Daily Hindu Editorials

👉Washed-out Parliament👈 👆Need for Anti-defection Reform The most recent budget session of Parliament was an almost total washout thanks to disruptions of many kinds. Almost no legislative business was transacted and viewers were treated to the ugly sight of the speaker of the Lok Sabha using her powers to “guillotine” debate on important issues of funding for ministries of the union government. Both, the opposition parties and the government will point fingers at each other, and they would both be right and wrong. The opposition did not seem to want to allow debate on government business to take place, while the government did not seem to particularly care if debate took place or not. Whatever the immediate causes for this sorry situation, the fact is that the washout of the budget session is part of a trend that has been evident in state legislative assemblies for a while. What is happening in Parliament is only a reflection of the larger dysfunction in th

👉A Law unto Themselves👈 👉State bar councils need to rein in lawyers’ associations that obstruct the course of justice. The lawlessness of lawyers was demonstrated yet again when protesting members of the Kathua and Jammu bar associations tried to prevent the police from filing a charge sheet against the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl. This group of lawyers did not stop at their unsuccessful attempts, but went on to declare a strike, bringing the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir to a standstill. They openly appealed to civil society to observe 11 April as a bandh, and have reportedly been threatening the counsel of the Kathua rape victim’s family to stay away from the case. The high court has started functioning since, with the Supreme Court having taken suo motu cognisance of the lawyers’ obstructive behaviour and admonishing them. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in  Ex-Captain Harish Uppa l v  Union of India  (2003), where it

👉Going South👈 The neglect of Andhra Pradesh and the power struggle there has created trouble for Modi’s  BJP . The jostle for political power in Andhra Pradesh has worsened the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) standing in the state and has exposed the Narendra Modi government’s feet of clay. The Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP), one of the oldest and largest allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), was forced to break away from the BJP when it failed to secure a Special Category Status (SCS) from its ally at the centre. For its failure to secure SCS for the state, the Naidu government now faces a significant political challenge from opposition leader Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and film-star-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan, who supported Naidu and the BJP in the 2014 elections. Naidu’s main challenger, Jagan Reddy, launched a padayatra in early November 2017 on the lines of similar rallies by his ­father, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR). Such mo

👉Work without Wages👈 Delayed wage payments and inadequate wage revisions rob MGNREGA of its soul. Timely payment of wages is central to the rights-based realisation of minimum guaranteed income under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, which tracks the implementation of the act, found that 64%, 86%, and 99% of the orders for wages in February, March, and April, respectively, remained unprocessed. While non-payment or delays in payment are not new to MGNREGA, recent changes in the structure of wage payments have only worsened the problem. The Narendra Modi government, in order to ensure “leakage proof payment” through the National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS), ordered that payments happen through a fund transfer order (FTO). Payments through Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts were also introduced subsequently. While ensuring that wages reach workers without any leakages is laudable, its

💥CONGRESS, SIX OTHER PARTIES MOVE TO IMPEACH CJI MISRA ( Judicial) Seven opposition parties led by Congress launched an unprecedented campaign to impeach Supreme Court chief justice Dipak Misra, accusing him of “serious misbehaviours” and “compromising the independence of the judiciary,” rendering it vulnerable to executive influence. 👉The process for removal of Judges The constitutions mentions two grounds for the removal of judges of Supreme Court and High court, they are proved misbehavior and incapacity A judge of the Supreme Court can be removed from his office by an order of the President. The President can issue the removal order after an address by the Parliament, supported by a special majority of each House of Parliament (that is, a majority of the total membership of that House and a majority of not less than two thirds of the members of that house present and voting), has been presented to the President in the same session of Parliament for such a removal.