NATIONAL NEWS
A) CBSE class 12 exams cancelled, says government.
The Class 12 examinations of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have been cancelled, following a review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening. In view of the uncertain conditions due to COVID and the feedback obtained from various stakeholders, it was decided that Class XII Board Exams would not be held this year. It was also decided that CBSE will take steps to compile the results of class XII students as per a well-defined objective criteria in a time-bound manner, said the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office issued after the meeting. However, in case some students wish to take the exams, such an option would be provided to them by CBSE, as and when the situation becomes conducive, said the statement. The same option was offered last year as well. At the meeting, attended by senior Cabinet Ministers and Education Ministry officials, a detailed presentation was made on consultations held so far and views received from all stakeholders, including State governments. The examinations, originally scheduled to be held in May, were postponed due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. About 14 lakh students have registered to write the examination this year.
B) Before he retired, Centre served show cause notice on former Bengal Chief Secretary under Disaster Management Act.
Hours before he retired, former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay was served a show cause notice by the Union Home Ministry under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, (DM Act) punishable by an imprisonment of up to two years or a fine or both. The section pertains to punishment for obstruction for refusal to comply with a direction given by the Central government. Bandyopadhyay has been asked to explain in writing to the Home Ministry within three days as to why action should not be taken against him under Section 51 of the DM Act. The notice was served barely a couple of hours before he retired on May 31. He had refused a three-month extension sanctioned to him by the State and Central government. On May 31, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had also shot off a letter asking him to comply with its May 28 order to report to the Central government’s office in Delhi. The notice issued to Bandyopadhyay said that since the Prime Minister is head of the NDMA and had gone to West Bengal to review Cyclone Yaas, the officer’s act of abstaining himself from the meeting amounted to violation of the Act. The section prescribes punishment for obstruction for refusal to comply with any direction given by or on behalf of the Central government under the Act. It says that violation shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term that may extend to one year or with a fine or both upon conviction. It adds that if such refusal to comply with directions results in loss of lives or imminent danger thereof, shall on conviction be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years. According to Meeran Chadha Borwankar, former Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Section 51 of the Act has two important caveats. Under the Act, the action on the part of the person has to be ‘without reasonable cause’ and ‘failure of an officer to perform the duty without due permission or lawful excuse.’ I am sure the Chief Secretary had ‘reasonable cause’ and ‘lawful excuse’ for not attending the meeting. He can highlight both in his reply, the retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer said.
C) Congress CMs protest against exclusion from panel on GST waiver for Covid-19-related products.
Chief Ministers of the Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have questioned the Union government’s decision to not include Finance Ministers from the Congress-ruled States in the Group of Ministers (GoM) formed to examine the issue of GST exemption to Covid-19 relief material. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma is the convenor of this eight-member committee. The other members are ministers from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Odisha, Telangana and U.P. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot wrote on Twitter, The Union Government has set up a GoM following the GST Council Meeting of May 28th, 2021. A deliberate attempt has been made to keep the principal Opposition party, the Congress, that has three members in the GST Council, out of the GoM. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said the exclusion of the Congress was against the spirit of cooperative federalism. Congress-ruled States are also part of the GST Council, so why have they been omitted out of this committee, he asked. It was deliberate and to ensure that the Centre got to have its way, he said. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal has been one of the first leaders to raise the necessity of holding a GST Council meeting to rationalise the tax on supplies needed for the pandemic. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra too had raised this issue. Both have not found space in the committee. In the recent meeting of the GST Council, the Ministers of the Congress-ruled States had proposed that for all goods needed to deal with Covid-19, the GST should be only 0.1% The GoM has to examine the need for GST waiver in case of Covid-19 vaccines, medicines, medical grade oxygen, pulse oximeters, test kits, hand sanitisers, oxygen therapy equipment, ventilators and so on. It has to submit a report by June 8.
D) Petrol, diesel prices hiked again, rates at new high.
Petrol and diesel prices on June 1 scaled new highs across the country after they were hiked for the 17th time in a month. Petrol price was increased by 26 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise a litre, according to a price notification of State-owned fuel retailers. In Delhi, petrol hit an all-time high of ₹94.49 a litre, while diesel is priced at ₹85.38 per litre. Fuel prices differ from State to State depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. Rajasthan levies the highest value-added tax (VAT) on petrol in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The price of petrol, which had already crossed the ₹100-mark in several cities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, breached the psychological barrier in Mumbai on Saturday. Tuesday’s price increase was the second since then. Petrol now costs ₹100.72 a litre in Mumbai and diesel comes for ₹92.69 per litre. The increase on June 1 is the 17th increase in prices since May 4, when State-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision that they had observed during the recently held Assembly elections in States like West Bengal. In 17 increases, petrol price has risen by ₹4.09 per litre and diesel by ₹4.65 a litre. Oil companies revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on the average price of benchmark fuel in the international market in the preceding 15-days, and foreign exchange rates. Brent crude oil the most widely used international benchmark has risen 36% this year to more than $70 a barrel. This has prompted an increase in retail fuel prices.
E) Covid-19 surge: 10,000 children in country in immediate need of protection.
Bal Swaraj, an online tracking portal of a national child rights body, shows details of nearly 10,000 children in the country in immediate need of care and protection. They include children aged between zero and 17 who were orphaned or abandoned during the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) informed the Supreme Court that these children ran a high risk of being pushed into trafficking and flesh trade. The Commission said it had already received several complaints of government authorities illegally transferring details of children to private entities and NGOs. A Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose is suo motu examining ways to protect children who have suffered personal losses and trauma caused by the pandemic. The cataclysmic Covid-19 pandemic devastated the vulnerable sections of society… there are a number of children who have become orphans due to the demise of either the breadwinner of the family or of both their parents, the court’s amicus curiae, advocate Gaurav Agrawal, said. On May 28, the Bench had directed the NCPCR, represented by advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi, and States to compile data identifying children in need of immediate care. The district authorities are directed to upload the information of children who have become orphans after March, 2020 on the portal Bal Swaraj before tomorrow evening [May 29], the Bench had ordered. The NCPCR’s Bal Swaraj records the details of 9,346 children who are in need of care and protection as of May 29. Of this, children who have lost either parent are 7,464, while those who have been orphaned and abandoned are 1,742 and 140, respectively. The portal shows that children aged between eight and 13 form the highest age bracket of those who are in dire need of help. There are 3,711 of them.
F) Swapan Dasgupta back in Rajya Sabha; shameful, says TMC.
A month after his resignation from the Rajya Sabha to contest the West Bengal elections on BJP ticket, Swapan Dasgupta was renominated to the House by President Ramnath Kovind to fill the seat that fell vacant due to his resignation for his remainder term till April next. Dasgupta lost the Tarkeshwar constituency to his TMC rival, Ramendu Sinharay, by a margin of over 7,000 votes. He was forced to resign from the Rajya Sabha ahead of the polls after the TMC forced legal action since a nominated member cannot contest on any party ticket while continuing to hold the post in the House. TMC chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Sukhendu Sekhar Ray told The Hindu, I do not think it has ever happened in the history of the Rajya Sabha that a person who resigned just a month back is renominated by the President of India. The government is setting a bad precedent here by throwing all parliamentary norms out of the window. Ray termed it a shameful act. He was sent to West Bengal, protected as a leader of the BJP. After losing the battle now, he is being rehabilitated by the backdoor. The BJP, it seems, does not have educated people to run the show, so they are holding on to the ones they have, he stated. It was an insult to the office of the President, he said. The nominated posts are to be occupied by persons of eminence. And now, the President is forced to nominate a person who fought on BJP ticket just a month back, Ray added. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, I think this is the FIRST time since the Rajya Sabha came into being in 1952 that such a thing has happened. A senior government official said Dasgupta’s resignation was accepted and he had been re-nominated only for the remainder of his term that ends next year.
G) Goa government seeks retrial in Tarun Tejpal case.
The Goa government in its appeal before the Bombay High Court against journalist Tarun Tejpal’s acquittal in a rape case said it was a fit case for retrial, citing the trial court’s lack of understanding of a victim’s post-trauma behaviour and censuring of her character. The appeal, filed before the HC’s Goa bench, was amended this week to bring on record the judgement and to include further grounds against the acquittal of Tejpal. The government said the trial court considered the evidence given by defence witnesses as gospel truth, but at the same time discredited without any finding the evidence given by the victim and the prosecution witnesses. It also claimed that the trial court completely ignored the most telling piece of evidence in the case (the apology e-mail) which established the guilt of the accused beyond a shadow of doubt. In its amended appeal, which will be heard on June 2, the State government said the trial court had lost sight of the fact that it was Tejpal who was an accused and was on trial, and not the victim. The entire judgement focuses on indicting the complainant rather than trying to ascertain the culpable role of the accused, the appeal said. The finding of the trial court on how a woman, who has been a victim of sexual assault, normally behaves is unsustainable in law and is coloured by prejudice and patriarchy, it said. In its appeal, the prosecution sought the HC to expunge several portions of the judgement that cast aspersions not only on the prosecution’s case, but also on the victim. This fact, accompanied by other attendant circumstances, clearly makes out a case for retrial in accordance with law, the prosecution said.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Sri Lanka cargo vessel fire extinguished after two weeks.
The fire aboard a Singapore registered cargo ship off Colombo was finally extinguished after about two weeks following a concerted international operation, the Sri Lankan Navy said on Tuesday. Experts from the [Dutch] salvage company SMIT boarded the vessel [MV XPress Pearl] and said the engine rooms are flooded. Our divers are yet to obtain clearance to check if there is any leak. The Indian Coast Guard vessels are also still here, assisting us, Captain Indika De Silva told The Hindu. Flames broke out aboard the vessel on May 20, and spread rapidly after an onboard explosion on May 25, leading to what Sri Lanka’s environmentalists fear could be the country’s worst environmental disaster. The vessel, which left the Hazira port in Gujarat on May 15, was headed to Singapore via Colombo, carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid, other chemicals and 28 containers of plastic raw material. Much of the cargo reportedly fell into the sea, while tonnes of plastic pellets were found deposited along Sri Lanka’s coastline, prompting authorities to restrict access to the sea and impose a fishing ban. Sri Lanka’s Marine Protection Authority chairperson Dharshani Lahandapura said: This is probably the worst beach pollution in our history. Many social media users shared photographs of plastic pellet heaps and dead fishes along the country’s southern beaches. Statement recorded Meanwhile, Sri Lankan investigators questioned the crew of the cargo ship, even as the vessel smouldered for over 12 days. Criminal Investigation Department recorded a statement from the captain for 14 hours on Monday, Colombo based The Morning newspaper reported. The Colombo Magistrate’s Court issued an order preventing the captain, chief engineer, and the deputy chief engineer of the vessel from leaving the country.
B) Pope updates canon law to address paedophilia by priests.
Pope Francis updated the Catholic Church’s criminal code on Tuesday by adding details on punishing sexual abuse crimes of minors by priests, measures long sought by activists against paedophilia. Revision of the penal sanctions within the Code of Canon Law followed a years long process involving input from canonist and criminal law experts and came after repeated complaints by victims of sexual abuse and others that the code’s previous wording was outdated and in transparent. The purpose of the revision, the most comprehensive since 1983, is restoration of justice, the reform of the offender, and the repair of scandal wrote Pope Francis in introducing the changes. Since becoming pope in 2013, the Argentine pontiff has striven to tackle the decades-long sexual abuse scandals involving Catholic priests around the globe, although many activists against paedophilia insist much more needs to be done. He convened an unprecedented summit on clerical sex abuse in 2019 while lifting secrecy rules that hindered investigations of abusing priests, among other measures. The new code falls short of explicitly spelling out sexual offences against minors yet refers to offences against the sixth commandment, which prohibits adultery. Under the new heading of Offenses against human life, dignity and liberty, the code specifies that a priest is to be stripped of his office and punished with other just penalties if he commits offences against the sixth commandment with a minor. Similarly, a priest who grooms or induces a minor to expose himself or herself pornographically or to take part in pornographic exhibitions will be similarly punished. One aim of the revision, wrote Pope Francis, was to reduce the number of penalties left to the discretion of judges, especially in the most serious cases. The new text introduces various modifications to the law in force and sanctions some new criminal offences, which respond to the increasingly widespread need in the various communities to see justice and order reestablished that the crime has shattered, he wrote. Other technical improvements related to the right of defence, the statute of limitations for criminal action, a more precise determination of penalties, he added. The changes will take effect in December.
