Daily Current Affairs : 9th May

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Public Interest Litigation
2. Trans fats
3. Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules
4. Iran’s commitments under the nuclear deal
5. Facts for Prelims – Arunachal pit viper, Pattachitra

1 . Public Interest Litigation

Context : The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed with the contention of the Election Commission of India (EC) that its clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for their poll speeches may be right or wrong, but the court certainly cannot examine the merit of its decisions on the basis of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition.

Background

• The concept of Public Interest Litigation owes much to the American innovation of the dictum “Public Interest Law” whose basic thrust is to ensure that citizens whose lives may be affected by governmental policies have a right to participate in the formulation of those policies.
• In India, the concept of PIL originated in PUDR vs Delhi Govt. in Asiad Labour Case (1982). During the construction-boom in Delhi before the Asian Games in 1982, migrant labourers from various parts of the country were brought to Delhi by the Private Contractors and did not pay their basic wages and made to live them in the streets of Delhi, PUDR filed a petition concerning the statutory wages of these migrant labourers in the apex court and subsequently the court made the administration responsible to enforce the minimum wages regulation even in cases of labour employment by private contractors.

About Public Interest Litigation

• Public Interest Litigation (PIL) means a legal action initiated in a court for the enforcement of public interest or general interest in which the public or a class of the community have pecuniary interest or some interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected.
• This means you don’t have to be the victim or the aggrieved person! You can be an individual, a citizen group or an NGO.
• This also means that public interest litigation has made it possible for those who are neither ‘aggrieved’ nor ‘victims’ to approach the court for justice if the matter is one that affects common people and gives them an opportunity to get legal redress.

Which Court a PIL can be filed

• A PIL can be filed in any of the High Courts or the Supreme Court.

Shortcomings Of PIL

• Critics argue that the liberal “rule of locus standi which has given birth to the concept of PIL will encourage vexatious litigants to file unmeritorious charges in a large number, thus allowing them to abuse the process of the court, and also cause further delay in the administration of Justice. This would open a “flood gate of litigation”
• Another criticism hurled against PIL is that it can lead to a confrontation between the judiciary on one hand, and executive and the legislature, on the other. The effect of such confrontation may undermine the prestige of judiciary and will impair its ability to discharge its traditional function.
• In public interest litigation the court lacks the expertise to deal with some specific question of complex nature or for ascertaining certain facts, or making legal investigations.

2 . Trans fats

Context : The WHO has welcomed its partnership with the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) to achieve the target of eliminating industrially produced trans fats. It is one of the simplest and most effective ways to save lives and create a healthier food supply.”

Details of the Partnership

• The commitment made by the IFBA is in line with the WHO’s target to eliminate industrial trans fat from the global food supply by 2023.
• IFBA members agreed to ensure that the amount of industrial trans fat in their products does not exceed two grams per 100 grams fat/oil globally by 2023.

About IFBA

• IFBA was founded in 2008 by the CEOs of leading food and non-alcoholic beverage companies to empower consumers to eat balanced diets and live healthier lives, in support of the World Health Organization’s efforts to improve global public health. 
• The commitments of IFBA are designed to support the World Health Organization’s 2004 Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health and the 2011 UN Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs, among others. 

What are trans fats?

• There are two broad types of trans fats found in foods: naturally-occurring and artificial trans fats.
• Naturally-occurring trans fats are produced in the gut of some animals and foods made from these animals (e.g., milk and meat products) may contain small quantities of these fats.
• Artificial trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid.
• The primary dietary source for trans fats in processed food is “partially hydrogenated oils.

Why do some companies use trans fats?

• Trans fats are easy to use, inexpensive to produce and last a long time. Trans fats give foods a desirable taste and texture.
• Many restaurants and fast-food outlets use trans fats to deep-fry foods because oils with trans fats can be used many times in commercial fryers.

How do trans fats affect health?

• Trans fats raise your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels and lower your good (HDL) cholesterol levels.
• Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke.
• It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

3 . Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules

Context : Though the Supreme Court and the Election Commission have not agreed to the Opposition parties’ demand for 50% random physical verification of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips, they can still take recourse to Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules to request for slip counting.

What is Section 56-D of the conduct of election rules

• Section 56-C of the Rules provides for the procedure of vote counting. In case a candidate or election agent disputes the announced results of any polling station(s), they can seek scrutiny of VVPAT slips under the Section.
• The provision states that after the entries made in the result sheet are announced, any candidate or in his absence, his election agent or any of his counting agents may apply in writing to the returning officer to count the printed paper slips in the drop box of the printer in respect of any polling station or polling stations.
• On such application being made, the returning officer shall, subject to such general or special guidelines, as may be issued by the Election Commission, decide the matter and may allow the application in whole or in part or may reject in whole, if it appears to him to be frivolous or unreasonable.
• The returning officer’s decision has to be in writing and must contain the reasons for accepting or rejecting the request. In case the officer allows the counting of slips, either whole or in part, he has to do the counting according to EC directions.
• If any discrepancy between the votes displayed on the control unit and the counting of the paper slips is detected, the slip count prevails and accordingly, the results are amended and announced after following the set procedures.

4 . Iran’s commitments under the deal

Context : The Iranian government announced earlier on Wednesday that it was reducing curbs to its nuclear programme with steps that stopped short of violating its 2015 accord with world powers for now, but threatening more action if countries did not shield it from sanctions.
The U.S. on Wednesday threatened to impose more sanctions on Iran “very soon” and warned Europe against doing business with Tehran via a system of non-dollar trade to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

5 . Facts for Prelims

Arunachal pit viper

• India now has a fifth brown pit viper but with a reddish tinge. A team of herpetologists have described a new species of reddish-brown pit viper — a venomous snake with a unique heat-sensing system — from a forest in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• The other four — Malabar, horseshoe, hump-nosed and Himalayan — were discovered 70 years ago.
• It makes the Arunachal pit viper ( Trimeresurus arunachalensis ) the second serpent to have been discovered after the non-venomous crying keelback in the State’s Lepa-Rada district in 2018.
• The new species also makes Arunachal Pradesh the only Indian state to have a pit viper named after it.
• After DNA analysis its found that the snake belonged to a species not described before.

Pattachitra

• Pattachitra style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Odisha.
• The name Pattachitra has evolved from the Sanskrit words patta, meaning canvas, and chitra, meaning picture.
• Pattachitra is thus a painting done on canvas, and is manifested by rich colourful application, creative motifs and designs, and portrayal of simple themes, mostly mythological in depiction.
• Some of the popular themes represented through this art form are Thia Badhia – depiction of the temple of Jagannath; Krishna Lila – enactment of Jagannath as Lord Krishna displaying his powers as a child; Dasabatara Patti – the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu; Panchamukhi – depiction of Lord Ganesh as a five-headed deity.