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Even as the Supreme Court has called for reforming death penalty sentencing, trial courts awarded 165 death sentences in 2022, the highest in over two decades, according to the Annual Death Penalty Report, 2022.
The report will be released on Monday by Project 39A, a criminal reforms advocacy group with the National Law University, Delhi.
With 165 death sentences at the end of 2022, this is the highest number of death sentences imposed in a year in over two decades (since 2000).
This shift has been sharply influenced by the extraordinary sentencing of 38 persons to death in Ahmedabad in a single bomb blast case, representing the largest number of persons sentenced to death in a single case since 2016.
According to NCRB data, 165 death penalties were awarded by trial courts in 2000. The corresponding figure for the last five years was 146 in 2021, 78 in 2020, 104 in 2019, 163 in 2018, and 110 in 2017.
In September last year, a three-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice of India U U Lalit, in a suo motu case, had referred the issue of reconsidering death penalty sentencing to a five-judge bench. The court had said that a “uniform approach” is needed on “granting real and meaningful opportunity” to convicts on death row.
In May last year, another three-judge bench led by Justice Lalit had mandated trial courts to collect psychiatric and psychological evaluation of the convict before holding that there is no possibility of reform and awarding death sentence.
Govt &Politics
UNSC does not reflect today’s realities, is paralysed, says UNGA President (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The UN Security Council does not reflect today’s realities, is paralysed and unable to discharge its basic function of maintaining international peace and security when one of its permanent members has attacked its neighbour, UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Csaba Korosi has said.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN, attacked Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has vetoed UNSC resolutions on Ukraine and voted against a resolution in the UNGA which called on countries not to recognise the four regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed.
Korosi, a Hungarian diplomat currently serving as President of the 77th UNGA, said there is a push from a growing number of member nations to reform the powerful UN organ.
The UNSC which was “created back then” and given the primary responsibility of maintaining “international peace and security and preventing wars now is paralysed”.
It is Korosi’s first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed the UNGA presidency in September 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, announcing his trip.
“The Security Council cannot discharge its basic function for a very simple reason. One of the permanent members of the Security Council attacked its neighbour.
The Security Council should be the body to take action against the aggression. But because of the veto power, the Security Council cannot act,” Korosi said, in a reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Express Network
Rare plateau found by ARI team could hold clues to plant survival amid climate change (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
Scientists at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) in Pune have found a rare low-altitude basalt plateau in the Western Ghats, an important discovery they believe could hold the clues to how plant species globally survive climate change.
Presence of the low-altitude plateau, an isolated flat-topped steep hill, found at Manjare village in Thane district was not known to scientists who have been studying plateau formations and plant species in the Western Ghats for decades now.
The Western Ghats are one of the four global biodiversity hotspots in India. There were so far three known plateau types in the Western Ghats — high altitude laterite plateaus, low altitude laterite plateaus and high-altitude basalt plateaus.
Dr Datar and his team found 76 species of plants belonging to 24 different families on the low-altitude plateau, some of which are unique to it while others are common among all four plateaus. It’s a unique model to study how species interact in varying environmental conditions.
Plateaus are a dominant landscape in the Western Ghats and significant because of the predominance of endemic species.
According to Dr Datar, survival of plants in these open, mostly arid habitats is an “important repository of information” on how vegetation can survive in high-temperature conditions, likely to be worsened as climate change continues.
Editorial page
Gandhi in Amrit Kal (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Significant Personalities)
January 30 this year will mark 75 years since Mahatma Gandhi fell to an assassin’s bullet while on his way to hold the daily prayer meeting at Birla House.
It is a poignant counterpoint to the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration marking the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Gandhi’s ambitions for India went far beyond the achievement of political independence from colonial rule.
For him, the people of India could not be truly free without social emancipation, economic empowerment and, above all, a shared sense of solidarity and empathy transcending multiple identities of language, religion and cultural traditions. It is his vision that permeates the Constitution of India which remains the sheet anchor of Indian democracy.
Throughout history, the world has seen many kinds of leaders of men and women. Some have been conquerors who let their swords speak to power. Others connected their followers with the intangible power of the spirit.
These were the great religious and spiritual leaders whose legacy still has the power to both unite and divide our world. Some became leaders by conjuring up the worst of our instincts.
Others led multitudes by bringing out what is most noble and uplifting in our nature. One kind leads by igniting hate. Another by spreading love and compassion. For one, the threat and use of violence is indispensable to the exercise of power.
For the other, the courage to resist violence is what empowers people. It is easy to see what kind of leader Gandhi was. He made the most humble and poverty-stricken Indian feel that he was a participant in something larger than himself, something that, for the first time, gave him a sense of agency.
This laid the basis for the success of Indian democracy, with the most humble voter wielding the power to change his own destiny through his electoral choice.
It is being argued that violence against the colonial rulers also played a role in gaining independence for India and those who struck violent blows against them must also be celebrated and paid homage to.
That does not detract from the direct connection between India’s democracy and the legacy of non-violence inherited from Gandhi. Non-violent political and social change, which is so fundamental to democracy, is a Gandhian bequest.
Census Matters (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Population and Associated Issues)
India aspires to be a $10 trillion economy by 2035. To achieve this, conducting population Census, due in 2021 but postponed indefinitely because of Covid, is necessary.
Census data is essential for planning at the village or block level to usher in economic and social development, ensure better governance, and increase the transparency of public schemes and programmes.
There are many reasons why conducting a Census has become a prerequisite for economic development. At present, the biggest challenge facing demographers, planners, and other stakeholders is how to estimate the district population — the district is the basic administrative unit for governing, planning, and executing government projects and schemes.
In the absence of updated Census data, demographers estimate the annual population count at the district level using past Census information for the intercensal or postcensal period.
Say, to estimate the population of a district in India in the year 2015, they use the district-level population growth rate between the 2001 and 2011 Census.
Such demographic exercises give reasonably fair estimates when the year of population estimation is within the range of a maximum of 10 years.
Beyond this period, estimations can be erroneous, particularly at the district level due to dynamic patterns of population components, among them fertility, mortality and migration.
Many districts of India are experiencing a faster demographic transition with varying fertility and mortality rates. So using the growth rate of 2001-2011 for the period after 2021 becomes more of an assumption-based model than a model that reflects empirical reality.
Ideas page
Enforcing patent bargain (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Intellectual property rights)
In May 2016, the then Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (now known as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) under the Ministry of Commerce released the 32-page National IPR Policy.
The overall purpose of this document was to spell out the government’s comprehensive vision for the IPR ecosystem in the country towards shaping a more innovative and creative Bharat.
To this end, seven broad objectives were spelt out, of which three are relevant to the discussion at hand. Under the head “Legal and Legislative Framework”, the goal was “to have strong and effective IPR laws, which balance the interests of right owners with larger public interest”; under “Administration and Management”, the objective was “to modernise and strengthen service-oriented IPR administration”; and under “Enforcement and Adjudication”, the focus was “to strengthen the enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for combating IPR infringements”.
Following this, over the last six years, the IPR ecosystem in this country has witnessed both structural and legislative changes. For instance, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) was dissolved in April 2021 as part of tribunal reforms, and its jurisdiction was re-transferred to high courts.
This was followed by the establishment of dedicated IP benches (“the IP Division”) by the Delhi High Court, arguably the country’s leading court on the IPR front, for speedier disposal of IPR disputes.
These steps have gone hand in hand with a conscious effort to improve the infrastructure and strength of the Indian Patent Office. Such measures, one presumes, are intended to convey to investors and innovators that Bharat is an IP-savvy and even IP-friendly jurisdiction without compromising on national interest and public health commitments.
Explained
The inflation in milk (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Within the last year, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation has raised the maximum retail price (MRP) of its Amul brand full-cream milk (containing 6% fat and 9% SNF or solids-not-fat) in Delhi from Rs 58 to Rs 64 per litre.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)-owned Mother Dairy went further — from Rs 57 to Rs 66 per litre — between March 5 and December 27, 2022.
The last time milk prices went up by Rs 8/litre was between April-end 2013 and May 2014. From the table, it can be seen that the MRP rise in Amul milk wasn’t very significant after May 2014, when the Narendra Modi government came to power. It rose by just Rs 10/litre over almost eight years until February 2022.
Since then, prices have rocketed — and more for full-cream milk. The MRP revision in toned milk (3% fat and 8.5% SNF) by Mother Dairy has been only Rs 6 per litre (from Rs 47 to Rs 53), as against Rs 9 for full cream.
The most important probably has to do with the crash in prices following the Covid-induced lockdowns, which forced the closure of hotels, restaurants, canteens and sweetshops, apart from cancellation of weddings and other public functions.
The demand destruction led dairies to slash procurement prices of cow milk (with 3.5% fat and 8.5% SNF) to Rs 18-20 per litre during April-July 2020 and that of buffalo milk (6.5% fat and 9% SNF) to Rs 30-32.
This was accompanied by ex-factory prices of skim milk powder (SMP) collapsing to Rs 140-150 per kg, along with Rs 200-225/kg for cow butter and Rs 280-290/kg for ghee.
Farmers responded first by shrinking — or at least not expanding — the size of their herds, as milk prices would not cover the cost of feeding and maintaining the animals. Two, they underfed them — particularly the calves and the pregnant/ dry cattle not giving milk.
In HC’s and SC safe abortion debate continues (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Justice SwaranaKanta Sharma of Delhi High Court has allowed a minor who had been raped to terminate her 25-week pregnancy, and framed guidelines for officers investigating cases of rape and sexual assault where the pregnancy exceeds 24 weeks.
Denying a woman right to say no to medical termination of pregnancy and fasten her with the responsibility of motherhood would amount to denying her human right to live with dignity as she has a right in relation to her body which includes saying Yes or No to being a mother.
(‘Minor R Thr. Mother H vs. State NCT of Delhi & Another’) In doing so, the Delhi High Court has gone beyond the 24 weeks’ upper limit in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2022 case of ‘X vs. Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of NCT’.
On September 29, a bench led by Justice D Y Chandrachud, now Chief Justice of India (CJI), expanded the scope of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy under the MTP Act, 1971 to groups such as unmarried women, transgenders, and genderqueer groups.
The court allowed abortions in cases where the pregnancy was 20-24 weeks old, and said it was unconstitutional to discriminate between married and unmarried women in this regard — “all women are entitled to the benefit of safe and legal abortions”.
The court also underlined that “the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy on a woman’s body as well as her mind cannot be understated”.
Mughal Gardens to Amrit Udyan: A short history (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, History/Miscellaneous)
The Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan were renamed ‘Amrit Udyan’ on Saturday, in keeping with the theme of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Spread over 15 acres, the Mughal Gardens (now erstwhile) draw inspiration from the Mughal Gardens of Jammu & Kashmir, the gardens around the Taj Mahal and miniature paintings of India and Persia, as per the Rashtrapati Bhawan website.
Edwin Lutyens had finalised the designs of the Mughal Gardens in 1917, but it was only during the year 1928-1929 that plantings were done. His collaborator for the gardens was Director of Horticulture, William Mustoe.
Like the building of Rashtrapati Bhavan has two different styles of architecture, Indian and western, similarly, Lutyens brought together two different horticulture traditions together for the gardens — the Mughal style and the English flower garden.
Mughal canals, terraces and flowering shrubs are beautifully blended with European flowerbeds, lawns and private hedges.
There are three gardens in the Rashtrapati Bhavan inspired by Mughal and Persian gardens. The one inspired from the garden in Srinagar is known as Mughal Garden. But the gardens were never officially named Mughal Gardens, they came to be known so owing to the style of architecture.
The style was influenced by the Persian gardens, particularly the charbagh structure, which is intended to create a representation of harmony with the elements of nature.
Typical features include pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have a number of Mughal gardens. In fact, Babur had described his favourite type of garden as a charbagh.