Daily Current Affairs : 9th January 2024

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Bilkis Banu case
2. Room Temperature Superconductors
3. Supreme Court Legal Services Committee
4. Collegium and NJAC
5. Facts for Prelims

1 . Bilkis Banu case

Context: The Supreme Court recently struck down the remission granted by the Gujarat government to 11 convicts who were serving life imprisonment for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano during the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.  

On what grounds did the Supreme Court strike down the remission given by the Gujarat government in 2022? 

• The Bench said that the Gujarat government did not have the authority or jurisdiction to consider the remission applications of the convicts, to reduce their sentence. 
• This was because the trial in the case was transferred from Gujarat, where the crime was committed, to Mumbai, Maharashtra, in 2004 by the Supreme Court after concerns and apprehensions were raised of evidence tampering, and the absence of a conducive situation for a fair trial in Gujarat. 
• Following the trial, a special CBI court in Mumbai convicted and sentenced the 11 men in 2008. 
• The Supreme Court said that as per the provisions of Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 1973, an application for remission can only be before the government within whose territorial jurisdiction the applicant was convicted, in this case, Maharashtra, and not where the offence took place, in this case, Gujarat. 
• Under Section 432 of the CrPC, state governments do have the power to suspend or remit a sentence. But the court noted that Section 7(b) of the law clearly states that the appropriate government is the one in whose jurisdiction the offender is sentenced. 
• The court said that the state of Gujarat had “usurped the powers of the state of Maharashtra which only could have considered the applications seeking remission”. 
• The court also noted that the convicts were considered for an early release on the basis of a policy of the state of Gujarat dating back to 1992, which could not have been applied to them. 
• That policy allowed for an early release of prisoners who have completed 14 years of imprisonment — but it was subsequently cancelled, and substituted by another policy in 2014 which barred the grant of remission to convicts of heinous crimes. 
• The court also said that the convicts had not fulfilled the condition of paying a fine ordered by the trial court to be considered for remission. 

How did the question of remission reach the Supreme Court? 

• In 2022, one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, Radheshyam Shah, approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Gujarat government for premature release citing the 1992 policy for convicts who had completed at least 14 years in jail. 
• In an order dated May 13, 2022, a Supreme Court Bench asked the Gujarat government to consider Shah’s application for premature release “within a period of two months”, as per the state’s 1992 remission policy. 
• Based on this, a government panel recommended the convicts’ release, and they walked out of a Gujarat jail on August 15, 2022. They were felicitated on their release by local leaders. 
• Bilkis Bano then filed a petition against the convicts’ release; other petitioners too approached the court through public interest petitions (PILs). 
• Now, the top court said that the order passed by it on May 13, 2022, was nullified as the petitioner Shah had suppressed facts and misled the court, including the fact that the 1992 policy under which he was seeking relief had been cancelled by the Gujarat government. 
• The court said that Shah also suppressed the fact that he had already approached the Maharashtra government in 2019 after the Gujarat High Court rejected his prayer stating that the plea should be filed before the Maharashtra state where the trial took place. 
• The court said that the government failed to file a review petition seeking a correction of the order about the cancellation of the 1992 policy and about the fact that it was the Maharashtra government which was the appropriate authority. 

So what happens now? Can the convicts apply for remission again? If so, before whom, and under what rules? 

• The criminal justice system has provisions like remission or reduction of sentence, taking into account the fact that a person can reform, and can be set free as a better citizen. 
• In its judgment, the Supreme Court said that there are competing interests — that of the rights of the victim or her family to justice, and that of a convict’s claim to a second chance. The Bench said that in prior judgments, the top court has expressed scepticism over the latter, particularly if the offence committed is a heinous one. The court also said that this is not an “indefeasible” (not capable of being annulled or voided) right of a convict. 
• The convicts can approach the Maharashtra government for remission in the future. Whether remission is granted will, however, depend on various aspects, including the remission policy of the state. The convicts had argued before the Supreme Court that the policy applicable to them would be the one in vogue at the time of their conviction, which was in 2008. 
• Radheshyam Shah had approached the state of Maharashtra on August 1, 2019 after the Gujarat High Court said that the state was the appropriate government for his case. 
• At that time, the Maharashtra home department had sought the opinion of the presiding CBI judge as per the provisions of Section 436 CrPc. The judge had given a negative report, and had objected to the premature release on January 3, 2020. 
• The judge had cited the remission policy of Maharashtra, studying guidelines issued in 1978, 1992, and 2008. The court said that the Government Resolution (GR) dated April 11, 2008 would apply to the convicts, as it had superseded the other guidelines. 
  • This GR states that a minimum imprisonment of 28 years would have to be undergone for a convict found guilty for offences related to crimes against women and minors where the crime is committed with exceptional violence, before they can apply for remission.  In this case, the convicts have completed more than 14 years in prison. 

2 . Room Temperature Superconductors

Context: Last year, a material dubbed LK-99 hogged headlines after South Korean researchers claimed it could be a room-temperature superconductor. Soon after, independent researchers found problems in the group’s data and nixed the claim, but the findings of a new study are offering it a second life.  
 
About the news

• A group of scientists affiliated with research institutes in China and Japan have reported finding a sign of superconductivity in a material that was at the centre of a controversy last year over similar claims. 
• The researchers have reported in their paper that they observed the Meissner effect in a compound called copper-substituted lead apatite. 

Room temperature Superconductivity

• Superconductivity is a phenomenon that, so far, has been possible only at extremely low temperatures, in the range of 100°C below zero. The search for a material that exhibits superconductivity at room temperature, or at least manageable low temperatures, has been going on for decades, without success. If the claimed discovery were confirmed, it could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in physics in this century so far.

What is the Meissner effect? 

• It is one of a few ‘effects’ certain materials exhibit when they’re able to conduct electric currents without any resistance – i.e. when they become superconductors.
• Scientists know many types of materials that become superconducting in different conditions – metals, metallic compounds, ceramics, hydrides, etc. They all have one thing in common: they become superconducting either when they’re cooled to extremely low temperatures or when they’re subjected to extremely high pressures. Many scientists are looking for a material that becomes superconducting at room temperature and pressure (RTP).
• Such a material could be used to make wires that transport electricity with zero loss; such transmission losses are the largest source of electric energy loss in the world today. The material will also have uses in medical diagnostics, computing, power generation, advanced electronic circuits, and many other fields. For example, the water-absorbing properties of modern diapers were first tested with particle accelerators, which use superconducting magnets to work. 

What is superconductivity?

• It is a state in which a material shows absolutely zero electrical resistance. While resistance is a property that restricts the flow of electricity, superconductivity allows unhindered flow.
• Electricity is essentially the movement of free electrons in a conducting material like copper. While the movement of electrons is in one particular direction, it is random and haphazard. They frequently collide with one another, and with other particles in the material, thus offering resistance to the flow of current. In the process, a lot of electrical energy is lost as heat. Resistance is a measurable quantity, which varies with the material.
• In a superconducting state, however, the material offers no resistance at all. All the electrons align themselves in a particular direction, and move without any obstruction in a “coherent” manner. Because of zero resistance, superconducting materials can save huge amounts of energy, and be used to make highly efficient electrical appliances.
• The Superconductors are already being used, but their use is limited because of the extreme conditions that have to be created.

Extremely low temperatures: What current superconductors look like?

• As of now, superconductivity can be achieved only at very low temperatures, more than 250 degree Celsius below zero, very close to absolute zero which is – 273 degree Celsius.
• The first material to have been discovered to show super conductive properties was Mercury, which becomes a superconductor at close to 270 degree Celsius below zero. Most of the other materials commonly used as superconductors – Lead, Aluminum, Tin, Niobium, and several others – also become superconducting at comparable temperatures, called critical temperature.
• In some cases, materials can exhibit superconductivity at slightly higher temperatures as well, but under increased pressure conditions. It is all about creating the right kind of conditions for the electrons in the material to move without resistance, and a variety of tweaks are experimented with depending upon the internal atomic structure of the material.
• Even the materials that are classified as ‘high temperature’ superconductors, as of now, show superconductive properties only well below -150 degrees Celsius. There have been claims for superconductivity at much higher temperatures, in some cases, above zero degree Celsius as well, but these are either contested or require extreme pressure conditions.
• What scientists look for?– Scientists are looking for a material that can display superconductivity at room temperature (usually considered to be between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius) and under normal pressure conditions. But room-temperature superconductivity does not necessarily have to be at room temperature. The term is commonly used to describe superconductive properties in conditions that are easy to create.  Any material that would display superconductivity in an easily obtainable condition would qualify as the superconducting solution that the world is searching for.

How has hype influenced science? 

• There were multiple superconductor-related controversies in 2023. One set was centred on the University of Rochester physicist Ranga Dias, who reported limited evidence of superconductivity in lutetium hydride in March, only for his coauthors to later ask for the study to be retracted. In August, a journal retracted another paper of a study led by Dr. Dias, reporting superconductivity in manganese sulphide, for faulty data. 
• Another set focused on a material called LK-99 that, a South Korean research group claimed, was an RTP superconductor. Independent studies soon found that when LK-99 was prepared the way the South Korean group had indicated (albeit not clearly), it didn’t become a superconductor. Instead, it acquired an impurity whose presence the group hadn’t accounted for, and which distorted measurements of the material’s heat capacity and magnetism in a way an actual superconductor would have, misleading the scientists. 

What did the new study report? 

• The authors of the new preprint paper may have wished to sidestep this hype because they’ve reported that their material may be an RTP superconductor. 
• Specifically, they have reported a sign of near-RTP superconductivity in LK-99, which is in fact copper-substituted lead apatite. 
• According to their preprint paper, they continued to study the material even after other studies had failed to find signs of superconductivity because the latter tested specific claims made by the South Korean group. 
• Instead, the new group has said it synthesised LK-99 samples using a “state of the art” approach and tested it for some other signs of superconductivity. 
• In particular, the group looked for “hysteresis loop … in the [direct current] measurements”. 

How did researchers do this? 

• In their study, the Chinese groups applied a slowly strengthening magnetic field to samples of LK-99 they had prepared in their labs – and then slowly took it away. They constantly checked the extent to which the material allowed the field to penetrate its bulk changed in this cycle. They also repeated this experiment at four temperatures: -173.15, -73.15, -23.15, and 26.85 degrees C. 
• This is the classic hysteresis experiment. When you apply an increasingly strong magnetic field to a suitable material, it becomes increasingly magnetised. When you slowly tune down the magnetic field, however, the material’s magnetisation doesn’t retrace its path downwards but takes a separate one. It’s like you go up a mountain in your car on one road, but when you’re asked to return, you take a different but parallel road. 
• The overall shape of the forward and backward path – called the hysteresis loop – combines the effects of temperature, the magnetic field, and the material’s magnetisation on the material’s properties. As a result, it contains information about the conditions in which the material switches in and out of its superconducting states. 
• Based on these tests, the researchers reported the LK-99 samples they prepared might have a critical temperature of around -23 degrees C – which can be said to be near room-temperature – and that may be exhibiting the Meissner effect at this temperature. 
• Since these samples don’t have to be pressurised for their alleged superconducting states to turn up, they can be said to be a near-RTP superconductor – or at least that’s the possibility that has drawn scientists’ attention to the study. 

3 . Supreme Court Legal Services Committee

Context : Supreme Court judge Justice BR Gavai has been nominated as the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC), replacing Justice Sanjiv Khanna – the seniormost judge of the top court after the Chief Justice of India (CJI). A notification issued by the Department of Justice on December 29, 2023, announced Justice Gavai’s nomination. Here is what the committee is, and what the law says on legal services in India.

What is the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee?

• The Supreme Court Legal Services Committee was constituted under Section 3A of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to provide “free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of society”, in cases falling under the top court’s jurisdiction.
• Section 3A of the Act states that the Central Authority (the National Legal Services Authority or NALSA) shall constitute the committee. It consists of a sitting SC judge, who is the chairman, along with other members possessing the experience and qualifications prescribed by the Centre. Both the chairman and other members will be nominated by the CJI. Further, the CJI can appoint the Secretary to the Committee.

Who does the SCLSC comprise?

• As of date, the SCLSC consists of chairperson BR Gavai and nine members nominated by the CJI. The Committee, in turn, can appoint officers and other employees as prescribed by the Centre, in consultation with the CJI.
• Besides this, Rule 10 of the NALSA Rules, 1995, entails the numbers, experience, and qualifications of the SCLSC members. Under Section 27 of the 1987 Act, the Centre is empowered to make rules in consultation with the CJI, by notification, to carry out the provisions of the Act.

What is the need for legal services and how is it dispensed to the people?

• The need for providing legal services has been underlined in many provisions of the Indian Constitution. Article 39A states, “The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.”
• Articles 14 (right to equality) and 22(1) (rights to be informed of grounds for arrest) also make it obligatory for the State to ensure equality before the law and a legal system that promotes justice based on equal opportunity.
• Although the idea of a legal aid programme was earlier floated in the 1950s, it was in 1980 that a committee at the national level was established under the chairmanship of then SC judge Justice PN Bhagwati. The Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes started monitoring legal aid activities throughout India.

What the Legal Services Authorities Act says

• In 1987, the Legal Services Authorities Act was enacted to give a statutory base to legal aid programmes. It aims to provide free and competent legal services to eligible groups, including women, children, SC/ST and EWS categories, industrial workers, disabled persons, and others.
• Under the Act, NALSA was constituted in 1995 to monitor and evaluate the implementation of legal aid programmes and to lay down policies for making legal services available. A nationwide network has been envisaged under the Act for providing legal aid and assistance. It also disburses funds and grants to State Legal Services Authorities and NGOs for implementing legal aid schemes and programmes.
• Subsequently, in every state, State Legal Services Authorities (SLSA) were established to implement NALSA’s policies and directions, give free legal services to people, and conduct Lok Adalats. An SLSA is headed by the Chief Justice of the respective High Court and includes the senior HC judge as its Executive Chairman. While the HC Chief Justice is the patron-in-chief of the SLSA, the CJI is the patron-in-chief of NALSA.
• District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs) and Taluk Legal Services Committees were established in districts and most taluks. Situated in the District Courts Complex in every district, each DLSA is chaired by the District Judge of the respective district.
• The Taluka or Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committees are headed by a senior civil judge. Collectively, these bodies organise legal awareness camps, provide free legal services, and supply and obtain certified order copies and other legal documents, among other functions

4 . Collegium and NJAC

Context: Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud recently said he would have to constitute a Bench of the Supreme Court to hear a petition seeking an end to the collegium system of judicial appointments. 

About the news

• The petition seeks the revival of the National Judicial Appointments Commission, or NJAC, which briefly gave the government an equal role along with the judiciary in the appointment of judges to the constitutional courts before it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015. 
• The petition was filed early last year amidst the verbal attacks by then Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on the collegium system, calling it opaque. 
• It said the Constitution Bench judgment of 2015 had thwarted the “will of the people” by striking down the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act which introduced the NJAC mechanism. 
• The petition has said the 2015 judgment should be rendered void ab initio as it had revived the collegium system. 
• The petitioners called the collegium system a “synonym for nepotism and favouritism.” 

Collegium System

You can find detailed article – Collegium System

What exactly is the NJAC? 

• The Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, which established the NJAC and the NJAC Act, was passed by Parliament in 2014 to set up a commission for appointing judges, replacing the Collegium system. This would essentially increase the government’s role in the appointment of judges. 
• The NJAC was to comprise the Chief Justice of India as the ex officio Chairperson, two senior-most Supreme Court Judges as ex officio members, the Union Minister of Law and Justice as ex officio member, and two eminent persons from civil society — one of whom would be nominated by a committee consisting of the CJI, Prime Minster and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the other would be nominated from the SC/ST/OBC/minority communities or women. 
• The laws were repealed in October 2015 after the Supreme Court struck them down. 

5 . Facts for Prelims

Window of Circadian Low (WOCL)

• Window of Circadian Low (WOCL) from 0200-0600 hours is the time during which the circadian body clock cycle is at its lowest in terms of alertness. 
• Within a band of three time zones the WOCL refers to home base time. 
• Beyond these three time zones the WOCL refers to home base time for the first 48 hours after departure from home base time zone and to local time thereafter. 

Section 432 (power to remit and suspend sentence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure

• When any person is sentenced for any offence, the appropriate Government may, at any time, without conditions or on such terms as the person sentenced may accept, suspend the execution of his sentence or He can remit the whole or any part of the sentence awarded to him. 
• Whenever an application is made to the appropriate Government for suspension or remission of sentence, the appropriate Government may require the Presiding Judge of the Court before whom the conviction was made or by whom it was confirmed, to In deciding whether the application should be granted or rejected, state his opinion together with his reasons for such opinion and send a certified copy of the record of the trial or such record thereof, as may exist, along with a statement of his opinion. 
• The court typically considers factors such as the individual’s behavior, rehabilitation efforts, and the nature of the offense when deciding on sentence remission under Section 432 CrPc.