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The Enforcement Directorate’s proposal in the Supreme Court to name the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an accused in the Delhi excise policy case will place the Election Commission (EC) in uncharted territory as there’s no prescription in the electoral rules and laws on what should be done when a political party is accused of any illegality.
According to former officers of the poll panel, in terms of punitive action against a party, the options available to the Commission are rather limited. The EC is, at best, empowered to suspend or withdraw a party’s recognition under The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order.
“However, even then, Para 16A of the Symbols Order clearly outlines the grounds on which the Commission can take such action against a party.
It’s when the party fails to observe the Model Code of Conduct or doesn’t follow the orders and instructions of the Commission.
There’s nothing on what should happen if the party is accused of illegality,” a former EC officer told The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity.
SC rejects plea to end 26-week pregnancy (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
THE Supreme Court declined permission to a married woman to terminate her over 26-week pregnancy, saying the AIIMS medical board had found “no substantial foetal abnormalities” and a pre-term delivery carried the risk of being born with physical and mental deformities.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, pointed out that the pregnancy had crossed 24 weeks — the upper limit for allowing Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP).
(The foetus) having crossed the statutory limit of 24 weeks, the requirements either in Section 3(2)(b) or Section 5 must be met.
As per these provisions, MTP in case of a foetus exceeding 24 weeks can only be allowed if it is necessary for saving the life of the mother or if the foetus suffers from physical or mental abnormalities. The bench said the medical reports don’t “indicate that a termination is immediately necessary”.
The woman, a mother of two, had approached the court stating that she was suffering from lactational amenorrhea and depression and was, therefore, unwilling to continue with the pregnancy.
Govt & Politics
PM invites Google to contribute to AI summit (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc Sundar Pichai and invited Google to “contribute” to upcoming Global Partnership on AI Summit, which will be hosted by India in December in New Delhi.
The interaction was held in virtual mode. In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said, “During the interaction, Prime Minister and Mr. Pichai discussed Google’s plan to participate in expanding the electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India. Prime Minister appreciated Google’s partnership with HP to manufacture Chromebooks in India.”
Prime Minister acknowledged Google’s 100 languages initiative and encouraged efforts to make AI tools available in Indian Languages. He also encouraged Google to work on AI tools for good governance.
According to the statement, “Prime Minister welcomed Google’s plans to open its global fintech operations centre at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar.”
SC refers petitions against electoral bonds scheme to five judge bench (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court on Monday referred petitions challenging the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme to a five-judge Constitution Bench.
While presiding over a three-judge bench, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud made the announcement during mentioning hours, when matters that require urgent attention are brought to the notice of the court.
The CJI said, “In view of the importance of the issue raised, and with regard to Article 145(4) of the Constitution of India, the matter be placed before a bench of at least five judges”.
Though the petitioners had raised the demand to refer it to a Constitution Bench even earlier, the SC had not shown inclination to do the same. Taking it up on October 10, the CJI-led bench had fixed October 31 to hear it.
The top court is seized of a clutch of petitions including by two NGOs Common Cause and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Congress leader Jaya Thakur and the CPI(M) challenging the scheme.
Editorial
It’s not just nine months (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
In 2021, India revised the upper gestational limit for legal abortion to 24 weeks for specific categories of “vulnerable women”, removing them altogether in case of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by a medical board.
This amendment came in the backdrop of several writ petitions seeking judicial authorisation for termination of pregnancy filed before the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Earlier, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 allowed registered medical practitioners (RMP) to terminate pregnancies on the permitted grounds up to 20 weeks of gestation.
Even after the 2021 amendment, women continue to approach the courts in case of breach of the new gestational limits or denial of abortion care by providers.
The SC rejected a petition for termination of pregnancy at 26 weeks filed by a married woman, whose pregnancy went undetected due to lactational amenorrhea.
The petitioner’s last pregnancy was a year ago and she is undergoing treatment for postpartum psychosis. A bench comprising Justices Hima Kohli and B V Nagarathna had earlier allowed her petition, directing AIIMS to carry out the procedure.
Ideas Page
On the upswing (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The International Monetary Fund has recently upgraded India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.3 per cent for 2023-24, up 40 basis points from its April forecast.
The RBI’s forecast remains unchanged at 6.5 per cent. While the latest geopolitical conflict in West Asia may have opened a pandora’s box, we still believe the Indian economy could grow at a faster pace than expected. Our growth projection for the full year is at 6.7 per cent.
Let us first assess the economic momentum in the second quarter (July-September). While the RBI is projecting growth at 6.5 per cent, our tracking of the latest leading indicators suggests the possibility of the economy growing at a faster pace.
The long-term trends suggest that whenever the percentage of leading indicators showing acceleration in a quarter crosses the threshold value of 70 per cent, the GDP growth numbers surprise on the upside.
Currently, this is at 80 per cent, increasing the possibility of growth surpassing 6.5 per cent in Q2 FY24. The nominal GDP growth could well be in the range of 8-8.5 per cent and given that the GDP deflator is currently tracking at 1.5-2 per cent, a 6.5 per cent or higher growth looks eminently achievable.
World
Leaders from emerging economies in Beijing for Belt and Road anniversary (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Leaders of emerging market countries are arriving in Beijing for a meeting organized by the Chinese government that will mark the 10th anniversary of its Belt and Road Initiative.
More than a dozen leaders from Africa, Asia and the Mideast were flying into Beijing on Monday, following the arrivals of Chilean President Gabriel Boric and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Sunday.
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, a signature policy of President Xi Jinping, Chinese companies have built ports, roads, railways, power plants and other infrastructure around the world in a bid to boost trade and economic growth.
But the massive Chinese development loans that funded the projects have also burdened some poorer countries with heavy debts.
Cash, crypto: Global network funding Hamas (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel is one of only nine global nuclear powers and boasts one of the world’s most advanced and interconnected air defense systems. Israel’s “Iron Dome” has been largely successful at repelling air attacks from Hamas for years.
But on October 7, Hamas — an Islamist militant group and de facto governing authority in Gaza that is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US, Germany and other governments — succeeded in overwhelming those defenses, firing more than 2,000 rockets into Israel from inside the Gaza Strip.
As a designated terrorist entity, Hamas faces sanctions and exclusion from the international banking system. Global counterterrorism financing measures go after any fundraising attempts by the group.
Even so, reports show Hamas received a significant amount of funding in the form of cryptocurrency in the years leading up to the terrorist organization’s latest brutal attack on Israel.
Economy
License fee paid by telecos is capex not revenue says SC (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In a setback for telecom operators like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, the Supreme Court held that licence fee paid by them post July 1999 should be treated as capital expenditure and not as revenue expenditure.
The telecom operators had argued that since they have to pay licence fee yearly, it should be treated as revenue expenditure incurred for continuity of business.
The apex court’s order may lead to re-assessment which may result in higher tax burden on the operators, analysts said.
Revenue expenditures are expenses that a company incurs in its normal course of business operations to generate revenue. The same is generally fully deductible from taxable income in the year they are incurred.
On the other hand, capital expenditure are long-run investments that benefit the company for more than one year. Expenditure of a capital nature is not allowed as a deduction when calculating trading profits.
Explained
Can AAP be an accused in excise policy case? Here’s the law (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Supreme Court that it is “contemplating” adding the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an accused in its money laundering probe linked to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy.
Section 70 of the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act deals with offences by companies.
The provision states that, “Where a person committing a contravention of any of the provisions of this Act or of any rule, direction or order made thereunder is a company, every person who, at the time the contravention was committed, was in charge of and was responsible to the company, for the conduct of the business of the company as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.”
What the latest jobs data say (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Last week, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the results of the Periodic Labour Force Survey for the period July 2022 to June 2023. This is the sixth PLFS report and each tracks a 12 month period between July and June.
The annual PLFS — as well as its predecessor, the quinquennial Employment-Unemployment Surveys — are conducted by the National Sample Survey Office in order to get an understanding about the state of employment in India.
The PLFS provides data on different metrics so that the policymakers can understand the proportion of people demanding work, the proportion of people among them who failed to get a job, the gender differences in employment as well as wages etc.
The PLFS also tells the sectoral distribution of workers in the economy — what percentage is involved in agriculture, for instance. It also records the type of work people do — for instance, how many are engaged in casual labour, how many work for themselves, and how many have regular salaried jobs etc.