DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB -4th February-2020- IASbhai

IASbhai DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS(THE HINDU+LIVEMINT+PIB)

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.-Truman Capote

HIGHLIGHT INFO:

PINK COLOUR: Important for Prelims.

RED COLOUR: Important for Mains.

BLACK COLOUR: Must Read !

BLUE COLOUR : Important Links/Survey.

Page Contents:

SC on religious rights

HEADLINES:

SC to frame issues for 9-judge Bench hearing religious rights

WHY IN NEWS:

CJI acknowledges objection to wider review post-Sabarimala is a ‘formidable point’

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 2:Judiciary

LEARNING:

For PRELIMS nothing much here!

For MAINS you need to concentrate on how courts decide when it comes to religious beliefs and practices.

ISSUE:

Renowned jurist and senior advocate Fali Nariman has objected to the manner in which the Supreme Court turned a review of the Sabarimala case into an opportunity to set up a nine-judge Bench and examine whether certain essential religious practices of various faiths, including Islam and Zoroastrianism, should be constitutionally protected.

“Are you saying that when hearing the review of one judgment [Sabarimala in this case], we cannot refer such larger questions to a larger Bench?” Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A. Bobde, heading the Bench, asked Mr. Nariman on Monday.

“Yes, that is absolutely right. It will be outside your jurisdiction to do that,” Mr. Nariman replied emphatically.

The CJI observed orally that Mr. Nariman had a “ point there”.

He, however, said the Bench would not “abort the hearing” now.

PIL PETITIONS

Senior advocate K. Parasaran countered Mr. Nariman, saying that the Sabarimala case had its genesis in public interest litigation petitions.

It was not an in personam (affecting a specific person) litigation.

In a case emanating from a PIL petition, there is no restraint on a constitutional court in extending the scope or questions to be examined, he argued.

The Sabarimala case review by a five-judge Bench, led by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, took a curious turn on November 14 last.

The Bench sidestepped the task of reviewing the September 2018 judgment, which declared the prohibition on the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple as discriminatory.

Instead, the Bench referred seven questions, including whether essential religious practices should be afforded constitutional protection under Article 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs), to a larger Bench.

Further, the Review Bench tagged other pending cases on the prohibition of Muslim women from entering mosques, female genital mutilation among Dawoodi Bohras and the ban on Parsi women who married inter-faith from entering the fire temple to the reference.

THE DOCTRINE OF ESSENTIALITY

The doctrine of “essentiality” was invented by a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the [wc_highlight color=”yellow” class=””]‘Shirur Mutt’ case in 1954. [/wc_highlight]
The court held that the term “religion” will cover all rituals and practices “integral” to a religion, and took upon itself the responsibility of determining the essential and non-essential practices of a religion.
Essential religious practice test is a contentious doctrine evolved by the court to protect only such religious practices which were essential and integral to the religion.

THEN WHAT IS CONSTITUTIONAL MORALITY ?

Constitutional morality provides a principled understanding for unfolding the work of governance.
It specifies norms for institutions to survive and an expectation of behaviour that will meet not just the text but the soul of the Constitution.
It also makes the governing institutions and representatives accountable.
Constitutional morality has been used to emancipatory effect in past cases by the apex court. One of the examples is decriminalising homosexuality.

IASbhai WINDUP:

Chief Justice Bobde, when he succeeded Justice Gogoi, promptly set up the nine-judge Bench to decide this reference.

On Monday, Mr. Nariman argued that the Gogoi Bench had no business to either drag other cases into the reference or frame such “larger issues” when its sole mandate was to simply review the Sabarimala verdict.

SOURCES:THE HINDU/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains

nCoV : State calamity in Kerala

HEADLINES:

nCoV outbreak declared a State calamity in Kerala

WHY IN NEWS:

Third case confirmed in Kasaragod; 84 under treatment

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Diseases

LEARNING:

For PRELIMS remember who declares emergency at national global and at local levels.

ISSUE:

With the confirmation of a third case of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) infection in the State, Kerala on Monday declared the epidemic a State calamity.

The apex committee of the State Disaster Management Authority met Chief Secretary Tom Jose to propose the decision to ensure that the outbreak is controlled.

As on Monday, 2,239 travellers from China and other nCoV-affected countries have been placed under surveillance in the State.

Among them, 2,155 are under home isolation and 84 have been admitted to hospitals with isolation facilities in various districts, a bulletin from the State Health Department said.

IASbhai WINDUP:

The symptoms of the coronavirus infection start with fever and dry cough followed by breathing problems, according to doctors.

The Kerala Health Department has taken adequate preparatory measures and had framed detailed guidelines as soon as the WHO issued a global health alert.

SOURCES:THE HINDU/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains

Gulls

HEADLINES:

Gulls over the Sangam in Prayagraj on Monday

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Fauna:Biodiversity Conservation

LEARNING:

For PRELIMS : Since this is a least concerned bird . Nothing much to worry about !

ISSUE:

IUCN STATUS : LC (leat Concerned )

Gulls over the Sangam in Prayagraj on Monday. The gulls fly thousands of kilometres to India to escape the Siberian winter.

Gulls or seagulls

Gulls or seagulls are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari.

Gulls are typically medium to large birds, usually grey or white, often with black markings on the head or wings.
They typically have harsh wailing or squawking calls; stout, longish bills; and webbed feet.
Most gulls are ground-nesting carnivores which take live food or scavenge opportunistically, particularly the Larus species.
Live food often includes crabs and small fish.
Gulls have unhinging jaws which allow them to consume large prey.

IASbhai WINDUP:

SOURCES:THE HINDU/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains

Swarms of locusts spotted

HEADLINES:

Swarms of locusts spotted in border villages of Punjab

WHY IN NEWS:

Timely action ensured their elimination before crops were damaged, say State officials

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Agriculture

LEARNING:

For PRELIMS its good to know which pesticide and what are the measures being taken.

ISSUE:

The farmers under seige are hiring workers and using age old techniques like beating drums and vessels to scare the locusts away without much success.

Punjab agriculture dept. has sounded high alert.

Locusts are short-horned grasshoppers.Their appearance in winter months is a new phenomenon.

Swarms of locusts were spotted in two border villages of Punjab’s Fazilka district, prompting the state Agriculture Department to sound a high alert.

Emanating from Pakistan, the swarms of pests — three to four-km-long and one-km-wide — settled at the trees in these border villages on Sunday evening, officials said on Monday.

“About 400-500 tonnes of insecticides were used to eliminate the locusts #to control the pests.

NO CRISIS AFTER 1962

India has not witnessed any full-blown locust cycles after 1962. However, during 1978 and 1993, large-scale upsurges were observed.

Localised locust breeding was controlled in 1998, 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2010.

Since 2010, the situation remained calm and no major breeding and swarm formation has been reported.

IASbhai WINDUP:

Locusts, popularly known as ‘tiddi dal’, were earlier spotted in some villages of Fazilka, Muktsar and Bathinda districts.

SUGGESTED READING : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust

SOURCES:THE HINDU/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains

Missing women: Highest from Maharashtra, M.P.

HEADLINES:

Most missing women from Maharashtra, M.P.

WHY IN NEWS:

States record highest number of missing children and women cases in 2016, 2017 and 2018

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 1:3:Issues related to women:NCRB

LEARNING:

For PRELIMS this is just a fact check report !

ISSUE:

The highest number of women and children who go missing in the country are from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh respectively, according to a study by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

In 2019, the Supreme Court had directed the NCRB to “analyse the data on missing persons [especially on women and children], so that areas prone to persons being trafficked can be identified”.

The NCRB study was based on the annual Crime in India Report compiled by the agency for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The NCRB said that the study aims to identify the areas where registered cases of missing persons, specifically women and children, are higher than in other areas.

“The need for the study arises because of the fact that incidents of missing women and children are not uniform across the country.

According to the report, the States where the highest number of women went missing in the three years are Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

In 2016, as many as 28,316 women went missing in Maharashtra, followed by 29,279 in 2017, and 33,964 in 2018.

In West Bengal, the number of missing women in 2016, 2017 and 2018 was 24,937, 28,133 and 31,299, respectively.

Madhya Pradesh recorded 21,435, 26,587 and 29,761 missing reports of women in the three years.

In 2016-18, a total of 63,407, 63,349 and 67,134 children were reported missing across the country.

IASbhai WINDUP:

The maximum number of missing reports were recorded in Maharashtra and West Bengal in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The study said that in Madhya Pradesh, Indore reported the highest number of missing children, with 596 in 2017 and 823 in 2018.

Some parts of the country report higher incidents and such areas could be one of the source, transit or destination [sites] for child /women trafficking,” NCRB said.