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www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy

Newspaper Analysis and Summarry– 08th March 2015

NATIONAL

Centre can‟t forward names for judge posts: petition – The Hindu

Judicial activism cannot encroach on other limbs of democracy. It is itself counter-

productive to the doctrine of separation of powers among the executive, legislature and the

judiciary, the Madras High Court orally said on Friday.

The observation was made when a writ petition seeking a direction to restrain the Centre

from forwarding a list of nine names recommended to fill the vacancies of Judges of the

Madras High Court till the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act is notified

came up.

At present, there are 18 vacancies in the High Court. The sanctioned strength is 60.

The petitioner, S.Kasiramalingam, an advocate, submitted that the Madras High Court

Chief Justice had shortlisted nine names for appointment of judges. Parliament had passed

the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill after making necessary amendments

to the Constitution, to which the President had given his assent last December.

When the President had given his assent, the Collegium of the Supreme Court could not

usurp the power of Parliament, because separation of powers among the executive,

legislature and the judiciary was the basic feature of the Constitution.

The petitioner submitted before a Division Bench comprising Justices V.Ramasubramanian

and P.R.Shivakumar that following the Presidential assent, the Centre had lost its

constitutional right to forward the list of nine names to the President.

Mr.Justice Ramasubramanian cited an earlier Supreme Court case in an identical situation

where the court had said a Writ of Mandamus could not be issued.

Counsel said that courts could go into any act by the executive which was against the

Constitution. The court could step in through judicial activism.

To this, Mr.Justice Shivakumar said through judicial activism courts could not encroach on

the other limbs of democracy.

The Judge said that the collegium system was introduced through judicial activism. Now,

you want to undo that system through judicial activism, he said smilingly. At the request of

the petitioner, the matter was later adjourned.

Evidence of ancient Martian ocean found – The Hindu

A massive ancient ocean once covered nearly half of the northern hemisphere of Mars

making the planet a more promising place for alien life to have gained a foothold, NASA

scientists say.

The huge body of water spread over a fifth of the planet‘s surface, as great a portion as the

Atlantic covers the Earth, and was a mile deep in places. In total, the ocean held 20 million

cubic kilometres of water, or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found.

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Unveiled by NASA on Thursday, the compelling evidence for the primitive ocean adds to

an emerging picture of Mars as a warm and wet world in its youth, which trickled with

streams, winding river deltas, and long-standing lakes, soon after it formed 4.5 billion years

ago.

The view of the planet‘s ancient history radically re-writes what many scientists believed

only a decade ago. Back then, flowing water was widely considered to have been a more

erratic presence on Mars, gushing forth only rarely, and never forming long-standing seas

and oceans.

―A major question has been how much water did Mars actually have when it was young

and how did it lose that water?‖ said Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Writing in Science , the NASA team and others at the European Southern Observatory

(ESO) in Munich, provide an answer after studying Mars with three of the most powerful

infra-red telescopes in the world.

The scientists used the Keck II telescope and Nasa‘s Infrared Telescope Facility, both in

Hawaii, and the ESO‘s Very Large Telescope in Chile, to make maps of the Martian

atmosphere over six years. They looked specifically at how different forms of water

molecules in the Martian air varied from place to place over the changing seasons.

Martian water, like that on Earth, contains standard water molecules, made from two

hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, and another form of water made with a heavy

isotope of hydrogen called deuterium. On Mars, water containing normal hydrogen is lost

to space over time, but the heavier form is left behind. When normal water is lost on Mars,

the concentration of deuterium in water left behind goes up. The process can be used to

infer how much water there used to be on the planet. The higher the concentration of

deuterium, the more water has been lost.

The infrared maps show that water near the Martian ice caps is enriched with deuterium.

The high concentration means that Mars must have lost a vast amount of water in the past.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015

„Dawn‟ orbiting Ceres: NASA – The Hindu

The space probe Dawn began orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres on Friday on a voyage of

discovery into the solar system‘s main asteroid belt, NASA said on Friday.

The probe — the first to orbit a dwarf planet — will stay over the mysterious body for

sixteen months to study its structure and gather clues to help mankind better understand

how the planets were created. The space probe was captured by the dwarf planet‘s gravity

at 1239 GMT, some 61,000 km from Ceres‘s surface.

About an hour later, it sent a signal to mission controllers at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion

Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to say it was ―healthy and thrusting with its ion

engine,‖ the space agency said in a statement.


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When it was discovered in 1801, Ceres was classified as a planet, only to be reclassified

later as an asteroid and then a dwarf planet.

―Now, after a journey of 4.9 billion km and 7.5 years, Dawn calls Ceres, home,‖ said Dawn

chief engineer Marc Rayman, who is also mission director at JPL.

Largest object in asteroid belt

Ceres is the largest known object in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The dwarf planet, which has an average diameter of 590 miles, makes a full rotation every

nine hours, and NASA is hoping for a wealth of data once the spacecraft's orbit begins.

Pakistani delegates for enhancing bilateral trade – The Hindu

As India and Pakistan broke the ice with the visit of Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar to

Islamabad last Tuesday as part of his SAARC Yatra, a delegation from Pakistan here on

Thursday called for regular exchange of views and increased trade and investment to take

the relations forward and remove apprehensions among the public.

―The fact that they keep meeting is important. So if we meet more regularly and exchange

views, you will find ways of removing hurdles to normalisation,‖ Ibn Abdur Rehman,

Chairman, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and founding chair of the Pakistan-

India People‘s Forum for Peace and Democracy, said on the meeting of the Foreign

Secretaries.

The delegates, part of the Pakistan-India People‘s Forum for Peace and Democracy, arrived

on the two-day visit on Wednesday to observe the 20th anniversary of the forum.

―Not just trade but there should be investment in each other‘s country… It will be a shock

absorber in case of crisis,‖ said Baba Ayaz, columnist. He said that people in Pakistan were

not against trade and the big businesses in Pakistan wanted trade with India.

Mr. Ayaz said that in all elections after President Zia-ul-Haq‘s rule in the 1980s, India

bashing had never been an issue; in fact, all parties spoke about improving relations with

India. ―This is a major change people in India should realise,‖ he said.

The forum called upon universities and institutes in India to set up centres on ―Pakistan

studies‖ to educate the Indian public about the realities and dispel wrong notions.

Celebrating India‟s unwritten languages – The Hindu

―The home for writers‖, as Sahitya Akademi defines itself, has announced that its annual

literary festival ‗Sahiotsav‘ or Festival of Letters will start this Monday. This time, the six-

day festival will be special as the Akademi completes 60 years of existence on March 12.

The festival has for the first time included dance and song performances based on folk and

poetic legacies of the country, a symposium on unwritten languages of India and several

programmes that will go on from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The festival will begin with an exhibition. On the first evening, 24 Sahitya Akademi Award

winners for 2014 would be presented the awards. This time Bodo language writer Urkhao


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Gwra Brahma along with Munnawar Rana for Urdu, Adil Jussawala for English and

Ramesh Chandra Shah for Hindi would be among the star attractions.

The other highlights include the writers‘ meet on day two in which the award winning

authors will speak about their experiences with the scholars/writers and others, and the

young writers‘ meet in which the akademi has picked up writers from across the country

who are below 40. They will interact with aspiring writers.

An illustration workshop for young writers and a panel discussion on how to write for

children are also on the cards. Called ―The Yuva Sahitya‖ and ―Spin-a-Tale‖ respectively,

these two sections were initiated two years ago and have been popular among visitors,

claims the Akademi. This time, some 25 young writers will come for the festival and a

discussion on children‘s books and illustrations would mark a few sessions.

Among some serious discussions, a three-day national seminar on ―The region and the

nation in Indian fiction‖ that would be inaugurated by eminent English writer Kiran

Nagarkar will be followed by a symposium on unwritten languages of India‖.

K. Sreenivasarao, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi said: ―This section will see several scholars

and linguists from different parts of the country on one platform for the first time.‖

India has 180 languages and several of them have no scripts. The festival this time will also

focus on these languages, Sreenivasarao added.

The Northeast regions will get a national platform under ―Purvattori‖ (meaning easterners)

in which several scholars and writers from the Northeast States, including award-winning

writer Arupa Kalita, would interact with the visitors.

The festival that will see around 170 writers and scholars including Prof. Gopi Chand

Narang, Aashish Nandy, who will also deliver a lecture on the first day, Uday Narayan

Singh, K. Sachchidananadan, Alok Bhalla and Giriraj Kishore is open to all.

Last year, the festival was managed on a ―shoe-string‖ budget of Rs.14 crore. The Akademi

secretary said: ―We had for the first time held 465 literary programmes, and published 561

books last year, apart from 180 book exhibitions and 102 awards. This year, it had asked for

Rs.35 crore from government as the budget.

The Akademi is looking for ―good direct translators‖ and will hold a translators‘ workshop

to do away with this shortage.‖

Sushma seeks humanitarian solution to fishermen issue – The Hindu

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who met Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe

on Saturday, underscored the need to recognise the humanitarian dimension to the

fishermen issue which, she said, was essentially a question of livelihoods.

Referring to Mr. Wickramesinghe‘s controversial comments in an interview to Thanthi TV

aired recently, Ms. Swaraj ―forthrightly‖ put across India‘s perceptive on the matter,

Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told mediapersons here.


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“Not comparable”

To Mr. Wickramasinghe‘s accusation in the interview that India had ―double standards‖ in

dealing with Indian trawlers allegedly poaching in Sri Lankan waters and the Italian

marines charged with killing Indian fishermen, Ms. Swaraj categorically said the two were

not comparable. ―They are two different issues, primarily from a humanitarian perspective

or a legal perspective, and the Minister explained to the PM our perspective on this,‖ Mr.

Akbaruddin said.

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister had said in the interview that it was legitimate to ―shoot

fishermen‖ if they trespassed into the Sri Lankan waters. ―Why are [they] coming into our

waters? Why are [they] fishing in our waters...? Stay on the Indian side, there will be no

issue, no one will shoot anyone else,‖ he had remarked.

Mr. Wickramasinghe‘s tough stance appears to have struck a sour note with New Delhi,

coming just a week ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s visit to Sri Lanka on March

13 and 14.

Asked to comment on Mr. Wickramasinghe‘s remarks, senior Tamil politician and Leader

of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan said while the right of self-defence

was recognised under the penal law of Sri Lanka, he doubted if Mr. Wickramasinghe would

execute it. ―I don‘t know in what context he said it, but in the context of both sides willing

to settle the matter amicably rather than by using weapons, I think good sense should

prevail.‖

India, Sri Lanka to resume ferry services – The Hindu

India and Sri Lanka will soon resume ferry services between the two countries, and Prime

Minister Narendra Modi is likely to make an announcement during his visit to the island

nation on March 13 and 14.

The resumption of the services was one of the key issues discussed at a meeting of External

Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart, Mangala Samaraweera,

here on Saturday.

―India and Sri Lanka want to resume the services at the earliest, but the piers in

Talaimannar and Rameswaram have to be repaired before that,‖ Sri Lankan Foreign

Ministry spokesman A.M.J. Sadiq told presspersons.

Sources here said the plan was seen as a way to restore and enhance links between the

people of both countries.

The Colombo-Tuticorin service was started after an agreement in 2011, but had to be

suspended because it was not commercially viable. The Rameswaram-Talaimannar service

came to a halt during the war in the 1980s.

„Ties brimming

with substance‟

Ms. Swaraj arrived here on Friday on a two-day visit, as a precursor to Mr. Modi‘s visit.


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She called on President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and

held talks with a Foreign Ministry delegation, finalising agreements to be signed during Mr.

Modi‘s visit. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said Sri Lanka

considered Mr. Modi‘s visit, the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 27 years,

a historic occasion. ―India sees this as an opportunity to cement bonds and take the

relationship to the next level.‖

Mr. Modi will announce new partnerships for development and areas of cooperation. The

four back-to-back high-level visits — Mr. Samaraweera and Mr. Sirisena were in New

Delhi, followed by the visits of Ms. Swaraj and Mr. Modi to Colombo — were not only

symbolic of renewed ties but also reflected a relationship ―brimming with substance,‖ Mr.

Akbaruddin said.

Outlines poll reforms

Mr. Samaraweera briefed the Indian delegation of the political developments and the new

government‘s progress in its 100-day programme, officials said. He outlined the planned

electoral reforms.

He emphasised the government‘s commitment to address the Tamil question, pointing to

Mr. Sirisena‘s winning mandate that included a substantial share of minority votes.

Mr. Samaraweera said the new government would meet the aspirations of the minority

communities, Foreign Ministry sources said.

Jaitley promises discussion in Parliament on RBI powers – The Hindu

Amid apprehensions that a Finance Bill provision may lead to the Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) losing regulatory powers for money market securities, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,

on Saturday, said any ambiguity in this regard would be duly discussed in Parliament.

Mr. Jaitley, was here on Saturday to meet foreign portfolio investors at the National Stock

Exchange (NSE), said, ―I don‘t want to talk about that (provision) outside (Parliament). If

there is any ambiguity about the Finance Bill, we will discuss that in Parliament.‖

The Minister was replying to a question about the government‘s move, as mentioned in the

Finance Bill, but skipped in the budget speech, to take the regulation of the money markets

from RBI and give it to capital markets watchdog the Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI).

Mr. Jaitley did not elaborate on this, and parried questions on tax issues related to foreign

portfolio investors (FPIs).

Sources said the Minister met around 50-odd FPIs and is said to have allayed their fears on

the notice they got from the CBDT on Minimum Alternate Tax. During the budget speech,

Mr. Jaitley said the government and RBI, on February 20, signed a framework agreement to

set up a monetary policy committee, under which Parliament would set an inflation target

to RBI, apart from setting up a separate agency, PDMA (Public Debt Management Agency),

to manage government borrowings and other public debt by amending the RBI Act.


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Analysts said though both the moves were mooted by the RBI — the monetary policy

committee by Governor Rajan following the Urjit Patel committee report, and the PDMA

by then governor Bimal Jalan way back in 2002. These moves would take away some

crucial powers of the central bank, they felt.

Under the present system of regulations, the money markets are controlled by the RBI, but

mutual funds, who are major players in the money market, are regulated by SEBI.

The Finance Bill seeks amendment in sections 45U and 45W of the RBI Act to enable this

shift.

The proposed amendment to section 45W says, ―any direction issued by the Reserve Bank,

in respect of security, under chapter III D of the RBI Act, shall stand repealed.‖

This means that the RBI will cease to regulate government bonds and other money market

instruments.

These powers were given to the central bank after amending the RBI Act in 2005-06 to

enable it better ensure financial stability.

Both these proposals are part of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission

prepared by N. Srikrishna and submitted in March 2013. — PTI

INTERNATIONAL Making a push for fresh economics syllabi - The Hindu

The financial crisis, economic inequality and climate change are topics that would appear

to be par for the course, especially if the course is economics.

However, in departments of economics in leading international universities — including

Britain — this is not the case. Economics classroom teaching at the undergraduate teaching

is so divorced from real world economic issues – a fact brought glaringly to the fore during

the global financial crisis — that a major campaign for a more relevant economics syllabus

was initiated in many leading campuses worldwide post the crash.

In the U.K., students and teachers across the country came under the umbrella campaign

group Rethinking Economics, which has been pressing for post-crash curriculum reform in

universities. Recently an international collaboration of concerned economists released a

new set of free and downloadable course material for first year economics students that

aims to teach the subject ―as if the last 30 years had happened.‖ ‗The Economy,‘ an e-book

produced by the CORE Project, was released on February 17.

The Rethinking Economics campaign for more relevant economics classroom teaching at

the undergraduate level was only one of the many reasons propelling the CORE project,

Professor Wendy Carlin from the University College, London, told The Hindu . The CORE

team was also responding to the need to reflect the developments in the subject over the last

30 years in new syllabi.


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―There is a lot of new economics related to both the dynamic side of capitalism -- relating

to innovation and wealth creation – and on the pathology of capitalism – on inequality,

instability and ecological unsustainability,‖ Professor Carlin told The Hindu .

The ebook and course is currently being piloted at University College London, Sciences Po

in Paris and the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

It will be piloted later this year at partner universities in Australia, Italy and India, where

the Azim Premji University in Bangalore will use it for its very first intake of economics

degree students this year.

Economics teaching had got ―ossified‖ over the last 30 year, Prof Carlin argues.

―The major problem was that economics came to be taught in a very abstract way. Students

were taught tools but were not taught how to apply those tools to real world problems,‖ she

said, a situation that became alarmingly apparent during the global financial crisis.

Students, though they did very well in their studies, were unable to explain why policies

chosen by governments and central banks led to the crisis.

―They were being taught models that just were really inappropriate for understanding

modern macroeconomic development. And because those standard models became the easy

thing to teach everyone learnt them. Somehow, nobody quite asked why,‖ she said.

Pollution control: China sends mixed signals – The Hindu

China has sent mixed signals about its approach to tackle pollution — by announcing zero-

tolerance to violators of a stringent environmental law, but the same time seemingly

curbing public debate on the subject by pulling out from mainstream video sharing sites a

hard-hitting documentary on emissions that had gone viral on the internet.

―We are going to punish, with an iron hand, any violators who destroy ecology or

environment, with no exceptions,‖ said China‘s President, Xi Jinping, while reviewing the

work report of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — the official

body that exercises administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy.

Mr. Xi‘s remarks had followed the release of the documentary Under The Dome , which

had drawn over a million hits on the internet on account of its unvarnished focus on the

enormity of the crisis.

But late on Friday, the film, produced by Chai Jing, a former employee of CCTV, the state-

run broadcaster, began to disappear from mainstream domestic video-sharing sites.

By Saturday afternoon, it was no longer available on popular mainland video sites,

including Youku and iQiyi.

The move was surprising as the film had been praised earlier this week by China‘s newly-

appointed Environmental Protection Minister, Chen Jining. People‘s Daily , the official

newspaper of the Chinese government had also posted the documentary on its website.


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China‘s decision to lower its growth rate target for 2015 to seven per cent; the framing of

the new environment law; and plans to enhance the role of nuclear and renewables in its

energy mix, is expected to sharply reduce emissions in the world‘s second largest economy.

A major element of China‘s clean energy strategy is the reduction in the use of coal — a

double-edged weapon that has been both at the heart of the country‘s breakneck growth

story and the cause for heavy smog choking many Chinese cities. ―For areas affected by

severe smog, regions where conserving energy is difficult, and industries with overcapacity,

we will strictly control the number of energy-intensive projects and implement policies for

reducing coal use, and for replacing coal with alternative energy sources,‖ the report said.

Planners say that the country‘s energy use has entered ―medium-low growth,‖ in tune with

the more sustainable model of development that China plans to follow.

Nur Bekri, the head of National Energy Administration, predicts a steep decline in the

expansion of China‘s primary energy consumption. While annual energy intake increased

by 7.9 per cent since 2000, it is expected to grow by only 3.4 per cent over the next six

years. That figure conforms with China‘s target of capping annual primary energy

consumption at 4.8 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2020.

Mr. Bekri said that energy growth will further dip to 2.3 per cent during 2015-2030.

China hopes to reduce the use of coal — which fuels 66 per cent of the current energy

consumption — by expanding the share of non-fossil energy to 15 per cent by 2020, and 20

per cent by 2030.

EDITORIALS Promising first step - The Hindu

The Modi government‘s decision to engage Islamabad can only be welcomed given the

decision to open up to South Asia in a big way. Several key initiatives of the government

are contingent on a peaceful South Asia. And, there is little doubt that a peaceful region will

be key to realising India‘s own growth potential. Even if there has been little change in the

attitude of Pakistan‘s permanent establishment towards reining in anti-India terror groups,

talks held by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz

Chaudhry in Islamabad could hold the key to the future of the bilateral relationship. The

two met after India abruptly cancelled what were billed as ―talks about talks‖ between

Foreign Secretaries last year following a meeting between separatist Hurriyat leaders and

the Pakistani envoy in Delhi. As has become the norm in India-Pakistan relations, the

cancellation came after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other SAARC leaders,

was invited to attend Narendra Modi‘s swearing-in ceremony last May, raising hopes for a

positive engagement. Since then, Pakistani and Indian forces have been exchanging fire

intermittently across the Line of Control and the international border.

So, the Modi government‘s decision to send its new Foreign Secretary is a step in the right

direction even as a full resumption of dialogue between the two countries is awaited. Both

sides said little that departed from the customary exchange of political rhetoric. The Modi

government has had enough time to understand the issues at hand and must now take a call

on how to move forward with Pakistan. There are two options before the two governments

— to pick up the threads of the ―two plus six‖ structured dialogue agreed to in 1997 which


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has made little or no progress — or agree to a new structure more in line with 21st century

realities. But given the track record of bilateral negotiations, it is unlikely that the latter

option would be pursued. There is no reason the two sides should not try to frame a new

structure of negotiations that jettison the past agendas. Sir Creek, Siachen, terrorism and

Kashmir are all known and identified issues in bilateral ties; even the resolution of the

―easier‖ issues has proved elusive given the blow-hot, blow-cold nature of the relationship.

If the oft-repeated statement that countries can‘t change their neighbours is to have

substance, then both Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif have a golden opportunity to take bilateral

ties to a new level. Mr. Jaishankar‘s Islamabad visit is a promising first step.

Private interest as public purpose – The Hindu

Next week the economic agenda of the Narendra Modi government will face its biggest test

in Parliament. The controversial Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land

Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 (LARR) that has

been introduced in Lok Sabha is due for consideration of the house on March 9. While the

government seems determined to push the Bill through Parliament, the opposition parties

have vowed to oppose it tooth and nail.

The stakes are very high for both sides. Ensuring hassle-free and cheap land to private

companies is a crucial component of the economic agenda of the government. The

government has made it clear that it will consider only ‗meaningful‘ amendments, but will

not change the core of the Bill. On the other hand, for opposition parties the Bill offers an

opportunity for revival. They want to capitalise on the battle that has been raging outside

Parliament.

A foot-march by tens of thousands of farmers, agricultural workers and tribals from 16

States reached Jantar Mantar on February 23 to join a protest launched by Anna Hazare.

The social activist has described the ordinance as a grave form of injustice to farmers and

others who depend on land for livelihood. Mr. Hazare has made it clear that the current

protest is just a beginning of a larger movement that will continue until the anti-farmer Bill

was withdrawn.

That many organisations of farmers, agricultural workers and tribals from different parts of

the country have started protests is not surprising. Since Independence, millions have been

displaced and dispossessed of their livelihood due to land acquisition, and have received a

pittance by way of compensation.

Farmers get a pittance

A study I undertook of 1,660 judgments of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, delivered

between 2009 and 2011, demonstrates how farmers have been receiving the short end of the

stick. It shows that the average government compensation is just about one-fourth of the

market value of land. In other words, for a land worth Rs. 1 lakh, on average, the farmer

has received Rs. 25,000 and paid a subsidy of Rs. 75,000 to whoever received the land. If

this is the case with farmers who could afford costly litigation, what about those too poor to

do so?

As to the landless livelihood loser — sharecroppers, labourers, fishermen and artisans —

their situation can best be described in the words of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice ,

Act 4, Scene 1: ―You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.‖


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Over the years, farmers have lost 1.80 lakh hectares of farm land to acquisition. Many a

time, land has been acquired for private companies under the guise of public purpose.

Recently, large tracts have been acquired for real-estate developers and the Special

Economic Zones (SEZs). The companies have earned huge profits by diverting the acquired

land toward commercial activities. Developers in Noida and Gurgaon have made fortunes.

A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India provides a damning

account of misuse of land in SEZs. It concludes: ―Land appears to be the most crucial and

attractive component of the scheme. Out of 45635.63 ha of land notified in the country for

SEZ purposes, operations commenced in only 28488.49 ha of land.‖ It further adds:

―5402.22 ha of land was de-notified and diverted for commercial purposes in several cases.

Many tracts of these lands were acquired invoking the ‗public purpose‘ clause.‖

The LARR Act, 2013 had put paid to such practices. It mandated prior consent of 80 per

cent of the affected families for land acquisition for private companies — 70 per cent for

PPPs. The consultative and participatory acquisition process under the Act drastically

reduced the scope for arbitrary dispossession. Moreover, it made Rehabilitation and

Resettlement (R&R) the legal right of the displaced and the livelihood losers.

By scrapping these progressive features, the Bill has legalised dispossession and

displacement of people who depend on land, water and forests for their livelihood. It has

added a large number of private projects to the exempted list for which land can be

acquired without consulting the affected people, never mind their consent. In fact, several

changes effected by it have made the acquisition law worse than the colonial Land

Acquisition Act (LAA), 1894.

For instance, it has expanded the scope of SEZ-like malpractices by adding ‗Public-private

partnerships‘ (PPPs) to the exempted list. Ostensibly, these partnerships are formed to tap

private funds for the provisions of public goods. However, many of such partnerships are

used as means to acquiring land for companies. This is how it works. The government

concerned acquires land citing some public purpose and transfers it to the partner

companies. Post-acquisition, companies use the land for real-estate and other commercial

purposes to make huge profits. Housing projects under PPPs for the Taj and the Ganga

expressway projects, and hospitality projects clubbed with Delhi and Mumbai airports are

some of the many cases in point.

As if this was not enough, the Bill has abolished the social impact assessment (SIA) for

many projects, including SEZs, PPPs, dams, power plants, and waterways. The SIA

mandated under LARR, is vital to ensure that the acquisition happens only when it is in the

social interest and excess land is not acquired. It also helps reduce the adverse effects of

acquisition — in terms of the loss of livelihood and habitat, and damage to the

environment. Its importance cannot be overemphasised for large projects.

To be meaningful the R&R requires careful documentation of those who lose their land and

livelihood. Under the bill this can be done only as a part of the SIA, which stands scrapped

for most projects. Consequently, R&R has been rendered to a mere charade. What a tribute

to the Narmada Bachao Andolan!


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Misleading claims

The government has sought to justify the Bill by attacking the LARR as anti-development.

The Finance Minister, who is the architect of the ordinance, in his blog has criticised the

land acquisition process under the Act as: ―A highly complicated process of acquisition

which renders it difficult or almost impossible to acquire land can hurt India‘s

development.‖

Such claims are completely misleading. The LARR had been in place only for a year and

there is no evidence suggesting that project delays increased during this period. On the

contrary, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation show that

more than 82 per cent of projects suffered delays even under the 1894 Act — the notorious

‗urgency clause‘ under this colonial law permitted land acquisition without any scrutiny or

hindrance whatsoever. Clearly, several factors other than land acquisition also cause delays.

Also, the government has made much of the increase in compensation; now, it can be two

to four times the ‗market rates‘. The corporate sector and its sympathiser claim that the

increased compensation has rendered many projects unsustainable, threatening the growth

prospects. Some UPA leaders also seem to share this view, which is totally baseless, since

the officials assess market value using stamp-duty and the sale-deeds rates as proxy. As the

above-mentioned study of court cases shows, the latter rates are a fraction of the actual

market prices. Therefore, even at two to four times the stamp-duty rates, the compensation

will be less than the actual value.

The SIA and the R&R are crucial for ensuring that people get dispossessed and displaced

when it is really worth it. Similarly, prior consent of the affected families is a necessary

check on the misuse of the eminent domain power of the state. With these provisions

absent, how can the bill be pro-farmer and pro-poor?

Transforming commercial dispute resolution – The Hindu

Most judicial systems undergo periods of high pendency and delay in dispensation of

justice which are usually followed by a realisation from within and give rise to widescale

legislative reforms. While it was the Lord Woolf Report and the Chief Justice‘s Working

Committee Report that spurred such a change in the U.K. and Hong Kong, the Justice A.P.

Shah-led Law Commission Reports numbered 246 and 253 could potentially be what the

Indian commercial dispute resolution system has been waiting for. These reports suggest

widescale reforms by suggesting the enactment of an Act to amend the Arbitration and

Conciliation Act, 1996, and a ―Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of

High Courts and the Commercial Courts Act‖ (Commercial Divisions Bill/Act),

respectively.

In pursuance of its ‗ease of doing business‘ propaganda and an overall attempt to attract

investors, the Bharatiya Janata Party government is set to introduce these two bills in the

budget session of Parliament. If passed and implemented, these enactments are likely to

change the face of commercial dispute resolution in India.

Commercial Divisions Bill/Act

The Commercial Divisions Act introduces a commercial division in every high court

having original jurisdiction (i.e. Madras, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Himachal Pradesh)

and commercial courts in such districts, as the Central government, in consultation with the


CURRENT AFFAIRS


concerned State government and Chief Justice of the concerned High Court, may establish.

These specialised courts will resolve all ―commercial‖ disputes of value of over Rs. 1 crore.

Simultaneously, the jurisdictional limits of all high courts which have original side

jurisdiction would be increased to Rs. 1 crore across the country. These disputes will be

heard by judges who not only have a background in commercial laws but will also receive

special training in this area.

The Act will have wide ramifications as the term ―commercial‖ is widely defined and

includes disputes ranging from intellectual property rights disputes to disputes arising out

of joint venture agreements and proceedings in aid of arbitrations. The Bill provides for a

fast track mechanism with stringent timelines. And for the first time it introduces in the

Indian system the concept of a case management conference wherein a procedural order is

passed prior to trial, setting out a time table (including time-bound oral arguments

supplemented with written arguments) which has to be strictly adhered to. The court is

given wide powers to ensure that strict compliance is enforced. Moreover, the court, too, is

mandated to deliver its judgment within a period of 90 days.

The Bill adopts the ―carrot and stick‖ approach and judiciously offers ―carrots‖ for

compliance and provides courts the power to wield the ―stick‖ in case of delay by one of

the parties. The Bill also makes mandatory the ‗cost follow the event‘ regime, whereby, as a

general rule, the party against whom the order/judgment is passed bears the entire cost of

litigation, subject to exceptions where delaying parties, even if successful, have to bear part

of the cost.

While an earlier version of this bill had been introduced during the United Progressive

Alliance regime, the Bill, in the words of the Law Commission, did ―not make an effort to

fundamentally alter the litigation culture in India‖ and that the changes suggested were

―cosmetic‖ in nature. The Rajya Sabha had raised certain valid concerns including the

unworkability of some of the procedural measures suggested. The Law Commission has

carefully scrutinised these objections and introduced procedures which have been

internationally tested (more specifically in the U.K. and Singapore).

Amendments

An attempt is also being made to encourage arbitration, which is a form of alternative

dispute resolution wherein private parties, usually by consent, appoint an arbitral tribunal to

adjudicate on the dispute outside of the regular court system. One of the major problems

that have plagued this system is excessive judicial intervention and the proposed

amendments are primarily aimed at reducing such interventions.

Today, interventions by courts happen at all stages — pre-arbitration proceedings for

appointment of a tribunal and post-arbitration challenges to the award. The proposed

amendments restrict the scope of pre-arbitration review to a ―prima facie‖ review of the

existence of an arbitration agreement and narrow down the scope of the challenge of an

award by prohibiting an analysis on merits. Specifically, the scope of challenge to a foreign

award has been greatly narrowed.

Perhaps the biggest shortfall of the present arbitration regime is the fact that a successful

party in arbitration is not in a position to enjoy the fruits of its success for many years as the

mere filing of a petition challenging its validity renders the arbitral award unenforceable.


CURRENT AFFAIRS


The Law Commission has suggested amendments to Section 36 of the Act and a losing

party will henceforth have to satisfy a Court as to why it is a fit case for the arbitral award

to be stayed and the Court will have powers to order the losing party to deposit part of the

award sum into Court.

Another major area where the proposed amendments would make a significant difference is

in relation to neutrality of the arbitral tribunal which is constituted. The Supreme Court of

India, in Indian Oil v. Raja Transport , has declared a tribunal appointed by a public sector

undertaking comprising its own employees to be valid subject to certain narrowly carved

out exceptions. This decision is sought to be legislatively overruled by incorporating the

International Bar Association guidelines on conflict of interest as a schedule to the Act.

Further, the proposed amendments suggest a more realistic interest and costs regime,

permitting compound interest to be awarded and incorporating the ―costs follow the event‖

rule as the base rule in relation to arbitration.

The investment treaty arbitral tribunal in White Industries v. Union of India has held that

the Indian system does not provide ―effective means‖ for a foreign investor to enforce its

rights. The bills proposed to be introduced in the budget session not only expedite

commercial dispute resolution but also effectively disincentives initiation of frivolous

proceedings.

However, enacting a law is only part of the solution; implementing it effectively by

selecting the right personnel is as important. Effective implementation of the Lord Woolf

report resulted in eradicating frivolous commercial litigation in the U.K. — statistics

suggest that the number of litigations initiated fell by around 80 per cent. Commercial

dispute resolution in our country is at its cross roads and the enactment of these laws and

their implementation over the next couple of years would determine whether in India the

maxim ‗Ubi jus ibi remedium‘, i.e. every right has a remedy, translates into something more

than a de jure principle.


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