After death of two cheetahs, M.P. seeks new site for the felines

• The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has asked the Central government for an “alternative” site for cheetahs currently introduced at the Kuno National Park (KNP), which has seen the death of two felines in less than a month.
• A senior official in the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), told that mortality among cheetahs was expected and Project Cheetah’s planning factored this in. “Even if 50% of the animal population survives, it should be considered a success.

Different site for cheetahs

• While the existing population of cheetahs would remain within the larger Kuno landscape, newer batches of imported cheetahs would be located in Gandhi Sagar and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuaries in M.P. These are reserves that are still being developed to be made suitable for hosting cheetahs.
• The incident is seen as a major setback for the ambitious Project Cheetah

Space

• Notably, before the cheetahs were imported, some experts had cautioned that shortage of space was likely to affect the cheetah reintroduction project at the KNP, which has a core area of 748 sq. km and buffer zone of 487 sq. km.
• M.P. Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) has written a letter to the NTCA, requesting for an alternative place for the cheetahs, like the Gandhi Sagar or the Nauradehi in M.P. as alternate sites.
• According to some wildlife experts, There are issues of lack of space and prey for the African cheetahs in KNP,a cheetah needs 100 sq. km area for its movement.

Governors should not sit over Bills, says Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court on Monday sent a strong message that Governors should return Bills that they do not agree to “as soon as possible” and not sit over them, making State Legislative Assemblies wait indefinitely.
• A Bench led by Chief Justice of India referred to the first proviso to Article 200 of the Constitution, which mandates that Governors should not dally over Bills sent to them for assent after they had been passed by Legislative Assemblies.

Article 200

• The court agreed that the proviso to Article 200 clearly mandates that Governors should “as soon as possible” return Bills, other than Money Bills, for reconsideration by the House with a note that the proposed law should be reconsidered.
• “The phrase ‘as soon as possible’ has a significant content and must be borne in mind by constitutional authorities,” the Bench noted in the order.

Veto Power of the President and the Governor

• Veto Power of the President of India is guided by Article 111 of the Indian Constitution.
• Article 200 of the Indian Constitution deals with the powers of the Governor with regard to assent given to bills passed by the State legislature and other powers of the Governor such as reserving the bill for the President''s consideration.
• Article 201 pertains to ‘Bills Reserved for Consideration’.
• The Governor of India enjoys absolute veto, suspensive veto (except on money bills) but not the pocket veto.
• Three Types of Veto Power: Absolute veto, Suspensive veto and Pocket veto.
  • Exception: The President has no veto power when it comes to the constitutional amendment bills.
    • Constitutional amendment bills cannot be introduced in the state legislature.
• Absolute Veto: It refers to the power of the President to withhold his assent to a bill passed by the Parliament. The bill then ends and does not become an act.
• Suspensive Veto: The President uses a suspensive veto when he returns the bill to the Indian Parliament for its reconsideration.
  • If the Parliament resends the bill with or without amendment to the President, he has to approve the bill without using any of his veto powers.
  • Exception: The President cannot exercise his suspensive veto in relation to the Money Bill.
• Pocket Veto: The bill is kept pending by the President for an indefinite period when he exercises his pocket veto.
  • He neither rejects the bill nor returns the bill for reconsideration.
  • Unlike the American President who has to resend the bill within 10 days, the Indian President has no such time-rule.
• Veto over State Bills:
  • The governor is empowered to reserve certain types of bills passed by the state legislature for the consideration of the President.
    • Then, the Governor will not have any further role in the enactment of the bill.
  • The President can withhold his assent to such bills not only in the first instance but also in the second instance.
    • Thus, the President enjoys absolute veto (and not suspensive veto) over state bills.
  • Further, the President can exercise pocket veto in respect of state legislation also.

SC to set date to hear plea to abolish Collegium

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will give a date for the hearing of a petition seeking the “abolition” of the Collegium system of judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

Issues in collegium

• Non-transparency in appointments It is seen as a closed-door affair with no prescribed norms regarding eligibility criteria, or even the selection procedure.
• There is no public knowledge of how and when a collegium meets, and how it takes its decisions with no official minutes of collegium proceedings.
• Nepotism and favouritism Allegations of nepotism and favouritism are rampant with judges in the collegium recommending their close relatives.
• Lack of diversity - The absence of an institutional mechanism to ensure diversity on the Bench in the judiciary is a problem.
• SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities are grossly underrepresented in the collegium picks.
• Non-filling of vacancies - Supreme Court judges often talk about the issue of pendency of cases, but still they are inactive in solving the problem.
• Difference of opinion The conflicting opinion within the collegium members is hampering the functioning of the collegium system.
• Recently, while CJI Lalit wanted to circulate the recommendations for appointment to the Supreme Court, two judges in the Collegium preferred deliberations in person.
• Issues with certain conventions By convention, once a recommendation for the successor to the CJI’s office is made, the Collegium ceases to make decisions.
• Given that the CJI is appointed by seniority, many of them have a short tenure and this sorts of convention may slow down decision-making.

Collegium

• The Constitution vested in the President the power to make appointments to Supreme Court and High Courts and transfer judges between High Courts.
• The President (to act on the advice of the council of ministers) was required to consult certain authorities such as the CJI or chief justice of the high court appropriately.
• It was meant to reduce the executive element in the appointment process to the minimum and to eliminate any political influence.
• First Judges Case, 1981 (SP Gupta case) - The Supreme Court ruled that the word “consultation” could not be interpreted as “concurrence”.
• Accordingly the CJI’s opinion was not binding on the executive.
• Second Judges Case, 1993 - The court overruled its earlier decisions and held that “consultation” meant “concurrence”.
• This means that the advice rendered by the CJI on matters of appointments is binding on the President.
• But, the CJI was to formulate the opinion only through a body of senior judges that the court described as the ''collegium''.
• Third Judges Case, 1998 The court clarified that the collegium would comprise
  • CJI and 4 senior-most colleagues - Appointments to Supreme Court
  • CJI and 2 senior-most colleagues - Appointments to High Courts
• Additionally, for HCs, the collegium would consult other senior judges in the SC who had previously served in the HC concerned.
• On whether these views of the consultee-judges are binding on the collegium or not, the judgments are silent.
• NJAC - The government, through 99th constitutional amendment, sought to replace the collegium with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
• The NJAC included the Union Minister for Law and Justice and two eminent persons, besides the CJI and next two senior most SC judges.
• Fourth Judges Case (2015) - The court ruled that the primacy of the judiciary in judges’ appointments was embedded in the basic structure of the Constitution.
• It also held that the NJAC law gave politicians an equal say in judicial appointments to constitutional courts and declared NJAC to be unconstitutional.

Vibrant Villages plan to be merged with PM Gati Shakti

The Centre’s ambitious Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP), which aims to develop infrastructure and open up villages along the China border to tourists, will be integrated with the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti mega project.

Vibrant Villages Programme

• It is a Centrally sponsored scheme, announced in the Union Budget 2022-23 (to 2025-26) for development of villages on the northern border, thus improving the quality of life of people living in identified border villages.
• It will cover the border areas of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Ladakh.
• It will cover 2,963 villages with 663 of them to be covered in the first phase.
• Vibrant Village Action Plans will be created by the district adminstration with the help of Gram Panchayats.
• There will not be overlap with Border Area Development Programme.
• Objective:
  • The scheme aids to identify and develop the economic drivers based on local, natural, human and other resources of the border villages on the northern border;
  • Development of growth centres on ‘hub and spoke model’ through promotion of social entrepreneurship, empowerment of youth and women through skill development and entrepreneurship;
  • Leveraging the tourism potential through promotion of local, cultural, traditional knowledge and heritage;
  • Development of sustainable eco-agri businesses on the concept of ‘one village-one product’ through community-based organisations, cooperatives, NGOs.

PM Gati Shakti

• Aim: To ensure integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure projects in the next four years, with focus on expediting works on the ground, saving costs and creating jobs.
  • The Gati Shakti scheme will subsume the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline that was launched in 2019.
  • Besides cutting logistics costs, the scheme is also aimed at increasing cargo handling capacity and reducing the turnaround time at ports to boost trade.
  • It also aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defence corridors - one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pradesh. Extending 4G connectivity to all villages is another aim. Adding 17,000 kms to the gas pipeline network is being planned.
  • It will help in fulfilling the ambitious targets set by the government for 2024-25, including expanding the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh kms, creation of more than 200 new airports, heliports and water aerodromes.
• Integrated Approach: It intends to bring together 16 infrastructure related Ministries.
  • This will help in removing long-standing issues such as disjointed planning, lack of standardisation, problems with clearances, and timely creation and utilisation of infrastructure capacities.
• Gati Shakti Digital Platform: It involves the creation of a common umbrella platform through which infrastructure projects can be planned and implemented in an efficacious manner by way of coordination between various ministries/departments on a real-time basis.
• Expected Outcomes
  • The scheme will help mapping the existing and proposed connectivity projects.
  • Also, there will be immense clarity on how different regions and industrial hubs in the country are linked, particularly for last mile connectivity.
  • A holistic and integrated transport connectivity strategy will greatly support Make in India and integrate different modes of transport.
  • It will help India become the business capital of the world.