Central Asia, Russia, and China to join this discussion on Wednesday.
    • Pakistan has declined to join.
    • Pakistan’s reluctance to engage with India on Afghanistan reveals Delhi’s persisting problem with Islamabad in shaping a new Eurasian strategy.
    • But it also reinforces the urgency of an Indian strategy to deal with Eurasia.

    Factors shaping India’s Eurasian policy

    • The most important development in Eurasia today is the dramatic rise of China and its growing strategic assertiveness, expanding economic power and rising political influence.
    • Beijing’s muscular approach to the long and disputed border with Bhutan and India, its quest for a security presence in Tajikistan, the active search for a larger role in Afghanistan, and a greater say in the affairs of the broader sub-Himalayan region are only one part of the story.
    • Physical proximity multiplies China’s economic impact on the inner Asian regions.
    •  These leverages, in turn, were reinforced by a deepening alliance with Russia that straddles the Eurasian heartland. Russia’s intractable disputes with Europe and America have increased Moscow’s reliance on Beijing.
    • Amidst mounting challenges from China in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain, Washington has begun to rethink its strategic commitments to Eurasia. 
    • Whether defined as “burden-sharing” in Washington or “strategic autonomy” in Brussels, Europe must necessarily take on a larger regional Eurasian security role.
    • More broadly, regional powers are going to reshape Eurasia.

    What should be India’s approach to Eurasia

    • Like the Indo-Pacific, Eurasia is new to India’s strategic discourse.
    • To be sure, there are references to India’s ancient civilisational links with Eurasia.
    • While there are many elements to an Indian strategy towards Eurasia, three of them stand out.
    • Put Europe back into India’s continental calculus: As India now steps up its engagement with Europe, the time has come for it to begin a strategic conversation with Brussels on Eurasian security.
    • This will be a natural complement to the fledgling engagement between India and Europe on the Indo-Pacific.
    • India’s Eurasian policy must necessarily involve greater engagement with both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
    • Intensify the dialogue on Eurasian security with Russia: While Indo-Russian differences on the Indo-Pacific, the Quad, China, and the Taliban are real, Delhi and Moscow have good reasons to narrow their differences on Afghanistan and widen cooperation on continental Eurasian security.
    • Indian collaboration with both Persia and Arabia: If Persia’s location makes it critical for the future of Afghanistan and Central Asia, the religious influence of Arabia and the weight of the Gulf capital are quite consequential in the region.
    • India’s partnerships with Persia and Arabia are also critical in overcoming Turkey’s alliance with Pakistan that is hostile to Delhi.

    Challenges

    • Contradictions: India will surely encounter many contradictions in each of the three areas — between and among America, Europe, Russia, China, Iran, and the Arab Gulf.
    • As in the Indo-Pacific, so in Eurasia, Delhi should not let these contradictions hold India back.

    Consider the question ” Eurasia involves the recalibration of India’s continental strategy. India has certainly dealt with Eurasia’s constituent spaces separately over the decades. What Delhi now needs is an integrated approach to Eurasia. In the context of this, examine the challenges in India’s engagement with Eurasia and suggest the elements that should form part of India’s strategy towards Eurasia.”

    Conclusion

    The current flux in Eurasian geopolitics will lessen some of the current contradictions and generate some new antinomies in the days ahead. The key for India lies in greater strategic activism that opens opportunities in all directions in Eurasia.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

     

  • How India’s Gati Shakti Plan can have an impact beyond its borders

    Context

    The Gati Shakti National Master Plan will have an important economic multiplier effect at home, it must also be leveraged to have an external impact by aligning it with India’s regional and global connectivity efforts.

    Main components of the Gati Shakti National Master Plan

    • The Gati Shakti plan has three main components, all focused on domestic coordination.
    • Increase information sharing: The plan seeks to increase information sharing with a new technology platform between various ministries at the Union and state levels.
    • Reduce logistics’ costs: It focuses on giving impetus to multi-modal transportation to reduce logistics’ costs and strengthen last-mile connectivity in India’s hinterland or border regions.
    • Analytical tool: The third component includes an analytical decision-making tool to disseminate project-related information and prioritise key infrastructure projects.
    • This aims to ensure transparency and time-bound commitments to investors.

    How Gati Shakti Plan can strengthen India’s economic ties with its neighbours

    • The plan will automatically generate positive effects to deepen India’s economic ties with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, as well as with Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region.
    • India’s investment in roads, ports, inland waterways or new customs procedures generate positive externalities for these neighbours, who are keen to access the growing Indian consumer market.
    • Any reduction in India’s domestic logistics costs brings immediate benefits to the northern neighbour, given that 98 per cent of Nepal’s total trade transits through India and about 65 per cent of Nepal’s trade is with India.
    • In 2019, trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh was eased through a new multimodal road and waterway link via Assam.
    • The new cargo ferry service with the Maldives, launched last year, has lowered the costs of trade for the island state.
    • And under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Programme, India’s investments in multimodal connectivity on the eastern coast is reconnecting India with the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia through integrated rail, port and shipping systems.
    • Whether it is the alignment of a cross-border railway, the location of a border check post, or the digital system chosen for customs and immigration processes, India’s connectivity investments at home will have limited effects unless they are coordinated with those of its neighbours and other regional partners.
    • While India recently joined the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) convention, which facilitates cross-border customs procedures, none of its neighbouring countries in the east has signed on to it.

    Suggestions for Gati Shakti Plan to have maximum external effect

    • First, India will have to deepen bilateral consultations with its neighbours to gauge their connectivity strategies and priorities.
    • Given political and security sensitivities, India will require diplomatic skills to reassure its neighbours and adapt to their pace and political economy context.
    • A second way is for India to work through regional institutions and platforms. SAARC’s ambitious regional integration plans of the 2000s are now defunct, so Delhi has shifted its geo-economic orientation eastwards.
    • The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has got new momentum, but there is also progress on the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) Initiative.
    • Finally, India can also boost the Gati Shakti plan’s external impact by cooperating more closely with global players who are keen to support its strategic imperative to give the Indo-Pacific an economic connectivity dimension.
    • This includes the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, but also Japan, the US, Australia, EU and ASEAN.

    Conclusion

    Gati Shakti plan must also leveraged to have an external impact by aligning it with India’s regional and global connectivity efforts.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan

    India is hosting the National Security Advisors (NSAs) level ‘Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan’ this week.

    About the dialogue

    • It will be headed by NSA Ajit Doval.
    • It aims to organise a conference of regional stakeholders and important powers on the country’s current situation and the future outlook.
    • Invitations are sent to Afghanistan’s neighbours such as Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and other key players including Russia, and China.

    Pakistan’s response

    • Not surprisingly, Pakistan has denounced India’s invitation. China too followed Pakistan’s footsteps.
    • Had Pakistan consented to come, it would have been the first high-level visit to India from Pakistan since 2016.
    • Pakistani position reflects its mindset on Afghanistan, where it has played a conspiring role.
    • It reflects its mindset of viewing Afghanistan as its protectorate.

    Response from the other countries

    • India’s invitation has seen an overwhelming response.
    • Central Asian countries as well as Russia and Iran have confirmed participation.

    Significance of the dialogue

    • This will be the first time that all Central Asian countries, and not just Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours, would be participating in this format.
    • The enthusiastic response is a manifestation of the importance attached to India’s role in regional efforts to promote peace and security in Afghanistan.
    • If peace is established in Afghanistan, it could become a major trading hub as a corridor of connectivity in the heart of Asia.

    When you are not at the table, you are on the menu… this conference is India’s attempt to set the table, be on the table, and decide the agenda.

    India’s motive for the conference

    • This is India’s attempt to secure for itself a seat at the table to decide the future course of action on Afghanistan.
    • It underlines the need to actively engage with the world to protect India’s security interests.
    • Until the fall of Kabul, India had not engaged with the Taliban through publicly-announced official channels.

    India’s expectations form Taliban Govt

    • Taliban should not allow safe havens for terror on its soil.
    • The administration should be inclusive, and the rights of minorities, women, and children must be protected.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • What is Freedom of Air?

    A flight from Srinagar to Sharjah had to avoid flying over Pakistan after the country denied permission to use its airspace for the said flight. With this refusal, Pakistan has violated the first freedom of air.

    Freedom of Air

    • Following the Chicago Convention in 1944, the signatories decided to set rules that would act as fundamental building blocks to international commercial aviation.
    • As a part of these rules, initially, six ‘freedoms of air’ were decided.
    • These freedoms or rights still operate within the ambit of multilateral and bilateral treaties.
    • It allows to grant airlines of a particular country the privilege to use and/or land in another country’s airspace.

    ‘Freedoms’ accorded

    1. Flying over a foreign country without landing
    2. Refuel or carry out maintenance in a foreign country without embarking or disembarking passengers or cargo
    3. Fly from the home country and land in a foreign country
    4. Fly from a foreign country and land in the home country
    5. Fly from the home country to a foreign country, stopping in another foreign country on the way
    6. Fly from a foreign country to another foreign country, stopping in the home country on the way
    7. Fly from a foreign country to another foreign country, without stopping in the home country
    8. Fly from the home country to a foreign country, then on to another destination within the same foreign country
    9. Fly internally within a foreign country

    Why did Pakistan deny use of its airspace?

    • There has been no official explanation given by Pakistan authorities.
    • Indian has approached Pakistan to raise the issue of the refusal to use its airspace for the said flight.
    • Notably, other Indian airlines flying to west Asia from airports such as Delhi, Lucknow, etc have not been barred from using Pakistan airspace.
    • This also raises the concern of Pakistan violating the first freedom of air.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • AUKUS could rock China’s boat in the Indo-Pacific

    Context

    The trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) continues to be in the news.

    Implications for ASEAN

    • There is also the matter of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) disunity over the emergence of AUKUS.
    •  While AUKUS is clearly an attempt by the U.S. to bolster regional security, including securing Australia’s seaborne trade, any sudden accretion in Australia’s naval capabilities is bound to cause unease in the region.
    • Even though Australia has denied that AUKUS is a defence alliance, this hardly prevents China from exploiting ASEAN’s concerns at having to face a Hobson’s choice amidst worsening U.S.-China regional rivalry.
    •  AUKUS is based on a shared commitment of its three members to deepening diplomatic, security and defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
    • Even though this has not been stated explicitly, the rise of China, particularly its rapid militarisation and aggressive behaviour, is undoubtedly the trigger.

    Relations of AUKUS members with China

    • The AUKUS joint statement clearly acknowledges that trilateral defence ties are decades old, and that AUKUS aims to further joint capabilities and interoperability.
    • For three nations, their relations with China have recently been marked by contretemps.
    • Australia, especially, had for years subordinated its strategic assessment of China to transactional commercial interests.
    • Much to China’s chagrin, its policy of deliberately targeting Australian exports has not yielded the desired results.
    • Instead of kow-towing, the plucky Australian character has led Canberra to favour a fundamental overhaul of its China policy.
    • The transfer of sensitive submarine technology by the U.S. to the U.K. is a sui generis arrangement based on their long-standing Mutual Defence Agreement of 1958.
    • Elements in the broader agenda provide opportunities to the U.S., the U.K. and Australia to engage the regional countries.

    AUKUS engagement with regional countries

    • All three nations will also play a major role in U.S.-led programmes such as Build Back Better World, Blue Dot Network and Clean Network, to meet the challenge of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
    • The Quad and AUKUS are distinct, yet complementary. Neither diminishes the other.
    • Whereas the Quad initiatives straddle the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, a Pacific-centric orientation for AUKUS has advantages.
    • Such a strategy could potentially strengthen Japan’s security as well as that of Taiwan in the face of China’s mounting bellicosity.
    • Shifting AUKUS’s fulcrum to the Pacific Ocean could reassure ASEAN nations.
    • It could also inure AUKUS to any insidious insinuation that accretion in the number of nuclear submarines plying the Indo-Pacific might upset the balance of power in the Indian Ocean.

    Conclusion

    There are limited options in the economic arena with China already having emerged as a global economic powerhouse. AUKUS, though, provides an opportunity to the U.S. to place proxy submarine forces to limit China’s forays, especially in the Pacific Ocean.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • A new jurisprudence for political prisoners

    Context

    In Thwaha Fasal vs Union of India, the Court has acted in its introspective jurisdiction and deconstructed the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) with a great sense of legal realism. This paves the way for a formidable judicial authority against blatant misuse of this law.

    Background of the case

    • In this case from Kerala, there are three accused.
    • The police registered the case and later the investigation was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
    • During the investigation, some materials containing radical literature were found, which included a book on caste issues in India and a translation of the dissent notes written by Rosa Luxemburg to Lenin.
    • Thus, the provisions of the UAPA were invoked.
    • After initial rejection of the pleas, the trial judge granted bail to both the accused in September 2020.
    • The Supreme Court was emphatic and liberal when it said that mere association with a terrorist organisation is not sufficient to attract the offences alleged.
    • Unless and until the association and the support were “with intention of furthering the activities of a terrorist organisation”, offence under Section 38 or Section 39 is not made out, said the Court.

    Issues with UAPA

    • Section 43D(5) of the UAPA says that for many of the offences under the Act, bail should not be granted, if “on perusal of the case diary or the report (of the investigation), there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation is prima facie true”.
    • Thus, the Act prompts the Court to consider the version of the prosecution alone while deciding the question of bail.
    • Unlike the Criminal Procedure Code, the UAPA, by virtue of the proviso to Section 43D(2), permits keeping a person in prison for up to 180 days, without even filing a charge sheet.
    • Prevents examination of the facts: The statute prevents a comprehensive examination of the facts of the case on the one hand, and prolongs the trial indefinitely by keeping the accused in prison on the other.
    • Instead of presumption of innocence, the UAPA holds presumption of guilt of the accused.
    • In Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, the Court said that by virtue of Section 43D(5) of UAPA, the burden is on the accused to show that the prosecution case is not prima facie true.
    • The proposition in Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali is that the bail court should not even investigate deeply into the materials and evidence and should consider the bail plea, primarily based on the nature of allegations, for, according to the Court, Section 43D(5) prohibits a thorough and deeper examination.
    • The top court has now altered this terrible legal landscape.

    Key takeaways from the judgement

    • The text of the laws sometimes poses immense challenge to the courts by limiting the space for judicial discretion and adjudication.
    • The courts usually adopt two mutually contradictory methods in dealing with such tough provisions.
    • One is to read and apply the provision literally and mechanically which has the effect of curtailing the individual freedom as intended by the makers of the law.
    • In contrast to this approach, there could be a constitutional reading of the statute, which perceives the issues in a human rights angle and tries to mitigate the rigour of the content of the law.

    Conclusion

    The judgment should be invoked to release other political prisoners in the country who have been denied bail either due to the harshness of the law or due to the follies in understanding the law or both.

  • We need greater global cooperation

    Context

    Our thinking about the international system is focussed on a new era of great power competition. An assertive China is seeking to refashion the international order and exercise greater regional hegemony.

    Refashioning the international order

    • Recently, Secretary Antony Blinken outlined the US approach to China: “Competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be.”
    • This pretty much describes the approach of every country in the world to this geopolitical moment.
    • The big question is whether the competitive and adversarial dynamics are now so deep that the space for “collaboration” is diminishing fast.
    • There is now bipartisan consensus in the US that China needs to be contained; just as China is convinced that the US will not only not tolerate China’s further rise.

    Great power competition between the US and China

    • Two dynamics were supposed to counteract the risks of great power competition.
    • Global economic interdependence: The first was global economic interdependence.
    • Global trade has rebounded to its pre-pandemic levels.
    • The logic of interdependence is now under severe ideological stress.
    • Interdependence has not led to greater convergence on political values or a more open global political order.
    • Common challenges fostering global cooperation: The second dynamic counteracting competition was the idea that common challenges like climate change, the pandemic and the risks posed by technology will foster greater global cooperation.
    •  All the global crises that should have been occasions for global cooperation have become the sites for intensifying global competition.

    Climate and global health: Indicator of lack of global cooperation

    • It is hard to convince anyone that most countries of the world were willing to treat the pandemic as a global public health crisis.
    • The shift in the climate change discourse is about intensifying technological competition and maintaining national economic supremacy, rather than solving a global problem.
    •  It is not entirely clear that all the innovations induced by this competitive dynamic will, in fact, limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
    • It also leaves the question of a modicum of justice in the international order entirely unresolved.
    • We have also learnt over the last couple of decades that the international system, and all global public goods, including security, can be made extremely vulnerable even by small groups carrying a sense of grievance.
    • So, the distribution of technology, finance, and developmental space will matter.
    • India, in the context of what other countries are doing, takes a very well-judged stance at the international level.
    • But it is difficult not to wonder whether a country that lets its citizens breathe the foulest air, and cannot get its head around a solvable problem of stubble burning, can project seriousness.
    • So, climate and global public health, rather than acting as a spur to global cooperation are going to be symptoms of a deep pathology.

    Global risks and declining multilateral institutions

    • Areas where global risks are increasing include-Cyber threats, the possible risks of unregulated technology, whether in artificial intelligence or biological research, competition in space, a renewed competition in nuclear weapons and an intensifying arms race.
    •  In not a single one of these areas is there a serious prospect of any country thinking outside of an adversarial nationalist frame.
    • The old multilateral system was undergirded by, and partially an instrument for, US power.
    • The term multilateral has also been deeply damaged by a cynical use, where it simply refers to a group of countries rather than a single or a couple of countries acting together.
    • It is high time the term be used only in a context where there is agreement on global rules or an architecture to genuinely solve a global public goods problem.
    • These may still reflect power differentials, but at least they are oriented to problem-solving at a global level.
    • In this sense, one would be hard-pressed to find any genuinely multilateral institutions left.

    Consider the question “What are the challenge facing global order in the present context? Suggest the measures to preserve the global order aimed towards greater global cooperation.”

    Conclusion

    The real choice for the world is not just navigating between China and the United States. It is fundamentally between an orientation that is committed to global problem-solving rather than just preserving national supremacy.

  • All India Judicial Service (AIJS): The centralised recruitment debate

    The central government is preparing to give a fresh push to the establishment of an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) on the lines of the central civil services.

    All India Judicial Service (AIJS)

    • The AIJS is a reform push to centralize the recruitment of judges.
    • It would work at the level of additional district judges and district judges for all states.
    • In the same way that the UPSC conducts a central recruitment process and assigns successful candidates to cadres, judges of the lower judiciary are proposed to be recruited centrally and assigned to states.
    • This idea has been debated in legal circles for decades, and remains contentious.

    How are district judges currently recruited?

    • Articles 233 and 234 of the Constitution of India deal with the appointment of district judges, and place it in the domain of the states.
    • The selection process is conducted by the State Public Service Commissions and the concerned High Court since High Courts exercise jurisdiction over the subordinate judiciary in the state.
    • Panels of High Court judges interview candidates after the exam and select them for an appointment.
    • All judges of the lower judiciary up to the level of district judge are selected through the Provincial Civil Services (Judicial) exam.

    Why has the AIJS been proposed?

    The idea was to ensure:

    • Efficient subordinate judiciary
    • Address structural issues such as varying pay and remuneration across states
    • Fill vacancies faster
    • Ensure standard training across states

    Beginning of the debate

    • The idea of a centralized judicial service was first proposed in the Law Commission 1958 ‘Report on Reforms on Judicial Administration’.
    • It was proposed again in the Law Commission Report of 1978, which discussed delays and arrears of cases in the lower courts.
    • In 2006, the Parliamentary Standing Committee backed the idea of a pan-Indian judicial service, and also prepared a draft Bill.

    What is the judiciary’s view on the AIJS?

    • 1992: the Supreme Court directed the Centre to set up an AIJS in All India Judges’ Assn. vs Union of India
    • 1993: In review of the judgment, the court left the Centre at liberty to take the initiative on the issue.
    • 2017: The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the issue of appointment of district judges, and mooted a “Central Selection Mechanism”.

    What is the opposition to the AIJS?

    • Blow to federalism: AJIS is seen as an affront to federalism and an encroachment on the powers of states granted by the Constitution.
    • Language of Business: Language and representation, for example, are key concerns highlighted by states. Judicial business is conducted in regional languages, whi ch could be affected by central recruitment.
    • Quotas: Also, reservations based on caste, and even for rural candidates or linguistic minorities in the state, could be diluted in a central test, it has been argued.
    • Separation of power: The opposition is also based on the constitutional concept of the separation of powers.
    • Not a complete remedy: Additionally, legal experts have argued that the creation of AIJS will not address the structural issues plaguing the lower judiciary.

    Why is the government seeking to revive the idea of AIJS?

    • The government has targeted the reform of the lower judiciary in its effort to improve India’s Ease of Doing Business ranking.
    • It will act as efficient dispute resolution is one of the key indices in determining the rank.
    • AIJS is a step in the direction of ensuring an efficient lower judiciary.

    Centre’s argument for AJIS

    • The government has cited IAS officers’ examples.
    • It has argued that if a central mechanism can work for administrative services — IAS officers learn the language required for their cadre — it can work for judicial services too.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Gujarat grants Parole to Prisoners as Diwali gift

    The Gujarat government has decided to grant 15-day parole to prisoners above 60 years of age and women prisoners, except those booked in serious offences, as a ‘Diwali gift’.

    What is Parole?

    • Furlough and parole envisage a short-term release from custody, both aimed as reformative steps towards prisoners.
    • Parole is granted to meet a “specific exigency” and cannot be claimed as a matter of right.
    • Both provisions are subject to the circumstances of the prisoner, such as jail behaviour, the gravity of offences, sentence period and public interest.

    How is it different from Furlough?

    • Furlough may be granted without any specific reason after a convict spends a stipulated number of years.
    • It is a matter of right although cannot be claimed as an ‘absolute legal right’.

    Is ‘parole as Diwali gift’ an extraordinary move?

    • The state governments often take a compassionate view on applications for parole during festivals of Diwali, Rakshabandhan, etc.
    • The legislature/politicians do not have direct powers to grant parole on suo-motu cognizance.
    • The announcement only indicates that prisoners will have to make applications to the authorities concerned, which in turn will be considered with leniency and expeditiously.
    • The applications will, however, be subject to scrutiny and the prisoners’ conduct and gravity of their offence.

    Who can opt for parole and how?

    • The provision of parole is available to convicts found guilty by a court and such a prisoner.
    • The prisoner’s relative/legal aid may submit an application to the prison superintendent.
    • He/she in turn forwards the application to the ‘competent authority’, often under the jurisdiction of district magistrate concerned and comprising prison and police authorities, to sanction release.
    • After due verification of reasons and prisoner’s conduct by the competent authority, an order for grant of release on parole will be issued.
    • In case of rejection of the said application, a convict may approach the High Court.

    Duration of Parole

    • The Prison rules state that parole period may be granted for not more than 30 days.
    • The competent authority may exercise its discretion in case of serious illnesses or death of “nearest relative such as mother, father, sister, brother, children, spouse of the prisoner, or in case of natural calamity.”
    • Parole or extension of parole cannot be granted without a report of the police
    • Apart from the remedy to approach a high court for parole in case of a rejected application, a prison can also approach the high court directly in case of an extraordinary emergency.

     

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2021:

    Q. With reference to India, consider the following statements:

    1. When a prisoner makes a sufficient case, parole cannot be out denied to such prisoner because it becomes a matter of his/her right.
    2. State Governments have their own Prisoners Release on Parole Rules.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”jzwsmaz3ng” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)