executive and judiciary

Question 1

SC’s strength increased?

Answer 1

1. increasde frm 31 to 34
2. need:59,331 cases are pending in the top court
3. background:
   
   • SC(No. of Judges) Act 1956 originally provided for a max 10 + 1 judges
   • number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1960, to 17 in 1977, to 26 in 1988 and 31 in 2009

Question 2

Fast track courts in India?

Answer 2

1. first ones being established in the year 2000.
2. In March 2019, there were 581 FTCs operational in the country, with approximately 5.9 lakh pending cases
3. However, 56% of the States and Union Territories, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, had no FTCs.

Existing issues:

1. There is decline of FTCs across the country.
2. Systemic issues: huge variation in the kinds of cases handled by these courts across States, with certain States primarily allocating rape and sexual offence cases to them and other States allocating various other matters.
3. Several FTCs lacked technological resources to conduct audio and video recordings of the victims and many of them did not have regular staff.
4. Inadequate staff and IT infrastructure.
5. Delay in getting reports from the understaffed forensic science labs
6. Frivolous adjournments and over-listing of cases in the cause list.

Question 3

Issues in filling up judicial vacancies in higher courts?

Answer 3

1. while India needs more judges, how many are enough?The SC has implemented the weighted caseload method for subordinate courts. But for higher judiciary, the process is opaque. In 2014, the CJI had given an “in principle” agreement to increase the strength of the high courts by 25%. A few states implemented this, which increased the total capacity to 1,080 sanctioned posts. But the precise method of calculating required capacity is unknown.
2. process of appointing judges is completely opaque and evolving. In 2015, the Court ordered that an extra-constitutional document called MoP be put together to prescribe the manner in which the judicial collegium would pick the appointees. This document, however, remains unfinalised till date.
3. Though several constitutional provisions allow the Supreme Court collegium to appoint ad-hoc judges and arrange for stop-gap measures, these options are seldom leveraged.
4. even before the proposed MoP, the original collegium decisions since 1999 have never followed a specific procedure.eg. HCs are reqd to recommend names 6 months prior to an anticipated vacancy. But, HCs have rarely followed this. on average, appointments to the SC take 41 days and appointments to the HCs take between 5-7 months.
5. current appointment procedure is completely discretionary. list of those considered for the position and how the decision was made is not made public
6. delay by executive: Against the 419 vacancies currently in the high courts, the Ministry of Law and Justice received a total of only 208 proposals. Fifty-six per cent of these still remain with the Ministry for examination. After receiving the reports, the government on an average takes 127 days while the judicial collegium takes 119 days to confirm the recommendations. Often, non-legislated grounds — such as national security — give a free-wheeling power to the executive to defer collegium recommendations.

Question 4

SC guidelines on lynching?

Answer 4

laid down in Poonawala’s case

1. There shall be a “separate offence” for lynching and the trial courts must ordinarily award maximum sentence upon conviction of the accused person to set a stern example in cases of mob violence.
2. The state governments will have to designate a senior police officer in each district for taking measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.
3. The state governments need to identify districts, sub-divisions and villageswhere instances of lynching and mob violence have been reported in the recent past.
4. The nodal officers shall bring to the notice of the DGP about any inter-district co-ordination issues for devising a strategy to tackle lynching and mob violence related issues.
5. Every police officer shall ensure to disperse the mob that has a tendency to cause violence in the disguise of vigilantism or otherwise.
6. Central and the state governments shall broadcast on radio, television and other media platforms about the serious consequences of mob lynching and mob violence.
7. Despite the measures taken by the State Police, if it comes to the notice of the local police that an incident of lynching or mob violence has taken place, the jurisdictional police station shall immediately lodge an FIR.
8. The State Governments shall prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme in the light of the provisions of Section 357A of CrPC within one month from the date of this judgment.
9. If a police officer or an officer of the district administration fails to fulfill his duty, it will be considered an act of deliberate negligence.

Question 5

Attempts by various states fr Anti-lynching legislation?

Answer 5

1. Manipur government came up first with its Bill against lynching in 2018, incorporating some logical and relevant clauses.
2. Rajasthan government passed a bill against lynching in August 2019.
3. West Bengal too came up with a more stringent Bill against lynching.

Question 6

provisions available against mob lynching under IPC?

Answer 6

There is “no separate” definition for such incidents under the existing IPC. Lynching incidents can be dealt with under Section 300 and 302 of IPC.

Question 7

Which state recently made aa law saying Hindi as the sole official language to be used in lower courts across the state?

Answer 7

Haryana

the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Act of 2020

Question 8

Language used in courts: legal provisions?

Answer 8

1. Article 348 (1) of the Constitution of India provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High court shall be in English Language until Parliament by law otherwise provides.
2. Under Article 348 (2), the Governor of the State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of the Hindi language or any other language used for any official purpose of the State, in the proceedings of the High Court having its principal seat in that State provided that decrees, judgments or orders passed by such High Courts shall be in English.
3. Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, provides that the use of Hindi or official language of a State in addition to the English language may be authorized, with the consent of the President of India, by the Governor of the State for purpose of judgments etc. made by the High Court for that State.

Question 9

The provision of optional use of Hindi in proceedings has already been made in which states?

Answer 9

in the High Courts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

Question 10

Delih HC on misuse of UAPA?

Answer 10

DElhi HC while granting bail toFeb 2020 Delhi riots accused, noted that

1. “terrorist activity” cannot be broadly defined to include ordinary penal offences
2. court reasoned that “the more stringent a penal provision, the more strictly it must be construed”, thereby it raised the bar for the State to book an individual for terrorism under the UAPA.
3. bail orders also refer to how the Supreme Court itself, in the 1994 case of Kartar Singh v State of Punjab, flagged similar concerns against the misuse of another anti-terror law, the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987.
4. Delhi police argument that UAPA can be invoked not just for the “intent to threaten the unity and integrity but the likelihood to threaten the unity and integrity”, court rejected this interpretation and said that it is a “sacrosanct principle of interpretation of penal provisions” that these must be construed strictly and narrowly. This is key to ensuring that a person who was not covered by the legislative ambit does not get roped into a penal provision.
5. extent and reach of terrorist activity must travel beyond the effect of an ordinary crime…and must be such that it travels beyond the capacity of the ordinary law enforcement agencies to deal with it under the ordinary penal law

• perhaps the first instance of a court calling out alleged misuse of the UAPA against individuals in cases that do not necessarily fall in the category of “terrorism” cases.
• According to data provided by the MHA in Parlia., a total of 1126 cases were registered under UAPA in 2019, a sharp rise from 897 in 2015.
• Bail under UAPA can be granted only when the court is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such person is prima facie untrue.
• In 2019, the SC, in NIA v Zahoor Ahmed Watali, read the bail provisions strictly, holding that courts must only be satisfied that a prima facie case can be made out to deny bail and not consider the merit or the admissibility of the evidence.

Question 11

Cooperation ministry?

Answer 11

1. formation of a separate Union Ministry of Cooperation, a subject that till date was looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture.
2. for realizing the vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’ (Prosperity through Cooperation) and to give a new push to the cooperative movement.

Need:

1. necessary to restore the importance of the cooperative structure in the country.
2. cooperative structure has managed to flourish and leave its mark only in a handful of states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka etc.
3. Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
4. Ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘Ease of doing business’ for co-operatives and enable development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS).
5. can iron ot distortions like between MH and KN. KMF procures a lot of milk and then dumps it at lower prices in the market for consumers. This depresses prices in adjoining states like Maharashtra, affecting the fortunes of Maharashtra milk farmers. the new Ministry of Cooperation can iron out such distortions in state price policies due to subsidisation
6. the Ministry of Cooperation can give them soft loans for innovation and technology upgradation

Issues:

1. an infringement upon the federal rights of the state governments.
2. will impact sme states disproportionately eg. GJ, MH, KN

Question 12

Economic prosperity and access to justice system: relation as per NCRB data?

Answer 12

1. A person has the best chance (99% vs 72% normally going to police station) to get his complaint regtd as FIR if he goes to the police station withan order frm the court. 2. Written complaint has a better chance of being regtd(53% vs 5% for oral complaints). Complaints made through DIAL100 had only 1% success rate

Question 13

Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra and Anr. (2002) is related to?

Answer 13

concept of curative petition was first evolved by the Supreme Court of India in this case

Question 14

Conditions laid down by Sc for Sc to entertain curatiive petitions?

Answer 14

1. will have to establish that there was a genuine violation of principles of natural justice and fear of the bias of the judge and judgement that adversely affected him.
2. petition shall state specifically that the grounds mentioned had been taken in the review petition and that it was dismissed by circulation.
3. petition is to be sent to the three senior most judges and judges of the bench who passed the judgement affecting the petition, if available.
4. If the majority of the judges on the above bench agree that the matter needs hearing, then it would be sent to the same bench (as far as possible) and the court could impose “exemplary costs” to the petitioner if his plea lacks merit.

Question 15

Lord Dennings quote about Judiciary?

Answer 15

“Every judge, in a sense, is on trial to see that he does his job honestly, and properly”

“justice is rooted in confidence, and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking that the judge is biased”

Question 16

example of opaqueness in collegium’s decisions?

Answer 16

No reasons are given for the choice of those selected, or left out.

In October 2017, the Collegium, then headed by CJI Dipak Misra, had decided that “decisions henceforth taken by the Collegium indicating the reasons shall be put on the website of the SC, when the recommendation(s) is/are sent to the GoI…”. And briefly, for about two years, the court did try to bring in more transparency in matters of elevation and transfer of judges. But soon opaqueness crept back in.

The omission of CJ of Tripura HC, Justice Kureshi, from the recommendations by collegium in 2021, at the end of a 22 month long impasse, again points to the opaqueness

Question 17

Protection available to Union Minister against arrest?

Answer 17

MPs (what if Minister is not yet a MP?) cannot be arrested during the session of Parliament and 40 days before the beginning and 40 days after the end of a session. This privilege is available only in civil cases and not in criminal cases or preventive detention cases.

under Section 222A of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business of the Rajya Sabha, the police or a judge issuing an arrest order is required to intimate the Rajya Sabha Chairman about the reason for and place of arrest. The Chairman gets it published in a Rajya Sabha

Question 18

SC guidelines on Lynching?

Answer 18

• There should be a “separate offence” for lynching and the trial courts must ordinarily award maximum sentence upon conviction of the accused person to set a stern example in cases of mob violence.
• The state governments will have to designate a senior police officer in each district for taking measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.
• The state governments need to identify districts, sub-divisions and villageswhere instances of lynching and mob violence have been reported in the recent past.
• The nodal officers shall bring to the notice of the DGP about any inter-district co-ordination issues for devising a strategy to tackle lynching and mob violence related issues.
• Every police officer shall ensure to disperse the mob that has a tendency to cause violence in the disguise of vigilantism or otherwise.
• Central and the state governments shall broadcast on radio, television and other media platforms about the serious consequences of mob lynching and mob violence.
• Despite the measures taken by the State Police, if it comes to the notice of the local police that an incident of lynching or mob violence has taken place, the jurisdictional police station shall immediately lodge an FIR.
• The State Governments shall prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme in the light of the provisions of Section 357A of CrPC.
• If a police officer or an officer of the district administration fails to fulfill his duty, it will be considered an act of deliberate negligence.

Question 19

Anticipatory Bail?

Answer 19

• The provision of anticipatory bail under Section 438 was introduced when CrPC was amended in 1973.
• As opposed to ordinary bail, which is granted to a person who is under arrest, in anticipatory bail, a person is directed to be released on bail even before arrest made.
• Time limit: The Supreme Court (SC) in Sushila Aggarwal v. State of NCT of Delhi (2020) case delivered a significant verdict, ruling that no time limit can be set while granting anticipatory Bail and it can continue even until the end of the trial. However, guidelines says it sould be for at max 8 weeks
• It is issued only by the Sessions Court and High Court.
• suggested by Law commission as an antidote to detention in false cases
• Observations made by SC:
  
  • HCs and SC are given powers to grant anticipatory bail to the accused because of the premium that the Constitution places on the right to liberty guaranteed under Article 21
  • grant or rejection of an application under CrPC has a direct bearing on the right to life and liberty of an individual. Therefore, the provision needs to be read liberally, and considering its beneficial nature. The courts must not read in restrictions that the legislature have not explicitly provided for.
  • In doing so, the court may also exercise its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to pass such an order.

Question 20

contempt of court: consent of AG?

Answer 20

The AG’s consent is mandatory when a private citizen wants to initiate a case of contempt of court against a person.

The objective behind requiring the consent of the Attorney General before taking cognizance of a complaint is to save the time of the court.

However, when the court itself initiates a contempt of court case the AG’s consent is not required.

Question 21

T/F: powers to punish ‘contempt of court’ is derived from constitution articles.

Answer 21

T

Art 129 for SC and Art 215 for HC

Question 22

Contempt of court?

Answer 22

Contempt of court can be of two kinds:

1. Civil, that is the willful disobedience of a court order or judgment or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
2. Criminal, that is written or spoken words or any act that scandalises the court or lowers its authority or prejudices or interferes with the due course of a judicial proceeding or interferes/obstructs the administration of justice.

Relevant provisions:

• Article 129 and 215 of the Constitution of India empowers the Supreme Court and High Court respectively to punish people for their respective contempt.
• Section 10 of The Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 defines the power of the High Court to punish contempts of its subordinate courts.
• The Constitution also includes contempt of court as a reasonable restriction to the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19, along with elements like public order and defamation.

Question 23

National Judicial Infrastructure Authority of India (NJIAI)?

Answer 23

Recently recommended by CJI

• NJIAI will take control of the budgeting and infrastructure development of subordinate courts in the country.
• The proposed NJIAI could work as a central agency with each State having its own State Judicial Infrastructure Authority, much like NALSA
• The proposed NJIAI should be placed under the Supreme Court of India unlike NALSA which is serviced by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
• It will not suggest any major policy change but will give complete freedom to HCs to come up with projects to strengthen ground-level courts.

Need:

1. To Manage the funds: Of a total of Rs. 981.98 crore sanctioned in 2019-20 under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) (introduced in 1993-94) to the States and UTs for development of infrastructure in the courts, only Rs. 84.9 crore was utilised by a combined five States, rendering the remaining 91.36% funds unused.
   
   • cause: states do not come forward with their share of funds and consequently, money allocated under the scheme is often left unspent with them and lapses.
   • In some cases, states have also transferred part of the fund for non-judicial purposes.
2. Shortfall in court infrastructure to manage Rising no. of Litigations:
   
   • A point cemented by the fact that the total sanctioned strength of judicial officers in the country is 24,280, but the number of court halls available is just 20,143, including 620 rented halls.
3. Greater autonomy: The improvement and maintenance of judicial infrastructure is still being carried out in an ad-hoc and unplanned manner. NJIAI will have financial autonomy and will work as a central agency with a degree of autonomy.

Question 24

“Supreme Court, in utter defiance of the scheme prescribed in the Constitution, has gradually anointed itself the de facto administrative head of all courts in India”. Evidence to supprt this?

Answer 24

As per constitution, While the SC is the apex judicial institution, the Constitution clearly vests the administration of district judiciary (appointments, budgeting, daily running) with the HCs and SGs.

1. All India Judges Association Cases (1991, 1993, 2002 ad 2020): started as PIL by AIJA to get better service conditions. Four judgements have been issues in various aspects of it. SC has been in a tussle with the Union and state governments over the issue of pay for the district judiciary. The latest iteration of this litigation which began in 2015 continues to date.
2. Malik Mazhar Sultan v. UPPSC: In its original avatar when this case was filed in 2006, the Supreme Court was required to decide a legal question regarding the UP Judicial Service Rules, 2001. Somewhere along the way, this regular appeal got transformed into a vehicle for the Supreme Court to control the way appointments are made to the district judiciary — the case continues to date and has expanded to include infrastructure.
3. Imtiyaz Ahmad v. State of UP, which was an appeal filed originally in 2009 against a prolonged stay of criminal proceeding granted by the Allahabad High Court, was transformed by the Supreme Court into a vehicle for an assortment of judicial reforms. The first iteration of this litigation involved only directions to the Law Commission to study specific issues but somewhere along the way, the Supreme Court passed directions on the use of a specific formula by all High Courts to calculate the required number of judges for the district judiciary. The new method of calculation contradicted a formula proposed by the Supreme Court in 2002 in one of the AIJA cases. In 2021, this same case became the launchpad for the Supreme Court’s demand for the creation of a “national umbrella organisation”(NIJAI) to look after the judiciary’s need for infrastructure.

Question 25

“Sentinel on the qui vive” wrt Indian Constitution refers to?

Answer 25

Sentinel on the qui vive is usually translated as watchful guardian. Qui vive means watchful or alert.
● Supreme Court recognised this phrase in State of Madras v. VG Row. Union of India & State (1952), where the Court has been given the role of “Sentinel on the Qui Vive” with regards to the “fundamental rights

Question 26

Amicus Curiae, often seen in news is

a) lawyer who has taken up Pro-Bono case.
b) A person who has been appointed either by the Central Government or the State Government to represent cases on behalf of the State.
c) A neutral lawyer appointed by the court to assist it in cases which require specific expertise.
d) An independent person officially appointed to settle a dispute.

Answer 26

C