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Table of Contents

Special Topic: Lateral Entry in Judiciary? Good/Bad

Government recently announced a plan: recruit private sector professionals, based on a three-year fixed tenure (extendable up to five years), to fill joint-secretarylevel vacancies in the Union government.
• Plan aim: to harness private sector expertise for policymaking and implementation of several government schemes and programmes.
• Though there is little clarity yet on how the selection committee for these appointments will be constituted— care must be taken to avoid conflict of interest—this is still a great opportunity for utilising both private sector expertise and traditional government management experience.

There is a huge backlog of cases in our judicial system
82 lakh civil cases
1.87 crore criminal cases
High courts: 411 posts (for both permanent and additional judges) are lying vacant—against an approved strength of 1,079 and a working strength of 668. That’s a whopping 40% shortfall.
Collegium system: came into existence in 1993
Supremacy of the Chief Justice of India over the executive in judicial appointments and transfers.

Under this scheme, the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court (including the Chief Justice of India) recommends a name to the Union government for appointment to the Supreme Court as well as the 24 high courts in India.
2014: National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill.
This was roundly criticised by the judiciary because the executive could nominate two members to the NJAC, apart from the fact that the Union law minister was also to be a part of it.
Since then, the judiciary and the executive seem to be at loggerheads e.g. Justice KM Joseph’s elevation
Supreme Court collegium had recommended 75 names, these names were pending for government’s approval
Article 124 of the Constitution (which prescribes appointment of Supreme Court judges) and Article 217 (appointment of High Court judges) don’t prohibit the short-term appointment of judges.
The criticism that is often heard is that the best lawyers are not made part of the judiciary—though this is primarily because the best legal minds may not be keen to join the judiciary for various reasons.
But a fixed short-term appointment, of 3-5 years, may generate interest amongst many. •
They can serve as members of the judiciary and can then return to private practice.
The resulting increase in the pool of available judges can potentially help reduce the backlog of cases.

What about conflict of interest?

• But, in the existing system, instances of a judge—especially from the lower judiciary—being prompted by vested interests, are not unknown.
• An independent body can be set up, and depending on experience and specialisation, judges can be appointed on an ad hoc basis.
• These judges should not be appointed in the jurisdiction where they practised as lawyers, and should not be allowed to practice in the jurisdiction where they served as judges after the completion of their tenure.
• With the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and Commercial Courts, Commercial Division, the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court’s Act, 2015, and various specialised tribunals for IPR, securities law, environment law, etc, there is also an urgent need for specialised subjectmatter expert judges.

All developed jurisdictions not only have specialised courts, but also judges with specific expertise.
If judgments by lateral-entry judges are well reasoned, there may be a reduction in the number of appeals being filed across India, reducing the pendency of cases.
Appointment of judges on a contractual basis, thus, may be a good idea.

Ministry of Earth Science

Dr Harsh Vardhan unveiled a state-of-the-art Air Quality and Weather Forecast System– SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting)at ChandniChowkin Delhi today.
• The giant true colour LED display gives out real-time air quality index on 24×7 basis with colour coding alongwith 72-hour advance forecast.
• The system, first of its kind in the country, was developed indigenously in record time by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and operationalized by India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• The minister said based on the Air Quality Index on a particular day, Health advisory and related precaution will be notified to prepare citizens well in advance.
Air quality station will also measure sun’s UV-Index and will provide measurement of online automatic ultrafine particles PM1 and Mercury, both of which have direct relevance to human health.
• Based on UVI, skin advisories will be issued on display.
• Our mission model project SAFAR is implemented in four cities of India – Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad as an operational service. Accordingto a preliminary economic assessment of the benefits of the system, if 5% of people suffering from air-pollution related diseases take advantage of the advisories and precautionsin Delhi alone, it would result in a saving of nearly Rs. 2,500 crores in terms of health-related cost benefit.
• SAFAR will accelerate public awareness and preparedness of air pollution and weather extremes.
• In addition to regular air quality parameters like PM2.5, PM10, Sulfur Dioxide, Ozone, Nitrogen Oxides, Carbon Monoxide, the system will also monitor the existence of Benzene, Toluene and Xylene.

Ministry of Home Affairs

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the Student Police Cadet (SPC) programme for nationwide implementation at a ceremony in Gurugram, Haryana.
Home Minister expressed hope that the SPC would lead to a silent revolution over the years by focusing on character building by imparting moral values to budding minds.
He expressed concern that education these days stressed more on mere book reading with little attention being paid towards character building of students, which shows negative effects on society in terms of increased crime.
While the dawn of new technologies, internet and social media have helped our children keep pace with the changing times, it has adversely impacted our society as we witness the breakdown of the traditional family system and worrying rise in incidents of crimes and rapes, he added.
Shri Rajnath Singh said the SPC programme would help in making students responsible citizens by inculcating values of respect to the elderly, discipline, social responsibility and through police-student interaction.

Prime Minister

Sri Lanka is not just a neighbouring country, but a very special and trusted partner of India in South Asia and in Indian Ocean.
Addressing the programme marking the expansion of Emergency Ambulance Service over the entire island of Sri Lanka via video conferencing, Mr Modi said, the event marks another major achievement in the development partnership of India and Sri Lanka.
Mr Modi expressed happiness that India has fulfilled its promise in a timely manner and the second phase of the service has begun.
He said, India has been and will always be the first responder for Sri Lanka in both good and bad times.

Finance Minister

The GST Council today reduced tax rates on over 50 items and exempted sanitary napkins, rakhis, stone, marble, wooden deities and Saal leaves from GST.
Briefing media after chairing the 28th GST Council meeting in New Delhi today, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said, GST on footwear priced below 1,000 rupees will attract 5 percent rate.
Mr Goyal said, traders with a turnover up to 5 crore rupees will deposit GST monthly but they will have to file the returns quarterly.
Mr Goyal said, soon government will link RFID tags with Goods and Services Tax Network for transporters and this will reduce harassment of transporters at toll plazas