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The Supreme Court held that it can exercise its powers under Article 142(1) of the Constitution to grant divorce on the ground of “irretrievable breakdown” of a marriage — whether it is by mutual consent, or even if one of the parties opposes it. It also said that it can waive the six-month waiting period mandated under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, under certain conditions.
Under Article 142(1), the Supreme Court may pass decrees or orders “as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it”.
The five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice S K Kaul, however, said that the “grant of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage… (is) not a matter of right, but a discretion which is to be exercised with great care and caution, keeping in mind several factors ensuring that ‘complete justice’ is done to both parties”.
Similarly, it said that “the waiver (of six-month waiting period) is not to be given on mere asking, but on the court being satisfied beyond doubt that the marriage has shattered beyond repair.”
Down under in Mumbai: India’s 1st undersea tunnels to open in November (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
More than two years after 35 men and a giant Chinese Tunnel Boring Machine began cutting though complex geological strata, India’s first undersea twin tunnels in south Mumbai are close to completion.
Set to open in November, the tunnels start near Girgaon (ahead of Marine Drive), extend north under the Arabian Sea, Girgaon Chowpatty and Malabar Hill, and end at Breach Candy’s Priyadarshini Park. The 2.07-km tunnels are a part of the Rs 12,721-crore Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP) being built by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The 10.58-km MCRP links Marine Drive to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and is just one part of the Coastal Road project. The high-speed coastal road aims to cut down the 45-minute commute from Girgaon to Worli during peak hours to just 10 minutes.
The tunnels, which have a diameter of 12.19 metres, run 17-20 m below sea level. A nearly 1-km stretch lies under the sea. The tunnels hit peak depth at Malabar Hill at 72 m. Resembling the shape of the Queen’s Necklace — the famous C-shaped Marine Drive promenade — the tunnel entry and exit points will have fiberglass facades.
Express Network
Smart Cities deadline pushed by a year (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has extended the deadline of its Smart Cities Mission from June this year to June 2024 to enable all 100 smart cities to not only complete their projects but also document and disseminate the learnings from the mission, ministry.
The mission, which was launched in 2015, selected 100 cities through a competitive process from January 2016 to June 2018.
The cities were given five years from their selection date to complete the projects they had proposed. In 2021, the ministry decided to make the deadline for all 100 cities till the end of June 2023.
Now, with two months to go, 50 out of the 100 cities have completed 75% of the projects and would be able to complete the remaining works by June.
However, an official said, they would need more time to carry out the documentation, dissemination and institutionalisation of the best practices and innovations created under the mission so they can be replicated in other cities across the country.
The official said the ministry had received many requests from cities as well as Chief Ministers and MPs asking for more time to complete the projects.
SC agrees to hear Centre’s plea for recall of April 26 default bail ruling (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will on May 4 hear the Centre’s plea seeking recall of its April 26 ruling which said that “without completing the investigation of a case, a chargesheet or prosecution complaint cannot be filed by an investigating agency only to deprive an arrested accused of his right to default bail under Section 167(2) of the CrPC”.
Agreeing to look into it, a two-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also directed that “in the meantime, in the event that any other applications have been filed before any other court on the basis of the judgment of which recall is sought, they shall be presently deferred beyond 4 May 2023”.
The April 26 judgement by a two-judge bench in the case Ritu Chhabaria vs Union of India & Ors., deprecated what is said is the “practice” of investigating agencies filing chargesheet in court even before completion of the probe so as to deny default bail to accused and said that even in such cases, the right of the accused to default bail will not be extinguished.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju while mentioning an appeal challenging a Delhi High Court order granting bail to an accused in a case probed by the Enforcement Directorate, told the CJI-led bench that the HC had based its decision on the SC judgement in the Ritu Chhabaria case.
Mehta said investigative agencies are duty-bound to file chargesheet in 60 or 90 days as the case may be and that under section 173(8) of CrPC, they can seek further investigation.
Idea Page
The hunger paradox (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Food Security)
A troubling statistic in the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data, conducted in 2019-21, is not well-known. Among mothers with a child between ages 6-23 months, 18 per cent reported that their child did not eat any food whatsoever — referred to as “zero-food” — in the 24 hours preceding the survey.
The zero-food prevalence was 30 per cent for infants aged 6-11 months, remains worryingly high at 13 per cent among the 12-17 months old, and persists even among 18-23 months-old children at 8 per cent.
Going without food for an entire day at this critical period of a child’s development raises serious concerns related to severe food insecurity.
According to the World Health Organisation, at six months of age, 33 per cent of the daily calorie intake is expected to come from food.
This proportion increases to 61 per cent at 12 months of age. The recommended calorie percentages mentioned here are the minimum amount that should come from food.
It is presumed that the child obtains the remaining calories through “on-demand” breastfeeding, meaning the child is breastfed whenever they need it throughout the day and night, and not solely when the mother is able to provide it.
Consequently, the percentage of food-sourced calories only increases further when a child cannot receive breast milk when needed.
Explained Page
Grappling with AI (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Ahead of Europe’s AI Act that could establish a benchmark for how national governments regulate artificial intelligence tools, the Group of Seven (G7) developed nations has said that a “risk-based” regulation of AI could be a potential first step towards creating a template to regulate emerging tools such as Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
In a joint statement released at the end of their two-day meeting in Japan on Sunday, G7 ministers said such regulation must “preserve an open and enabling environment” for the development of AI technologies while being based on democratic values.
G7’s “risk-based” approach could involve graded regulation, with a lesser compliance burden on developers or users of AI tool deployed in areas such as the word processing business or generating music, as compared to the regulatory supervision on, say, a tool aiding doctors in medical diagnosis or one linked to a face-reading device that’s matching people’s identities.
The ministerial statement issued in Tokyo said: “We plan to convene future G7 discussions on generative AI which could include topics such as governance, how to safeguard intellectual property rights including copyright, promote transparency, address disinformation”, including information manipulation by foreign forces.
The pact acknowledged that “policy instruments to achieve the common vision and goal of trustworthy AI may vary across G7 members”.
The success of tools like ChatGPT has drawn the attention of policymakers across jurisdictions, who have stepped up regulatory scrutiny of generative AI tools.
The EU has taken a predictably tough stance, with the proposed AI Act segregating artificial intelligence by use-case scenarios based broadly on the degree of invasiveness and risk.
Italy has become the first major Western country to ban ChatGPT out of concerns over privacy. The 27-member EU had taken steps to regulate AI back in 2018, and the AI Act due next year is a keenly awaited document.