Adoption Procedure for Resident Indians

• The instructions come despite concerns raised over jurisdiction of DMs in civil matters such as inheritance and succession, as well as delays likely to be caused in cases where the court has already passed orders since September 1 or is likely to pass them shortly after having spent several months on the proceedings.
• There are concerns that the Centre has also not yet notified Adoption Regulations, 2022 detailing the process to be followed by the DMs.
• Parliament passed the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021 last year in order to amend the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act), 2015.
• These authorise District Magistrates and Additional District Magistrates to issue adoption orders under Section 61 of the JJ Act by striking out the word “court”.
• This was done in order to ensure speedy disposal of cases and enhance accountability.
• The amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016, were notified on September 1 and require all adoption cases to be transferred to the DM with immediate effect.

Health Ministry announces nation-wide voluntary blood donation drive starting September 17

• The drive hopes to create a database of donors who can be called upon at times of emergency.
• The Ministry has sent a letter to all the States and the Union Territories, stating that the drive would continue till October 1, the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day (NVBDD).
• Registrations for blood donation can be done on the Aarogya Setu portal under Raktdaan Amrit Mahotsav which calls people to donate blood and be a part of Prime Minister’s mission for humanity.
• A live dashboard will be operationalised on the e-RaktKosh web portal for tracking the number of blood units donated/collected in each State and Union Territory.

BDS curriculum to be revamped

• The decision by the Dental Council of India, which falls under the Union Health Ministry, is aimed at bringing the undergraduate course on a par with global standards, while making it more job-oriented and up to date.
• At present the BDS is a five-year course, which comprises four-year academics and one year of internship.
• The proposed credit-based curriculum will be a five-and-a-half-year course, which consists of four-and-a-half years of academics and one year of rotational internship.
• The exam pattern will shift from yearly to semester system where the student has the option to pick from the 50 to 60 elective subjects offered alongside.

Supreme Court declines plea to study link between porn watching, sex crimes

• It said child sex abuse was a crime by itself. Investigation into individual cases by the police would reveal whether or not viewing of pornography had triggered the crime. That aspect would be part of evidence of each individual case.
• “Seeking a judicial declaration from the Supreme Court that porn on the Internet has led to child sex crimes would be equal to giving a go-ahead to online surveillance,” it said.
• The selling and distribution of pornographic material is illegal in India under section 292 of IPC.
• Child pornography is illegal and strictly prohibited across the country under section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• however, viewing sexually explicit material in private spaces is not illegal. The Supreme Court had also orally remarked back in July 2015 that it cannot stop an adult from exercising his fundamental right to personal liberty to watch porn within the privacy of his room.

SC collegium discusses judges’ appointment

• If the government agrees with the Collegium, the judicial strength in the Bombay High Court will rise to 68 out of a total sanctioned strength of 94 judges.
• The Indian Judicial collegium system, where existing judges appoint judges to the nation''s constitutional courts, has its genesis in, and continued basis resting on, three of its own judgments made by Supreme Court judges which are collectively known as the Three Judges Cases.
• Following are the three cases:
  • P. Gupta v. Union of India - 1981 (also known as the Judges'' Transfer case)
  • Supreme Court Advocates-on Record Association vs Union of India - 1993
  • In re Special Reference 1 of 1998

Retail inflation inches up to 7% in August led by food price rise

• This is the eighth successive month that retail inflation has stayed above the central bank’s upper tolerance threshold of 6% inflation for the economy, and constitutes a setback to households’ spending power among the poorer sections.
• Rural inflation that was at 6.8% in July, saw a sharper rise than urban inflation in August, rising to 7.15%. Urban consumers’ inflation rate moved up from 6.49% in July to 6.72%.
• The uptick in inflation was largely driven by “a broad-based rise across the food segment”, with a higher inflation in cereals, pulses, milk, fruits, vegetables and prepared meals and snacks.

The G7''s price cap on Russian oil begins to take shape

• The G7 wealthy nations – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – and the EU are hammering out details of the plan. The G7 wants to enlist other countries, including India and China, which have been snapping up heavily-discounted oil from Russia since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine
• Russia has managed to maintain its revenues through those increased crude sales to India and China. But even if India and China don’t join, a cap could help force down prices for Asia and other consumers.

Supreme Court refuses to consider plea of no-debate in Parliament as ground to challenge EWS quota

• A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) U U Lalit decided to examine the following three key issues to ascertain the validity of the amendment:
  • “Whether the 103rd Constitution Amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the state to make special provisions, including reservation, based on economic criteria”;
  • “Whether it (the amendment) can be said to breach the basic structure…by permitting the state to make special provisions in relation to admission to private unaided institutions”;
  • “Whether the basic structure is violated by “excluding the SEBCs (Socially and Educationally Backward Classes)/ OBCs (Other Backward Classes)/ SCs (Scheduled Castes)/ STs (Scheduled Tribes) from the scope of EWS reservation”.
• The 103rd Amendment inserted Articles 15(6) and 16(6) in the Constitution to provide up to 10 per cent reservation to EWS other than backward classes, SCs, and STs in higher educational institutions and initial recruitment in government jobs.

Gyanvapi case

• A Varanasi district court dismissed an application filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee challenging the maintainability of the suit filed by five Hindu women seeking the right to worship Hindu deities within the Gyanvapi mosque (located in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh) premises all year round.
• District judge A.K. Vishvesha ruled that neither the Places of Worship Act, 1991, nor the Waqf Act, 1995, nor the U.P. Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act, 1983, bar the suit and that the “plaintiffs will have right to prove their averments by cogent evidence”. The next hearing is slated for September 22.
• The suit, filed by Rakhi Singh and four other women, claimed Hindus had been worshipping Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesha and other visible and invisible deities daily at the said property till as recently as 1993, after which the Uttar Pradesh government restricted the worship to one day a year.
• The court noted that the suit filed by the Hindu women “is limited and confined to the right of worship as a civil right and fundamental right as well as customary and religious right”.
• The court emphasised that the suit neither sought a declaration or injunction over the property in question, nor did it seek the conversion of the mosque into a temple.

Keeping Big Tech in check: ‘Safe harbour’ under lens in US, India

• The areas range from competition; privacy; youth mental health; misinformation and disinformation; illegal and abusive conduct, including sexual exploitation; and algorithmic discrimination and lack of transparency.
• These principles are in line with global scepticism around the influence of social media platforms as countries around the world, including India, look to check the dominance of these platforms.
• One of the key principles listed by the White House is to remove special protection available to social media platforms under Section 230 of the US’ Communications Decency Act (CDA).
• This section is similar to Section 79 of India’s Information Technology Act, 2000, (IT Act) which classifies social media platforms as intermediaries and broadly shields them from legal action based on content users post on their platform.