BLOOD ON THE CAMPUS JNU symbolised citizenship, democracy and freedom, writes noted columnist Shiv Visvanathan, who analyses the reasons why the University has become a political and ideological battleground

1. NDIA EGALL STORIES THAT COUNT
I
January20, 2020
BLOODONTHECAMPUSJNUsymbolisedcitizenship,democracyandfreedom,writesnotedcolumnistShivVisvanathan,
whoanalysesthereasonswhytheUniversityhasbecomeapoliticalandideologicalbattleground
Capital Punishment:
What judges think
Iran Crisis:
India’s options
JNU students being taken into police custody

3. Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas
Social Audit
Rising Steps
Important steps taken by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to
ensure transparency, public participation and accountability
in the implementation of Government of India/State
Government schemes to all sections of society
To ensure transparency, public
participation and accountability in the
work of Gram Panchayats and other
executing organizations.
Monitoring of accounts with physical
verification of works, participation and
monitoring of society
To ensure the benefit of schemes
reaches all sections of society
To make aware public of their rights,
duties in the schemes
Social audits of 20,887 gram panchay-
ats were conducted in the year 2018-19.
In the year 2019-20, social audit was
conducted in more than 16 thousand
gram panchayats till September, 2019.
The target is to conduct social audit in
all gram panchayats of the state by
March 31, 2020.
Through public awareness rallies, placing
hoardings on all development buildings,
involving schoolchildren in awareness ral-
lies, scooter motorcycle rallies, sharing
information through folk songs, pamphlets
and loudspeakers before the social audit
meetings, the common people were con-
nected to a transparent process like social
audit leading to increased public participa-
tion
Through social audits, people succeeded
in raising their voice by coining the slogans
like “Mera Kam Mera Daam” “Mera Paisa
Mera Hisab”. Schemes like MNREGA-
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana brought qual-
itative changes in the standard of living of
the villagers and they managed to air their
views through a democratic platform.
Social audit is a continuous process. According to the calendar available on the website of
the Directorate, http://socialauditup.in, contribute to ensure accountability by making active
participation in the meeting of the Social Audit Gram Sabha of the respective Gram Panchayats
and make the social audit more public utility.
Why social audit?
Progress so far
Appeal to public
Efforts made for public
awareness
TEST AUDIT
The test audit is conducted by the directorate to maintain the quality of social audit.
RAJENDRA PRATAP SINGH (MOTI SINGH)
Minister, Rural Development Department, Uttar Pradesh
What we achieved
RAJENDRA PRATAP SINGH (MOTI SINGH)
Minister, Rural Development Department, Uttar Pradesh
Issued in the public interest by the Directorate of Social Audit, Uttar Pradesh-Rural Development Department, Uttar Pradesh.

4. HE most popular cliché about India is
that it is a land of extremes. That gen-
erally refers to the rural-urban, rich-
poor chasm. But in the wake of the
snowballing university uprisings ag-
ainst the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)—
the latest example of India’s plunge into divisive-
ness—it has come to signify something quite dif-
ferent. The rise of violent pseudo-patriotism,
fuelled by take-no-prisoners TV news anchors
and right-wing adherents, has created a sharp
societal divide based on the premise of “Either
you are with us or you are against us”. The result
has been a shrinking of the middle ground, the
space occupied by those with a neutral view.
The danger of degenerating into an “either
or” society is loss of all the attributes that make
for credible democracies—freedom of speech
and opinion, criticism of the government, peace-
ful assembly and the ability to make informed
choices. Sadly, it’s a worldwide phenomenon.
The ascendancy of Donald Trump has polarised
American society like never before and the space
for reasoned debate and conversation has van-
ished. In India, chest-thumping, heated rhetoric
and liberal use of the phrases “anti-national”,
“pro-Pakistani traitors” and “pro-terrorist urban
Naxals” have resulted in shrinking the middle
ground. Several years ago, an article in Pak-
istan’s leading newspaper, Dawn, put it more
bluntly: “Both states are being too casual about
weaponising society and public opinion against
the other country. The media is catering to
that market.”
Significantly, the “either or” situation always
follows a crisis or military ambition. After the
9/11 tragedy in America, President George Bush
famously used this phrase, declaring that “every
nation, in every region, now has a decision to
make. Either you are with us, or you are with the
terrorists”. Benito Mussolini declared in speech-
es across fascist Italy: “O con noi o contro di
noi”—You’re either with us or against us.”
Turkish President Recep Erdogan, after the sui-
cide bomb explosion in Istanbul on January 12,
2016, said: “Pick a side. You are either on the
side of the Turkish government, or you’re on the
side of the terrorists.”
It’s a worrying development since it infects
everything, connected or not. Bollywood stars
are shamed and slandered for their public sup-
port of dissenting views. The non-combatants
who call for restraint in dealing with adversaries
are branded as “pseudo-liberals” as if it were
some repulsive, contagious disease. It’s the age
of polar opposites where moderate opinions are
banned, even un-Indian in a sense. Plurality is
what defines any democracy and makes it better.
Elbowing out the secular view and the indepen-
dent voice is the antithesis of what a democracy
stands for.
In this context, I reproduce a recent open let-
ter from Preet Bharara to US Congressman
Doug Collins of Georgia. Bharara, of Indian ori-
gin, is an American lawyer who served as the
United States attorney for the Southern District
of New York from 2009 to 2017. As a US attor-
ney, Bharara earned a reputation of a “crusader”
prosecutor.
“Dear Representative Doug Collins,
“You are not my Congressman, and while I am
ever thankful for that fact, after seeing your per-
formance on Fox News on Wednesday night, I’m
not sure you are fit to be anyone’s Congressman.
Specifically, I saw you blithely assert on national
television that Democrats ‘are in love with ter-
rorists. We see that they mourn Soleimani more
than they mourn our Gold Star families.’
“No American is ‘in love’ with terrorists or
‘mourns’ the death of that Iranian general on an
airstrip in Baghdad. Many of us do, however,
mourn the death of decency, honesty and reason
here at home.
“I realize that you are a politician and that
hyperbolic, hyperpartisan claptrap is the unfor-
tunate fashion of the day. But even allowing for
the new normal of nastiness in political rhetoric,
VOLUME VERSUS WISDOM
Inderjit Badhwar
T
The“eitheror”
situationalways
followsacrisisor
militaryambition.
Afterthe9/11
tragedyintheUS,
PresidentGeorge
Bushfamously
usedthisphrase.
BenitoMussolini
declareditin
speechesacross
fascistItaly.
TurkishPresident
RecepErdogandid
soafterthesuicide
bombexplosionin
Istanbulin
January2016.
Thesituation
infectseverything,
connectedornot.
Letter from the Editor
4 January 20, 2020

5. your casual slur of countless good Americans
hits a new bottom. Americans can, in good faith,
differ about the legality or efficacy of killing
Soleimani. That doesn’t make them unpatriotic
or lovers of terrorists. It is hostility to differences
of opinion that is un-American.
“I understand that politics is a tough racket. I
served as a Democratic staffer in the US Senate.
I get that terrorism is a threat. I prosecuted ter-
rorists as a United States attorney, working just
yards from Ground Zero. I know of the particu-
lar evil posed by Qassem Soleimani. My office
prosecuted plots orchestrated by him and the
Quds Force, including the conspiracy to assassi-
nate the Saudi ambassador to the United States
in 2011.
“So, I have some idea of what is at stake here
when it comes to terrorism. As you well know,
Congressman, terrorists do not kill Republicans
or Democrats. They kill Americans.
“You know what else is true? The prosecu-
tors, law enforcement agents and intelligence
officers who keep us safe from terrorism do not
do so as Republicans or Democrats. They do so
as Americans. The victims of terrorism—and
their families—do not grieve as members of a
political party. They do so as Americans.
“You are not a talk radio host or a carnival
barker. You are a pastor, an attorney and a sit-
ting member of Congress. Therefore, the evi-
dence would suggest you should know better. To
utter such garbage, which you know to be false
and defamatory, goes against all the training and
teaching you must have received. But you got
your cheap shot across, and perhaps that’s all
that matters to you.
“To be clear, Congressman, I am not making
some old and familiar naive call for a return to
‘civility’ in our politics. I don’t have much hope
for that in the immediate future. I just want
people like you to knock off the worst scurrilous
nonsense. I’d hope that would be possible for a
member of the House who happens to be the
ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.
“If we are going to come together, protect the
homeland and heal the hearts of people who
have suffered the scars of terrorism, we need our
leaders to do better than lazy trash talk.
“Learn that volume and wisdom are not the
same thing.
“You were elected to lead. Please give it a try.
“Respectfully,
“Preet Bharara”
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 5
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
RIGHT TO DIFFER The student uprisings have kept alive the spirit of democracy in India
“Americanscan...differaboutthelegali-
ty...ofkillingSoleimani.Thatdoesn’t
makethemunpatriotic...hostilitytodif-
ferencesofopinionisun-American...”
—AmericanlawyerPreetBhararainaletter
toUSCongressmanDougCollins
UNI

6. ContentsVOLUME XIII ISSUE10
JANUARY20,2020
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6 January 20, 2020
JNU symbolised citizenship, democracy and freedom. It was an adda of ideas, not an
akhada. Violence in universities can be combatted only if civil society fights
majoritarianism and mob mentality
Blood on the Campus 10
LEAD
While scores of anti-CAA petitions are pending in the Supreme Court, the High Courts
have been quick in addressing the burning issue
No Bar to Politics 13
COURTS
The death sentence awarded to the Nirbhaya gang rape convicts is the first since 2015 in
India, where capital punishment is rare. We reproduce an earlier India Legal piece
featuring the views of 60 former judges of the Supreme Court on capital punishment in
India, which is still relevant
Black Warrant: What Judges Feel 14
FOCUS

7. Followuson
Facebook.com/indialegalmedia
Twitter:@indialegalmedia
Website:www.indialegallive.com
Contact:editor@indialegallive.com
Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Cover Photo: UNI
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 7
REGULARS
Ringside............................8
International Briefs..........27
Media Watch ..................35
Satire ..............................46
Striking At
The Root
Hartals, the bane of Kerala, have dropped
drastically thanks to strict conditions laid
down by the Kerala High Court and tough
administrative measures initiated by the
government against violators
OPINION
STATES
Complaints of tableau rejection for the Republic Day Parade 2020
would not have come from states if the parade was a people’s
pageant and a celebration of citizens
Politicising vs Militarising 24
ENVIRONMENT
The metropolis is gasping, yet a clean air action plan from the state
pollution control board is a sorry cut and paste job that is clueless
about the steps needed to make the air clean
Every Breath Mumbai Takes 28
42
MYSPACE
In a progressive move, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha wants rules to be
simplified so that action can be taken easily when there are complaints against MPs
36Make it Simple
18
Though Iran and the US have stepped back from the brink of war, the
situation is volatile. India is watching closely due to its diaspora in the
region and the likely impact on oil prices
India’s Balancing Act
GLOBALTRENDS
By one UN definition, the US killing of Iranian commander Qassem
Soleimani may fall under the category of a terrorist act
Different Strokes 22
In an effort to bring down
pollution, the Delhi government
has come out with an EV
policy which aims to increase
the number of electric vehicles
by 2023
32All Charged Up
In a shocking display of
callousness, the Rajasthan
government failed to react
when 100 babies died
within a month at JK Lon
Hospital. The rivalry
between the CM and his
deputy made matters worse
Caught
Napping 39

8. 8 January 20, 2020
Anthony Lawrence
RINGSIDE
Brute Majority

9. Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas
For
Convenience&Transparency
ofSugarcaneFarmers
“Webportal”
www.caneup.in
&
“E-Ganna App”
E-Ganna
INAUGURATIONBY
Yogi Adityanath
Chief Minister,
Uttar Pradesh
Features
Survey, weighing, slip, calendar and all information related to sugarcane.
Sugarcane weight via SMS and message when slip is issued.
Ban on sugarcane mafia and sale of sugarcane in a transparent manner.
KisanBhai,
FirstvisitERPWebportal
www.caneup.in
Clickonthelink
‘E-Gannasystem’
onthewebportal
Clickon‘KisanBhaiViewYourData’
andgetalltheinformationby
selectingthedistrict,factory,
villageandname.
Use a helmet when driving a two-wheeler InformationandPublicRelationsDepartment,UttarPradesh

10. Lead/ Column/ Violence in Universities Shiv Visvanathan
10 January 20, 2020
N a clichéd sense, the New Year is
a sign of hope, a time for rituals
of optimism, where one makes
wish lists for the future. This New
Year, maybe because it is seen as an
“Angrez” concept by the regime,
was a dampener marked by violence and
confusion. The effusive smell of stability
and confidence the regime exuded has
suddenly evaporated. Some events cap-
tured the hypocrisy and hollowness of
the present set-up.
The violent events in JNU were sad.
JNU has now become a moment of his-
tory and a metaphor. Attempts to und-
ermine the University have acquired a
systematic quality. It almost seems as if
the University is being treated as a little
Pakistan. Last week, armed men, mas-
ked to disguise their identities, walked
into hostels and injured over 30 stu-
dents. What is amazing is the supine
Blood on the Campus
JNUsymboliseddemocracyandfreedom.Itwasanaddaofideas,notanakhada.Violence
invarsitiescanbecombattedonlyifcivilsocietyfightsmajoritarianismandmobmentality
IQUESTIONS UNMASKED
JNU students get together
to raise their voice against
violence on the campus
and the Citizenship Act
Twitter

11. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 11
Another professor, a brilliant histori-
an, told me that the violence of recent
times has destroyed the wonderful eve-
rydayness of academic life in the Univ-
ersity. He said that it was not ideology
he was worried about, but the attempts
to undermine the very idea and norms
of the University as an institution. He
mentioned that the administration see-
med indifferent and unapologetic and
the security staff conniving or purpose-
less. The regime, he said, thrives on the
vulnerability of the University as an
open institution. He was distraught that
reason and dialogue had no place in the
administration’s agenda. It seemed to
see riots and vandalism, even goonda-
gardi, as a continuation of majoritarian-
ism by other means.
Another distinguished professor
analysed the crisis of the University aro-
und two events. He said that the regime
felt the University had become an island
of dissent in the midst of a conformist
city. He invoked the fact that a year ear-
lier, distinguished scientists had called
on the then president, Pranab Muk-
herjee, to ask him to stop the emascula-
tion of research in the University. They
were complaining about the manner in
which PhD fellowships were diminish-
ing. Science, they pointed out, is a plural
and playful enterprise. To reduce it to a
big science like Chandrayaan destroys
future projects and other hypotheses.
He added that the attempt to change the
fee structure of the University was a sec-
ond source of angst. It would change the
social composition of the University. In
fact, “JNU”, he said, “would no longer be
JNU.” Other academics added that the
centre does not see education, higher
education, as a public good. The
Kasturirangan report, flaunted by the
regime, would not be complete without
an ethnographic analysis of the JNU of
the last few years. The regime sees edu-
cation as skills. It has an instrumental
sense of education, which is why it does
not value the power and creativity of
dissent in a university. The academic
argued that dissent in an intellectual
system is normal except to a regime that
thrives on dogma.
A
senior sociologist who has writ-
ten classic essays on the liberal
ideas of the University, smiled
sadly and said: “The BJP suffers from
university envy.” The university, he said,
was an adda of ideas, a celebration of
difference. “Dissent,” he said, “was part
of the official function of the university,
a consequence of the dynamics of
knowledge. Sadly, dissent is diffused as a
violation of patriotism as the uniformity
of the nation state tries to overwhelm
the innate plurality of a university.”
Secondly, JNU, he said, embodied
the ideals and ideas of the Nehruvian
era. He claimed that if it was renamed
after Deen Dayal Upadhyay or Vajpayee,
half the violence would cease. JNU
attitude of the University administra-
tion. The V-C should have resigned in
any university which has a sense of mo-
ral responsibility and leadership. Worse,
the regime acts as if the University des-
erved it, treating it like an internal secu-
rity problem rather than a violation of
freedom. The sense of shock that this
last act of vandalism created was bro-
ught out poignantly by two small events.
As the vandalism continued, a young ch-
ild living in the campus rings up his gra-
ndmother and complains that “goondas
are breaking people’s heads”.
In fact, JNU must be seen through
the eyes of children who live on the ca-
mpus and who see it as paradise. As a
faculty member once told me, forget
isms, JNU is a paradise for children: sa-
ne, plural, affordable and cosmopolitan.
The BJP destroyed that sense of inno-
cence, the availability of playfulness that
JNU provided for decades.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE STUDENTS
Actor Deepika Padukone with injured
JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh
JNUhasnowbecomeamomentofhistory
andametaphor.Attemptstoundermine
theUniversityhaveacquiredasystematic
quality.It seemsasiftheUniversityis
beingtreatedasalittlePakistan.
Twitter

12. 12 January 20, 2020
embodied in a real sense the secularism,
socialism and cosmopolitanism of the
Nehru era. It was affordable, accessible
and a theatre where ideas were on
perpetual display. The BJP can create
an akhada, but it has no sense of aca-
demic life. JNU, thus, becomes a perpet-
ual target of the regime and a giant
virus which creates the epidemics of pol-
itical stability. My senior colleague said
sadly: “I must modify my statement.
The BJP suffers from university envy
and JNU envy. JNU is twice cursed in
that sense.”
What was a piece of history has now
become a metaphor in a wider sense.
JNU has become a microcosm of demo-
cracy and other universities see it as
embodying this ideal. For a few years,
the regime was riding pretty till it bum-
bled on the citizenship issue. The citi-
zenship debate needs a separate analysis
but what it did was to show that the
university, and JNU in particular, was
the seedling of a future alternative. Alre-
ady, as an idea factory, the BJP seems
outdated, spouting an archaic national-
ism and a second-rate model of develop-
ment. JNU, Aligarh, Jamia and
Hyderabad as universities are reminders
that the BJP’s manifestos are based on
outdated syllabi. In a whimsical sense,
JNU is a reminder that the regime nee-
ds to recognise and go back to the uni-
versity. It will give many a politician a
chance to actually get a genuine degree,
learn something of the crisis, of con-
cepts that are intellectually engaging the
university. Regimes which run on out-
dated syllabi can be disastrous, as John
Maynard Keynes once pointed out.
T
here is a final point one must
grasp. The violence done to JNU
is not recent. The University has
been subject to propaganda, political
and intellectual attacks, administrative
discharges, financial delays, symbolic
humiliation and now the sheer brutality
of the physical inside hostels. Such
violence is appalling, and the University
is too fragile an institution to fight it
alone. Civil society has to enter the pic-
ture the way it has, showing not only the
power of the academic but the creativity
of citizenship. The protests in Chennai,
Bengaluru, Aligarh and Hyderabad have
shown that the regime delegitimised
itself by restricting citizenship and cor-
roding freedom.
JNU became a symbol of citizenship,
democracy and freedom worldwide. The
violence of the regime is backfiring, but
these are dangerous times. Only a civil
society-backed university can survive in-
stitutionally. The challenge before JNU
is no longer a challenge to JNU. It is a
challenge to the creativity of democracy
to work its way beyond majoritarianism
and mob mentality and the inanity of
academic bureaucracies. In a moment of
dinginess, of sheer brutality, democracy
has decided to invent itself again, start-
ing with its favourite institution, the un-
iversity. Maybe a warning of a Happy
New Year must begin ironically. Oth-
erwise we forget the price we pay for
retaining freedom.
—The writer is a member of the
Compost Heap, a commons of ideas
exploring alternative imaginations
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
Lead/ Column/ Violence in Universities/ Shiv Visvanathan
JNUembodiedinarealsensethe
secularism,socialismandcosmo-
politanismoftheNehruera.Itwasafford-
able,accessibleandatheatrewhere
ideaswereonperpetualdisplay.

13. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 13
Courts/ Citizenship Law
HILE Chief Justice of
India SA Bobde has
reiterated on several
occasions that the
apex court will hear
the challenge to the constitutionality of
the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019
once the nation-wide violence stops, va-
rious High Courts across the country
have been quick to address the burning
issue. Some of the protests around the
country have been peaceful, like the
Shaheen Bagh sit-in in New Delhi, but
many others, particularily in the states,
have seen the breakout of violence, forc-
ing the High Courts to step in suo motu.
The Rajasthan High Court set the
ball rolling by asking the centre to ex-
plain the process of granting citizenship
to persecuted minorities of neighbour-
ing countries. In Shillong, the Megha-
laya High Court was as blunt as it could
be when it said that the CAA offended
the secular colour of the country. In the
south, the Madras High Court ordered
that a rally by the opposition DMK par-
ty be videographed after the Court was
informed that the police in Chennai had
denied permission for the anti-CAA
rally. The Court refused to stall the
holding of the rally, saying that “in a
democratic country, a peaceful demon-
stration cannot be prevented, as it is the
backbone of the democratic set up”.
Bangaloreans found support in Kar-
nataka High Court when Chief Justice
Abhay S Oka pulled up the administra-
tion for unnecessarily imposing Section
144 ahead of scheduled protest rallies.
The Allahabad High Court, too, regis-
tered a suo motu PIL against the inter-
net shutdowns in Uttar Pradesh over
anti-CAA protests. It also asked the Na-
tional Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) to investigate the alleged police
excesses in Aligarh Muslim University
on December 15 during the protests.
The centre has moved a transfer peti-
tion urging that all challenges to the
CAA in various High Courts be heard by
the Supreme Court directly. Solicitor
General Tushar Mehta, while mention-
ing the matter before CJI Bobde, sought
to show the government’s concern, say-
ing that different High Courts may have
varying decisions on the issue. The CJI
agreed to hear the transfer petition, but
not before stating that he would want to
know what the High Courts had to say
on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
To centralise every issue at the Sup-
reme Court defeats the legislative intent
of writ courts under Article 226 of the
Constitution which puts the High Co-
urts on the same pedestal as the Sup-
reme Court when trying issues. In fact,
under Article 226, the High Courts en-
joy wider jurisdiction when compared
with Article 32 for the Supreme Court,
which limits the jurisdiction of the apex
court to hearing matters in respect of
the five writs only.
Petitions raising concerns over police
action in Jamia Milia Islamia and Ali-
garh Muslim University were first filed
in the Supreme Court. The judges were
reluctant and asked the petitioners to
approach the jurisdictional High Courts
(Delhi and Allahabad).
Every pat on the back that Modi
and Shah have given themselves ever
since Modi 2.0 came, has given someone
an opportunity to knock on the Sup-
reme Court’s door. The judiciary today
has become a political tool being con-
stantly used by and against the central
and state governments. The makers of
our Constitution must be turning in
their graves as they probably never
imagined that it would ever be misused
to this extent.
No Bar to Politics
Whilescoresofanti-CAApetitionsarependinginthe
SupremeCourt,theHighCourtshavebeenquickto
addresstheburningissue
By Ishita Purkaystha
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
W
RIGHT TO PROTEST
The Madras High Court refused to stall an
anti-CAA rally by the DMK in Chennai
UNI

14. Focus/ Capital Punishment
14 January 20, 2020
N 2014, I made a courtesy call on
then Chief Justice of India P
Sathasivam who was due to retire
in a week. Without referring to
any specific case before him, the
judge seemed highly agitated by
judicial delays, particularly in the case
of death row prisoners who suffer inter-
minable mental torture or even go stark
raving mad while awaiting decisions on
mercy petitions. “This has to be reme-
died,” he said. Little did I know that a
day later, a bench headed by him and
comprising Justices RM Lodha, HL
Dattu and SJ Mukhopadhaya would
commute the death sentence of Deven-
derpal Singh Bhullar whose mercy peti-
tion had been pending for eight years
following a 1993 Delhi bomb blast
which killed nine people.
The judges cited Shatrughan Chau-
han vs Union of India where “unex-
plained and inordinate delays” in decid-
ing a mercy petition as well as mental
and physical illness were found valid
grounds for commutation of a death
sentence to life imprisonment. Satha-
sivam’s last judgment as CJI once again
catalysed the judicial and academic
community to re-examine the whole
death penalty issue. India Legal has
tackled this subject in cover stories in
the magazine as well as on its TV chan-
nel in which we featured guests, in-
cluding academicians from the National
Law University (NLU).
Last week, an important social story
that got lost in the political din of the
Gujarat elections was a wide-ranging
and thought-provoking report on capi-
tal punishment in India, titled “Mat-
Black Warrant:
What Judges Feel
I
All the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape case have been sen-
tenced to death following a Delhi court’s order. The execution would
be the first since 2015 in India, where capital punishment is rare.
India Legal’s editorial “Death Sentences—What the Judges Feel” dated
December 25, 2017, by EDITOR-IN-CHIEF INDERJIT BADHWAR
analysed a wide-ranging and thought-provoking report on capital pun-
ishment in India. The report, “Matters of Judgment”, is a unique atti-
tude study on the criminal justice system and the death penalty featur-
ing 60 former judges of the Supreme Court of India. As the piece is
very much relevant today, we reproduce it:
Akshay Thakur Mukesh Singh Vinay Sharma Pawan Gupta
JusticeSathasivam’slastjudgmentas
CJIonceagaincatalysedthejudicialand
academiccommunitytore-examinethe
deathpenaltyissue.IndiaLegal tackledit
inthemagazineandonitsTVchannel.

15. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 15
ters of Judgment”. It is a unique atti-
tude study on the criminal justice sys-
tem and the death penalty featuring 60
former judges of the Supreme Court of
India. They include Justices AK Gan-
guly, Santosh Hegde, Ruma Pal, BN
Srikrishna and RC Lahoti, who have
adjudicated 208 death penalty cases
among them between 1975 and 2016
(see box for full list in the next page).
D
r GS Bajpai, registrar and pro-
fessor of criminology and crim-
inal justice, a frequent guest on
India Legal TV shows, said at the semi-
nar at which the report was released:
“This report is not as simplistic as we
think based on its face value and has to
be decoded further with respect to the
observations made by the judges. It is
said that criminal law is deficient. I
would say that it is not that criminal
law is deficient but we have failed crim-
inal law. It is the institutions that have
failed criminal law in India. Fresh in-
sights are not being imported into the
criminal law of this country. It is as if
we only like to debate. This study is not
the conclusion but like a hypothesis
which should be taken forward by law
researchers.”
Of the 60 former judges interviewed,
47 had adjudicated death penalty cases
and confirmed 92 death sentences in 63
cases. Considering that the death penal-
ty represents the most severe punish-
ment permitted in law, “we sought the
views of former judges on critical as-
pects of the criminal justice system like
torture, integrity of the evidence collec-
tion process, access to legal representa-
tion and wrongful convictions,” the
study’s authors said in an introduction.
The interviews also examined the
meaning of the “rarest of rare” standard
laid down by the apex court for award-
ing the extreme punishment in Bachan
Singh vs State of Punjab, the appropri-
ate role for aggravating and mitigating
factors and the nature of judicial discre-
tion during death penalty sentencing.
The final stage of the report exam-
ines the attitudes of former judges to
abolition or retention of the death sen-
tence “while exploring their thoughts on
recent developments that seek to move
away from the death penalty”.
This is not the first time this trou-
bling legal subject of life vs death has
been explored in India. In the Consti-
tuent Assembly of 1947-49, it was in-
tensely debated, with Dr Ambedkar
staunchly opposing the death penalty.
In 2015, the Law Commission headed
by Justice AP Shah proposed that the
country should aim at complete aboli-
tion “but as a first step that it be done
away with for all crimes except terror-
ism. Further, the Commission sincerely
hopes that the movement towards
absolute abolition will be swift and
irreversible.”
Nonetheless, the latest study is star-
tling because it reveals an overpowering
recognition and widespread anxiety
among former Supreme Court judges
about India’s criminal justice system
because of extensive pervasiveness of
torture, fabrication of evidence, the
appalling inferiority of legal aid and
unjust convictions.
For example, as Dr Anup Surendra-
nath, director of the Centre on the
Death Penalty, puts it: “Judges
Theinterviewsinthereportalso
examinedthemeaningofthe“rarestof
rare”standardlaiddownbytheapexcourt
forawardingtheextremepunishmentin
BachanSinghvsStateofPunjab
JUSTICE DELAYED BUT NOT DENIED
(L-R) The parents of Nirbhaya; a candlelight
protest against the brutal act at Jantar Mantar
in New Delhi
Anil Shakya

16. 16 January 20, 2020
acknowledge the misuse of Section 27
of the Evidence Act as also planting of
evidence. They acknowledged that tor-
ture was a reality. Only one of them
said that it does not exist. Some said
that it is expected that something like
that will happen. They also acknowl-
edged wrongful convictions. But wrong-
ful convictions were eventually pitted
against wrongful acquittals by some
judges and were not viewed as inde-
pendent problems.”
Here are excerpts of the key findings
and recommendations of this exclusive
survey:
There was explicit acknowledgment
and widespread concern about the cri-
sis in the criminal justice system due to
the use of torture to generate evidence,
fabrication through recovery evidence, a
broken legal aid system and wrongful
convictions. Though some former
judges did offer justifications/explana-
tions for this state of affairs, there was
an overwhelming sense of concern
about the integrity of the criminal jus-
tice system from multiple viewpoints.
However, the grave concerns about
the criminal justice system did not sit
quite well with the support for the
death penalty. In conversations on the
death penalty, the above mentioned
realities of administering criminal jus-
tice in India hardly found mention.
This disconnect was best demonstrated
when 43 former judges acknowledged
wrongful convictions as a worrying
reality in India’s criminal justice system
generally but when it came to the death
penalty only five judges acknowledged
the ‘possibility of error’ as a possible
reason for abolition in India.
All former judges, irrespective of their
position on the death penalty, were as-
ked the reasons they saw for abolition
or retention of the death penalty in
India. In response, 29 former judges
identified abolitionist justifications
and 39 identified retentionist justifica-
tions. Fourteen retentionist judges
took the position that there was no rea-
son whatsoever to consider abolition
in India and three abolitionist judges
felt there was no reason to keep the
death penalty.
Deterrence emerged as the strongest
penological justification for retaining
the death penalty with 23 former judges
seeing merit in that argument. How-
ever, most of them believed that the
deterrent value of the death penalty
flows from a general fear of punishment
rather than any particular deterrent
value specific to the death penalty.
The notion of a bifurcated trial, being
a division between the guilt-determina-
tion phase and the sentencing phase,
did not seem to hold much attraction
for the former judges. Despite the sen-
tencing process in death penalty cases
having very specific requirements as per
the judgment in Bachan Singh, the
understanding of ‘rarest of rare’ among
former judges was determined/domi-
nated by considerations of the brutality
of the crime.
For a significant number of judges,
the ‘rarest of the rare’ was based on cat-
egories or description of offences alone
and had little to do with the judicial
test requiring that the alternative of life
imprisonment be ‘unquestionably fore-
closed’. This meant that for certain
crimes, this widely-hailed formulation
falls apart rendering the sentencing
exercise nugatory.
Despite the law setting out an indica-
tive list of both aggravating and miti-
gating circumstances to be taken into
Justice AR Lakshmanan
Justice Arijit Pasayat
Justice AK Patnaik
Justice AK Mathur
Justice AM Ahmadi
Justice AS Anand
Justice Aftab Alam
Justice Ajay Prakash Misra
Justice Ashok Bhan
Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly
Justice BN Srikrishna
Justice B Sudershan Reddy
Justice Brijesh Kumar
Justice BP Jeevan Reddy
Justice BP Singh
Justice BS Chauhan
Justice CK Prasad
Justice CK Thakker
Justice Cyriac Joseph
Justice DP Mohapatra
Justice Deepak Verma
Justice Fathima Beevi
Justice GB Pattanaik
Justice GN Ray
Justice GS Singhvi
Justice GT Nanavati
Justice Gyan Sudha Misra
Justice HK Sema
Justice HL Gokhale
Justice HS Bedi
Justice K Ramaswamy
Justice KG Balakrishnan
Justice KS Panicker
Radhakrishnan
Justice KT Thomas
Justice Kuldip Singh
Justice MB Shah
Justice MN Venkatachaliah
Justice N Santosh Hegde
Justice PB Sawant
Justice PK
Balasubramanyan
Justice PP Naolekar
Justice P Venkatarama
Reddi
Justice RC Lahoti
Justice Ruma Pal
Justice RV Raveendran
Justice S Mohan
Justice S Rajendra Babu
Justice Swatanter Kumar
Justice SB Sinha
Justice SC Agarwal
Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya
Justice SN Phukan
Justice SP Kurdukar
Justice Shivaraj V Patil
Justice SSM Quadri
Justice Tarun
Chatterjee
Justice V Gopala Gowda
Justice VN Khare
Justice VS Sirpurkar
Justice Vikramajit Sen
ListofRespondents
Thereportexaminestheattitudesoffor-
merjudgestoabolitionorretentionofthe
deathsentence“whileexploringtheir
thoughtsondevelopmentsthatseekto
moveawayfromthedeathpenalty”.
Focus/ Capital Punishment

17. the inescapable force of certain aboli-
tionist arguments, but stark in its com-
plete absence was any acknowledg-
ment of the disparate impact of the
death penalty on the poor and margin-
alised sections of Indian society. In a
criminal justice system that is corrupt
and violent at multiple levels, the bur-
den on vulnerable sections of society is
immense, and it is only accentuated
within the death penalty context. As
such, it is peculiar as to why this as-
pect of the death penalty in India did
not find any real favour amongst for-
mer judges, especially those that were
abolitionist.
“The disproportionate representa-
tion of the poor, illiterate, and socially
marginalised within the death penalty
context is abundantly clear in India and
other retentionist countries across the
globe. The contrast between the discus-
sions on the criminal justice system and
the confidence that seems to exist in
administering the death penalty in the
very same system is striking. The role
of harsh punishments within a crisis-
ridden criminal justice system is a com-
plex one.
“The challenge really is to compre-
hend the considerations which drive
the death penalty in a system that is
plagued with torture, fabricated evi-
dence, and wrongful convictions. As
the harshest punishment in our legal
system, the discussions and positions
on the death penalty must feel the
utmost impact of these worrying reali-
ties. It is the extreme ends of our crim-
inal justice system, that need to be
tempered by the grim reality that the
former judges brought out so powerful-
ly (in the first part of the report).
“Ultimately, the fact that their con-
cerns about the criminal justice system
has not migrated to their discussion on
the death penalty is indicative of the
terms on which multiple competing
interests get balanced.”
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 17
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
account before determining the sen-
tence, there was considerable confusion
about the weight and scope of mitigat-
ing circumstances. Opinions varied
considerably on whether factors such as
poverty, young age and post-conviction
mental illness and jail conduct could be
considered mitigating circumstances at
all, despite them being judicially recog-
nised. A minority, in fact, did not be-
lieve in considering any mitigating cir-
cumstances at all while others believed
that some categories of offences were
simply beyond mitigation.
A striking feature, in stark contrast to
the lack of confidence in the investiga-
tive process, was the confidence that
judges had in discretionary powers in
sentencing. This was despite the fact
that more than half the judges believed
that the background of a judge, includ-
ing their religion and personal beliefs,
were factors that influenced the choice
between the death penalty and life
imprisonment. There appeared to be
no “bright line” which distinguished
judicial sentencing discretion swiftly
slipping into individual judge-centric
decisions.
The law since Bachan Singh has ev-
olved considerably on the issue of the
scope of a sentence of life imprison-
ment. In December 2015, a constitution
bench of the Supreme Court affirmed
that it had the power to impose a sen-
tence for a fixed duration or for the
natural life of the prisoner which were
beyond the scope of remission. While
25 judges believed that this sentencing
formulation was a legally valid punish-
ment, seven found it violative of consti-
tutional mandate and separation of
powers.
CONCLUSION
“It is interesting that a significant num-
ber of retentionist judges identified
abolitionist reasoning. It demonstrates
Thereportfeatured60
formerjudgesofthe
SupremeCourt.They
include(clockwisefrom
aboveleft)JusticesRC
Lahoti,SantoshHegde,
RumaPal,AKGangulyand
BNSrikrishna.Forty-seven
judgeshadadjudicated
deathpenaltycasesand
confirmed92deathsen-
tencesin63cases.

18. Global Trends/ West Asia Situation
HE US drone attack on
Iran’s top general, Qassem
Soleimani, and Iran’s deci-
sion to retaliate by firing
ballistic missiles at two
American bases in Iraq
have raised concerns about an all-out
armed conflict which will plunge West
Asia into instability. Any conflict in this
oil-producing area will have repercus-
sions worldwide, including India.
However, good sense seems to have
prevailed for the moment. But how long
that will last is uncertain. As speculation
grows around the downing of a Ukraine
plane in Iran, killing 179 people, one
wonders if its militias could have a hand
in it. It is not clear yet if Tehran can
control them; they had played an impor-
tant role in getting the IS out of the ter-
ritory it had carved out in Iraq and Sy-
ria. Soleimani was the guiding force
behind these militias. They are baying
for revenge and may act without con-
sulting the authorities in Tehran. The
situation remains volatile and a tiny
miscalculation by one side can plunge
the region into war. Small rockets hit
the Green Zone in Baghdad on January
9 near the American embassy. Luckily,
there was no major damage.
For the moment, both Iran and the
US have thankfully stepped back from
the brink. US President Donald Trump,
in an address to Americans on January
8 from the White House, said that the
ballistic missile attack on the Erbil air
base in northern Iraq and the Al-Asad
base in the western part of the country
had not led to any loss of American
lives. In fact, the Iraqis had warned the
US forces and that allowed them to shift
to safety before the missiles struck. For a
president who likes to project himself as
a strong and decisive leader, any
American death would have led to mas-
sive retaliation.
Iran knows that. According to offi-
cials quoted by US newspapers and tele-
vision channels, Iranians made sure that
the damage was minimal. However, Ira-
nian state television claimed that 80
American soldiers were killed. Iran had
no option but to strike at US targets
after Soleimani was killed while on a
visit to Baghdad. Domestic public opin-
ion was enraged at the US strike against
the well-loved and powerful general. But
the pragmatic Iranian leadership took
care not to further escalate an already
volatile situation. Iran Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Khamenei, speaking in the
holy city of Qom, had claimed after the
missile attacks: “Last night they received
a slap…these military actions are not
sufficient…what is important is that the
corrupt presence of America in this
region comes to an end.’’
However, on January 7, Iranian for-
eign minister Javad Zarif said that the
Islamic Republic does “not seek escala-
India’s
Balancing
Act
ThoughIranandtheUShavesteppedbackfromthe
brinkofwar,thesituationisvolatile.Indiaiswatching
thesituationcloselyduetoitsdiasporaintheregion
andtheimpactonoilprices
By Seema Guha
T
18 January 20, 2020

19. tion or war, but will defend ourselves
against any aggression’’. Like White Ho-
use and Pentagon officials, Iran too was
playing the soft and hard cards. There
have been reports in a section of the US
press that the US and Iran have been in
touch through a Swiss diplomat and
have been talking through the crisis,
perhaps to contain the damage or begin
bilateral talks. There is no official confir-
mation of this.
Trump’s nine-minute speech on Iran
gave mixed signals to the Iranians. He
said Iran was “standing down’’ and
OMINOUS SIGNALS
Top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani's ass-
assination by the US may plunge West Asia
into instability and drag India into the vortex
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 19
Photos: UNI

20. sought to reassure Americans that the
country was not heading for another
war in West Asia. His assertion came
even as Democrats were trying to curtail
Trump’s powers to wage war. The pre-
sident did not share his decision to att-
ack Soleimani with Congress, which,
according to the US Constitution,
should have been done. Trump ended
his speech with an unexpected appeal
for peace. This was dismissed by Iran’s
envoy to the UN, Majid Ravanchi, as
“unbelievable’’ after Washington had
“initiated a new series of escalation and
animosity with Iran’’.
A
t the heart of the current crisis is
Trump’s decision in 2018 to walk
away from the nuclear agree-
ment between Iran, US, China, Russia,
France, UK and Germany. The 2015
deal, which was signed under President
Barack Obama’s administration, was
worked out to ensure that Iran stop its
nuclear programme in return for lifting
all US sanctions slapped on it. A strict
inspection regime by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in return
for lifting the crippling sanctions was
worked out. Trump, always critical of
the deal, walked out. He was backed by
Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who
were vehemently against the agreement
from the beginning.
Trump wants to renegotiate the deal
and has appealed to China, Russia and
others who signed it to begin fresh
negotiations. He vowed: “As long as I’m
US president, Iran will never have a
nuclear weapon.’’ Soon after Soleimani’s
death, Iran announced that it would no
longer be restrained by the Joint Com-
prehensive Plan of Action. So far, the
government has not kicked out IAEA
inspectors who can visit any of Iran’s
nuclear facilities. The team sometimes
does so three times a month.
Trump had charged the Obama
administration with negotiating a bad
deal as it allowed Tehran to use/fund a
“terror spree’’, including the missiles
fired at two US camps in Iraq. Susan
Rice, Obama’s national security adviser,
denied this and said that it was Trump
who began to escalate the situation in
Iran by “recklessly and unilaterally”
withdrawing from the nuclear deal and
imposing “maximum pressure crippling
sanctions. She told MSNBC, “And it was
in the wake of that that we found our-
selves in this escalatory cycle that has
led to where we are today—a very dan-
gerous moment.”
The short point is that Trump initiat-
ed the problem and by killing Soleimani
could plunge the two countries into
another meaningless war. America
seems to have drawn few lessons from
former President George Bush’s decision
to go to war with Iraq in 1991.
The consequences of a war between
the US and Iran would greatly damage
Indian interests. Though India, thanks
mainly to US sanctions, stopped buying
oil from Iran, any military confrontation
would lead to skyrocketing oil prices.
ThoughIranianforeignminister
JavadZarifhadopenlyspokenabout
hisdisappointmentwithIndiaforgiving
intoUSdiktatsandrefusingtoliftoil
fromIran,hewaspositiveaboutties
betweenIndiaandIran.
20 January 20, 2020
Global Trends/ West Asia Situation
STRATEGIC MOVE
Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei
had no option but to strike at US targets

21. Considering India’s fragile economic
condition at present, a hike in petrole-
um products would inflate its oil import
bill and damage the economy further.
T
hough there are few Indian work-
ers in Iran, some 150 families are
settled there. In case war breaks
out and they need to be evacuated, the
numbers are small. The larger concern
is the war engulfing the rest of the
Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and
the UAE. This is where the majority of
India’s nearly nine million workers
are spread.
Iran had also reportedly vowed to
attack Dubai in the UAE and Haifa in
Israel if Iranian soil is bombed. Fear of
the fighting spreading would induce
many of the Indians to return home.
Indian workers in the region send home
$40 billion each year. This will reduce
drastically if the region remains unsta-
ble. India is keeping a close watch on
developments. MEA spokesman Rav-
eesh Kumar said that foreign minister S
Jaishankar has been talking to all stake-
holders, including the UAE, Jordan and
Qatar. Earlier, both US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo and Zarif had spo-
ken to Jaishankar.
In the last few years, India has had to
constantly balance its traditional ties
with Iran with its current all-encom-
passing relations with the US. It has
been a tightrope walk. Yet, despite Wa-
shington giving India exemptions from
sanctions on Chabahar Port in Iran, the
project has been languishing for over a
decade. The Port is of strategic impor-
tance to India because it gives Delhi
access to not just Afghanistan but entire
Central Asia. Chabahar was seen as a
way to bypass Pakistan, which does not
allow India to use its territory for trade.
India built the Zaranj-Delaram highway
at great cost and the sacrifice of several
workers who were attacked by the
Taliban. The idea was to send goods to
Chabahar Port and then take them to
the Iran-Afghanistan border where it
would be connected to the rest of the
country through this highway. This proj-
ect is working in spurts, thanks to de-
cades of sanctions against Iran. Unless
the situation improves and sanctions are
lifted, Chabahar cannot provide the kind
of access that India had hoped for.
Zarif is expected to be in Delhi soon.
While he had openly spoken to this cor-
respondent in November about his dis-
appointment with India for giving in to
US diktats and refusing to lift oil from
Iran, he was positive about ties between
both countries. Both Delhi and Tehran
realise the significance of their ties—
Iran because it needs friends and India
because Iran is a major oil producer and
part of its extended neighbourhood.
People to people contacts too run deep.
So India is keeping its fingers crossed
as the situation unfolds.
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
SusanRice,BarackObama’snational
securityadviser,saidthatitwasDonald
Trumpwhobegantoescalatethesitua-
tioninIranbywithdrawingfromthe
nucleardealandimposing“maximum
pressurecripplingsanctions”.
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 21
MIXED SIGNALS ON IRAN
US President Donald Trump reassured
Americans the situation will not lead to war

22. Global Trends/ Column/ West Asia Col R Hariharan
22 January 20, 2020
HE killing of Major
General Qassem
Soleimani, chief of the
Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps (IRGC)’s
Quds Force, considered
Iran’s second most powerful leader, by
US airstrike on January 3, in Iraq, has
taken West Asia to the brink of war. The
US operation carried out on the orders
of President Donald Trump triggered
Iran’s retaliatory military response after
three days of national mourning for the
slain leader. The Iranians fired two doz-
en missiles targeting two American
bases in Iraq, which do not seem to have
suffered much damage.
According to National Interest, the
missiles were area weapons fired from
400 miles away, on targets of a few
square miles, with minimal effect. This
would indicate Iran’s response was cal-
culated to be symbolic to satisfy the
masses baying for revenge. President
Trump’s national address on the attack
also indicated, at least for the time
being, that the US would leave the crisis
simmering rather than letting it flare
into full-fledged war.
While strategic analysts continue to
debate the cause and effect of the latest
US-Iran stand-off, it raises a number of
uncomfortable questions on the legality
of their conduct. The Quds Force, a part
of the IRGC, led by General Soleimani,
was responsible for extra-territorial
unconventional warfare and intelli-
gence. The US designated it a terrorist
organisation in 2007 with Canada,
Egypt and Saudi Arabia following suit.
The US had for long held General
Soleimani and the Quds Force in its
sights for carrying out terrorist attacks
Different Strokes
ByoneUNdefinition,thekillingofGeneralSoleimanimay
fallunderthecategoryofaterroristact
T
news.un.org

23. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 23
defining terrorism that is acceptable to
all member nations. However, since
1994, the UN General Assembly, after
adopting the 1994 UN Declaration on
Measures to Eliminate International
Terrorism annexure to UN General
Assembly Resolution 49/60 “Measures
to Eliminate International Terrorism” of
December 9, 1994, uses the following
political description of terrorism to con-
demn terrorist acts:
“Criminal acts intended or calculat-
ed to provoke a state of terror in the ge-
neral public, a group of persons or par-
ticular persons for political purposes are
in any circumstance unjustifiable, what-
ever the considerations of a political,
philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic,
religious or any other nature that may
be invoked to justify them.”
By this UN definition of a terrorist
act, the killing of General Soleimani
may fall under the above category of a
terrorist act.
O
ther than this, the UN’s interna-
tional conventions on anti-ter-
rorist measures for various sec-
tors are based on operational definition
of the specific type of terrorist act. These
measures focus on action by non-State
actors and adoption of a criminal law
enforcement model under which states
would cooperate in the apprehension
and prosecution of those who commit-
ted the terrorist act.
Though the UN has had difficulty in
defining terrorism, the US defines ter-
rorism in Title 22 Chapter 38 US Code
§ 256f as “premeditated, politically
motivated, perpetrated against non-
combatant targeted by sub-national
groups or clandestine agents”. So the
act of killing Soleimani by using an air
strike may not pass muster in the US as
an act of terrorism.
In April 2019, in a questionable
move, the US designated the IRGC, a
constitutional entity of the Iranian gov-
ernment, a terrorist organisation. This
was said to have been opposed by the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The IRGC is distinct from the
Iranian army which is entrusted with
national security. The IRGC’s role is to
protect the Islamic system, to prevent
foreign interference and coups by the
military or other opposition movements.
Evidently the US action was taken to
check IRGC activities in Syria, Iraq,
Palestine and Lebanon.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, research pro-
fessor of international dispute resolution
at the University of Notre Dame, in her
comments to CNN held that Trump’s
decision to kill General Soleimani was
not legal as it had the quality of an act
of revenge, reprisal and punishment.
She cited the President’s Twitter post,
that General Soleimani “was plotting to
kill many more….but got caught…” and
“he should have been taken out many
years ago” and the Department of
Defense press release calling the attack
“a defensive action”.
Moreover, under the right of self-
defence, military attack is permitted
under UN Charter Article 51 only “if an
armed attack” occurs on the defending
nation. The triggering action must be
significant and the response necessary
and proportionate to halt and repel the
ongoing attacks. So Prof O’Connell
holds the killing of Soleimani cannot be
justified by the law of self-defence.
Her comment, “Trump is not the
first president to carry out drone killings
in violation of international law. He has
taken the practice to a new level of law-
lessness,” says it all.
—The writer is a retired officer of the
Intelligence Corps and associated with
the Chennai Centre for China Studies
and the South Asia Analysis Group
GLOBAL CONSENSUS
A UN conference on fighting
terrorism at Minsk
through local extremist groups in the
Levant. The US act of carrying out a
drone strike to kill Soleimani in Iraq
when he was on his way to Baghdad air-
port, on President Trump’s orders, for
his alleged role in killing “millions of
people”, would probably be classified as
an act of terrorism if any country other
than the United States had done it.
After the attack, Iran’s foreign min-
ister, Javad Zarif, in a tweet, called the
US action an act of international terror-
ism and said it was an extremely dan-
gerous and foolish escalation. “The US
bears responsibility for all consequences
of its rogue adventurism,” he said.
Can the US action be called terror-
ism? For long, the UN had difficulty in
Whilestrategicanalystscontinueto
debatethecauseandeffectofthe
latestUS-Iranstand-off,itraisesa
numberofuncomfortablequestionson
thelegalityoftheirconduct.
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com

24. Opinion/ R-Day Parade MG Devasahayam
24 January 20, 2020
S Republic Day-2020 is
fast approaching, there is
some commotion over the
rejection of tableaux of
Opposition-ruled states—
West Bengal, Maharashtra
and Kerala—for the parade. Senior lead-
ers of the Trinamool Congress have
accused the central government of drop-
ping the state tableau from the final list
due to Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee’s vehement opposition to the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)
and the proposed pan-India National
Register of Citizens (NRC). In
Maharashtra, senior Shiv Sena leader
Sanjay Raut and NCP leader Supriya
Sule have alleged that Maharashtra was
also left out for the same reason. The
argument is the same for Kerala also.
The central government rubbished
this criticism and claimed that there was
no malicious intent behind the move
and proper procedure was followed
while selecting/rejecting tableaux for the
parade. According to these sources,
many tableaux of BJP-ruled states such
as Haryana, Uttarakhand and Tripura
were also rejected this year after follow-
ing due procedure.
As per process laid down, every year,
the Ministry of Defence (MoD) invites
proposals for the Republic Day Parade
tableaux from all states and Union
Territories (UTs) along with central
ministries/departments by providing a
broad list of suggestive themes. It
includes important episodes from the
state/UT's history, festivals celebrated
there, cultural or architectural heritage,
important social and economic develop-
ment scheme, environment, and so on.
On receipt of the proposals, they are
evaluated by an expert committee on the
basis of theme, concept, design and
visual impact before making recommen-
dations. There are two rounds of selec-
Politicising
Vs Militarising
Complaintsoftableaurejectionwouldnothavecomefrom
statesiftheparadewasapeople’spageantanda
celebrationofcitizensratherthanashowofmilitant
nationalisminafracturednation
A SHOWCASING DEFENCE MIGHT
File photo of Indian Army tanks on Rajpath
at a R-Day rehearsal parade in New Delhi
UNI

25. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 25
Army, in addition to the Navy and Air
Force with their bands, march past in
their uniforms and official decorations.
The president of India as the supreme
commander of the armed forces takes
the salute. Contingents of various para-
military forces and other police/civil
forces also take part. Some selected
states and Union Territories are repre-
sented by their floats that highlight
aspects of their culture or activities.
It is the MoD, not the home or cul-
ture ministries, that plans and manages
the mega-show. Therefore, the focus of
the celebration is parade, not pageant.
Media headlines on India’s 70th Repu-
blic Day celebration last year ran like
this: “India Showcases Its Military
Might at Republic Day Parade”. Dedic-
ated to the 150th anniversary of Maha-
tma Gandhi, the apostle of peace, the
parade comprised over 25 marching and
mounted contingents, various military
vehicles and armaments, 20 military
bands and 30 aircraft. Indeed, an irony.
The parade was commanded by the
General Officer Commanding,
Headquarters, Delhi Area, a lieutenant
general. Chief of Staff, Headquarters,
Delhi Area, a major general, was the
parade second-in-command. The
marching contingent of the army
included horse-mounted columns of the
61st Cavalry, the Punjab Regiment,
Maratha Light Infantry, the Dogra
Regiment, Ladakh Scouts, the Regiment
of Artillery and 123 Infantry Battalion-
Territorial Army (Grenadiers), followed
by the tableau of ex-servicemen. The
marching contingent of the navy com-
prised 144 young sailors and the Indian
Air Force contingent also had 144 men.
Paramilitary and other auxiliary civil
forces included the Border Security
Force as well as camel contingents, the
Indian Coast Guard, Sashastra Seema
Bal, Indo Tibetan Border Police, Delhi
Police and National Cadet Corps.
The blatantly military aspect in 2019
was the display of American M777
Howitzers, the K-9 Vajras. These were
the first major induction of artillery
guns in the Indian Army since the
Bofors guns of the mid-1980s. Transport
Satellite Terminal (TST), Surface Mine
Clearing System (SMCS) and Troop
Level Radar were also exhibited as part
of the army’s mechanised columns on
the ceremonial boulevard. The army’s
T-90 tank (Bhishma), Ballway Machine
Pikate (II/IIK), Brahmos Missile
System, weapon locating radar (Swathi),
bridge-laying tank T-72, mobile base
transceiver station and Akash weapon
system were the main draw in the
mechanised columns. Civilian participa-
tion was exhibited in 30 tableaux show-
casing the cultures/activities of various
states and UTs as well as ministries/
public sector enterprises. In addition,
around 1,200 schoolchildren presented
cultural dances.
tion based on merit. Data for the past 13
years does not show that central govern-
ments have used Republic Day tableaux
as tools to target states ruled by the
Opposition. Federal principles are not
involved here as the rights of states to
represent themselves at a national event
have not been violated. Politicising the
Republic Day parade is not a valid
charge. The real charge should be that it
is too militarised.
O
ften, there have been questions
as to whether the celebration of
Republic Day should be thr-
ough parades or pageants. Let us look at
the definition of these two. While a pag-
eant is an elaborate colourful exhibition
or spectacle, often with music that con-
sists of a series of tableaux, a parade is
the ceremonial formation of a body of
troops before a superior officer. And a
Republic is defined as a government in
which supreme power resides with the
citizens and is exercised by representa-
tives elected by them. There is nothing
military about it. It follows that Rep-
ublic Day celebrations should be citizen-
centric with lots of songs, dance and
tableaux which would form the pageant.
Instead, what is dominating India’s
Republic Day is a military/paramilitary
parade, relegating the pageant to the
background. The grand parade is led by
the three divisions of the Indian armed
forces. Different regiments of the Indian
Seniorleadersofthe
TrinamoolCongress
haveaccusedthe
centralgovernment
ofdroppingthestate
tableaufromthefinal
listduetoChief
MinisterMamata
Banerjee’svehement
oppositiontothe
Citizenship
(Amendment)Act.PIB

26. 26 January 20, 2020
As of now, the parade is mainly
meant to demonstrate the might of the
Indian state and its military technolo-
gies and weapons of defence/offence.
The question is: who is this “demonstra-
tion” meant for? To our so-called ene-
mies to beware? Or to our own citizens
to obey the State unquestioningly? If it
is the former, it has become meaningless
as our enemies know what military ware
we have, most of which are imported. If
it is the latter, it is against the very ethos
of our democratic republic in which the
citizen is sovereign. Rousseau famously
said: “Obedience is not the duty of a
citizen.”
If on the other hand, the idea is to
give a sense of security to the people by
parading some troops at Rajpath and
displaying military hardware, it is not
going to serve the purpose.
B
e that as it may, the very idea of a
bounded nation implies that its
borders need to be protected by
its armed forces. And this seems to be
the chief reason for the elevated status
of military power as a symbol of the
nation, particularly in these troubled
times when, despite the rhetoric of glob-
alisation, nation-states continue to pre-
vail and in an environment of social
Darwinism, war or the fear of war is
normalised.
The ritualisation of the Republic Day
parade reinforces this sort of nationalist
euphoria: see the march of the army
comprising disciplined, tight, masculine
bodies of trained/robotic soldiers salut-
ing the flag; feel good, cherish the nar-
cissism of the nation and think that you
are more powerful than your enemies.
Despite the sound of the boots of the
marching army, an imaginary unity in
the name of fighting the “external
enemy” (which has become a wild obses-
sion these days) cannot create a healthy
nation. A fractured/fragmented nation
can be healed only by eradicating the
arbitrariness and injustice within and
reinforcing democratic values. But the
opposite is happening.
As the parade—almost like a totemic
ritual—seeks to reinforce “solidarity”,
this form of obsessive nationalism con-
ditions our minds and limits our hori-
zon. This narrowness and its implicit
violence brings about militant national-
ism, which is wrecking the nation today
with its rigidity, mechanisation and
reckless regimentation.
Even as we approach the day of fes-
tive celebration, what we see is a violent
nation with heightened social tension
and economic inequality. All sorts of
aggression is taking place in the name of
exclusionary identities. Sanity demands
that we come out of the rhetoric of
nationalism and valourisation of mili-
tarised heroism and converse with the
likes of Gandhi, BR Ambedkar and
Rabindranath Tagore for drawing inspi-
ration for creating yet another India
with compassion, civility and kindness.
For this to happen, Republic Day
should be less militarised and more
politicised in the sense that it should
become a people’s pageant and a cele-
bration of citizens. Then complaints of
rejection of tableau will not come up as
every state/Union Territory will not only
have more of them but will also have
much higher cultural participation in
the Republic Day celebrations.
Long ago, Greek philosopher-sta-
tesman Aristotle spoke these prophetic
words: “Republics decline into democra-
cies and democracies degenerate into
despotism.” This is becoming true of In-
dia, touted as the “largest democracy in
the world”. The remedy is to reduce mil-
itarisation. The Republic Day parade
could be a good occasion to start.
—The writer is a former Army &
IAS Officer
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
Opinion/ R-Day Parade/ MG Devasahayam
MILITARY PRIDE
The Akash missile system
passing past the saluting
dais, as part of the R-Day
rehearsal in New Delhi
“TheCentrehasrejectedpermissionsto
thetableauxofMaharashtraandWest
BengalfromparadeonRepublicDay.Itis
afestivalofthecountryandtheCentreis
expectedtogiverepresentation
toallthestates.”
—NCPleaderSupriyaSule
UNI

27. For geeks and gadget lovers, their Mecca
is the Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) held each January in the Mecca of
gambling—Las Vegas. There is irony in that
convergence since many of the companies
exhibiting their latest technology at CES are
gambling on it being profitable. CES has
served as the proving ground for innovators
and breakthrough technologies and remains
the global stage where next-generation
innovations are introduced to the market-
place. CES 2020 showcased some amazing
products. Here are some of the best.
DUAL AND FOLDING DISPLAYS: The lat-
est trend in computers, phones and laptops
are dual or foldable displays and CES 2020
showed how far the technology has come.
Dell unveiled the Concept Duet and Con-
cept Ori. The Duet is essentially like having
two monitors you can fold up. The design
means you can use it vertically to review
images on one screen while working on the
other. If you want a keyboard experience,
there’s a detachable one. There was also the
world’s first foldable tablet PC, the Think-
Pad X1 Fold from Lenovo.
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 27
International Briefs
Gadgets Galore
TELEVISIONS: Bigger is better has been
the way forward for all manufacturers, and
this time Samsung unveiled The Wall. It
lives up to the name, measuring an amazing
292 inches (24 feet or 7.4 metres), which is
the largest TV ever seen at CES.
AUTOMOBILE TECHNOLOGY: The brave
new age of motoring was also in display,
with Mercedes-Benz inspired by the movie
Avatar to unveil an all-electric AVTR con-
cept car. It has see-through surfaces and no
steering wheel which has been replaced by a
multifunctional control console. The interior
and exterior are heavily inspired by the
world of Pandora, which in the movie is a
densely forested moon. It may not hit the
road soon, but it shows that the future of
automobile technology is coming close to
science fiction. Even Sony, which does not
make cars, unveiled a concept electronic
vehicle. It has 33 sensors dotting the interior
and exterior of the car.
While the car is unlikely to be commer-
cially sold, it shows how committed Sony is
to mobility tech and a tie-up with a major
manufacturer is a possibility.
MOBILE PHONES: CES is the place where
mobile phone manufacturers get pride of
place and while Apple and Samsung have
recently launched new products, the show
stealer was from TCL.
The Chinese company unveiled a fold-
able prototype that is due to hit the market
later this year. The eye-catching design is a
major plus while a 7.2-inch screen adds to
the allure. It is also likely to come at an
affordable price.
FITNESS WATCHES: The big demand
keeps manufacturers on their toes and the
best of the rest was Withings’ range of the
elegantly designed fitness-tracking Scan-
Watch. It has dual optical sensors to register
heart rhythm and a sensor to monitor blood
oxygen levels.
PHOTO SHOOT: Digital photo frames are
quite popular for display on mantelpieces
and desks but now we have the Lenovo
Smart Frame, for hanging on a wall. The
21.9-inch display is like a work of art, with
the attraction of being able to change photos
from your phone.
INNOVATIONS ON OFFER
(Clockwise from above left) The AVTR from
Mercedes; digital photo frames from Lenovo;
fitness-tracking ScanWatch from Withings;
“The Wall” TV from Samsung

28. Environment/ Pollution in Mumbai
28 January 20, 2020
HILE the world is
aware of the air pollu-
tion issues faced by
the National Capital
Region (NCR), a sim-
ilar crisis facing the
Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)
has not received the attention it des-
erves. Even though Mumbai and most of
the MMR is located along the Arabian
Sea, or its creeks and estuaries, the air
quality in the MMR is cause for worry
and, surprising as it may seem, on a few
days a year, it is even worse than Delhi’s.
The reasons for this are many. The
construction of high-rises has complete-
ly disrupted the air flows over Greater
Every Breath
Mumbai Takes
Themetropolisisgasping,yetacleanairactionplanfromthe
statepollutioncontrolboardisasorrycutandpastejobthat
iscluelessaboutthestepsneededtomaketheairclean
By Debi Goenka
W

29. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 29
Mumbai, besides affecting the green
lung of the metropolis and significantly
impacting the air quality in the city and
its suburbs. Add to this the pollution
caused by the coal-fired thermal power
plants owned and operated by the Tata
Power Company (TPC) in an area that
has come to be known as Mumbai’s “gas
chamber”—the Chembur-Mahul belt.
Shocking as it may seem, the TPC actu-
ally made an application in 2013 to the
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board
(MPCB) and the Ministry of Environ-
ment, Forests & Climate Change
(MoEF) to convert one of their 500 MW
units that were originally licensed to
operate on gas or oil to coal, and this
was done under the label of modernisa-
tion! Not surprisingly, both the MPCB
and the MoEF promptly cleared the
proposal. These clearances were chal-
lenged in the NGT by the Conservation
Action Trust (CAT) and others, includ-
ing this writer.
These applications are still pending.
After six years of litigation, we now find
that the TPC is not going ahead with
this project since it is not financially vi-
able. This, of course, is a victory of sorts,
but still begs the question—while coal-
based power plants all over the world
are being shut down (including in Del-
hi), how did the MPCB and the MoEF
so blithely permit the conversion from
gas/oil to coal?
T
o add insult to injury, the Na-
tional Environmental Engineer-
ing Research Institute (NEERI),
which is one of India’s most renowned
scientific institutions, was commis-
sioned by TPC to do an independent
assessment on the impact of this project.
Shockingly, the NEERI report conclud-
ed that there would be no material dif-
ference to the air quality or to the envi-
ronment if TPC was allowed to operate
this 500 MW unit on coal instead of gas
or oil.
This entire sequence of events gives
us an understanding of how things can
go horribly wrong if institutions that are
meant to protect the people forget their
responsibilities and bend over back-
wards to accommodate hazardous and
highly polluting projects to come up in
densely populated areas.
In addition to the 2,600 MW of
power plants operating in Mumbai,
there are also two refineries at Mahul.
As its newly translocated residents have
discovered, living in Mahul is a prelude
to living in hell. These residents, who
have been forced to occupy slum tene-
ments a few metres away from the
refineries, are suffering from a wide
range of chronic illnesses, caused by the
severe pollution. And after two years of
battling with the insensitive authorities,
the High Court directed the Municipal
Corporation of Greater Mumbai
(MCGM) to relocate them to alternative
sites, or to give them `15,000 per month
as rent for staying in a safer environ-
ment. Instead of complying with the or-
der, the MCGM has gone in appeal to
the Supreme Court.
Due to its peculiar v-shaped topogra-
phy, surrounded by the rising sea on
three sides, road space in Mumbai is
restricted. But the vehicular population
of Mumbai continues to grow. The solu-
tion is actually quite simple—instead
APATHY AND INACTION
(Left) The declining air quality in the MMR has
not received enough attention; social activist
Medha Patkar with Mahul residents at their
protest against deaths due to pollution
UNI
Twitter.com

30. Environment/ Pollution in Mumbai
30 January 20, 2020
of causing further environmental havoc
by building sea links and coastal roads,
the best option would be to follow the
Singapore or London models, and res-
trict the number of private vehicles on
the road.
Unfortunately, the best option is not
the most lucrative option, since our sys-
tem is geared to adopt the most expen-
sive and time-consuming options, for
reasons that we all understand. Since
there is no restriction on the purchase
and use of private vehicles, the number
of vehicles on our roads keeps doubling
every six to seven years, while motorable
roads remain practically the same.
The problem has been further aggra-
vated by the fact that almost all the arte-
rial roads in Mumbai have been simul-
taneously dug up for building the Metro.
While these projects are being touted as
solutions to our traffic problems, there is
no clarity on how much they will cost,
and whether the public will be able to
afford these services. And in the bar-
gain, the real lifeline of Mumbai, which
are our suburban train networks, are
starved of funds. It has been estimated
that for less than 10 percent of the cost
of the Metro, it would be possible to
double the capacity of these train sys-
tems. This would not involve any more
land acquisition or displacement.
The slowdown in the economy seems
to have had little impact on the builders
in Mumbai. Construction continues un-
abated, and thanks to all the Metro and
other projects, Ready Mix Concrete
(RMC) plants are mushrooming all over
the city. This creates a huge amount of
SPM within the city. And since all these
materials have to be transported by
road, one can well imagine the chaos
that Mumbai is being subjected to.
A
s part of the National Clean Air
Campaign, the MPCB was re-
quired to prepare a Clean Air
Action Plan (CAAP) for Mumbai, and
get it approved by the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB). Three draft
plans were prepared by MPCB. While
the first two drafts were rejected, the
third one was approved by the CPCB.
Unfortunately, neither the CPCB nor the
MPCB thought it necessary to consult
those who mattered—the Mumbaikars.
At a series of workshops organised by
civil society groups in Mumbai (includ-
ing CAT), the CAAP was found to be full
of holes. The introduction is a combina-
tion of copy and paste from documents
written by other organisations—without
any attribution. The actual action plan
document is even worse—there is no
clarity about the steps to be taken; nor
is there any clarity about who will be
responsible for the implementation
of these actions.
Here are some of the recommenda-
tions arising out of the civil society
workshops:
1. The Mumbai plan lacks coherence,
appears to have drawn from different
reports without reference or attribution
and there is a disconnect between the
narrative and the actions suggested.
2. It fails to clarify what the reduction
targets actually are, and by when these
will be achieved.
3. Comprehensive sector-wise plans
need to be prepared.
4. Comprehensive Environmental
Pollution Index (CEPI) was computed
several years ago for all highly polluted
areas within the country. Greater Mum-
bai was classified as critically polluted as
per CEPI. This exercise needs to be car-
ried out every year for Greater Mumbai.
5. Graded Response Action Plan
(GRAP) needs to be prepared for Grea-
ter Mumbai and linked to the air quality
levels as has been done for NCR.
6. There is an urgent need to set up a
real-time air quality monitoring net-
work within Mumbai city. Data should
be made available online and the GRAP
should automatically be enforced depen-
ding on the air quality.
7. Wardwise/zonal air quality maps with
date from continuous air quality moni-
toring instruments need to be prepared
periodically, and the trends analysed.
It is to be hoped that these and other
specific recommendations are included
in the CAAP. The alternative would be
to go back to the courts.
—The writer is Executive Trustee,
Conservation Action Trust
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
TheroadspaceinMumbaiisrestricted
butthenumberofvehiclesisontherise,
leadingtopollution.Theproblemisaggra-
vatedbyMetroconstruction,whichhas
ledtoallarterialroadsbeingdugup.
metrorailnews.in

31. Daughters are the pride of home
Take full care of their education and health
Mukhyamantri Kanya
Sumangla Yojana
Schemecategoriesandfunds
First grade
` 2000/-
on the
birth of a
child
Permanent residence certificate of Uttar Pradesh Annual Family Income of more than Rs 3 Lakh
Benefit of the scheme limited to maximum 2 girls Maximum two children in a family
Second grade
` 1000/- on
full immu-
nization till
one year
Third grade
` 2000/-
on
admission in
Class-1
Fourth grade
` 2000/-
on
admission in
Class-6
Fifth grade
` 3000/-
on
admission in
Class-9
Sixth grade
` 5000/- on admission in
graduation or in diploma
courses of more than 2
years after completion of
10th/12th standard
Qualificationsfortheschemeeligibility
Application procedure
Girl child herself (if adult), parent or guardian can be applicant
Online application - Apply through the Common Service Centers / Cyber Cafe / own smartphone
or computer etc. by logging in to https://mksy.up.gov.in or contact the office of the District
Probation Officer of your district
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Women Welfare Department, Uttar Pradeshhttps://mksy.up.gov.inCar drivers should wear seat belts

32. Environment/ Electric Vehicles
32 January 20, 2020
S Delhi emerges from the
grip of a severe cold wave,
poor air quality continues
to make headlines. Recent
fog conditions and tem-
perature dips contributed
to soaring pollutant concentration in the
air. Air pollution has been established to
be the second largest killer in India. In
Delhi-NCR, vehicles contribute up to 40
percent of these pollutants. As aware-
ness around air pollution grows, multi-
ple initiatives are being started to tackle
it. The latest initiative is an electric ve-
hicle (EV) policy approved by the Delhi
Government.
According to the policy, by 2023, 25
percent of new vehicle registration will
be electric ones. The focus is on two-
and three-wheelers, shared transport
and commercial vehicles.
The policy is to exclusively promote
fast-track adoption of battery EVs to
improve Delhi’s air quality by reducing
vehicular pollution. Incidentally, all EVs
have batteries —the difference is in how
they are used.
This is a welcome move for clean air
campaigners, environmentalists, and
sustainable mobility planners as well as
the automobile industry. The EV market
in India has not made much headway
yet. Both the government and the auto-
mobile industry expect this policy to fuel
consumer interest in this segment. Cu-
rrently, only 0.2 percent electric two-
wheelers and 0.1 percent electric cars
are sold every year. It is almost negligi-
ble for three-wheelers.
The Society for Indian Automobile
Manufacturers lauded the policy, calling
it comprehensive with the ability to cre-
ate a market demand for EVs. This is
All Charged Up
Inanefforttobringdownpollution,theDelhigovernmenthascomeoutwithanEV
policywhichaimstoincreasethenumberofthesevehiclesby2023
By Papia Samajdar
A
PROBLEM AREA
Infrastructure gaps like providing enough
charging centres for electric vehicles are
issues that deter people from buying EVs
india.uitp.org

33. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 33
the sentiment of automotive compo-
nents manufacturers.
“Electric vehicle adoption in India
over the next five years is going to be
largely driven by two-wheelers and
three-wheelers. Electric two-wheelers
are seen to have lower cost of ownership
and acquisition compared with scooters
which account for 34 percent of the
two-wheeler industry. EV adoption in
the car segment will be led by cab aggre-
gators and the policy has been framed
keeping this in mind,” said Shalini
Chopra, who represents an Indian auto-
mobile components manufacturer.
The Delhi government aims to put
35,000 vehicles (two-, three- and four-
wheelers and buses combined) on the
roads along with 1,000 EVs for interme-
diate transport and last mile connectivi-
ty. In the next five years, the target is to
register five lakh EVs.
The policy also puts in place 250
public charging stations and aims to
change building by-laws to increase
parking space by 20 percent—big
enough to accommodate more than 10
cars in new non-residential buildings
accessible to charging.
For existing residential building
owners, non-residential building owners
and market associations with similar
parking space, the policy offers subsidy
to instal one station for every three cars.
The policy also provides for battery
swapping facilities and concessional
locations at selected public parking. The
aim is to provide public charging facili-
ties within three kilometres anywhere
within Delhi.
T
he policy also incentivises buyers
by providing waivers of road tax,
registration charges, provision for
one-time MCD parking and permit fee
and subsidies up to `29,000 on two-
wheelers. It also provides incentives for
recycling of non-EVs and consumers wi-
lling to switch to EVs. This would boost
employment in the sector and assist au-
thorities in managing waste generated
by scrapping vehicles.
“It is great to know that Delhi is
taking action to tackle air pollution and
the EV policy is an attempt in the right
direction. However, the authorities
need to fix the infrastructure gap like
charging machines to convince the
public to switch. Focussing on public
transport is a right approach,” said
Saurav Banerjee, an executive who uses
Uber taxis regularly.
Vivek Chattopadhaya, programme
manager, Clean Air Campaign, at the
Centre for Science and Environment,
told India Legal: “Lack of charging faci-
lities is an issue. Facilities should be tar-
geted segment by segment such as bu-
ses, auto-rickshaws, shuttle buses and
such. Electric bikes can also be promot-
ed in a big way for last mile connectivity.
As electric rickshaws are highly popular,
their quality of service, design, parking
and charging facilities should be looked
into. If taxis also switch to EVs, there
will be more reduction of pollution as
they operate higher number of kilome-
tres every day in Delhi-NCR.”
Delhi has the advantage of experi-
encing fuel transition when it moved
from petrol and diesel to CNG for all
public transport. This policy also pro-
motes a similar transition to cut vehicu-
lar pollution.
“If lesser number of internal combus-
tion engine vehicles are sold and
replaced by EVs in Delhi, potential pol-
lution from new vehicles will reduce.
But at the same time, proper infrastruc-
ture planning and public and neigh-
bourhood charging facilities need to set
up quite like the way CNG was pro-
TheDelhigovernment’sEVpolicyplansto
registerfivelakhvehiclesinthenextfive
years.Italsoputsinplace250public
chargingstations.Therewillbeincen-
tivesforconsumersswitchingtoEVs.
FOR CLEAN AIR
More electric vehicles on Delhi’s roads will
reduce vehicular pollution considerably
Anil Shakya

34. Environment/ Electric Vehicles
34 January 20, 2020
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
moted in Delhi,” said Chattopadhaya.
India is gearing towards cutting its
dependency on traditional fuels when it
comes to vehicles. The National Electric
Mobility Mission Plan 2020 was laun-
ched by the central government in 2013
along with schemes like Faster Adoption
and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Elec-
tric Vehicles (FAME). Subsequent to
this mission and related schemes, Kar-
nataka, Kerala, Telangana, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh will
also take it up.
B
attery EVs pledge zero tailpipe
emissions, along with the sch-
emes to adopt non-internal com-
bustion engines with a goal to achieve
30 percent penetration across India
by 2030. Emissions will be cut to the
tune of 846 million tonnes of CO2
and reduce oil dependency by 474 mil-
lion tonnes.
Companies like Mahindra & Mahin-
dra have already committed to investing
`18 billion over the next few years for
EV production. Other companies such
as Bajaj, Maruti and Hero Corp, howev-
er, prefer a slower transition and a more
robust market demand.
Automobile companies have been
anticipating the push from the govern-
ment. “Transition as big as this is an
expensive affair,” said Ghan Shyam Dass
Takkar, former CFO at Omax Autos
Ltd. “Though this is an expected push,
the industry is still not completely
prepared.”
“The lower battery cost, reduced GST
rate of five percent and FAME-II de-
mand incentives are expected to im-
prove the cost of ownership and hence
viability of EVs. The subsidy provided by
the Indian government is lower com-
pared with other countries such as
Norway and China. In these countries,
demand subsidy is nearly twice the
cumulative incentive given in India.
Availability of batteries (50 percent of
the cost of the vehicles) and low indige-
nization need a boost,” said Chopra. The
industry also expects the government to
incentivise manufacturing to plug
these gaps.
The policy to fasten up adoption of
cleaner vehicles has been in the offing.
However, implementation depends on
numerous factors when it comes to
changing market trends. There is a con-
siderable gap when it comes to pre-
paredness of the automobile industry as
well as its ancillary sectors.
Standard infrastructure, clear policy,
realistic timelines, power grid surplus,
incentives on battery pack manufactur-
ing and knowledge gaps are some of the
key challenges the industry is grappling
with. It is also worried that low aware-
ness about product development and
indigenisation of technology can result
in job losses.
As the automobile industry is a big
employment provider, it is important
the government also promotes local
manufacturing to ensure India doesn’t
depend on Chinese imports.
Learning from other countries
should be looked at by the authorities,
to embark on this programme. All
aspects around infrastructure facilities,
pricing and ease of operation need to
be carefully planned and executed to
achieve the goal, said Chattopadhaya.
It is time to get all charged up.
VAST POTENTIAL
The Tata Tigor EV (left) and Hyundai
Kona Electric (below) are among the
popular brands available in India
UNI

35. B
ollywood star Deepika Padukone
is on a roll. Images of her gutsy
appearance at JNU in support of
the students have gone viral but what is
really breaking the internet is her debut
on the insanely popular social media
platform TikTok. That it was a smart way
to promote her latest film, Chhapaak,
based on acid attack survivors, was
evident in the fact that she attracted 3.7
million followers on TikTok shortly after
she joined the platform. No amount of
pre-release press appearances can
match the power of social media.
TikTok has been in India for
almost two years and
already has 45.5 million fol-
lowers and counting.
Deepika, in typical TikTok
style, shared the image she
put up with Laxmi Agarwal,
the acid attack victim on
whom the film is based.
She is the first Bollywood
star to use TikTok to pro-
mote her film and is likely to
set off a trend.
N
ewspapers in Britain have broken
a story on how much money
newly-elected Prime Minister
Boris Johnson made while he was an
MP, and yes, it comes with an Indian
connection. According to what is called
a Register of MPs’ Interests, the India
Today media group paid Johnson a
humongous £122,899.74 (`1.16 crore)
for a 20-minute speech at the India
Today Conclave last March, with trans-
port and five-star accommodation also
provided. The latest Register of Interests
was published last week. Johnson dec-
lared amounts received for other spee-
ches he gave at the time but none mat-
ched the cheque he got from India Tod-
ay. Whether it is the India Today Con-
clave or the Hindustan Times Leader-
ship Summit, foreign speakers are sel-
ected from a list of paid speakers who
are registered on lists available online.
Of course, the costs are covered by the
sponsors of the respective events.
N
ational newspapers like
The Times of India and
Hindustan Times have
been crowing about the results of
the latest Indian Readership Survey
(IRS) and their dominance in
respective markets but the truth is
that the survey is hardly a reliable
currency.
The Media Research Users
Council (MRUC), which conducted
the last quarter’s survey, admits
that the survey does not reflect an
all-India sampling since some
states were left out, namely, J&K
and Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, for a truly accurate
measure, the sample size of the
readership survey is too small.
It should be at least three times
of what it is. At present, the IRS fig-
ures are on the basis of interviews
done with a mere 3.30 lakh
households, a fraction of the
literate population.
In a recent interaction, the head
of MRUC admitted that limitations
include costs incurred on the
survey and the lack of trained
professionals to conduct the inter-
views on which the IRS is based.
Readership
Restrictions
| INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 35
Media Watch
Star Turn
The Boris Bonanza

36. My Space/ Complaints Against RS Members Vivek K Agnihotri
36 January 20, 2020
Venkaiah Naidu, the
chairman of the Rajya
Sabha, rued the fact
that action could not be
taken against 19 MPs of
the House in the past
four years despite complaints against
them. This was because the complaints
did not comply with the procedure pre-
scribed in the Rules of Procedure and
Conduct of Business in the Council of
States (Rajya Sabha) and the Ethics
Committee could not take them up for
preliminary examination because they
did not comply with the rules. Naidu
has directed the chairman of the
Committee to review the rules in order
to simplify the procedure.
Rajya Sabha Rules, in the chapter
“Committee on Ethics”, talk about the
Constitution, functions, procedure for
making complaints, procedure for
inquiry and sanctions that can be
imposed on the erring member. Rule
295 (procedure for making complaint)
lays down that a complaint against a
member of the Rajya Sabha can be
made by anyone, including another
member. The Ethics Committee may
also take cognisance suo motu. The
complaint has to be addressed in writing
to the Committee or to an officer autho-
rised by it in such form and manner as
it may specify. A person making a com-
plaint must declare his identity and sub-
mit supporting evidence, documentary
or otherwise, to substantiate his allega-
tions. A complaint based merely on an
unsubstantiated media report shall not
be entertained. The Committee shall not
take up any matter which is sub judice
and its decision shall be treated as final.
Rule 296 (procedure for inquiry)
states that if the Committee is satisfied
that a complaint is proper and the mat-
ter is within its jurisdiction, it may take
it up for preliminary inquiry. If there is
a prima facie case, the matter shall be
taken up by the Committee for examina-
tion and report. However, if a complaint
is found to be false or vexatious or made
in bad faith, the matter may also be
taken up as an issue of breach of parlia-
mentary privilege.
The Committee on Ethics of the
Rajya Sabha was constituted by the
chairman of the Rajya Sabha on March
4, 1997, to oversee the moral and ethical
Make it Simple
Inaprogressivemove,thechairmanoftheHousewantsrules
tobesimplifiedsothatactioncanbetakeneasilywhenthere
arecomplaintsagainstMPs
M
RajyaSabhachairmanMVenkaiahNaiduruedthefactthatactioncouldnotbetaken
against19MPsoftheHouseinthepastfouryearsdespitecomplaintsagainstthem.
TheEthicsCommitteecouldnottakeupthecasesforpreliminaryexamination.
Photos: UNI

37. | INDIA LEGAL | January 20, 2020 37
conduct of the members and to examine
cases referred to it. In its first report
presented to the House on December 8,
1998, the Committee recommended a
Framework of Code of Conduct for Ra-
jya Sabha MPs. In its second report, pr-
esented on December 13, 1999, it made
recommendations relating to the proce-
dure for making complaints, which pro-
vides the basis for Rules 295 and 296.
I
n addition to provisions relating to
the examination of complaints
against Rajya Sabha members, the
Committee prescribes that a member, as
soon as he takes his seat in the House,
shall furnish information within 90 days
relating to his own assets and liabilities
as well as those of his immediate family
members. Further, a “Register of Me-
mbers’ Interests” is to be maintained
and the information contained in it may
be given to the general public in accor-
dance with such rules and procedures as
may be determined by the Committee
from time to time. The Committee acts
as a record-keeper and overseer of the
declarations of assets and liabilities by
members under the Members of Rajya
Sabha (Declaration of Assets and Liab-
ility) Rules, 2004, framed by the chair-
man of the Rajya Sabha under sub-sec-
tion (3) of Section 75A of the Repres-
entation of the People Act, 1951.
Rule 297 (sanctions) provides that
where it has been found that a member
has contravened the code of conduct or
indulged in unethical behaviour, the
Committee may recommend imposition
of one or more of the following sanc-
tions, viz. censure, reprimand, suspen-
sion from the House for a specific period
or any other appropriate sanction.
The Committee was formally made a
part of the Rajya Sabha Rules on July
20, 2004. It consists of 10 members,
including the chairman. By convention,
the members of the Committee are lead-
ers/deputy leaders/chief whips/whips of
political parties/groups in the Rajya
Sabha. The functions of the Committee
require it to prepare a code of conduct
for members, to examine cases concern-
ing alleged breach of the Code and alle-
gations of any other ethical misconduct
of members, and to tender advice to
TheCommitteeonEthicsoftheRajya
Sabhawasconstitutedbythechairmanof
theRajyaSabhaonMarch4,1997,to
overseethemoralandethicalconductof
membersandtoexaminespecificcases.