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Subject: Fundamental Rights,DPSP

1. History + Evolution
2. Features
3. Amendments
4. Basic Structure

  • Postal ballot for NRIs being contemplated

    Chief Election Commissioner, during a recent visit to South Africa and Mauritius, urged Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to register as overseas electors and told them that a proposal on postal ballots for NRIs was being contemplated by the Election Commission of India.

    Why in news now?

    • CECs interactions with NRIs came after Union Law Minister informed the Lok Sabha in March that the government was exploring the possibility of allowing online voting for NRIs.
    • The ECI had written to the Law Ministry in 2020 proposing that NRIs be allowed to vote through postal ballots, following which the matter has been under consideration by the government.
    • The ECI at present allows NRIs to register as overseas electors as long as they have not acquired the citizenship of another country.
    • They have to reach their respective polling booths to cast their votes in person on voting day.

    Classification of Overseas Indians

    Overseas Indians, officially known as Non-resident Indians (NRIs) or Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs), are people of Indian birth, descent or origin who live outside the Republic of India:

    (A) Non-Resident Indian (NRI)

    • Strictly asserting non-resident refers only to the tax status of a person who, as per section 6 of the Income-tax Act of 1961, has not resided in India for a specified period for the purposes of the Act.
    • The rates of income tax are different for persons who are “resident in India” and for NRIs.

    (B) Person of Indian Origin (PIO)

    Person of Indian Origin (PIO) means a foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and/or Nepal), who:

    • at any time held an Indian passport OR
    • either of their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents were born and permanently resident in India as defined in GoI Act, 1935 and other territories that became part of India thereafter provided neither was at any time a citizen of any of the aforesaid countries OR
    • is a spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO.

    (C) Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI)

    • After multiple efforts by leaders across the Indian political spectrum, a pseudo-citizenship scheme was established, the “Overseas Citizenship of India”, commonly referred to as the OCI card.
    • The Constitution of India does not permit full dual citizenship.
    • The OCI card is effectively a long-term visa, with restrictions on voting rights and government jobs.

     

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  • Language sensitivity and provisions in Constitution

    Context

    Language sensitivity has been a feature of selfhood in the case of every Indian language.

     Sensitivity to language

    • From ancient times, a sensitivity to language difference has almost been the core of Dravidic self-hood.
    • A similar sensitivity existed among the speakers of Prakrits in ancient times.
    • It was in one of the Prakrits that Mahavir had presented his teachings in the sixth century BCE.
    • Eighteen centuries later, Acharya Hemachandra, a major Jain scholar, poet, mathematician and philosopher, produced his Desinamamala, a treatise on the importance of Prakrit words used in Gujarat of his times as against those from Sanskrit.
    • Mahatma Gandhi, who defined the idea of selfhood for India in Hind Swaraj (1909), chose to write this iconic book in Gujarati.

    Constitutional provision

    • The official language used for communication between the States shall be the language that has been in use at the time of adoption of the Constitution.
    • The move from English to Hindi can take place only if, ‘two or more states agree’ for the shift.
    • Article 344 (4) provides for a ‘Committee consisting of thirty members’, ‘twenty’ from the Parliament and ‘ten’ from State assemblies, for safeguarding language-related provisions.

    The distribution between two ministries

    • The functions and the scope of the committee, as laid down by the Constitution, are further clarified by the practice of distribution of language as a subject between two Ministries, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the Home Ministry.
    • The scope of the HRD Ministry extends to education and the promotion of cultural expression.
    • The Home Ministry’s scope extends to safeguarding relations of the States with the ‘union’, protecting the linguistic rights of language minorities and the promotion of Hindi.
    • The last of these, the Constitution states, has to be ‘without interference with other languages.

    Data on language decline

    • In 2011, Hindi speakers accounted for 43.63% of the total population, with a total of 52.83 crore speakers.
    • In 1971, the number was 20.27 crore, accounting for 36.99% of the total population.
    • Between 2001 and 2011, the growth in proportion of the population was 2.6%.
    • The next most spoken language, Bangla, had negative growth.
    • It was spoken by 8.30% of Indians in 1991, 8.11% in 2001 and by 8.03% in 2011.
    • Telugu, which slid from 7.87% in 1991, to 7.19% in 2001 and 6.70% in 2011, has a similar story to tell.
    • Tamil recorded 6.32% of the total population in 1991, 5.91% in 2001 and 5.70% in 2011.
    • The only major language to show decadal growth (though small) was Gujarati.
    • And the only small yet scheduled language to show good growth was Sanskrit.

    Reasons for Hindi’s growth

    • The 52.83 crore speakers of Hindi (as recorded in 2011) included not just the speaker of ‘Hindi’ but also those of more than 50 other languages.
    • Bhojpuri and most languages of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have also been pushed into the Hindi package.
    • Had the Census not included these other languages under Hindi, the strength of Hindi speakers would have gone down to about 39 crore, — just a little under 32% of the total population in 2011 — and would have looked not too different from those of other scheduled languages.
    • The data for English speakers is far more truthful. Census 2011 reports a total of 3,88,793 Indians as English speakers (2,59,678 men and 1,29,115 women).

    Hindi in comparison to other languages in the Eighth schedule

    • Among the languages included in the Eighth Schedule, Hindi falls within the younger lot of languages.
    • On the other hand, Tamil, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Sindhi, Nepali and Assamiya have a much longer/older history.
    •  As a language of knowledge too, Tamil, Kannada, Bangla and Marathi (with their abundance of encyclopaedias and historical literature), quite easily outshine Hindi.

    Conclusion

    A language evolves slowly and cannot be forced to grow by issuing ordinances.

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  • Need for one common language

    Last week, Home Minister Amit Shah suggested that states should communicate with each other in Hindi rather than English, while stressing that Hindi should not be an alternative to local languages.

    This again sparked the debate of “Hindi imposition”.

    How widely is Hindi spoken in India?

    • The 2011 linguistic census accounts for 121 mother tongues, including 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
    • Hindi is the most widely spoken, with 52.8 crore individuals, or 43.6% of the population, declaring it as their mother tongue.
    • The next highest is Bengali, mother tongue for 97 lakh (8%) — less than one-fifth of Hindi’s count (Chart 2).
    • In terms of the number of people who know Hindi, the count crosses more than half the country.
    • Nearly 13.9 crore (over 11%) reported Hindi as their second language, which makes it either the mother tongue or second language for nearly 55% of the population.

    Has it always been this widespread?

    • Hindi has been India’s predominant mother tongue over the decades, its share in the population rising in every succeeding census.
    • In 1971, 37% Indians had reported Hindi as their mother tongue, a share that has grown over the next four censuses to 38.7%, 39.2%, 41% and 43.6% at last count (Chart 1).
    • This begs the question as to which mother tongues have declined as Hindi’s share has risen.
    • A number of mother tongues other than Hindi have faced a decline in terms of share, although the dip has been marginal in many cases.
    • For example, Bengali’s share in the population declined by just 0.14 percentage points from 1971 (8.17%) to 2011 (8.03%).
    • In comparison, Malayalam (1.12 percentage points) and Urdu (1.03 points) had higher declines among the mother tongues with at least 1 crore speakers in 2011.
    • Punjabi’s share, on the other hand, rose from 2.57% to 2.74%.
    • At the other end of the scale (among the 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution) were Malayalam, whose numbers rose by under 59% in four decades, and Assamese, rising just over 71% (Chart 3).

    What explains Hindi’s high numbers?

    • One obvious explanation is that Hindi is the predominant language in some of India’s most populous states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
    • Another reason is that a number of languages are bracketed under Hindi by census enumerators.
    • In 2011, there were 1,383 mother tongues reported by people, and hundreds were knocked out.
    • These mother tongues were then grouped into languages.
    • You will find that under Hindi, they have listed nearly 65 mother tongues.
    • Among them is Bhojpuri, and 5 crore people have reported Bhojpuri as their mother tongue, but the census has decided that Bhojpuri is Hindi.
    • If one were to knock out the other languages merged with Hindi, the total figure goes down to 38 crore.

    And how widely is English spoken?

    • Although English, alongside Hindi, is one of the two official languages of the central government, it is not among the 22 languages in the 8th Schedule; it is one of the 99 non-scheduled languages.
    • In terms of mother tongue, India had just 2.6 lakh English speakers in 2011 — a tiny fraction of the 121 crore people counted in that census.
    • That does not reflect the extent to which English is spoken.
    • It was the second language of 8.3 crore respondents in 2011, second only to Hindi’s 13.9 crore.
    • If third language is added, then English was spoken — as mother tongue, second language or third language — by over 10% of the population in 2011, behind only Hindi’s 57%.
    • It is still not a scheduled language in India, when it should be.

    Where is English most prevalent?

    • As mother tongue, Maharashtra accounted for over 1 lakh of the 2.6 lakh English speakers.
    • As second language, English is preferred over Hindi in parts of the Northeast.
    • Among the 17.6 lakh with Manipuri (an 8th Schedule language) as their mother tongue in 2011, 4.8 lakh declared their second language as English, compared to 1.8 lakh for Hindi.
    • Among the non-scheduled languages spoken in the Northeast, Khasi, predominant in Meghalaya, was the mother tongue of 14.3 lakh, of whom 2.4 lakh declared their second language as English, and 54,000 as Hindi.
    • The trends were similar for Mizo, and for various languages spoken in Nagaland, including Ao, Angami and Rengma.
    • Beyond the Northeastern languages, among 68 lakh with Kashmiri as their mother tongue, 2.8 lakh declared their second language as English, compared to 2.2 lakh who declared Hindi.

    Back2Basics: Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution

    • The Eighth Schedule lists the official languages of the Republic of India.
    • At the time when the Constitution was enacted, inclusion in this list meant that the language was entitled to representation on the Official Languages Commission.
    • This language would be one of the bases that would be drawn upon to enrich Hindi and English, the official languages of the Union.
    • The list has since, however, acquired further significance.
    • In addition, a candidate appearing in an examination conducted for public service is entitled to use any of these languages as the medium in which he or she answers the paper.
    • As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the 22 languages.

    ‘Classical’ languages in India

    Currently, six languages enjoy the ‘Classical’ status: Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).

    How are they classified?

    According to information provided by the Ministry of Culture in the Rajya Sabha in February 2014, the guidelines for declaring a language as ‘Classical’ are:

    • High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
    • A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
    • The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
    • The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms o

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  • Strengthen secularism

    Context

    The High Court of Karnataka has not been able to settle the hijab issue. The petition has been filed in the apex court by a Muslim student against the high court judgement.

    Political and Constitutional dimensions of the issue

    • The issue of the hijab is political as well as constitutional.
    • The top court will examine the constitutional aspect and its judgment will hopefully settle the issue.
    • But the political dimension of the hijab issue will continue to trouble Indian society for a long time.
    • The Indian Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience on the one hand and secularism for the governance of the country on the other.

    Understanding the freedom of religion under Indian Constitution

    • Under the Indian Constitution, there is a separation of religion from the state as in Europe.
    • The essence of India’s secularism is that the state has no religion.
    • This is clear from Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution.
    • Article 27 says that no tax can be levied for promoting any particular religion.
    • In other words, no public revenue is permitted to be spent in favour of any particular religion. 
    • Article 28 says that no religious instruction shall be given in any educational institutions wholly maintained out of state funds.
    • The same Article says that no educational institution recognised or aided by the state shall compel any person to attend religious classes or worship therein.
    • Article 25(2)(a) empowers the state to regulate secular activities associated with religious practice.
    • Article 15 prohibits any kind of discrimination on the ground of religion.
    • Freedom of religion is subject to other fundamental rights: Above all, freedom of religion is made subject to other fundamental rights, apart from the reasonable restrictions on the grounds of public order, morality and health.
    • Thus, the freedom of religion under the Constitution does not enjoy the same status as other secular rights such as equality before law, non-discrimination, right to life and liberty, etc.

    Why India needs to be secular

    • Theocracy will ensure the disintegration of the country.
    • 1] India is a multi-religious country where the largest minority is around 200 million.
    • The Government of India had notified as many as six minority religions in the country.
    • So, a theocratic state with the majority religion as the state religion is an unworkable proposition.
    • 2] Complex structure: Another crucial factor which makes a theocratic state impossible in India is the complex, inegalitarian, hierarchical and oppressive social structure of the majority religion.
    • 3] There would be no equality: Since a theocratic state based on the religious texts, in the Indian context, would mean a state which would deny equality before law and equal protection of law to the subaltern class and discriminate against them on the basis of caste, it will be inherently unstable.
    • This may lead to perennial conflicts and the eventual disintegration of society.
    • Therefore, we reach the inevitable conclusion that India, as a nation, can survive only as a secular state where the state has no religion and does not promote any religion.

    Conclusion

    Secularism was chosen as the foundational principle of the republic to keep the nation united. Enlightened citizens should realise that if secularism is jettisoned, the hard-won national unity will be in peril. It is the patriotic duty of every citizen to strengthen secularism and thus save the republic.

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  • Who are Denotified Tribes (DNTs)?

    A standing committee of Parliament, tabled last week, has criticised the functioning of the development programme for de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.

    Who are de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes?

    • These are communities who are the most vulnerable and deprived.
    • Denotified tribes (DNTs) are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminal’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.
    • They mostly belong to the medieval period Banjaras.
    • Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities are defined as those who move from one place to another rather than living at one place all the time.

    What is the history of deprivation faced by these communities?

    • This has a long history, first during colonial rule, and then in independent India.
    • These communities are largely politically ‘quiet’ — they do not place their demands concretely before the government for they lack vocal leadership and also lack the patronage of a national leader.
    • Many commissions and committees constituted since Independence have referred to the problems of these communities. These include the:
    1. Criminal Tribes Inquiry Committee, 1947 constituted in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh)
    2. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar Committee in 1949 (it was based on the report of this committee the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed)
    3. Kaka Kalelkar Commission (also called first OBC Commission) constituted in 1953
    4. In 1965, an Advisory Committee constituted for revision of the SC and ST list under the chairmanship of B N Lokur referred to denotified tribes
    5. The B P Mandal Commission constituted in 1980 also made some recommendations on the issue

    Policy measures for DNTs

    • A National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) was constituted in 2006 by the then government.
    • It was headed by Balkrishna Sidram Renke and submitted its report in June 2008.
    • It said that it is an irony that these tribes somehow escaped the attention of our Constitution makers and thus got deprived of the Constitutional support unlike SCs and STs.
    • The Renke commission estimated their population at around 10.74 crore based on Census 2001.
    • A new Commission constituted in February 2014 to prepare a state-wise list, which submitted its report on January 8, 2018, identified 1,262 communities as de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic.
    • Much recently, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi Nomadic Communities (SEED).

    Why in news now?

    • While a number of these tribes are categorised under SC, ST and OBC, many are not.
    • The standing committee report in Parliament has cited a statement by the Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, that 269 DNT communities are not covered under any reserved categories.
    • These communities are frequently left out because they are less visible and difficult to reach.

    What is DWBDNC, and what is its role?

    • The DWBDNC stands for the Scheme for welfare of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic communities (DWBDNC).
    • The commission report submitted in 2018 had recommended the setting of up a permanent commission for these communities.
    • But since most DNTs are covered under SC, ST or OBC, the government felt setting up a permanent commission, which would deal with redress of grievances.
    • The government therefore set up the DWBDNCs under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the aegis of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

    The Idate Commission

    • The DWBDNC was constituted on February 21, 2019 under the chairmanship of Bhiku Ramji Idate.
    • Also, a committee has been set up by the NITI Aayog to complete the process of identification of the de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities (DNCs).
    • Ethnographic studies of DNCs are being conducted by the Anthropological Survey of India, with a budget of Rs 2.26 crore sanctioned.
    • On March 30, 2022 the DoPT issued an advertisement for the recruitment of consultants in the DWBDNC.

     

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  • SC to hear plea against Electoral Bonds Scheme

    The CJI N will soon take up a long-pending challenge against the government’s electoral bonds scheme.

    What are Electoral Bonds?

    • Electoral bonds are banking instruments that can be purchased by any citizen or company to make donations to political parties, without the donor’s identity being disclosed.
    • It is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India.
    • The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice.
    • An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.

    About the scheme

    • A citizen of India or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond
    • Such bonds can be purchased for any value in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore from any of the specified branches of the State Bank of India
    • The purchaser will be allowed to buy electoral bonds only on due fulfillment of all the extant KYC norms and by making payment from a bank account
    • The bonds will have a life of 15 days (15 days time has been prescribed for the bonds to ensure that they do not become a parallel currency).
    • Donors who contribute less than ₹20,000 to political parties through purchase of electoral bonds need not provide their identity details, such as Permanent Account Number (PAN).

    Objective of the scheme

    • Transparency in political funding: To ensure that the funds being collected by the political parties is accounted money or clean money.

    Who can redeem such bonds?

    • The Electoral Bonds shall be encashed by an eligible Political Party only through a Bank account with the Authorized Bank.
    • Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the Lok Sabha or the State Legislative Assembly, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.

    Restrictions that are done away

    • Earlier, no foreign company could donate to any political party under the Companies Act
    • A firm could donate a maximum of 7.5 per cent of its average three year net profit as political donations according to Section 182 of the Companies Act.
    • As per the same section of the Act, companies had to disclose details of their political donations in their annual statement of accounts.
    • The government moved an amendment in the Finance Bill to ensure that this proviso would not be applicable to companies in case of electoral bonds.
    • Thus, Indian, foreign and even shell companies can now donate to political parties without having to inform anyone of the contribution.

    Issues with the Scheme

    • Opaque funding: While the identity of the donor is captured, it is not revealed to the party or public. So transparency is not enhanced for the voter.
    • No IT break: Also income tax breaks may not be available for donations through electoral bonds. This pushes the donor to choose between remaining anonymous and saving on taxes.
    • No anonymity for donors: The privacy of the donor is compromised as the bank will know their identity.
    • Differential benefits: These bonds will help any party that is in power because the government can know who donated what money and to whom.
    • Unlimited donations: The electoral bonds scheme and amendments in the Finance Act of 2017 allows for “unlimited donations from individuals and foreign companies to political parties without any record of the sources of funding”.

    Way ahead

    • The worries over the electoral bond scheme, however, go beyond its patent unconstitutionality.
    • The concern about the possibility of misuse of funds is very pertinent.
    • The EC has been demanding that a law be passed to make political parties liable to get their accounts audited by an auditor from a panel suggested by the CAG or EC. This should get prominence.
    • Another feasible option is to establish a National Election Fund to which all donations could be directed.
    • This would take care of the imaginary fear of political reprisal of the donors.

     

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  • No need for laws to enforce duties on citizens: AG

    Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal said that there was no need to enact specific laws to “enforce” fundamental duties on citizens.

    What is the case?

    • The Supreme Court is entertaining a public interest litigation (PIL) petition to enforce the fundamental duties of citizens, including patriotism and unity of nation, through “comprehensive, well-defined laws”.

    Precursor to AG’s remark

    • The Supreme Court has directed in the Ranganath Mishra judgment of 2003 regarding the implementation of the Justice J.S. Verma Committee’s report on the “operationalization of fundamental duties”.
    • The committee’s work was a part of a report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution.
    • The report had urged the government to sensitise people to, and create general awareness of, their duties and the protection of minorities and freedom of religion.

    What are Fundamental Duties?

    • The fundamental duties of citizens were added to the constitution by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, upon the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee.
    • It basically imply the moral obligations of all citizens of a country and today, there are 11 fundamental duties in India, which are written in Part IV-A of the Constitution, to promote patriotism and strengthen the unity of India.
    • The FDs obligate all citizens to respect the national symbols of India, including the constitution, to cherish its heritage, preserve its composite culture and assist in its defence.
    • They also obligate all Indians to promote the spirit of common brotherhood, protect the environment and public property, develop scientific temper, abjure violence, and strive towards excellence in all spheres of life.

    Judicial interpretation of FDs

    • The Supreme Court has held that FDs are not enforceable in any Court of Law.
    • It ruled that these fundamental duties can also help the court to decide the constitutionality of a law passed by the legislature.
    • There is a reference to such duties in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 51A brings the Indian constitution into conformity with these treaties.

    Total FDs

    • Originally ten in number, the fundamental duties were increased to eleven by the 86th Amendment in 2002.

    The 10 fundamental duties are as follows:

    1. To oblige with the Indian Constitution and respect the National Anthem and Flag
    2. To cherish and follow the noble ideas that inspired the national struggle for freedom
    3. To protect the integrity, sovereignty, and unity of India
    4. To defend the country and perform national services if and when the country requires
    5. To promote the spirit of harmony and brotherhood amongst all the people of India and renounce any practices that are derogatory to women
    6. To cherish and preserve the rich national heritage of our composite culture
    7. To protect and improve the natural environment including lakes, wildlife, rivers, forests, etc.
    8. To develop scientific temper, humanism, and spirit of inquiry
    9. To safeguard all public property
    10. To strive towards excellence in all genres of individual and collective activities

    The 11th fundamental duty which was added to this list is:

    1. To provide opportunities for education to children between 6-14 years of age, and duty as parents to ensure that such opportunities are being awarded to their child. (86th Amendment, 2002)

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2017:

    Q. Which of the following is/are among the Fundamental Duties of citizens laid down in the Indian Constitution?

    1. To preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture
    2. To protect the weaker sections from social injustice
    3. To develop the scientific temper and spirit of inquiry
    4. To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity.

    Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) Only 2

    (c) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”vi1m5s5vrg” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Privacy concerns in the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022

    Context

    The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022.

    Purpose of the introduction of the Bill

    • The Bill aims to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act 1920 that has been in need of amendment for several decades.
    • The criticism and the need for amendment was predominantly in respect of the limited definition of ‘measurements’ as under that Act.
    • Back in the 1980s, the Law Commission of India (in its 87th Report) and the Supreme Court of India in a judgment titled State of U.P. vs Ram Babu Misra had nearly simultaneously suggested the need to amend the statute.

    What are the issues with the provisions in the Bill?

    1] Definition of ‘measurement’ includes analysis of the data

    • The definition of measurements is not restricted to taking measurements, but also their “analysis”.
    • The definition now states “iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavio[u]ral attributes including signatures….”
    • It goes beyond the scope of a law that is only designed for taking measurements and could result in indirectly conferring legislative backing for techniques that may involve the collection of data from other sources(For instance, using facial recognition).
    • At present there are extensive facial recognition technology programmes for “smart policing” that are deployed all across the country.
    • Such experimental technologies cause mass surveillance and are prone to bias, impacting the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable in India.

    2] Power of the police and prison officials widened

    • The existing law permits data capture by police and prison officers either from persons convicted or persons arrested for commission of offences punishable with a minimum of one year’s imprisonment.
    • Parallel powers are granted to judges, who can order any person to give measurements where it is in aid of investigation.
    • While the judicial power is left undisturbed, it is the powers of the police and prison officials that are being widened.
    • The law removes the existing — albeit minimal — limitation on persons whose measurements could be taken.
    • It is poised to be expanded to all persons who are placed under arrest in a case.
    • Here, the proposed Bill also contains muddied language stating that a person, “may not be obliged to allow taking of his biological samples”.

    3] Storage and retention of data for a long period

    • The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shall for a period of 75 years from the date of collection maintain a digital record, “in the interest of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of any offense”.
    • The provision permits the NCRB to, “share and disseminate such records with any law enforcement agency, in such manner as may be prescribed”.
    • The NCRB already operates a centralised database, namely the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), without any clear legislative framework.
    • The existence of such legislative power with a technical framework may permit multiple mirror copies and parallel databases of the “measurements” being stored with law enforcement, beyond a State Police department which will be prosecuting the crime and the NCRB which will store all records centrally.
    • For instance, in response to a Standing Committee of Parliament on police modernisation, Rajasthan has stated that it maintains a ‘RajCop Application’ that integrates with “analytics capabilities in real-time with multiple data sources (inter-department and intra-department)”.
    • Similarly, Punjab has said that the “PAIS (Punjab Artificial Intelligence System) App uses machine learning, deep learning, visual search, and face recognition for the identification of criminals to assist police personnel.
    • Hence, multiple copies of “measurements” will be used by State government policing departments for various purposes and with experimental technologies.
    • This also takes away the benefit of deletion which occurs on acquittal and will suffer from weak enforcement due to the absence of a data protection law.
    •  The end result is a sprawling database in which innocent persons are treated as persons of interest for most of their natural lives.

    Conclusion

    To protect individual autonomy and fulfil our constitutional promises, the Supreme Court of India pronounced the Justice K.S. Puttaswamy judgment, reaffirming its status as a fundamental right. The responsibility to protect it falls to each organ of the government, including the legislature and the union executive.

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  • Social media platforms must be held accountable for subjugating rights: Centre to HC

    The Centre told the Delhi High Court that social media platforms must be held accountable for “subjugating and supplanting fundamental rights like the right to freedom of speech and expression, otherwise the same would have dire consequences for any democratic nation”.

    What is the news?

    • The Ministry’s submission came in response to a petition filed by a Twitter user whose account was suspended by the microblogging site for alleged violations of platform guidelines.
    • The Twitter user said his account was suspended for the reason of “ban evasion” (creating an account when a similar account was earlier banned).
    • The complainant said Twitter suspended his accounts without giving him an opportunity for a hearing.

    Centre’s argument

    • The Centre said when a Significant Social Media Intermediary (SSMI) such as Twitter takes a decision to suspend the whole or part of a user’s account on its own due to its policy violation, it should afford a reasonable opportunity to the user to defend his side.
    • The exception, the Centre said, where the SSMIs could take such a decision include certain scenarios such as rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material, bot activity or malware, terrorism-related content etc.
    • If an SSMI fails to comply with the above, then it may amount to a violation of IT Rules 2021, the Centre clarified.
    • No platform or intermediary will be allowed to infringe upon the citizens’ rights, including but not limited to Articles 14, 19 and 21 guaranteed under the Constitution of India under the guise of violation of the platform’s policies unless it constitutes a violation of extant law in force.

    What are the IT Rules 2021?

    Why is this a matter of concern?

    • Social media platforms must respect the fundamental rights of the citizens and should not take down the account itself or completely suspend the user account in all cases.
    • Taking down the whole information or the user account should be a last resort.
    • Only in cases where the majority of the contents/posts/tweets on an account are unlawful, the platform may take the extreme step of taking down the whole information or suspending the whole account.

    Conclusion

    • Hence it can be argued that undue discontinuance of social media accounts of any person is violative of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21.

     

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  • Indian Legislative Service

    Context

    The appointment of Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyulu as the Secretary-General of the Upper House by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, on September 1, 2021, was news that drew much attention. Ramacharyulu was the first-ever Rajya Sabha secretariat staff who rose to become the Secretary-General of the Upper House.

    Responsibilities and role of Secretaries-General of both the Houses

    • Secretaries-General of both the Houses are mandated with many parliamentary and administrative responsibilities.
    • Privileges: The Secretary-General also enjoys certain privileges such as freedom from arrest, immunity from criminal proceedings, and any obstruction and breach of their rights would amount to contempt of the House.

    Principle of secretariate independent of executive government

    • Article 98 of the Constitution provides the scope of separate secretariats for the two Houses of Parliament.
    • The principle, hence, laid in the Article is that the secretariats should be independent of the executive government. 

    Issues with appointing civil servant

    • A separate secretariat marks a feature of a functioning parliamentary democracy.
    • Against the principle of independence: Serving civil servants or those who are retired come with long-held baggage and the clout of their past career.
    • When civil servants are hired to the post of Secretary-General, this not only dishonours the purpose of ensuring the independence of the Secretariat but also leads to a conflict of interests.
    • Against the principle of separation of power: It breaches the principle of separation of power.
    • The officials mandated with exercising one area of power may not expect to exercise the others.
    • Lack of expertise: One of the prerequisites that demand the post of the Secretary-General is unfailing knowledge and vast experience of parliamentary procedures, practices and precedents.
    • Most of the civil servants lack precisely this aspect of expertise.

    Way forward: All-India service

    • There are thousands of legislative bodies in India, ranging from the panchayat, block panchayat, zila parishad, municipal corporations to State legislatures and Union Parliament at the national level.
    • Despite these mammoth law-making bodies, they lack their own common public recruiting and training agency at the national level.
    • Ensuring competent and robust legislative institutions demands having qualified and well-trained staff in place.
    • The growth of modern government and expansion of governmental activities require a matching development and laborious legislative exercise.
    • Creating a common all-India service cadre — an Indian Legislative Service — is a must.
    • The Rajya Sabha can, under Article 312, pass a resolution to this effect.
    • In the United Kingdom, the Clerk of the House of Commons has always been appointed from the legislative staff pool created to serve Parliament.
    • It is high time that India adapts and adopts such democratic institutional practices.

    Conclusion

    A common service can build a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, enabling them to serve from across local bodies to Union Parliament.

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