GS-II

India and other Group-4 (G-4) countries reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and called for the early reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday. Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump pilloried multilateralism in this address to the UN General Assembly, Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Japan and Germany — Aloysio …

Barely 48 hours after outgoing Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen conceded poll defeat, the Opposition coalition that dislodged him has raised alarm over his alleged attempts to hold on to power. Its members on Wednesday accused Mr. Yameen of preparing to move the Supreme Court, seeking annulment of Sunday’s presidential election, …

It said it was not trivialising the problem of exclusion faced by the elderly, the very young, the disabled and several others during the authentication process. Authentication was found to be only having a .232% failure, Justice Sikri pointed out. It was accurate 99.76% times, Justice Sikri said. He reasoned …

The Election Commission on Wednesday said the supply of VVPATs for use in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 was on track and that it was committed to 100% deployment of machines at all polling stations in the future. The Commission has placed an order of 17.45 lakh VVPATs to …

The Supreme Court held that whenever there is tension between two rights — privacy of a few and dignity of a majority — the court should intervene to balance it. Justice A.K. Sikri, writing for the majority on the Constitution Bench, “whenever such tension arises, the task of balancing is …

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday notified new rules amalgamating police forces in six Union Territories. The rules effectively mean that officers who are not direct IPS recruits could be posted in any of the six UTs and will be at the disposal of the Ministry. The National Capital …

The majority opinion on the Constitution Bench that the Aadhaar Act was a Money Bill prevailed on Wednesday, but the dissenting judgment by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud questioned how a statute about an identity proof, Aadhaar, can be possibly passed as a Money Bill. Justice A.K. Sikri, who wrote the majority …

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce a judgment on Thursday on whether to refer the question if a “mosque as a place of prayer is an essential part of Islam” in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid appeals to a Constitution Bench. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra …

In a move to enhance governance and quality of medical education, an ordinance was issued on Wednesday, dissolving the Medical Council of India (MCI) and replacing it with a seven-member Board of Governors led by NITI Aayog Member Dr. V.K. Paul. A Bill to replace the MCI with a National …

The government on Wednesday welcomed the verdict on Aadhaar, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad terming it a ‘historic judgment’ that would bolster good governance, and the delivery of services to the poorer sections of society. “The Supreme Court decision is a historic one,” Mr. …