The Hindu Editorial Analysis 4th August 2018

Table of Contents

Impasse ends

The Centre has cleared the elevation of Justice K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court.
The Centre had no option but to elevate the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice once the collegium reiterated its original recommendation after the Law Ministry returned his name.
The collegium had combined its reiteration of his name with two other names so that three Chief Justices could be elevated in one go.

The Centre’s objections to Justice Joseph’s candidature were unconvincing from the very beginning.
It made an issue of his relative lack of seniority among the Chief Justices of the various high courts, adding somewhat curiously that his elevation would give excessive representation to Kerala.
It only served to strengthen the suspicions that Justice Joseph found himself in disfavour because he was on a Bench that quashed the imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand in 2016, a charge the government vehemently denied.
Pattern in the government’s conduct: It has been splitting recommended lists and selectively approving proposals from the collegium, while holding back or returning some names.
In the case of Justice Joseph, his name was sent along with that of senior advocate Indu Malhotra to the Centre in January. However, three months later, the government cleared only one of the two names, while seeking reconsideration of Justice Joseph’s candidature.
Such decisions tend to alter the inter se seniority among sitting judges, a factor that determines who becomes Chief Justice of India and who joins the collegium.
The Centre’s right to seek the reconsideration of a recommendation, on the basis of information available to it, cannot be disputed — but it is worrying that one or two names are held back from a number of batches.
The reasons for seeking reconsideration need to be explicitly stated in every such instance.
Even in its adherence to the norm that reiteration of a recommendation is binding, the Centre has not been consistent. Recently, it returned a recommendation concerning two appointments to the Allahabad High Court for the second time.

Checking the new abnormal
Supreme Court observed last month that “it is the responsibility of the States to prevent untoward incidents and to prevent crime.” “When any core group with some kind of idea take the law into their own hands, it ushers in anarchy, chaos, disorder and, eventually, there is an emergence of a violent society. Vigilantism cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be given room to take shape, for it is absolutely a perverse notion.”
Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India: guidelines
Superintendent of Police: Nodal Officer in each district
STF by Nodal Officer: to keen an eye on ground.
Central and State governments have been directed to broadcast public notifications on radio, television and other media platforms informing the public of the consequences of taking the law into their hands.
SHO jurisdictional police station shall immediately lodge a first information report (FIR)
U.S., it took almost a hundred years between the Civil War (1861-1865) and the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968) for the repugnant practice of mob violence to be wiped out.
Pertinently though, in the American context, between 1882 and 1968, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were moved in the U.S. Congress, and seven Presidents, between 1890 and 1952, petitioned Congress to pass a federal law. However, no bill was approved by the Senate, due to the opposition by the conservative South.
Eventually, in 2005, the U.S. Senate formally apologised for not passing an anti-lynching law when it was most needed.
Most cases of lynching have the appearance of premeditated acts of violence.
There appears to be an attempt to change the social and cultural fabric of India forever, deepening the divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Deep-seated insecurities are being stoked, especially among young people frustrated by the lack of employment opportunities, to spread a fundamentalist agenda.

Hope in Harare?

• His victory as President in this week’s general election confers popular legitimacy on Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s military-installed leader since November 2017.
• There had been palpable relief in Harare when the 37-year-long dictatorship of the veteran liberation leader Robert Mugabe was brought to an end in a soft coup last year.
• Zimbabwe’s return to the Commonwealth and re-engagement with multilateral institutions are his priorities.
• The international community has been watching for cues on where Zimbabwe is headed in terms of restoring the rule of law after the excesses of the Mugabe years.
• Zimbabwe has been without a currency for nearly a decade and the bond notes used as a proxy for the dollar fetch less than their face value in the market.
• It needs to attract investment, promote industrialisation and foster employment generation. Front Page
• Centre pushes for quota in promotion for SCs/STs
• Two days after the Union cabinet cleared a bill to nullify the Supreme Court order which allegedly diluted the law for prevention of atrocities against Dalits, the Modi government on Friday vigorously resumed its challenge to another order of the apex court which is seen as an obstacle for quota in promotion for SC/ST government employees.
• A five-judge bench of CJI Misra and Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indu Malhotra said the SC had not barred quota in promotion for SC/ST staff but asked state governments to collect data about their inadequate representation before giving reservation beyond the entry level.
• India confirms giving clean chit to Choksi
• The Police clearance certificate from the Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs Regional Passport Office, Mumbai, certified that there was no adverse information against Mr. Mehul Chinubhai Choksi which would render him ineligible for grant of travel facilities including visa for Antigua and Barbuda,” said CIU explaining that Mr. Choksi’s application was received in May 2017. CIU is responsible for granting citizenship of the island country in exchange of financial investment.
• Social media hub plan dropped
• Supreme Court had raised the fear that it may create a surveillance state
• Lok Sabha passes sports varsity Bill
• ‘Mattala project with India is on’
• Sri Lankan Minister says talks on the airport joint venture are ‘progressing’