Daily Current Affairs : 3rd & 4th May 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

  1. Office of Profit
  2. Right of an individual against forcible vaccination
  3. Press Freedom index
  4. Abortion rules
  5. Facts for Prelims

1 . Office of Profit


Context : The Election Commission (EC) has sent a notice to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren over an office-of-profit charge against him for allotment of a mining lease in his name last year. Under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, Mr. Soren could face disqualification for entering into a government contract.

What are the basic criteria to disqualify an MP or MLA?

  • Basic disqualification criteria for an MP are laid down in Article 102 of the Constitution, and for an MLA in Article 191.
  • They can be disqualified for:
    • a) Holding an office of profit under government of India or state government;
    • b) Being of unsound mind;
    • c) Being an undischarged insolvent;
    • d) Not being an Indian citizen or for acquiring citizenship of another country

What is ‘office of profit’?

  • The word ‘office’ has not been defined in the Constitution or the Representation of the People Act of 1951. But different courts have interpreted it to mean a position with certain duties that are more or less of public character. However, a legislator cannot be disqualified from either the Parliament or state Assembly for holding any office.
  • It can be done for holding: a) An office; b) An office of profit; c) An office under the union or state government; d) An office exempt by law from purview of disqualificatory provisions.
  • All four conditions have to be satisfied before an MP and MLA can be disqualified.

How do courts or EC decide whether an MP or MLA has profited from an office?

  • The Supreme Court, while upholding the disqualification of Jaya Bachchan from Rajya Sabha in 2006, had said, “For deciding the question as to whether one is holding an office of profit or not, what is relevant is whether the office is capable of yielding a profit or pecuniary gain and not whether the person actually obtained a monetary gain… If the office carries with it, or entitles the holder to, any pecuniary gain other than reimbursement of out of pocket/actual expenses, then the office will be an office of profit for the purpose of Article 102 (1)(a)…”
  • However, a person who acquires a contract or licence from a government to perform functions, which the government would have itself discharged, will not be held guilty of holding an office of profit.
  • So, acquiring a gas agency from the government or holding a permit to ply do not amount to holding office of profit.

What is the underlying principle for including ‘office of profit’ as criterion for disqualification?

  • Makers of the Constitution wanted that legislators should not feel obligated to the Executive in any way, which could influence them while discharging legislative functions. In other words, an MP or MLA should be free to carry out her duties without any kind of governmental pressure.

What was the first office of profit case referred to the EC?

  • One of the earliest cases was in 1953. The EC had to decide whether MLAs of the Vindhya Pradesh Assembly should be disqualified for appointment as members of the district advisory council. As members, they were paid an allowance of Rs 5 for each day they stayed at the place where the meeting of the advisory council was held.
  • The EC was of the opinion that reimbursement of mere out-of-pocket expenses should not be held as profit. So, only members living in the district headquarters (where the meetings were being held) and still receiving allowance were deemed to hold office of profit, and 12 of 60 were disqualified.

2 . Right of an individual against forcible vaccination


Context : The Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual against forcible vaccination and the government’s COVID-19 vaccination policy to protect communitarian health, but found certain vaccine mandates imposed by the State governments and Union Territory administrations disproportionate as they tend to deny access to basic welfare measures and freedom of movement to unvaccinated individuals.

Details of the verdict

  • According to the Bench such mandates wilted in the face of “emerging scientific opinion” that the risk of transmission of the infection from unvaccinated individuals was almost on a par with that from those vaccinated.
  • “With respect to bodily integrity and personal autonomy of an individual in the light of vaccines and other public health measures introduced to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are of the opinion that bodily integrity is protected under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution and no individual can be forced to be vaccinated
  • The court struck a balance between individual right to bodily integrity and refuse treatment with the government’s concern for public health. A person has the right under Article 21 to refuse treatment, it said.
  • Personal autonomy of an individual, which is a recognised facet of protection guaranteed under Article 21 encompasses the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment in the sphere of individual health
  • However, when the issue extended to “communitarian health”, the government was indeed “entitled to regulate issues”. But its right to regulate by imposing limits to individual rights was open to judicial scrutiny.

3 . Press Freedom Index


Context :  India’s ranking in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 150 out of 180 countries, according to the latest report released by the global media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In last year’s report, India was ranked 142. The top three positions for countries with the highest press freedom were taken by the Nordic trio of Norway (a score of 92.65), Denmark (90.27) and Sweden (88.84).

What is RSF and what’s the objective of this Index?

  • RSF is an international NGO whose self-proclaimed aim is to defend and promote media freedom.
  • Headquartered in Paris, it has consultative status with the United Nations.
  • The objective of the World Press Freedom Index, which it releases every year, “is to compare the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories” in the previous calendar year.
  • The RSF defines press freedom as “the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.”

What is the methodology used by RSF to assess and rank countries?

  • Countries are ranked after being assigned a score ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest possible level of press freedom and 0 the worst.
  • The scoring has two components: a quantitative one, that tallies abuses against journalists and media outlets, and a qualitative analysis based on the responses of press freedom specialists (journalists, researchers, human rights defenders) to an RSF questionnaire.
  • Countries are evaluated on five contextual indicators: political context, legal framework, economic context, socio-cultural context, and safety. For instance, the political context indicator considers, among other things, “the degree of support for the media in their role of holding politicians and government to account in the public interest”.
  • A ‘subsidiary score’ ranging from 0 to 100 is calculated for each indicator, and all the subsidiary scores together contribute to the ‘global score’. India, which had a global score of 53.44 in the 2021 Index, could muster only 41 this time.

What are the findings with regard to world press freedom?

  • While singling out Moldova (40th) and Bulgaria (91st) for drastic improvements in press freedom “thanks to a government change”, it has classified the situation in 28 countries including Russia (155) and Belarus (153), as “very bad”. The world’s 10 worst countries for press freedom include Myanmar (176th), China (175), Turkmenistan (177th), Iran (178th), Eritrea (179th) and North Korea (180th).

What does the Index say about India?

  • The report states that in India, “the violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis”. Describing India as “one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media”, the report notes that “journalists are exposed to all kinds of physical violence including police violence, ambushes by political activists, and deadly reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.” It highlights that “supporters of Hindutva, the ideology that spawned the Hindu far-right, wage all-out online attacks on any views that conflict with their thinking.”

4 . Roe Vs Wade


Context : The US Supreme Court has decided by an internal majority to overturn Roe v. Wade, the court’s landmark 1973 judgment that made abortion a constitutional right, Politico reported on May 3.

What is the Roe vs. Wade case?

  • Roe, short for Jane Roe, is the pseudonym for a Texas woman named Norma McCorvey who in 1970 sought to have an abortion when she was five months pregnant, notwithstanding Texas’ ban on abortions except to save a mother’s life.
  • Wade refers to Henry Wade, the district attorney in Dallas County, Texas, at the time, who was the defendant in the case.
  • The 7-2 majority opinion of the SCOTUS was written on January 22, 1973, by Justice Harry Blackmun, paving the way for the recognition of abortion as a constitutional right in the U.S., effectively striking down a wide range of state-level abortion limitations applied before foetal viability.
  • Foetal viability is the point at which a foetus can survive outside the womb, at the time considered to be around 28 weeks, but today is closer to 23 or 24 weeks owing to advances in medicine and technology.
  • Based on the Roe vs Wade case, the framework of regulations that applied towards the right to abortion required that in the first trimester, almost no limitations could be placed on that right; in the second trimester, only limitations to abortion rights that were aimed at protecting a woman’s health were permitted; and in the third trimester, state governments had greater leeway to limit the right to abortion except for cases in which the life and health of the mother were endangered.
  • However, Roe vs Wade was not the last word on abortion rights in the U.S. even before the latest SCOTUS opinion. In the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs Casey case, the SCOTUS threw out the so-called trimester framework yet retained the Roe vs Wade case’s “essential holding,” which established women’s constitutional right to abortion until foetal viability.

Why is there a possibility of the judgment being overturned?

  • The overturning of the Roe vs Wade case has not yet been formally announced and thus not yet a part of settled law, although most legal experts believe it is only a matter of time before it becomes so. It remains to be seen whether the leaked text of the private opinion of the SCOTUS, believed to be authored primarily by Justice Samuel Alito, will be the same as the final version that enters the statute books
  • Nevertheless, the conservative majority of the court, to which former President Donald Trump successfully nominated three justices, regarded Roe vs Wade to lack any jurisprudential basis within the U.S. Constitution.
  • Hence in the first draft of their opinion, dated February 2022, the justices of the SCOTUS said, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision… It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

What impact will the opinion have if it passes into law?

  • Based on analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports have shown that the typical patient seeking an abortion in the U.S. is already a mother, is in her late 20s, has obtained some college education, is relatively poor, is unmarried, is in her first six weeks of pregnancy, is seeking a first abortion, and lives in a Democratic Party-ruled state.
  • At a broad level, therefore, the SCOTUS opinion will disproportionately affect poorer women if it becomes law. For example, in 2014, nearly 50% of women who went in for abortions were below the poverty line, with another 25% said to be relatively close to the poverty line. Reports quoted researchers saying that the growing share of poorer women in the abortion demographic “reflects improved access to effective contraception among higher-earning women, and a recognition of the growing costs of raising children among poorer women. It may also reflect the growing presence of charities that help poor women pay for abortions in states where public programs don’t.”
  • However, all is not lost for the pro-choice side of the debate, because even if the SCOTUS successfully strikes down Roe vs Wade U.S. President Joe Biden has called upon Congress to pass legislation codifying the right to abortion, which lawmakers have every right to do.
  • Yet, given the 50-50 split of Democratic and Republican Senators on Capitol Hill, it is near impossible to rally together the requisite 60-member supermajority required to defeat a filibuster and pass abortion rights into law in the face of lock-step opposition from conservatives. Democrats are likely pinning their hopes on the November mid-term election sweeping more of their members into the Senate and thus restoring a constitutional right to abortion.

Abortion in India

  • India’s Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 allows abortion until 20 weeks of pregnancy. Through an amendment in 2021, the ceiling for abortions was raised to 24 weeks, but only for special categories of pregnant women such as rape or incest survivors, that too, with the approval of two registered doctors.
  • In case of foetal disability, there is no limit to the timeline for abortion, but that is allowed by a medical board of specialist doctors set up by the governments of states and union territories.
  • In approximately 16 countries around the world, abortion is entirely prohibited and even criminalised. But several Catholic majority nations such as Ireland and Mexico have decriminalised abortion in the last decade.

5 . Facts for Prelims


UDID Card

The UDID card shall bring a host of benefits to the Persons with Disabilities as given below:

  1. Persons with disabilities will not need to make multiple copies of documents, maintain, and carry multiple documents as the card will capture all the necessary details which can be decoded with the help of a reader
  2. The UDID card will be the single document of identification, verification of the disabled for availing various benefits in future
  3. The UDID Card will also help in stream-lining the tracking of the physical and financial progress of beneficiary at all levels of hierarchy of implementation – from village level, block level, District level , State level and National level

Lumbini

  • The Lord Buddha was born in 623 BC in the sacred area of Lumbini located in the Terai plains of southern Nepal, testified by the inscription on the pillar erected by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka in 249 BC.
  • Lumbini is one of the holiest places of one of the world’s great religions, and its remains contain important evidence about the nature of Buddhist pilgrimage centres from as early as the 3rd century BC.
  • The complex of structures within the archaeological conservation area includes the Shakya Tank; the remains within the Maya Devi Temple consisting of brick structures in a cross-wall system dating from the 3rd century BC to the present century and the sandstone Ashoka pillar with its Pali inscription in Brahmi script. Additionally there are the excavated remains of Buddhist viharas (monasteries) of the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD and the remains of Buddhist stupas (memorial shrines) from the 3rd century BC to the 15th century AD.

Green strategic Partnership

  • India and Denmark recently signed Green Strategic Partnership Agreement
  • The Green Strategic partnership builds on and consolidates the existing agreement establishing a Joint Commission for Cooperation between India and Denmark.
  • The partnership is a mutually beneficial arrangement to advance political cooperation, expand economic relations and green growth, create jobs and strengthen cooperation on addressing global challenges and opportunities; with focus on an ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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