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The Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on the Maharashtra assembly speaker for the delay in deciding the plea for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs, saying the speaker cannot defeat the orders of the top court.
Somebody has to advise the Speaker that he cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to apprise the court about the timeline for deciding the issue.
A visibly irked CJI said decision on disqualification pleas has to be taken before next assembly elections or the whole process will become infructuous.
The bench said if it is not satisfied with the timeline of the Speaker then it would direct that the decision be taken within two months.
The writ of this court has to run when there is a decision contrary to the Constitution of India, the bench said, indicating that it may hear the plea.
On September 18, the top court had directed the Maharashtra assembly speaker to spell out the timeline for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs.
In joint statement, Speakers condemn all forms of terror including Xenophobia (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
The joint declaration adopted at the P20 meet condemned terrorism in all its forms including those on the basis of xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, while also recognising the commitment of all religions to peace.
On the first day of the Ninth G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P20 Summit) at Yashobhoomi, New Delhi, the presiding officers unanimously adopted a joint statement under the Chairmanship of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
They also agreed to develop a framework for legal migration to prevent human trafficking, and to work on increasing representation of women in Parliaments.
The event was attended by representatives from countries including Russia, China, Oman, UAE, Brazil, Australia and the UK.
Despite confirming its participation earlier, Canada remained conspicuous with its absence, while the US also didn’t send a representative in the wake of Speaker Kevin McCarthy having been recently ousted.
The event was attended by foreign minister S Jaishankar, Ministers of state V Muraleedharan and Meenakshi Lekhi, and G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.
Express Network
Abortion plea: SC asks AIIMS for fresh report on condition of woman, foetus (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Supreme Court said that India, unlike the rest of the world, has a “very forward looking law” on medical termination of pregnancy.
The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted that the medical prescriptions of the woman, who claimed to have been taking medicines for “postpartum psychosis” were “silent” on what her exact ailment was and asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, to submit a fresh report on the condition of the petitioner and the foetus. The court will consider the matter again on October 16.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on October 9 allowed the woman to undergo the procedure. However, a day later, one of the judges changed her mind after AIIMS, where the woman was to undergo the medical termination of pregnancy, sought certain clarifications regarding how it should proceed given that the foetus appeared to be normal and viable. The matter was then placed before the three-judge bench.
SC refuses to interfere with transfer of Armed forces Tribunal member (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the transfer of Justice Dharam Chand Choudhary, who was a judicial member with the Armed Forces Tribunal Chandigarh, to Kolkata.
A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, however, sought the Centre’s response on the prayer to divest the tribunal from the control of the Ministry of Defence.
The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, gave the government three weeks to submit its reply.
Hearing a plea by the AFT Bar Association, Chandigarh, the SC had on October 9 effectively stayed the transfer by asking Justice Choudhary not to join his new assignment for the time being. It also sought a report from the AFT chairperson detailing why the transfer was effected.
Editorial
A crisis of politics (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel is dealing with the worst attack on its people since the days of the Holocaust. More than 1,300 have died, most of whom are ordinary people caught unawares in their homes and kibbutzim all over south Israel.
The elderly and teenagers, women and men, woke up to rocket sirens. That is a familiar part of life for Israelis. What has not been experienced before is armed militants of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad surrounding their homes.
The militants (calling them terrorists is also correct in this instance) were jubilant, making reels and videos of the captives they took with them into Gaza.
There is no count of how many have been abducted. Dead bodies of Israeli soldiers were taken to be used as leverage against Israel.
Foreign agricultural workers from the Philippines, Thailand and Mexico have also been captured. Ten Nepalese citizens and 12 Thai citizens were killed, as per the statements of their embassies here.
Ideas Page
Her quiet revolution (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Through the past week, most of us have seen or read various tributes to Professor Claudia Goldin — the first woman to be tenured at the Economics Department of Harvard University in 1989; the third woman to be awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize for Economics); the first woman to receive the honour solo.
If you are alert to the world of academia and feminist economists, you would have registered a sense of acknowledgement and jubilation. In these very pages, Ashwini Deshpande celebrated Goldin’s recognition by writing “der aaye, durust aaye” (‘Gender reality check’, IE, October 12). On social media, Jayati Ghosh shared, “Another of the infrequent times this Prize Committee has redeemed itself.”
The internet was flooded with stories of Goldin’s contributions on the pay gap, gender-blind recruitment, the role of the contraceptive pill in women’s career trajectories, the work-life trade-offs facing American, college-educated women and the inequity within couples triggered by unequal care-giving and “greedy jobs” that require high intensity and complete focus at an age when women must contend with their desire to nurture children.
World
UN says over 400,000 displaced in Gaza strip (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said early that more than 400,000 people had fled their homes in the Gaza Strip and 23 aid workers had been killed since the start of Israeli retaliatory strikes in response to a deadly Hamas incursion.
The agency launched an appeal for nearly $294 million to help some 1.3 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, of which nearly half was programmed for food aid as supplies run out.
Mass displacement continues. In the Gaza Strip, the cumulative number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) increased by 25% over the past 24 hours, now exceeding 423,000, of whom over two thirds are taking shelter in UNRWA schools.
It said 23 aid workers had so far been killed since the weekend, including 11 health workers and 12 UNRWA employees.
Explained
In SC questions of foetal viability and rights of unborn child (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court has been hearing a married woman’s request for ending her 26-week pregnancy. The case has travelled to two different Benches of the SC, and raised crucial questions on the decisional autonomy of a woman to abort, and the legislative framework.
Two specific ideas have come up during the hearings, which are vital in discussions around abortion, but which are not usually taken up in India: “foetal viability”, and the rights of the unborn child. What are these ideas, and why are they important? Stay with us, we’ll take you through to them.
A 27-year-old married woman, who already has two sons, has pleaded that the current pregnancy was unplanned. She has said that her family income is insufficient to support another child, and that she is herself not in the right mental frame, having been under medication for post partum depression after the birth of her second child.
What is the indigenous voice referendum in Australia (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Australians will vote in a referendum on October 14 to decide whether the country’s indigenous peoples should be formally consulted in making laws.
The referendum question reads: “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. A recent YouGov poll has found that the referendum is unlikely to pass.
The expression, as well as the word ‘aboriginal’, refers to the indigenous inhabitants of the continent — people who lived on the Australian mainland and surrounding islands for tens of thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived in the early 17th century.
The Torres Strait Islands, mentioned in the referendum question, is an archipelago of small islands in the Torres Strait, a narrow body of water between the northern tip of the state of Queensland and the large island of Papua New Guinea.