Daily Current Affairs : 23rd December 2021

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

1. Karnataka Protection of Rights to Freedom of religion bill
2. Adjournment Sine die, Adjournment, Prorogation, Dissolution, Summoning
3. Facts for Prelims

1 . Karnataka Protection of Rights to Freedom of religion bill

Context : Amid vociferous opposition, the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, was introduced by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra during the winter session of the Assembly in Belagavi. The Bill envisages stringent provisions for forced or induced conversions. The Basavaraj Bommai led government wants to prohibit conversion by “misrepresentation, force, allurement, fraudulent means, or marriage.”

What does the Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill aim to check?

• The Bill proposes a maximum punishment of 10 years of imprisonment for forcible conversion of persons from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe communities, minors and women to another religion.
• The Bill prohibits conversion by misrepresentation, force, fraud, allurement of marriage, coercion and undue influence.
• According to the proposed legislation, complaints of conversions can be filed by family members of a person who is getting converted, or any other person who is related to the person who is getting converted, or any person associated with the person getting converted.
• The offence of conversion is cognisable and non-bailable and will attract a jail term of three to five years and a fine of ₹25,000 for people found violating the law and a jail term of three to 10 years, and a fine of ₹50,000 for people converting minors, women and persons from the SC and ST communities. The Bill also envisages a compensation of ₹5 lakh to victims of forced conversions.

What about those wishing to convert willingly to another religion?

• After the law comes into force, any person intending to convert to another religion will have to inform the district magistrate at least thirty days in advance.
• The person executing the conversion must also give a notice one month in advance, following which an inquiry will be conducted by the district magistrate through the police to establish the real intent of conversion.
• Not informing authorities will carry a prison term of six months to three years for persons who are converted and one year to five years for the persons carrying out the conversions.
• After getting converted, the person has to again inform the district magistrate within 30 days after conversion and must appear before the district magistrate to confirm his/her identity. Not informing the district magistrate will lead to the conversion being declared null and void.
• Post conversion, the district magistrate has to inform revenue authorities, the social welfare, minority, backward classes and other departments of the conversion, who will, in turn, take steps with respect to the entitlements of the person in terms of reservations and other benefits.

How many States have enacted the legislation?

• Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have laws restricting religious conversion.
• Penalties for breaching the laws can range from monetary fines to imprisonment, with punishments ranging from one to three years of imprisonment and fines from ₹5,000 to ₹50,000. Some of the laws provide for stiffer penalties if women, children, or members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) are being converted.
• Some other States, including Manipur, are reportedly “considering similar laws.”
• Odisha was the first State to enact anti-conversion legislation, the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967. Madhya Pradesh enacted the same the following year.

How has Parliament handled anti-conversion bills?

• After independence, Parliament introduced a number of anti-conversion bills which were not enacted for want of majority approval.
• First Indian Conversion (Regulation and Registration) Bill was introduced in 1954, which sought to enforce “licensing of missionaries and the registration of conversion with government officials.” This bill was rejected.
• It was followed by the introduction of the Backward Communities (Religious Protection) Bill in 1960, “which aimed at checking conversion of Hindus to ‘non-Indian religions’ which, as per the definition in the Bill, included Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism,” and the Freedom of Religion Bill in 1979, which sought “official curbs on inter-religious conversion.” These bills fell through for want of majority approval.

2 . Adjournment Sine die, Adjournment, Prorogation, Dissolution, Summoning

Context : The winter session of Parliament ended on Wednesday the same way it started on November 29 — on an acrimonious note. Both Houses were adjourned sine die a day ahead of schedule.

Adjournment Sine die

• Adjournment sine die: Adjournment sine die means terminating a sitting of Parliament for an indefinite period, that is, when the House is adjourned without naming a day for reassembly, it is called adjournment sine die. The power of adjournment sine die lies with the presiding officer of the House.
• However, the presiding officer of a House can call a sitting of the House before the date or time to which it has been adjourned or at any time after the House has been adjourned sine die.

Adjournment

• Adjournment: An adjournment results in the suspension of work in a sitting for a specified time, which may be hours, days or weeks. In this case, the time of reassembly is specified as an adjournment only terminates a sitting and not a session of the House. The power of adjournment lies with the presiding officer of the House.

Prorogation

• Prorogation: The term prorogation means the termination of a session of the House by an order made by the President under Article 85(2)(a) of the Constitution. The prorogation terminates both the sitting and session of the House and is usually done within a few days after the House is adjourned sine die by the presiding officer. The President issues a notification for the prorogation of the session. However, the president can also prorogue the House while in session. It must be noted that all pending notices except those for introducing bills lapse.

Dissolution

• Dissolution: Whenever a dissolution happens, it ends the very life of the existing House and a new House is constituted after the General Elections. However, only the Lok Sabha is subject to dissolution as the Rajya Sabha, being a permanent House, is not subject to dissolution. The dissolution of the Lok Sabha may take place in two ways:

• Automatic dissolution: On the expiry of its tenure: five years or the terms as extended during a national emergency.
• Order of President: If the President is authorised by the Council of Ministers, he or she can dissolve Lok Sabha, even before the end of the term. The president may also dissolve Lok Sabha if the Council of Ministers loses confidence and no party is able to form the government. Once the Lok Sabha is dissolved before the completion of its normal tenure, the dissolution is irrevocable.
• When the Lok Sabha is dissolved, all business including bills, motions, resolutions, notices and petitions that are pending before it or its committees lapse.

Summoning

• Summoning: Summoning is the process of calling all members of the Parliament to meet. It is the duty of the President of India to summon each House of Parliament from time to time. The maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months. The Parliament should meet at least twice a year.

3 . Facts for Prelims

Tokenisation

• Tokenisation refers to replacement of actual credit and debit card details with an alternate code called the “token”, which will be unique for a combination of card, token requestor and device.

Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicles (AERV)

• Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicles (AERV), indigenously designed and developed by DRDO, and manufactured by the Pune unit of Bharat Electronics Limited, was formally inducted into the Indian Army
• AERV is manufactured by BEL-Pune with more than 90 percent indigenous content. It is a versatile BMP-IIK amphibious Infantry Combat Vehicle (ICV) fitted with instruments for water reconnaissance, land reconnaissance, navigation and data backup.
• The AERV is capable of measuring soil bearing capacity on riverbanks to determine if they are motorable for military vehicles on Go-No Go basis (critical parameters for bridge laying), dry and wet gaps in day and night conditions, slopes and height of river banks/canals. It’s possible to navigate the AERV with military maps using Military Grid Coordinate System, measure and plot underwater beds and water currents of rivers/canals, store data from various instruments on Control Console for further analysis and decision-making.

Contradiction between Various Laws and Marriage age if raised to 21 years

• The 61st Constitution Amendment Act of 1988 defines the voting age for elections to Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies as 18.
• The Majority Act, 1875 defines the age of majority as “the age of eighteen years and not before”, and as 21 years if a guardian is appointed.
• Under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 a person should have attained the age of majority in order to be able to enter into a contract.
• The law to punish sexual crimes against children, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 too recognises a child as someone under the age of 18 years and thereby implies that the age of consent for sex is also 18 years.
• The law that deals with juvenile offenders (or children in conflict with law) and children who need care and protection, that is, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015 does the same.
• Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, 2009, that guarantees access to education, a child is someone between the ages of six and 14 years. Whereas under the anti-child labour law or the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which prohibits the engagement of children in all occupations and bans adolescents in hazardous occupations, a child is “a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age” and an adolescent means “a person who has completed his fourteenth year of age but has not completed his eighteenth year”.