Parliament and state legislatures

Context The first special session of the 18th Lok Sabha concluded amid disputes regarding the removal of remarks made by Opposition leaders in both Houses of Parliament. Expunction refers to the parliamentary procedure where specific remarks are removed from the official records. Rules Governing Expunction Article 105: Grants MPs the …

Definition: A curative petition is a legal remedy available in India to address final judgments or orders of the Supreme Court that may have resulted in a miscarriage of justice or violated fundamental rights. It is considered as the last resort for seeking a review of a judgment after exhausting …

Syllabus: Parliament and State legislatures Context Few would disagree that laws require an overhaul from time to time so that they could be abreast of developments in technology and changes in society. Criticism It does not mean that whole new Codes be introduced and given abstruse names, when, in substance, …

Syllabus: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these. Context Union Home Minister introduced three Bills in the Lok Sabha to repeal the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Indian Evidence Act (IEA) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC). New …

Syllabus: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these. Why in NEWS Petitioners’ counsel Kapil Sibal argues that Parliament and the Union government diluted Article 370 ‘unilaterally’; the relationship between the Union government and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was …

Syllabus: Parliament and State legislatures The story so far: The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2023 was passed in Parliament recently. Introduced by Commerce and Industry Minister, the Bill aims at giving further boost to ease of living and ease of doing business. It proposes to amend 183 provisions …

India has taken the first step to generate digital birth certificates by introducing Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment Bill, 2023. Key details: It will be an all-encompassing document that can be used for: admission to educational institutions, jobs, passports or Aadhaar, voter enrolment, registration of marriage, etc. Significance: This will avoid multiplicity …

The 17th Lok Sabha could become the shortest full-term Lok Sabha since 1952. Of all the Lok Sabhas that completed the full five-year term, the 16th Lok Sabha had the lowest number of sitting days (331). With one more year remaining, and 58 average sitting days a year, the 17th Lok …

On March 30, the Lahore High Court annulled the offence of ‘sedition’ in the Pakistan Penal code. Embarrassingly, around the same time in India, the police registered a series of complaints in Delhi and in Ahmedabad The detainees were not accused of ‘sedition,’ but were booked for criminal conspiracy to …

The nagging dispute over the water share of the Krishna river between Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) and Telangana remains unresolved, even nine years after the bifurcation of the combined State. What is the origin of the Krishna water dispute? The dispute dates back to the formation of Andhra Pradesh in November, …

The lower house of Parliament passed the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which seeks to amend the Competition Act, 2002. The Bill seeks to amend the Competition Act, 2002, to regulate mergers and acquisitions based on the value of transactions. The Act prohibits any person or enterprise from entering into a combination which may cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition. Deals with transaction …

Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj informed the Lok Sabha about implementation of the SWAMITVA Scheme. It is a Central Sector Scheme. To provide the ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners possessing houses in inhabited areas (Abadi) in villages. Under the scheme, land parcels in rural inhabited area of all the villages of the country …

PARIVESH Portal provides a “single window” solution for an expeditious, transparent and effective decision making without compromising on  environmental safeguards PARIVESH is a web based, role-based workflow application which has been developed for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents seeking for Environmental (EC), Forest (FC), Wildlife (WL) and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances. It automates the entire tracking of proposals at each stage …

Recently, an MP (Member of Parliament) was sentenced to two years in jail in a 2019 Defamation Case over his remarks about another political leader by the Surat Court. The case was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500, dealing with defamation. What do IPC sections 499 and 500 say? Section 499 of …

A day before her appearance in front of the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor policy case, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha launched a six-hour hunger strike on March 10 seeking early passage of the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill. The protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi was inaugurated by …

The issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies has been referred to the Law Commission for further examination. Currently, elections to the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha are held separately. Whenever the incumbent government’s five-year term ends or whenever it is dissolved due to various reasons. The idea of “One Nation, One …

Congress moves privilege motion against Prime Minister Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by members of Parliament, individually and collectively. Without these they cannot discharge their functions efficiently and effectively. When any of these rights and immunities are disregarded, the offence is called a breach of privilege and is punishable under law of Parliament. A notice is moved in the form of …

Key provisions: The Bill provides for the prevention of offenses against advocates, such as assault, grievous hurt, criminal force and criminal intimidation, along with damage or loss to their property. The objective of the Bill is to prohibit increasing “violence” and “false implications” against advocates in the state. The Act also deems these offenses as cognizable, …

The Finance Ministry has amended money laundering rules to incorporate more disclosures for non-governmental organisations by reporting entities like financial institutions, banking companies or intermediaries. PMLA Act Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 was enacted to fight against the criminal offence of legalizing the income/profits from an illegal source. The Prevention …

After long years of legislative meanderings, Parliament enacted the anti-defection law (10th Schedule) in 1985 to curb political defection. The volume, intensity, recklessness and uncontrolled venality seen in defections in the 1960s and thereafter almost came to a stop after this. Defections not only caused the frequent fall of governments …