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31st July 2021
PARLIAMENT PASSES JUVENILE JUSTICE (CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN) AMENDMENT BILL 2021
Recently, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021 which seeks to amend the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, was passed in Rajya Sabha.
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015?
- The Act was introduced and passed in Parliament in 2015 to replace the Juvenile Delinquency Law and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) 2000.
- The main provision of the new Act is allowing the trial of juveniles in conflict with law in the age group of 16-18 years as adults, in cases where the crimes were to be determined.
- The nature of the crime, and whether the juvenile should be tried as a minor or a child, was to be determined by a Juvenile Justice Board.
- It received impetus after the 2012 Delhi gangrape in which one of the accused was just short of 18 years, and was therefore tried as a juvenile.
- The second major provision is with regards to adoption, bringing a more universally acceptable adoption law instead of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956) and Guardians of the Ward Act (1890) which was for Muslims, although the Act did not replace these laws.
- The Act streamlined adoption procedures for orphans, abandoned and surrendered children and the existing Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has been given the status of a statutory body to enable it to perform its function more effectively.
- The changes give increased powers and responsibilities to District Magistrates, were being made to not only ensure speedy trials.
- It increased protection of children at the district level, with checks and balances in place, but to also speed up the adoption processes in the country.
- The District Magistrates, including Additional District Magistrates, can now issue adoption orders under Section 61 of the JJ Act, in order to ensure speedy disposal of cases and enhance accountability.
- The adoption processes were currently under the purview of courts, and with an overwhelming backlog, each adoption case could take years to be passed.
- The District Magistrates have been further empowered under the Act to ensure its smooth implementation, as well as garner synergized efforts in favour of children in distress conditions.
- It means that DMs and ADMs will monitor the functioning of various agencies under the JJ Act in every district- includes the Child Welfare Committees, the Juvenile Justice Boards, the District Child Protection Units and the Special Juvenile Protection Units.
- The DM will also carry out background checks of CWC members, who are usually social welfare activists, including educational qualifications, as there is no such provision currently.
- The DMs are also to check possible criminal backgrounds to ensure that no cases of child abuse or child sexual abuse are found against any member before they are appointed.
- The CWCs are also to report regularly to the DMs on their activities in the districts.
- Under the 2015 Act, offences committed by juveniles are categorised as heinous offences, serious offences, and petty offences. Serious offences include offences with three to seven years of imprisonment.
- According to the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, juveniles charged with heinous crimes and who would be between the ages of 16-18 years would be tried as adults and processed through the adult justice system.
- The Bill adds that serious offences will also include offences for which maximum punishment is imprisonment of more than seven years, and minimum punishment is not prescribed or is less than seven years.
- The heinous crimes with a minimum imprisonment of seven years pertain mostly to sexual offences and violent sexual crimes.
- The juveniles between the ages of 16-18 years could also be tried as adults for a crime like the possession and sale of an illegal substance.
- The Act provides that offences against children that are punishable with imprisonment of more than seven years, will be tried in the Children’s Court while offenses with punishments of less than seven years imprisonment will be tried by a Judicial Magistrate.
- The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) was created as an independent nodal agency under the Department of Space.
- Its mandate is to promote, hand-holding, licensing, authorization and monitoring of private space activities in India.
- The Access to Department of Space (DOS) facilities and expertise are extended to private entities to support their space activities.
- The Government of India is encouraging transfer of technologies developed in the field of space to Indian industries.
- It has proposed that the Central government will form a Space Activity Regulatory Mechanism to "develop a space activity plan with established goals, tasks and principles.
- It will include the comprehensive development of space sector and ground segments of space infrastructure and technologies for commercial and economic needs of the country.
- It mandates the Central Government to arrange to provide authorisation to launch or operate commercial space activity including corporate and other organisational structure either directly or through any agency in the manner as may be prescribed.
- It provides for the establishment of a regulatory mechanism through an appropriate body, by the Central Government for the purpose of authorization and licensing of space activities.
- A need for national space legislation for supporting the overall growth of the space sector in India has been acutely felt of late.
- The Draft Space Activities Bill, 2017 has said that India’s space activities are very unique towards delivering results through various successful accomplishments.
- It was felt that introduction of a space-specific legal regime instead of the existing regulatory or restrictive regime, should only enable further growth of space activities in India.
- It will give a major boost to the Indian Space industry, which for years has felt constrained due to lack of clear and favorable policies.
- The Indian Space economy is worth $7 billion, which is around 2% of the global Space economy.
- The report noted that India’s Space sector needs to grow at approximately 48% CAGR over the next few years to reach its target of $50 billion.
- It will include aspects pertaining to regulation and promotion of private players in space sector.
- The IN-SPACe which is under creation will have Safety and Security Directorate to ensure security of ISRO installations when allowing access to private entities.
- It aims to encourage enhanced participation of non-governmental/private sector agencies in space activities in India, in compliance with international treaty obligations.
- It will facilitate private sector participation in space activities under authorisation and supervision by the government.
- The provision on liability for damages caused by space activities of licensee, provides for a risk-sharing mechanism, by which the Central Government may determine the quantum of liability to be borne by the licensee.
- The outer space activities are governed by treaties and principles evolved under UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) internationally.
- The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) was set up by the UN General Assembly in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space for the benefit of all humanity for peace, security and development.
- India is also a party to the Outer Space Treaty, 1967.
- The Constitution of India provides for the implementation of international treaty obligations under Articles 51 and 253.
- The "space" as a subject is not mentioned in the Union List but Parliament retains residuary legislative power in respect of "any matter not enumerated" in any of the three lists.
- In the 2010 declaration, 13 countries, including India, agreed to a Global Tiger Recovery Programme.
- It pledged to strive to double the number of tigers by 2022 by doing everything possible to effectively manage, preserve, protect, and enhance habitats.
- India is home to 51 tiger reserves spread across 18 states and the last tiger census of 2018 showed a rise in the tiger population.
- India achieved the target of doubling of tiger population 4 years ahead of schedule of the St. Petersburg Declaration on tiger Conservation.
- The 14 tiger reserves which have been accredited are Manas, Kaziranga and Orang in Assam, Satpura, Kanha and Panna in Madhya Pradesh, Pench in Maharashtra, Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh,Sunderbans in West Bengal, Parambikulam in Kerala, Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka and Mudumalai and Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.
- It has been agreed upon as accreditation tool by the global coalition of Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) and has been developed by tiger and protected area experts.
- It is officially launched in 2013.
- It sets minimum standards for effective management of target species and encourages assessment of these standards in relevant conservation areas.
- It is a set of criteria which allows tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation.
- It is a globally accepted conservation tool that sets best practices and standards to manage tigers and assessments to benchmark progress.
- The protected areas are a good strategy for retaining forest cover, however their role in protecting wildlife depends on the quality of management.
- The studies show that tiger numbers can continue to decline in protected areas, particularly due to bushmeat (tiger prey) hunting or the poaching of tigers themselves for trophies, traditional medicines and other illegal activities.
- Until CA|TS, there has not been a set of criteria which not only provide clarity on management of tiger sites, but also encourage further development and sharing of best practice across the tiger range countries.
- It is an international NGO working on tiger conservation, and World Wildlife Fund India are the two implementing partners of the National Tiger Conservation Authority for CATS assessment in India.
- It is an inter-governmental and international body established to embark on a worldwide campaign, common approach, promotion of appropriate programmes and controls to save the remaining five sub-species of tigers in the wild distributed over 14 tiger range countries of the world.
- It was formed in 1994 with its secretariat at New Delhi.
- It is the only inter-governmental & international body campaigning to save the TIGER worldwide.
- It shall meet once in three years.
- The objectives of Global Tiger Forum (GTF):
- To promote a worldwide campaign to save the tiger, its prey and its habitat;
- To promote a legal framework in the countries involved for bio-diversity conservation;
- To increase the protected area network of habitats of the tiger and facilitate their interpassages in the range countries;
- To promote eco-development programmes with the participation of the communities living in and around protected areas;
- To urge countries to enter into relevant conventions for conservation of tiger and elimination of illegal trade;
- To promote and carry out scientific research to generate information useful for tiger, it’s prey and its habitat to disseminate such information in an easily accessible manner; and
- To promote the development and exchange among themselves, of appropriate technologies and training programmes for scientific wildlife management
- It is a geo-imaging satellite for Earth Observation from Geostationary Orbit.
- The technology is developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and it consists of capabilities including:
- Imaging the whole country4-5 times daily
- In addition to natural disasters, EOS-03 would also enable monitoring of water bodies, crops, vegetation condition, forest cover changes
- It would enable near-real time monitoring of natural disasters like floods & cyclones.
- It is ideal for the on-demand, quick turn-around launch of small satellites.
- The major technologies developed as part of the realisation of the SSLV are flexible nozzle control with electro-mechanical actuators for all stages, miniaturized avionics and a velocity trimming module in the upper stage for precise satellite injection.
- It is a cost-effective, three stage and all-solid launch vehicle with a payload capability of 500 kg to 500 km planar orbit or 300 kg to Sun Synchronous Polar Orb
- It is a biennial bilateral maritime exercise between Indian Navy and Russian Navy.
- It was initiated in 2003.
- It epitomises the long-term strategic relationship between the two navies.
- It aims to consolidate inter-operability built up by the two Navies over the years and also to enhance understanding and procedures for multi-faceted maritime operations.
- It is a Talwar-class stealth Frigate built for Indian Navy in Russia.
- It is equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors and is among the earliest stealth frigates of the Indian Navy.
- It is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet, which is based at Mumbai under the Western Naval Command
- It is an annual maritime exercise conducted to promote national and regional maritime security in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean.
- It is designed to improve regional cooperation, maritime domain awareness and information sharing practices to increase capabilities between the U.S., East African and Western Indian Ocean nations.
- It is sponsored by U.S. Africa Command and led by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, U.S. Sixth Fleet.
- The CE 21 is being conducted in Kenya.
- The CE 21 leverages the recently adopted Jeddah Amendment to the Djibouti Code of Conduct, which 14 nations are signatories.
- It aims to counter illicit maritime activity in the Western Indian Ocean.
- It assesses and improves combined maritime law enforcement capacity, promotes national and regional security in East Africa.
- It is one of three U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet -facilitated regional exercises undertaken to provide African forces and international partners with collaborative opportunities on comprehensive maritime security concerns.
- The participating nations in Cutlass Express 2021 include Comoros, Djibouti, Georgia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, United Kingdom, and the United States.
- The Talwar-Class guided missile frigate is a modified Krivak III-Class frigate in service with the Indian Navy.
- It is built by Baltiysky Zavod, the frigate supports naval forces during air, surface and sub-surface missions.
- It is used to detect and destroy enemy submarines and other surface ships.
- It is also used to detect and destroy enemy submarines and other surface ships.
- The new frigates are armed with eight BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles instead of 3M-54E Klub-N anti-ship missiles.
- It is fitted with a Trebovaniye-M combat information and control system.
- It manages and controls all weapons on board, develops combat missions depending on the situation analysis and transfers the data to the weapon systems.
- The part of the government’s argument for lifting charges against the accused MLAs was that they are protected from prosecution by Article 194 of the Constitution.
- Article 194 deals with the powers and privileges of the House of Legislatures and of its members and committees.
- It says that no member of the Legislature of a State shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in the Legislature or any committee thereof.
- It says that no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of a House of such a Legislature of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.
- The parliamentary privilege refers to the right and immunity enjoyed by legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties.
- The SC said that legislative privileges available to the members of a House cannot extend to immunity from application of criminal law.
- The state High Court upheld a trial court decision that rejected the request to withdraw the prosecution of the six MLAs under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984.
- Justice Chandrachud said that privileges and immunities are not gateways to claim exemptions from the general law of the land.
- The court said that relying on the provisions of Article 194 was a betrayal of the provisions of the Constitution and was based on a misconception that elected members of the legislature stand above the general application of criminal law.
- The Legislative Privileges are the rights belonging to the Legislature for effective discharge of their legislative functions.
- Article 105 and Article 194 of the Indian Constitution lay down the powers, privileges and immunities of Members of Parliament (MPs) and State Assemblies respectively.
- These immunities are modelled on the Privilege Pattern of the British Parliament.
- The MPs are granted freedom of speech during any proceeding in the House.
- No MP would be liable to any court proceeding for anything said or done or any vote given in the House.
- It is the latest flagship programme of the Telangana government.
- It is envisioned as a welfare scheme for empowering Dalit families and enable entrepreneurship among them through a direct benefit transfer of Rs 10 lakh per family.
- The officials were asked to visit Dalit colonies and interact with Dalit families to find out their views and opinions before preparing guidelines for the scheme.
- The beneficiaries will then be selected from 20,929 eligible Dalit families of the constituency after scrutiny based on these guidelines.
- It will be implemented on a pilot basis in the Huzurabad Assembly constituency.
- It will be rolled out across the state in a phased manner based on the experiences of implementation in Huzurabad.
- It is touted as the country’s biggest direct benefit transfer scheme, to empower Dalits across the state.
- It will focus on monitoring the implementation of the scheme, evaluating the results, and also creating a safety fund for the beneficiaries with the government’s participation.
- It is a biannual coordinated patrol exercise along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
- The CORPAT assisted in improving the interoperability between the two navies and contributed to strengthening Navy to Navy cooperation.
- India and Indonesia have been carrying out Coordinated Patrols along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) twice a year since 2002.
- It was launched with an aim of keeping this vital part of the Indian Ocean Region secure for commercial shipping, international trade and conduct of legitimate maritime activities.
- CORPATs help in building interoperability between navies, and facilitate the institution of measures to prevent and suppress Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) fishing, drug trafficking, maritime terrorism, armed robbery and piracy.
- It is the lead ship of the indigenous Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel (NOPV) Project to be inducted into the Indian Navy.
- It is designed and built by Goa Shipyard Limited.
- It is aimed at meeting the increasing ocean surveillance and patrolling requirements of the Indian Navy.
- The primary role of the ship is to undertake EEZ surveillance, anti-piracy patrols, fleet support operations, provide maritime security to off shore assets and carry out escort operations for high value assets.
- A depositor has a claim to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh per account as insurance cover in an unlikely event of a bank failing in India.
- The cover of Rs 5 lakh per depositor is provided by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), which is a fully owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India.
- The depositors having more than Rs 5 lakh in their account have no legal recourse to recover funds in case a bank collapses.
- While the depositors enjoy the highest safety on their funds parked with banks, unlike the equity and bond investors in the banks.
- Deposits in public and private sector banks, local area banks, small finance banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks, Indian branches of foreign banks and payments banks are all insured by the DICGC.
- The premium for this insurance is paid by banks to the DICGC, and not be passed on to depositors.
- The banks currently pay a minimum of 10 paise on every Rs 100 worth deposits to the DICGC as premium for the insurance cover, which is now being raised to a minimum of 12 paise.
- The government raised the insurance amount to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.
- The depositors normally end up waiting for 8-10 years before they are able to access their deposits in a distressed bank only after its complete liquidation.
- The depositors will get insurance money within 90 days, without waiting for eventual liquidation of the distressed banks.
- It will cover banks already under moratorium and those that could come under moratorium.
- The DICGC would collect all information relating to deposit accounts within the first 45 days of the bank being put under moratorium.
- In the next 45 days, it will review the information and repay depositors closer to the 90th day.
- It will be beneficial to depositors of PMC Bank, under moratorium since September 2019, with depositors not being able to access funds beyond Rs 1 lakh.
- A pre-pack is an agreement for the resolution of the debt of a distressed company through an agreement between secured creditors and investors instead of a public bidding process.
- The system of pre-pack has become an increasingly popular mechanism for insolvency resolution in the UK and Europe over the past decade.
- In India’s case, such a system would likely require that financial creditors agree on terms with potential investors and seek approval of the resolution plan from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
- It would likely be completed much faster than the traditional Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) which requires that the creditors of the distressed company allow for an open auction for qualified investors to bid for the distressed company.
- The pre-pack would act as an important alternative resolution mechanism to the CIRP and would help lower the burden on the NCLTs.
- In the case of pre-packs, the incumbent management retains control of the company until a final agreement is reached.
- The transfer of control from the incumbent management to an insolvency professional as is the case in the CIRP leads to disruptions in the business and loss of some high-quality human resources and asset value.
- The pre-packs would mostly be used for businesses that are running, the investors would likely need to maintain good relations with operational creditors.
- Speed: A pre-pack process is typically less time-consuming and cheaper than formal proceedings, as the resolution is negotiated and agreed before initiating the statutory resolution framework.
- Confidentiality: The element of confidentiality prevents destruction of value that takes place on the proclamation of insolvency.
- Sanction of appropriate authority under the statue: The other forms of restructuring do not possess sanctions from appropriate authority but pre-packs work within the fold of statutory schemes, which makes the outcome binding on all the stakeholders.
- Reduction of cost & time in litigation: The pre-pack process has recognition across the globe and the need for a pre-pack process in India is necessary to revive the debt ridden corporates.
- The IBC has a positive impact on the promoters of the corporate debtors in terms of repayment, liquidation is a grave threat to Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).
- If the CIRP fails that would lead to liquidation which is not good for our economy’s health it might be seen as the best option in the short-run but will have a deep devastating effect for the corporates in the long-run.
- The necessity of the pre-pack is that, there is a possibility that before the pre-pack stage the corporate debtor may enter into management buyout for the transferring of the assets to another entity.
- The risk of the aforementioned situation would not arise if the pre-pack is approved by the Adjudicating Authority.
- Lack of Transparency: The key drawback of a pre-packaged insolvency resolution is the reduced transparency compared to the CIRP as financial creditors would reach an agreement with a potential investor privately and not through an open bidding process.
- Issue of fair treatment: The system of pre-packs could lead to stakeholders such as operational creditors raising issues of fair treatment when financial creditors reach agreements to reduce the liabilities of the distressed company.
- There may be questions of whether secured lenders have been fair to other creditors.
- Hesitation from the Banking Sector: The bankers themselves may hesitate to restructure liabilities outside of an open bidding process for fear of their decisions leading to investigations by agencies.
- Unlike in the case of a full-fledged CIRP which allows for price discovery, in the case of a pre-pack the NCLT would only be able to evaluate a resolution plan based on submissions by the creditors and the investor.
POSTED ON 31-07-2021 BY ADMIN
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