6th July 2021
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair
Recently, the filmmaker Karan Johar has announced his decision to produce the biopic of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair.
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair
- He was an acclaimed lawyer and judge in the Madras High Court.
- He was born in the year 1857 in Mankara village of Malabar’s Palakkad district.
- He belonged to an aristocratic family and his great grandfather was employed by the East India Company to enforce peace in the Malabar region.
- He was known for being a passionate advocate for social reforms and a firm believer in the self-determination of India.
- The courtroom battle he fought against the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer really stood out in his long glorious career.
- Nair had accused O’Dwyer in his book, ‘Gandhi and anarchy’ for being responsible for the atrocities at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair during India’s Freedom Struggle
- He was one of the early builders of the Indian National Congress who had also served as its president in 1897.
- In 1897 he became the youngest president of the INC in the history of the party till then, and the only Malayali to hold the post ever.
- In 1902 Lord Curzon appointed him a member of the Raleigh University Commission.
- In 1904 he was appointed as Companion of the Indian Empire by the King-Emperor and in 1912 he was knighted.
- By 1908 he was appointed as a permanent judge in the Madras High Court.
- In Budasna v Fatima (1914), he passed a radical judgement when he ruled that those who converted to Hinduism cannot be treated as outcastes.
- In 1915 he became part of the Viceroy’s Council, put in charge of the education portfolio.
- In 1919, he played an important role in the expansion of provisions in the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms which introduced a system of dyarchy in the provinces and increased participation of Indians in the administration.
Punjab Suba Movement
Recently, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has decided to organise an event to mark the anniversary of police action at the Golden Temple against Punjab Suba Movement.
Punjab Suba Movement
- It started in Punjab soon after the Independence.
- The Shiromani Akali Dal was spearheading the movement for a Punjabi speaking state.
- Those in favour of demand used to raise slogan ‘Punjabi Suba Amar Rahe’ and those opposing demand were raising slogans in favour of ‘Maha-Punjab’.
- It was on April 6, 1955 that Amritsar DC banned the slogans of ‘Punjabi Suba’ and ‘Maha-Punjab’ fearing law and order problem.
- It is suspected that slogans like Punjabi Suba or Maha-Punjab Amar Rahe, or Punjabi Suba Zindabad can violate the law and order.
Implications of ban on Punjab Suba Movement
- The SAD held a meeting on April 24, 1955 in Amritsar and passed a resolution to start peaceful non-violent protest from May 10, 1955 if the ban on Punjabi Suba slogans was not revoked.
- The arrests of SAD workers continued across Punjab and around 400 SAD workers were arrested in Ludhiana.
- A convention was called in Delhi on June 7, 1955 which was attended by leaders like Kedar Nath Sehgal, Ram Sharma, Left leaders Sohan Singh Josh and Harkrishan Singh Surjit, Chaudhary Bhan Singh and Randhir Singh.
- The non-violent movement reached its peak in July and large number of volunteers reached Akal Takht and it shifted the focus of Punjab government on Golden Temple.
Constitutional Provisions for Creation of New States
- Article 3 assigns to Parliament the power to enact legislation for the formation of new States.
- The Parliament may create new States in a number of ways, namely by:
- Separating territory from any State,
- Uniting two or more States,
- Uniting parts of States and
- Uniting any territory to a part of any State
- The Parliament’s power under Article 3 extends to increasing or diminishing the area of any State and altering the boundaries or name of any State.
- A bill calling for formation of new States may be introduced in either House of Parliament only on the recommendation of the President.
- A bill must be referred by the President to the concerned State Legislature for expressing its views to Parliament if it contains provisions which affect the areas, boundaries or name of that State.
Discrete Auroras on Mars
Recently, the UAE’s Hope spacecraft has captured images of glowing atmospheric lights in the Red Planet’s night sky, known as discrete auroras.
Phenomena of Auroras on Earth
- The Auroras are caused when charged particles ejected from the Sun’s surface, called the solar wind, enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
- The particles from solar wind are harmful, and our planet is protected by the geomagnetic field, which preserves life by shielding us from the solar wind.
- At the north and south poles, some of the solar wind particles are able to continuously stream down, and interact with different gases in the atmosphere to cause a display of light in the night sky.
- It is known as an aurora which is seen from the Earth’s high latitude regions (called the auroral oval), and is active all year round.
- In the northern part of our globe, the polar lights are called aurora borealis or Northern Lights, and are seen from the US (Alaska), Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
- In the south, they are called aurora australis or southern lights, and are visible from high latitudes in Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia.
Auroras in Mars
- Unlike Earth, which has a strong magnetic field, the Martian magnetic field has largely died out because the molten iron at the interior of the planet has cooled.
- The Martian crust, which hardened billions of years ago when the magnetic field still existed, retains some magnetism.
- In contrast with Earth, which acts like one single bar magnet, magnetism on Mars is unevenly distributed, with fields strewn across the planet and differing in direction and strength.
- The disjointed fields channel the solar wind to different parts of the Martian atmosphere, creating “discrete” auroras over the entire surface of the planet as charged particles interact with atoms and molecules in the sky.
Objectives of UAE’s Hope Orbiter
- The primary objective of the mission is to study Martian weather dynamics.
- The probe will look into how weather changes the escape of hydrogen and oxygen into space by correlating the lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere conditions.
- The scientists will be able to look into why Mars lost so much of its early atmosphere and liquid water by measuring how much hydrogen and oxygen is spilling into space.
- The scientists will have a better understanding of the climate dynamics of different layers of Mars’ atmosphere with the information gathered during the mission.
Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)
Recently, Stan Swamy had moved the Bombay High Court challenging Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Section 43D(5) of UAPA
- The UAPA, enacted in 1967, was strengthened by the Congress-led UPA government in 2008 and 2012.
- The test for denying bail under the UAPA is that the court must be satisfied that a “prima facie” case exists against the accused.
- The Section 43D(5) reads that no person accused of an offence punishable under Chapters IV and VI of this Act shall, if in custody, be released on bail or on his own bond unless the Public Prosecutor has been given an opportunity of being heard on the application for such release.
- It provided that such accused person shall not be released on bail or on his own bond if the Court, on a perusal of the case diary or the report made under section 173 of the Code is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such person is prima facie true.
Reasons of challenging Section 43D(5) of UAPA
- The petitioner termed the section 43D(5) as “illusory”.
- The provision makes grant of bail virtually impossible under UAPA since it leaves little room of judicial reasoning.
Grounds on which bail is granted under UAPA
- In Union of India v K A Najeeb, the Supreme Court upheld the grant of bail under UAPA when the accused had undergone incarceration for a significant period even as it recognised that bail under UAPA was an exception.
- The rigours of provisions related to bail will melt down where there is no likelihood of trial being completed within a reasonable time and the period of incarceration already undergone has exceeded a substantial part of the prescribed sentence.
- It would safeguard against the possibility of provisions like Section 43D(5) of UAPA being used as the sole metric for denial of bail or for wholesale breach of constitutional right to speedy trial.
Law of Bail under UAPA
- Both regular bail and bail by default like CrPC are available under UAPA with some alterations under section 43 D of UAPA.
- The Regular Bail in UAPA can be granted by a competent magistrate under section 437 CrPC and by the high court or district and sessions court under section 439 of CrPC.
- The provisions for default bail is also available under section 167(2) CrPC read with section 43D(2) of UAPA, after 30 days of police custody and 90 days of judicial custody, subjected to delay in filing of charge-sheet.
- UAPA does not provide any specific conditions to be satisfied to grant bail.
- The Supreme Court in State through CBI v. Amaramani Tripathy had listed factors to be considered while deciding upon bail applications which include:
- Enormity of the charge;
- The nature of the accusation;
- The severity of the punishment;
- The nature of the evidence in support of the accusation;
- The danger of the applicant absconding;
- The danger of witnesses being tampered with;
- The protracted nature of the trial; and
- The health, age, and sex of the person accused
Curious case of Section 43D(5)
- It is only applicable to offences punishable under chapter IV and VI of the act i.e. offences related to terrorist acts and terrorist organizations.
- It has a proviso which basically explains condition when bail shall be denied, i.e. if reasonable grounds exist for accusations to be prima-facie true and such decision shall be based on chargesheet or case diary.
- The second part of proviso explains the burden over prosecution and the prosecution had to prove that reasonable grounds exist for accusations believed to be prima facie true.
Portals on Ayush Sector
Recently, the Union Minister of AYUSH has launched five important portals on AYUSH sector.
- The Minister launched CTRI portal pertinent to Ayurveda Dataset along with AMAR, RMIS, SAHI and e-Medha portals.
Highlights
AMAR Portal
- It is a repository for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Sowa- Rigpa Manuscripts and catalogues.
- It is Ayush Manuscripts Advanced Repository Portal.
- It has digitized information on rare and hard to find Manuscripts and catalogues of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Sowa Rigpa in libraries or in individual collections.
RMIS Portal
- It is a research guidance platform.
- It is a collaborative effort of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS).
- It is CCRAS- Research Management Information System.
- It will be a one stop solution for Research and Development in Ayurveda based studies.
- It will provide free of cost research guidance by experienced Scientists, Clinicians of Ayurveda.
SHAHI Portal
- It is Showcase of Ayurveda Historical Imprints portal.
- It incorporates authentic resources and will be of immense help in showcasing historical veracity of Ayurveda.
- It showcases inscriptions, Archeo-botanical Information, Sculptures, Philological sources and advanced Archeo Genetic studies.
- It will be of tremendous use in understanding of Indian Knowledge system with a focus on indigenous health care practices.
E-Medha Portal
- It is electronic Medical Heritage Accession portal.
- It will provide online access to more than 12 thousand books related to Indian Medical Heritage through NIC’s e-granthalaya platform.
CoWIN Global Conclave 2021
Recently, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the CoWIN Global Conclave 2021.
Highlights
- The conclave aims to share India's experience with regards to universal vaccination to fight Covid-19 through CoWIN.
- The conclave is being organised in a joint initiative by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs and the National Health Authority (NHA).
- About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama and Uganda, have shown interest in adopting CoWIN to run their vaccination drives.
CoWIN
- It is Covid Vaccine Intelligence Work.
- It is a platform which is being used in India to help people register for vaccination against Covid-19, book a slot and download vaccination certificates.
- It was introduced by the central government in January 2021 when the vaccination drive against Covid-19 began in the country.
- It is a website for beneficiaries and for officials associated with the vaccination process, there is a different mobile application as well.
Features of CoWIN Platform
- It allows beneficiaries to book a vaccination slot as they can choose a day and time slot as per their preference.
- It also allows the user to add four family members in their profile and book slots for them as well.
- The platform also offers the option of linking one's passport with that of the Covid-19 vaccine certificate.
Objectives of COWIN Platform
- Equitable vaccination at universal scale & transparent distribution for all citizens;
- Inclusive distribution to align stakeholders and remove information asymmetry;
- Dynamic architecture that evolves and accommodates change easily; and
- Tailored interface portals for citizens, vaccinators as well as administrators
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