DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS 13 NOVEMBER
POLITY
Maharashtra placed under President’s Rule
President Ram Nath Kovind approved a proclamation imposing President’s Rule in Maharashtra, following a recommendation from Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
The Assembly will be kept under suspended animation.
Reasons behind president rule:
- President issued a proclamation under Article 356(1) of the Constitution.
- It was impossible to constitute or form a stable government in the State.
- Government could not be carried on in accordance with provisions of the Constitution.
Constitutional Provisions of President Rule:
- Article 356 of the Constitution provides for the imposition of President’s Rule in a state in “case of failure of the constitutional machinery in the state”.
Failure of Machinery:
- If President on receipt of report by Governor of a State or otherwise is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which govt. of that state can’t be carried in accordance with provisions of the Constitution then President Rule can be imposed.
- According to Article 365, every state shall comply with all directions given by Union on matters it empowers to do so. If any state fails to comply with directions of union then President Rule can be imposed.
Parliamentary Procedures:
- Every proclamation to impose President Rule shall be laid down before each house of Parliament and must get approval in two months from date of issue.
- If at time of proclamation, dissolution of Lok Sabha (LS) takes place in mean time (i.e. within two months from date of issue) then government must get approval of Rajya Sabha within 2 months. Such proclamation shall cease to operate after 30 days from first sitting of LS after its reconstitution, if does not get approval of new LS in 30 days.
- Any of above resolution related to proclamation or renewal of emergency must be passed by both houses of Parliament by Simple majority.
Duration of President Rule:
- If approved by both houses of Parliament then President Rule shall continue for 6 months and it can be renewed for maximum of 3 yrs by approval of Parliament after every 6 months.
44th amendment:
It introduced some constraints, that the President Rule can’t be imposed in any state beyond 1 year unless:-
- A Proclamation of National Emergency is in operation, in the whole of India or, as the case may be, in the whole or any part of the State, at the time of the passing of such resolution.
- The Election Commission certifies that the continuance of President Rule is necessary on account of difficulties in holding general elections to the Legislative Assembly of the State concerned.
Effects of President Rule:
Executive – The President may by proclamation of President Rule assume to himself all or any of functions of govt. of state and all or any of powers vested in Governor or anybody or authority in the state other than legislature of state and of High Court.
- The President dismisses the Council of Ministers headed by CM and run state administration with help of Governor or advisors as he thinks fit.
Legislative – On imposition of President Rule, President either suspend or dissolves the legislature of state and declare that the powers of legislature of state shall be vested with Parliament.
- The Parliament can confer on President the powers of legislature of state to make laws and authorizes the President to delegate such conferred powers to any other authority with subject to such conditions as he may thinks fit.
- The President is authorized to give nod to pending sanction of expenditure from Consolidated Fund of State by Parliament when Lok Sabha is not in session.
- The President can promulgate the Ordinances in relation to administration of State when the Parliament is not in session.
Possible Reasons behind President Rule:
- Elections cannot be held as scheduled for any reason.
- Elections were held but the assembly is hung, no party secures clear majority.
- Party that secured a majority is unwilling to form ministry and a coalition cannot be formed.
- Ministries resigned after suffering a vote of no confidence and no clear political successor emerges.
- Internal subversion where govt. is deliberately not doing its duty.
- Failure to comply with centre's constitutional directives.
- Wilful refusal to discharge constitutional duty.
Abuse of President Rule:
- Ideological differences - used to dismiss state governments where the party in power is not the same as that ruling at the centre.
- Hasty recommendations by central govt. to impose Presidents Rule due to increasing political divide and antagonism with hidden agendas of setting up its own govts. (e.g.- Arunachal Pradesh)
- Eroding neutral political character of Governor - Governor controlled by a ruling party is making decisions that could result in a different political party either retaining or losing power, as was the case in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
- Role of speaker of assembly can be questionable while using and applying Anti-defection law (10th schedule). It brings political uncertainty in the assembly.
- Dissidents may form groups going against whip and blocking passage of important bills (e.g. - money bill) by colluding with opposition. However, safeguards are there but it could not prevent fall of congress govt. in Uttarakhand.
- Less secure governments have a greater propensity to misuse President’s Rule.
- On three occasions, President Rule has been imposed in absence of ‘Report of governor’. Two such cases were post elections events, first is when Janta Party govt. led by Morarji Desai came in power (1977) imposed President rule in 9 states where congress was in power and second is when congress party came in power in 1980 and imposed president rule in all non congress ruled states.
Supreme Court Guidelines for President Rule:
Following guidelines were issued by Supreme Court during S R Bommai case.
- The Proclamation of President Rule is subjected to judicial review (as provided by 44th Amend 1978) on grounds of mala fide intention.
- Proclamation shall be based on relevant material and centre has to justify the imposition of President Rule.
- The court has power to revive dissolved or suspended state govt. if proclamation of President Rule founds unconstitutional and invalid.
- The state assembly can’t be dissolved before approval of Parliament for imposition of President Rule and President can only suspend the assembly;
- The grounds of serious allegations of corruption against ministry of state and financial instability are not enough for imposition of President Rule;
- The state govt shall be given enough opportunities to correct itself in cases where directives are issued;
- Secularism is the basic feature of our constitution and any measure or action is taken by state govt for security of this feature can’t led to use of Article 356;
- The power under Article 356 can’t be used to sort out intra party problems of ruling party;
- If ministry of state resigns or dismissed or loses majority then governor cannot advise President to impose President Rule until enough measures are taken by governor for formation an alternative govt.
- The SC held that power under Article 356 is an exceptional power and to be used only in case of exigencies.
Sarkaria Committee Recommendations:
- The President's Proclamation should include the ‘reasons’ as to why the State cannot be run as per the normal provisions of the Constitution.
- As far as possible, the Centre should issue a warning to the State government before resorting to the use of Art. 356.
- It should not be used to serve political purposes.
- Art. 356 should be amended so that the President is empowered to dissolve the State Legislature only after approval by the Parliament.
Reference: https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/maharashtra-placed-under-presidents-rule/article29958140.ece
SC to rule today on bringing the Chief Justice under RTI Act
A Constitution Bench of the court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict, whether the office of the Chief Justice of India should be brought under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Transparency in Supreme Court:
- Delhi high Court had declared the CJI’s office as having a duty to disclose the details of personal assets of other apex court judges.
- All power — judicial power being no exception — is held accountable in a modern Constitution.
- Declaration of assets by a judge is a voluntary act towards transparency.
Petitioner’s argument:
- Disclosure of its judges’ “personal details” under the RTI would affect their judicial independence.
- In the name of transparency we cannot destroy the institution of judiciary.
Arguments for bringing the Judiciary under RTI:
- A blanket judicial exemption from the RTI Act would defeat the basic idea of “Open Justice”.
- Workings of the courts, as powerful organs of state, have to be as transparent and open to public scrutiny as any other body.
- Bringing the judiciary under the RTI Act will not destroy the personal privacy of judges. The RTI Act itself has an inbuilt privacy-oriented protection.
- There will always be borderline cases, of course, but that only calls for nuanced and fine-grained analysis of such cases, nothing more.
- It seems that the Collegium has immunised itself from any form of public scrutiny. The nomination process is secret, the deliberations are secret, and the reasons for elevation or non-elevation are secret.
- Courts have always been questioned for pending cases. RTI can place yardstick among judicial for timely disposure of justice.
Arguments against bringing the Judiciary under RTI:
- Disclosing the correspondence of the Collegium might destroy judicial independence and disclosing the reasons for rejection of a judge might destroy his or her life or career.
- It will compromise independence of judiciary as specified by constitution.
- It will challenge the decision-making power of Supreme Court.
- It will create extra burden on judiciary as every filed will be answerable by judiciary.
- It will compromise secrecy & security involved in certain cases. This may prove detrimental for our country.
- Judiciary will become puppet in the hands of people rather than being the sole justice provider of the country.
- It will increase the political involvement in judiciary.
AGRICULTURE
Centre wants States to ditch APMC for e-NAM
States were being “cajoled to reject” the agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC) system in favour of a pan-India electronic trading portal that creates a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
Performance of e-NAM:
- 1.6 crores farmers have registered on the portal so far, from among the almost 12 crore cultivators in the country.
- Out of almost 2,500 APMCs, 585 in 18 States have been connected to the e-NAM.
- Half of those registered have benefited from the platform.
Government efforts:
- Centre was talking to States to “dismantle” the APMC system and move towards the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).
Need of APMC:
- APMCs reforms were required to ensure that a transparent price discovery mechanism exists, particularly for spot prices.
- APMC need to have infrastructure available for storage, collateral management and quality control assessment.
- NABARD is operationalising a Rs. 2,000 crores agri-market infrastructure fund aimed at upgrading 585 APMCs and 10,000 gramin agricultural markets.
About e-NAM:
- National Agriculture Market or eNAM is an online trading platform for agricultural commodities in India.
- It facilitates farmers, traders and buyers with online trading in commodities.
- It will help in better price discovery and provides facilities for smooth marketing of their produce.
- The eNAM markets are gaining popularity as the crops are weighed immediately and the stock is lifted on the same day and the payments are cleared online.
INTERNATIONAL
BRICS Bond Fund likely on agenda
Prime Minister Narenda Modi will attend the 11th BRICS summit to be held on November 13 and 14 in Brasilia.
Objectives of the BRICS summit:
- BRICS will discuss formation of BRICS Bond Fund, which will help member countries conduct intra-BRICS trade in national currencies.
- Trust in the U.S. dollar is not as high as it was and why we want to extend national currencies within BRICS.
- The summit will discuss the Afghanistan and Syria crisis.
- BRICS MoU between trade and investment promotion agencies will be signed.
About BRICS:
- BRICS is the acronym coined for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- Since 2009, the BRICS nations have met annually at formal summits.
- These five nations have a combined nominal GDP of US$18.6 trillion, about 23.2% of the gross world product, combined GDP (PPP) of around US$40.55 trillion (32% of World's GDP PPP) and an estimated US$4.46 trillion in combined foreign reserves.
ENVIRONMENT
Western Ghats still home to a rich stock of butterflies
Annual Butterfly survey is conducted recently in Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS). Survey team has sighted 191 species, 12 of which are endemic to the biodiversity-rich region.
About the Survey:
- The three-day survey was done jointly by the Forest and Wildlife Department in association with the Ferns Nature Conservation Society (FNCS).
- The survey was mainly aimed at assessing the butterfly diversity in the forest areas of the region, which are vulnerable to climatic changes.
- It was also wanted to assess the availability of nectar plant and larval host plant, essential for the survival of butterflies.
Finding of the Survey:
- The first-time sighting of “Silver forget me not”, Common three rings, and Brown onyx was also recorded.
- The diversity of butterflies was very low in the forest areas where alien invasive plants such as Senna spectabilis invade other endemic plants.
- The diversity was very rich in areas where plants such as Mikaniamicrantha and Lantana camera remained dominant.
- The sighting of 191 species of butterflies is an evidence of a healthy butterfly habitat in the region.
Thousands of migratory birds die mysteriously in Rajasthan’s Sambhar Lake
Thousands of migratory birds of about ten species were found dead around Sambhar Lake, the country’s largest inland saltwater lake near Jaipur. Over 5,000 birds died mysteriously all over the place.
Reported death:
- Carcasses of hundreds of dead birds including plovers, common coot, black winged stilt, northern shovelers, ruddy shelduck, and pied avocet were scattered on the edge of 12-13 km of the catchment area of the lake.
- The lake is also a favourite of flamingos, stilts, stints, garganey, gulls and a number of other species of birds.
Reasons behind death:
- Water contamination.
- Bacterial or viral infection
- The increased salinity of the water could also be another reason.
About Sambhar Lake:
- It is largest inland salt lake situated in Rajasthan.
- The lake is an extensive saline wetland, with water depth fluctuating from as few as 60 centimetres (24 in) during the dry season to about 3 meters (10 ft) at the end of the monsoon season.
- Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site (recognized wetland of international importance) because the wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of pink flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia and Siberia.
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