Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Constitutional battle between governor and the government
Context
The Supreme Court’s action in ordering the release of A G Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has resulted in mixed reactions.
Background
- After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the assailants were tried under the notorious Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA).
- All 26 accused were given the death sentence by the Special Court for various offences, including under TADA (1998).
- Fortunately, the SC held that the offences under TADA were not made out since there was no case to proceed for acts of terrorism.
- It also modified the death penalty for 22 persons and confirmed the same only for Nalini, Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan (1999).
- Petition for mercy under Article 161: They petitioned the governor of Tamil Nadu for mercy under Article 161.
- The then governor of Tamil Nadu dismissed their petition without any advice from the cabinet.
- The Madras High Court ruled that the governor cannot exercise the power of pardon without the advice of the council of ministers.
- The cabinet advised the governor to give reprieve only to Nalini Sriharan and rejected the case of the other three, including Perarivalan.
- Perarivalan and the two other convicts appealed to the president with a mercy plea under Article 72.
- Two successive presidents of India – K R Narayanan and APJ Abdul Kalam — did not pass any mercy orders.
- But all of a sudden, their mercy pleas were rejected after a delay of 11 years by President Pratibha Patil.
- When they were about to be executed, the convicts moved the Madras HC challenging the execution of the death warrant issued against them.
- The cases were transferred to the SC, which decided that the president’s action in not considering the mercy plea within a reasonable time was improper and since the three prisoners had been on death row for 11 years, it was a fit case for commuting their sentence to life imprisonment.
- Meanwhile, on February 19, 2014, the TN cabinet advised the governor to grant reprieve to all seven accused.
- Once again, all of them applied for remission from the governor.
- The state cabinet also advised the governor to grant pardon.
- WhenPerarivalan’s mother, filed a case for parole, the court noting the inordinate delay observed: “the Governor of T N, a constitutional authority, cannot sit on the state’s recommendation on the release of all seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case for so long” (July 2020).
- The court was informed that the governor was awaiting the final report of the CBI’s Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA).
Role of MDMA
- The role of MDMA itself came up for criticism by the SC in January 2018 and it observed that the agency did not appear to have made “much headway”.
- The court observed that the question of reopening the case against them will not arise as they had been already convicted for murder and conspiracy.
- Article 20(2) of the Constitution guarantees that no person can be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.
Use of powers under Article 142 by the Supreme Court
- Once again, the process of granting mercy to the seven accused began with a resolution passed by the T N Assembly on September 9, 2018.
- On the same day, the state cabinet advised the governor to give reprieve to all seven prisoners.
- On being compelled by the court, the governor stated that the matter was to be dealt with by the President.
- It was at this stage the matter went back to the SC.
- It was finally decided that the authority to grant pardon is with the governor and he is bound by the advice of the state government.
- The court also ruled that the action of the governor in delaying the matter for more than 2.5 years was unacceptable.
- Exercising its power under Article 142 as well as considering all the relevant circumstances, the SC ordered Perarivalan’s release.
Limitations on governor’s power
- Giving reprieve to persons sentenced to the death penalty, even in the exercise of the plenary powers by a governor, has limitations.
- In 1978, Parliament amended the Criminal Procedure Code and introduced Sec 433A by which in such cases, prisoners cannot be released from prison unless they had served a minimum of 14 years in prison.
Reformatory penal system of India
- India’s penal system is undoubtedly reformatory and not retributive.
- The SC ruled on this issue by stating “a barbaric crime does not have to be visited with a barbaric penalty.”
- It is also surprising that the successive governments at the Centre appeared to be guided in this case by geopolitical considerations rather than this country’s laws.
Conclusion
The question now is whether the six other prisoners will receive the same relief or will there be a confrontation between the state government and governor once again. Let us hope that wisdom prevails and the governor’s office is not manipulated for narrow political considerations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Public health and management cadre
Context
In April this year, the Union government released a guidance document on the setting up of a ‘public health and management cadre’ (PHMC) as well as revised editions of the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) — for ensuring quality health care in government facilities.
Background
- The need for a public health cadre and services in India rarely got any policy attention.
- Limited understanding: The reason was that even among policymakers, there was limited understanding on the roles and the functions of public health specialists and the relevance of such cadres, especially at the district and sub-district levels.
- However, the last decade and a half was eventful.
- The initial threat of avian flu in 2005-06, the Swine flu pandemic of 2009-10; five more public health emergencies of international concern between years 2009-19; the increasing risks and regular emergence and re-emergence of of new viruses and diseases (Zika, Ebola, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic fever, Nipah viruses, etc.) in animals and humans, resulted in increased attention on public health.
- National Public health Act: In 2017, India’s National Health Policy 2017 proposed the formation of a public health cadre and enacting a National Public Health Act.
- The COVID-19 pandemic changed the status quo.
- In the absence of trained public health professionals at the policy and decision making levels, India’s pandemic response ended up becoming bureaucrat steered and clinician led.
Different cadres and its implications
- Lack of career progression opportunities: At present, most Indian States (with exceptions such as Tamil Nadu and Odisha) have a teaching cadre (of medical college faculty members) and a specialist cadre of doctors involved in clinical services.
- This structure does not provide similar career progression opportunities for professionals trained in public health.
- Limited interest: It is one of the reasons for limited interest by health-care professionals to opt for public health as a career choice.
- The outcome has been costly for society: a perennial shortage of trained public health workforce.
Public health cadre
- The proposed public health cadre and the health management cadre have the potential to address some of these challenges.
- With the release of guidance documents, the States have been advised to formulate an action plan, identify the cadre strengths, and fill up the vacant posts in the next six months to a year.
- A public health workforce has a role even beyond epidemics and pandemics.
- A trained public health workforce ensures that people receive holistic health care, of preventive and promotive services (largely in the domain of public health) as well as curative and diagnostic services (as part of medical care).
Revised version of IPHS and significance
- This is the second revision in the IPHS, which were first released in 2007 and then revised in 2012.
- The regular need for a revision in the IPHS is a recognition of the fact that to be meaningful, quality improvement has to be an ongoing process.
- The development of the IPHS itself was a major step.
- The revised IPHS is an important development but not an end itself.
- In the 15 years since the first release of the IPHS, only a small proportion — around 15% to 20% — of government health-care facilities meets these standards. .
- If the pace of achieving IPHS is any criteria, there is a need for more accelerated interventions.
- Opportunities such as a revision of the IPHS should also be used for an independent assessment on how the IPHS has improved the quality of health services.
Implementation challenges
- The effective part of implementation is interplay: policy formulation, financial allocation, and the availability of a trained workforce.
- In this case, policy has been formulated.
- Financial allocations: Then, though the Government’s spending on health in India is low and has increased only marginally in the last two decades; however, in the last two years, there have been a few additional — small but assured — sources of funding for public health services have become available.
- The Fifteenth Finance Commission grant for the five-year period of 2021- 26 and the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) allocations are available for strengthening public health services and could be used as States embark upon implementing the PHMC and a revised IPHS.
- Availability of trained workforce: The third aspect of effective implementation, the availability of trained workforce, is the most critical.
- As States develop plans for setting up the PHMC, all potential challenges in securing a trained workforce should be identified and actions initiated.
Conclusion
The public health and management cadres and the revised IPHS can help India to make progress towards the NHP goal. To ensure that, State governments need to act urgently and immediately.
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Back2Basics: Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS)
- IPHS are a set of uniform standards envisaged to improve the quality of health care delivery in the country.
- The IPHS documents have been revised keeping in view the changing protocols of the existing programmes and introduction of new programmes especially for Non-Communicable Diseases.
- Flexibility is allowed to suit the diverse needs of the States and regions.
- These IPHS guidelines will act as the main driver for continuous improvement in quality and serve as the bench mark for assessing the functional status of health facilities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST Council
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Supreme Court has held that Union and State legislatures have equal, simultaneous and unique powers to make laws on Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the recommendations of the GST Council are not binding on them.
What is the case?
- The apex court’s decision came while confirming a Gujarat High Court ruling that the Centre cannot levy Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on ocean freight from Indian importers.
Key takeaways of the Judgment
- The recommendations of the GST Council are the product of a collaborative dialogue involving the Union and the States.
- They are recommendatory in nature. They only have a persuasive value.
- To regard them as binding would disrupt fiscal federalism when both the Union and the States are conferred equal power to legislate on GST.
Basis of the Judgment
- The court emphasised that Article 246A of the Constitution gives the States power to make laws with respect to GST.
- It treats the Union and the States as “equal units”.
- It confers a simultaneous power (on Union and States) for enacting laws on GST.
- Article 279A, in constituting the GST Council, envisions that neither the Centre nor the States are actually dependent on the other.
What are the articles added/modified to the Constitution by the GST Act?
(1) Article 246A: Special Provision for GST
- This Article was newly inserted to give power to the Parliament and the respective State/Union Legislatures to make laws on GST respectively imposed by each of them.
- However, the Parliament of India is given the exclusive power to make laws with respect to inter-state supplies.
- The IGST Act deals with inter-state supplies. Thus, the power to make laws under the IGST Act will rest exclusively with the Parliament.
- Further, the article excludes the following products from the scope of GST until a date recommended by the GST Council:
- Petroleum Crude
- High-Speed Diesel
- Motor Spirit
- Natural Gas
- Aviation Turbine Fuel
(2) Article 269A: Levy and Collection of GST for Inter-State Supply
- While Article 246A gives the Parliament the exclusive power to make laws with respect to inter-state supplies.
- The manner of distribution of revenue from such supplies between the Centre and the State is covered in Article 269A.
- It allows the GST Council to frame rules in this regard. Import of goods or services will also be called as inter-state supplies.
- This gives the Central Government the power to levy IGST on import transactions.
- Import of goods was subject to Countervailing Duty (CVD) in the earlier scheme of taxation.
- IGST levy helps a taxpayer to avail the credit of IGST paid on import along the supply chain, which was not possible before.
(3) Article 279A: GST Council
- This Article gives power to the President to constitute a joint forum of the Centre and States called the GST Council.
- The GST Council is an apex member committee to modify, reconcile or to procure any law or regulation based on the context of GST in India.
(4) Article 286: Restrictions on Tax Imposition
- This was an existing article which restricted states from passing any law that allowed them to collect tax on sale or purchase of goods either outside the state or in the case of import transactions.
- It was further amended to restrict the passing of any laws in case of services too.
- Further, the term ‘supply’ replaces ‘sale or purchase’.
(5) Article 366: Addition of Important definitions
Article 366 was an existing article amended to include the following definitions:
- GST means the tax on supply of goods, services or both. It is important to note that the supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption is excluded from the purview of GST.
- Services refer to anything other than goods.
- State includes Union Territory with legislature.
Back2Basics: GST Council
- The GST Council is a federal body that aims to bring together states and the Centre on a common platform for the nationwide rollout of the indirect tax reform.
- It is an apex member committee to modify, reconcile or to procure any law or regulation based on the context of goods and services tax in India.
- The GST Council dictates tax rate, tax exemption, the due date of forms, tax laws, and tax deadlines, keeping in mind special rates and provisions for some states.
- The predominant responsibility of the GST Council is to ensure to have one uniform tax rate for goods and services across the nation.
How is the GST Council structured?
- The GST is governed by the GST Council. Article 279 (1) of the amended Indian Constitution states that the GST Council has to be constituted by the President within 60 days of the commencement of the Article 279A.
- According to the article, the GST Council will be a joint forum for the Centre and the States. It consists of the following members:
- The Union Finance Minister will be the Chairperson
- As a member, the Union Minister of State will be in charge of Revenue of Finance
- The Minister in charge of finance or taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State government, as members.
Terms of reference
- Article 279A (4) specifies that the Council will make recommendations to the Union and the States on the important issues related to GST, such as the goods and services will be subject or exempted from the Goods and Services Tax.
- They lay down GST laws, principles that govern the following:
- Place of Supply
- Threshold limits
- GST rates on goods and services
- Special rates for raising additional resources during a natural calamity or disaster
- Special GST rates for certain States
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 142
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Supreme Court has exercised the power conferred on it under Article 142 of the Constitution to order the release of former Prime Minister’s assassination convict.
Supreme Court frees Perarivalan
What is Article 142?
Article 142 titled ‘Enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court and orders as to discovery, etc.’ has two clauses:
[1] Article 142(1)
- The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.
- Any decree so passed or order so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India.
- It may be in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe.
[2] Article 142(2)
- The Supreme Court shall have all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.
History of Article 142
- When a draft Constitution was prepared by the drafting committee and placed before the Constituent Assembly, Article 142 was actually numbered as Article 118.
- It was placed before the Constituent Assembly on May 27, 1949 for debate but got adopted on the same day without any debate.
- This was possibly because everyone agreed that in order to ensure judicial independence, the highest court of the country must be empowered with plenary power to do complete justice.
Articles invoked in Perarivalan Case
- In the case of Perarivalan, the Supreme Court invoked Article 142(1) under which it was empowered to pass any order necessary to do complete justice in any matter pending before it.
- It held that it was not a fit case to be remanded to the Governor for his consideration under Article 161 of the Constitution.
Important instances when Article 142 was invoked
- Bhopal Gas tragedy case: The SC awarded a compensation of $470 million to the victims and held that “prohibitions or limitations or provisions contained in ordinary laws cannot, ipso facto, act as prohibitions or limitations on the constitutional powers under Article 142.”
- Babri Masjid demolition case: The Supreme Court ordered framing of a scheme by the Centre for formation of trust to construct Ram Mandir at the Masjid demolition site in Ayodhya.
- Liquor sale ban case: The Supreme Court banned liquor shops within a distance of 500 metres from National as well as State highways in order to prevent drunken driving.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:
Q.With reference to the Constitution of India, prohibitions or limitations or provisions contained in ordinary laws cannot act as prohibitions or limitations on the constitutional powers under Article 142. It could mean which one of the following?
a. The decisions taken by the Election Commission of India while discharging its duties cannot be challenged in any court of law.
b. The Supreme Court of India is not constrained in the exercise of its powers by laws made by the Parliament.
c. In the event of grave financial crisis in the country, the President of India can declare Financial Emergency without the counsel from the Cabinet.
d. State Legislatures cannot make laws on certain matters without the concurrence of Union Legislature.
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NATO
Mains level: Expansion of NATO
After nearly three months of debate within the two countries, Finland and Sweden have formally applied for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
What is NATO?
- NATO is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949.
- It sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
- Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- NATO has spread a web of partners, namely Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Finland.
Expansion of NATO: Transforming Europe
- The war in Ukraine has already changed the geopolitics of Europe and the world.
- The admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO would bring about a transformation in the continent’s security map by giving NATO a contiguous long frontier in western Russia.
- Finland and Russia share a 1,300-km border — and doubling it from the present 1,200 km, parts of it in northern Norway, Latvia and Estonia, and Poland and Lithuania.
- In addition, Sweden’s island of Gotland in the middle of the Baltic Sea would give NATO a strategic advantage.
- Furthermore, when Sweden and Finland join NATO, the Baltic Sea — Russia’s gateway to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean — would be ringed entirely by NATO members.
Why Nordic countries are willing to join NATO?
- Although the debate over joining NATO was ongoing in both countries for nearly three decades, Russia’s annexation of Crimea pushed both towards NATO’s “open door” policy.
- Still, there was little political consensus in either country, especially in Sweden where the Social Democrats have long been against the idea.
- However, February 24 changed everything the date on which Russia invaded Ukraine.
A knee jerk reaction?
- If Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was meant to deter NATO’s eastward expansion, the war has had the opposite effect.
- If admitted, Sweden and Finland will become its 31st and 32nd members.
Russian response
- Back in March, Russia had evoked a threatening response to take retaliatory measures by stationing its nuclear and hypersonic weapons close to the Baltic Sea.
- Russia denounced the problems with Finland and Sweden but the NATO’s expansion at the expense of these countries does not pose a direct threat to us.
- But the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory will certainly provoke their response, warned Mr Putin.
- Sweden had already said it would not allow NATO bases or nuclear weapons on its territory.
Hurdles for Finland, Sweden
- At the moment the main obstacle to their applications in Turkey, a member since 1952 and which has NATO’s second-largest army after the US.
- Turkish president Erdogan has objected to their applications on the ground that the two countries had provided safe haven to the leaders of the Kurdish group PKK.
- Many Kurdish and other exiles have found refuge in Sweden over the past decades.
- PKK is an armed movement fighting for a separate Kurdistan, comprising Kurdish areas in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
- Neither of these countries have a clear, open attitude towards terrorist organisation.
What could Turkey gain?
- Turkey is expected to seek to negotiate a compromise deal to seek action on Kurdish groups.
- Erdogan could also seek to use Sweden and Finland’s membership to wrest concessions from the United States and other allies.
- Turkey wants to return to the US-led F-35 fighter jet program — a project it was kicked out of following its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.
- Alternatively, Turkey is looking to purchase a new batch of F-16 fighter jets and upgrade its existing fleet.
How does this affect Turkey’s image in the West?
- Turkey is reinforcing an image that is blocking the alliance’s expansion for its own profit.
- It also risks damaging the credit it had earned by supplying Ukraine with the Bayraktar TB2 armed drones that became an effective weapon against Russian forces.
Is Turkey trying to appease Russia?
- Turkey has built close relations with both Russia and Ukraine and has been trying to balance its ties with both.
- It has refused to join sanctions against Russia — while supporting Ukraine with the drones that helped deny Russia air superiority.
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