Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

31 December, 2013

A significant year for the Supreme Court

• For the Supreme Court, 2013 will go down as a watershed year as it put an end to criminalisation of politics, disqualifying convicted MPs/MLAs, ordered electoral reforms and asserted its supremacy and authority in all spheres.

• On July 19, Justice P. Sathasivam made his Kadappanallur village in Erode district proud by becoming the 40th Chief Justice of India. Born on April 27, 1949, Justice Sathasivam was the first graduate in his agricultural family. It was after 60 years that someone from Tamil Nadu became CJI. Justice Patanjali Sastri, who was the CJI from 1951 to 1954, had represented the undivided Madras Presidency.

• The former Union Law Minister, Ashwini Kumar, had to resign after the court said the CBI was acting like a “caged parrot,” dancing to the tunes of its masters. It criticised the Minister when he accessed the CBI’s status report in the coal scam case, despite the specific order that the report not be shown to anyone, including the Law Officer.

• When reports emerged about the involvement of a retired Supreme Court judge in an incident of sexual harassment of a law intern, the CJI ordered a fact-finding probe immediately. It prima facie came to light that Justice A.K Ganguly, who retired in February 2012, had made unwelcome sexual advances to the intern. It has now snowballed into a controversy, with the Centre deciding to seek a Presidential Reference to the Supreme Court for removing Justice Ganguly as Chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission.

• The year started on a bad note for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the Supreme Court upheld the appointment of Justice R.A. Mehta as Gujarat Lokayukta by Governor Kamla Beniwal, who bypassed the government. But Justice Mehta did not take charge.

• The court rejected a plea for revisiting the nine-judge ruling in 1993, giving primacy to the Collegium in appointment of Supreme Court and High Court judges. A two-judge Bench had referred the issue to a three-judge Bench, which however, found no merit in the petition.

• The court struck down as unconstitutional Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act that allowed convicted lawmakers a three-month period for appealing in a higher court. The court made it clear that the ruling would be prospective, and those who had already gone on appeal in the High Courts or the Supreme Court against their convictions would be exempt from it. As a result, RJD leader Lalu Prasad lost his membership of Parliament, after he was sentenced to five years in a fodder scam case.

• To bring about purity in elections, the court ruled that a voter can exercise the option of negative voting and reject all the candidates as unworthy of election. The court said he/she could press the ‘None of the Above’ button in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and decide not to vote for any of the candidates.

• The court allowed the Election Commission to use Viable Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail in the EVMs in phases to ensure transparency in the voting process.

• Observing that the right to know about the candidate is a natural right in a democracy, it held that non-disclosure of information by a candidate in his/her affidavit by keeping the columns blank would result in rejection of his nominations by the EC. At present, the EC has no power to reject nominations if candidates either leave some columns in the affidavit blank or gives false information. However, a case can be registered under the Indian Penal Code for giving false information.

• The court upheld the ban the Tamil Nadu government imposed on the screening of Dam 999 in the State as the film highlighted the damage being caused to a dam.

• The AIADMK government got a major boost when the court refused to interfere with its policy decision to convert the new Tamil Nadu Secretariat complex into a super-speciality hospital. Such a policy could not be termed illegal, it said.

• In a relief to two Italian marines, the court said Kerala had no jurisdiction to investigate the incident of shooting on February 15, 2012, in which two fishermen were killed. Only the Union of India had the jurisdiction to proceed with the probe and trial of the two marines, it said. The court asked the Centre to set up a special court to try Massimilano Latorre and Salvatore Girone. But till now, there is no substantial progress in the trial before the special court.

• Tamil Nadu scored a major victory when the court directed the Centre to notify the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, dated February 5, 2007. It criticised the Centre for abdicating its responsibility of notifying the award as per the mandate of the Inter State Water Disputes Act. The award was notified on February 19.

• Novartis AG, a multinational pharmaceutical company, suffered a setback when the court held that it was not entitled to a patent in India for the beta crystalline form of its cancer drug marketed as ‘Glivec’ or ‘Gleevec.’ Novartis said this drug deserved a patent because there was a 30 per cent increase in the bioavailability of the medicine in its new form.

• In a major relief to the Centre, the court upheld the FDI policy in multi-brand retail, stating that it did not suffer from any unconstitutionality, illegality, arbitrariness or irrationality. “The policy aimed at throwing out the middlemen, who are a curse to Indian economy and who are sucking it, has to be welcomed.”

• The court commuted into life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to Mahendra Nath Das, whose mercy petition was rejected by the President after 12 years. But it declined a similar relief to Bhullar, saying such a plea could not be entertained in cases of terrorist activities.

• In a major setback to gay activists, the court held that homosexuality or unnatural sex between two consenting adults was illegal under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and amounted to an offence, and the provision did not suffer from any constitutional infirmity. This forced the Centre and Naz Foundation to file review petitions.

New IAF chief: Arup Raha

• Air Marshal Arup Raha, an ace fighter pilot, took over as the India Air Force (IAF) chief succeeding incumbent Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne. Eastern Air Command chief Air Marshal RK Sharma succeeded Raha as the Vice Chief of Air Staff.

• Born on December 26, 1954, the 59-year-old Raha will have a tenure of three years as the Chief of Air Staff. Commissioned on December 14, 1974 in the fighter stream of the IAF, Raha has held various command, staff and instructional appointments in his 39-year-old career.

• He has also served as Air Attache at the Embassy of India in Ukraine.

• Besides various technical courses, Raha has done Strategic Nuclear Orientation Course and Junior Commanders' course. He has commanded Central Air Command and Western Air Command.

• The IAF is also engaged in intense negotiations for the procurement of 126 Rafale multi-role combat aircraft from the French firm Dassault Aviation.

• Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who is expected to be the next Chief of the Army, will also move in the Army headquarters as the Vice Chief of Army Staff on January 1, 2014.

Adarsh Scam

• A group of bureaucrats, whose names appear in the list of accused in the Adarsh housing society scam report, have approached the state government claiming that they have been 'wrongly' dragged into the case.
• Three IAS officers — former Mumbai municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak, former Mumbai collector Dr Pradeep Vyas, and former secretary to chief minister (retd) C S Sangitrao have approached the government opposing the judicial commission's findings.
• The commission, comprising Justice (retd) JA Patil and former chief secretary (retd) P Subrahmanyam, has accused 12 public servants, including 10 acting or retired IAS officials, of violating service conduct rules. It has also accused five other public servants of giving permission or clearances in a quid pro quo.
• Sources said both have questioned the commission's inferences and claimed that their point of view was not adequately represented.

Sasikiran’s Fourth National title

• P. Shyamnikhil could only delay the inevitable but not deny K. Sasikiran. After four hours, the second seed ended the suspense by completing a deserving victory and claiming a fourth National title.
• Nine days before turning 33, Sasikiran gave himself a nice birthday present claiming the top prize of Rs. 2.50 lakh after some anxious moments during the 13th and final round of the Jain 51st National chess championship.
• After B. Adhiban needed just 27 moves to stop an in-form Thej Kumar to reach 10 points, Sasikiran faced a must-win situation. A draw with Shyamnikhil would have only helped Sasikiran match Adhiban’s tally.
• Such a ‘tie’ suited Adhiban since the title would have come his way based on his last week’s victory over Sasikiran. But Sasikiran was in no mood to let Shyamnikhil get away with a draw. Sasikiran, a Human Resource Manager with ONGC, had enough in the tank for a longer battle.
• After giving up a pawn on the 28th move, Sasikiran managed to create weaknesses around Shyamnikhil’s castled king and seized the initiative.

Jacques Kallis signs off

• Jacques Kallis finished a winner in his final Test as South Africa beat India by 10 wickets to take the best-of-two series 1-0 in Durban.
• Kallis also marked his final Test appearance for South Africa with a century as the world's No 1 side claimed a dominant win after the first Test in Johannesburg ended in a draw.
• Alviro Pietersen and captain Graeme Smith were the unbeaten batsman as the home side wrapped up the win in the final session of day five after claiming the eight wickets they needed to set up the victory push.
• Pietersen was unbeaten on 31 and Smith made 27 as the home side made 59 without loss to celebrate Kallis' retirement in style.
• Kallis had announced on Christmas Day that the match with India would be his final one and responded with a century as the hosts hit 500 in reply to India's 334.

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