SC does U-turn, admits
plea for Court of Appeal
The Supreme Court has
admitted a Chennai lawyer’s petition for setting up a National Court of
Appeal with regional benches to act as the final courts of
justice in criminal and civil cases.
- With this, the court has
questioned the past views of its own Chief Justices of India about
bifurcation of judicial powers and a government order in 2014 that such a
court of appeal is constitutionally impermissible.
Details:
The proposed court is meant
to act as final arbiter of appeals against decisions of the High Courts and
tribunals in civil, criminal, labour and revenue cases.
Background:
This plea was previously
rejected by the centre. The lawyer had approached the Union Ministry for Law
and Justice with his proposal after the Supreme Court asked the government to
hear him out through a judicial order on October 10, 2014.
In its order, the Ministry
cited three grounds for rejecting the idea —
- The Supreme Court always sits in
Delhi as per the Constitution.
- The Chief Justices of India in the
past have consistently opposed the idea of a National Court of Appeal or
regional Benches to the Supreme Court.
- A National Court of Appeal would
require an amendment in Article 130 of the Constitution of India which is
impermissible as this would change the Constitution of the Supreme Court
completely.
What the petitioner says?
The petitioner submits that
establishment of a ‘National Court of Appeal’ as suggested in the case of Bihar
Legal Support Society would rectify the inequality in the state of affairs in
as much as the said National Court of Appeal would have benches in all possible
regions of the country.
- This would also considerably
reduce the cost of litigation and would enable the litigants to have the
services of the lawyer who appeared for them before the High Court.
- The petitioner also argues that
the Supreme Court was never intended to be a regular court of appeal
against orders made by the high court or the sessions court or the
magistrates. It was created as an apex court for the purpose of laying
down the law for the entire country.
However, legal experts feel
that setting up of regional benches will dilute the constitutional superiority
of the Supreme Court.
Fund crunch hits Indian
drug trial
A recent study has revealed
that lack of funds has hit the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) and has prevented it from conducting a drug trial to test a novel
drug-regimen for tuberculosis (TB).
Background:
- In January 2014, the Drug Controller
General of India approved a phase 2b trial (a limited test of a
prospective drug in humans to prove its potency) to test a combination
of three TB drugs to treat multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
- The promise of this combination —
called PaMZ (PA-824 + moxifloxacin + pyrazinamide) — is to cut treatment
time by at least a third. Moreover, it was purportedly effective even when
tested on HIV patients.
- The drug, developed in
collaboration with the international Global Alliance on Tuberculosis, was
to enter phase 3, or large-scale trials last year in South Africa.
Significance of these
trials:
- According to the World Health
Organisation, TB kills an estimated 1.5 million people annually, and is
one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
- There were also approximately
190,000 deaths from MDR-TB in 2014 and more than half of these patients
were in India, China and the Russian Federation.
- Currently, people with MDR-TB
require 18 to 24 months of treatment, with several pills and daily
injections for at least six months.
- Apart from the health benefits,
the drug trial would have been the first such attempt by the CSIR-led Open
Source Drug Development (OSDD) consortium — an initiative to discover and
test new drugs for infectious diseases that are widespread in poor countries
by using expertise outside the confines of traditional pharmaceutical
companies — to test a new drug in India.
Most drugs that are
available in India are reverse-engineered versions of drugs developed in Europe
or the United States. Since 2015, however, the OSDD has been shut down as a
CSIR project. Hence, it is uncertain whether funds would be available next
year.
About CSIR:
Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), established in 1942, is an autonomous body and the
largest research and development (R&D) organisation in India.
- Although it is mainly funded by
the Ministry of Science and Technology, it operates as an autonomous body
registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860.
- The research and development
activities of CSIR includes aerospace engineering, Structural engineering,
ocean sciences, Life sciences, metallurgy, chemicals, mining, food,
petroleum, leather, and environment.
U.S. test-fires ICBMs to
show rivals its power
The U.S. military recently
test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a week, seeking to
demonstrate its nuclear arms capacity at a time of rising strategic tensions
with Russia and North Korea.
- The unarmed Minuteman III missile
was test-fired at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
- The missile raced across the sky
at speeds of up to 15,000 mph (24,000 kph) and landed a half hour later in
a target area 6,500 km away near Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands
of the South Pacific.
With this, the US has sent
a message to strategic rivals like Russia, China and North Korea that Washington
has an effective nuclear arsenal.
New BRICS bank set to
fund green energy projects
The New Development Bank
(NDB) — a multilateral lender with a focus on the Global South of the of the
Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa(BRICS) grouping — is all set to fund
more than a dozen projects this year, which will focus on renewable energy.
- The initial focus of the bank
would on green energy projects.
The New Development Bank:
It is a multilateral
development bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa). It is seen as an alternative to the existing US-dominated World
Bank and International Monetary Fund.
- The New Development Bank was
agreed to by BRICS leaders at the 5th BRICS summit held in Durban, South
Africa in 2013.
- The bank is set up to foster
greater financial and development cooperation among the five emerging
markets.
- The bank will be headquartered in
Shanghai, China.
- Unlike the World Bank, which
assigns votes based on capital share, in the New Development Bank each
participant country will be assigned one vote, and none of the countries
will have veto power.
What it does?
The New Development Bank
will mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects
in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, to supplement
existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global
growth and development.
Benefits:
- The establishment of the Bank will
help India and other signatory countries to raise and avail resources for
their infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
- It would also reflect the close
relations among BRICS countries, while providing a powerful instrument for
increasing their economic cooperation.
- It is expected to allow India to
raise and obtain more resources for the much needed infrastructure
development, the lack of which is coming in the way of inclusiveness and
growth as of now.
- It will make available additional
resources thereby recycling the savings accumulated in emerging countries
which are presently being locked up in Treasury bonds having much lower
returns.
