Table of Contents
Against human rights
Encounter killings militate against the rule of law
“government of laws not of men”.
The rule of law has rightly been argued to be part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution.
The World Justice Project Index takes into account 44 indicators in 113 countries, and India‟s rank in 2017- 18 was a dismal 62.
Denmark topped the list.
Nepal is ahead of us on this.
Police encounters, which have become a common phenomenon, do contribute to our low rank on „rule of law‟ index
Rule of law is the fundamental principle of governance of any civilised liberal democracy.
It is the anti-thesis of arbitrariness(मनमानी करना).
Yet, the Uttar Pradesh government looks somewhat determined to disregard
Police encounters have become routine in U.P. in December, Chief MinisterYogiAdityanath introduced in State Assembly the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2017 on the pattern of the regressive Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Such legislation does not promote the rule of law,
But is itself a kind of violence, though a legitimate one with due authority of law.
Authoritarian regimes,such as of Hitler
U.P. police has assumed the role of both investigator and judge
Mr.Adityanath himself telling the U.P. Legislative Council in mid-February 1,200 encounters since government formation- He said sympathy for criminals is dangerous for a democracy
He is also reported to have said that “bandook ka jawab bandook se diya jayega
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices on encounter deaths to the U.P. government.
Mr.Adityanath should not be alone blamed for the encounter culture.
Such deaths have been taken place in States across India, and excesses in Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s
2016 in case of Extra Judicial ExecutionVictim Families Association, where the SC was dealing with more than 1,500 such killings in Manipur
Scrutiny by courts in such cases leads to complaints by state of its having to •Fight militants, insurgents and terrorists
above observations were about terrorists, not ordinary criminals like those being killed in U.P. encounters.
They do not look like acts of defence by the U.P. police
Government‟s resolve to adopt „the rule by gun‟ in preference to „the rule of law‟.
We must recall what the Supreme Court said in the Salwa Judum case (2011):
“The primordial value is that it is the responsibility of every organ of the State to function within the four corners of constitutional res
United by a common purpose
Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, has now established a bench of •five judges, which he will
head, and which will commence hearing arguments on March 6, to resolve the conflict.
At stake is the court‟s integrity
Right to Fair Compensation andTransparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act), which replaced the Land Acquisition Act of 1894
Colonial law-Landowners were placed at the state’s mercy.
Didn’t go far enough in correcting the wrongs of old.
Compensation the key
Constitution Bench in Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community v. State of Maharashtra (2004).
There, the court held that a three-judge bench cannot overrule a precedent set by an earlier bench of equal strength
Losing a world-dying language
When a language dies, a way of life dies, a way of thinking disappears,
a connection between word and world is lost
Losing a language is losing a cosmology, a set of myths, rituals of competence.
Yet no cost-benefit ever calculates the cultural cost of language extinction
Futurists warn that over 3,000 languages might disappear over the next ten years.
Danger to minority languages and oral languages is high
U.R.Ananthamurthy, who said India is a country where the illiterate worker speaks •five-seven languages and convent schoolchild speaks one.
A language disappears as a new generation enters modernity,
One senses this as one looks at the UNESCO atlas of world languages in danger.
One reads that 230 languages have become extinct since 1950
Needs is a celebration of multilingualism
Language loss is a part of a bigger problematic of diversity
Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis
Page-1-Sri Jayendra Saraswathi
69th ShankaracharyaGuru and head or pontiff
Page-1-Aircel •files for bankruptcy
Aircel Ltd., along with Aircel Cellular Ltd. and DishnetWireless Ltd., has •led for bankruptcy under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
This,after the telco’s attempt to merge with the AnilAmbani-led Reliance Communications failed last year.
The Board of Directors acknowledged that it has been facing troubled times in a highly •financially stressed industry,
Page-1- CAG pulls up Rajasthan for rampant illegal mining
About 98.87 lakh tonnes of minerals worth •204.5 crore were illegally excavated in •five districts of Rajasthan between 2011-12 and 2016-17.
The mining not only violated rules and regulations but also •outed the Supreme Court’s direction to stop degradation of environment in the State‟s Aravalli hills.
•9,435-crore arms purchases to get rolling Defence Acquisition Council gives its approval for the procurement proposals for the three services
The purchase will include 41,000 light machine guns (LMGs) and over 3.5 lakh close quarter battle (CQB) carbines for the three services.