Political and Social Issues

The Election Commission on Wednesday warned television and radio channels and cable television networks not to air any programme, including news, talk shows and panel discussions during the prohibited period — 48 hours prior to the end of polling hours — which might influence the voter or affect the result.
Airing such programmes violated Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Central Department of Personnel & Training and the Union Public Service Commission on a public interest litigation challenging a decision of the Department to make English compulsory for those students who opt for a language other than English as the medium for writing the Central Civil Services examinations.
The petitioner, Dina Nath Batra, submitted that the decision of the Department had put students who had opted for their mother-tongue for writing the exams in a disadvantageous position in comparison to candidates who preferred English as the medium.
Since 2011, the Union Government has introduced a new pattern for conducting the preliminary examination for the services. The applicants have to write two papers; General Knowledge and Aptitude Test. In the second paper of aptitude test, there is a compulsory topic of “English Comprehension Skills” comprising nine questions of 2.5 marks each, the petitioner said.
The petitioner submitted that the decision was clearly discriminatory as it denied entry to a vast majority of Indians, especially from small towns and from the rural background that had done their education in their mother tongues.
The decision also violated Article 16 of the Constitution of India which states that “there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the state”, the petitioner submitted.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared unconstitutional Section 27 (3) of the Arms Act, which provides for mandatory death sentence to an accused charged with an offence under this provision.
- Section 27(3) says: “Whoever uses any prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition or does any act in contravention of Section 7 and such use or act results in the death of any other person shall be punishable with death.”
- “Even if an act done in contravention of Section 7, namely, acquisition or possession or manufacture or sale of prohibited arms results in the death of any person, the person in contravention of Section 7 shall be punished with death.”
- Section 27(3) of the Arms Act is thus ultra vires the concept of judicial review, which is one of the basic features of our Constitution.
By imposing mandatory death penalty, Section 27 (3) of the Arms Act runs contrary to those statutory safeguards which give [the] judiciary the discretion in the matter imposing [the] death penalty.
Apart from that, Section 27 (3) is a post-constitutional law and has to obey the injunction of Article 13 which is clear and explicit.
- Article 13 (2) says ‘The State shall not make any law which takes away or abridges the rights conferred by this Part and any law made in contravention of this clause shall, to the extent of the contravention, be void.

The demand for milk in the country will surge to 150 million tonnes in the next five years due to rising population, the Indian Dairy Association has said.
- But, being the largest producer of milk in the world, the country faces no shortages till now.
By 2020 the country's requirement of milk would be between 180 to 210 million tonnes for which it needed better technology and policy support from the government.
- As of now, the country faced an acute shortage of cattle feed, which was being largely exported.
- The industry wanted restriction on this in the upcoming budget.
Sixty per cent of milk production is in the unorganized sector on which we have no control, thus there is need to make these 60% to grow under organized sector with proper control.
The industry would emphasis the need for development of a national strategy for dairy development