NATIONAL NEWS
A) ‘Arbitrary and irrational’: Supreme Court slams Centre’s Covid-19 vaccination policy.
Our Constitution does not envisage courts to be silent spectators when constitutional rights of citizens are infringed by executive policies, noted the Supreme Court as it slammed the Centre’s vaccination policy for citizens aged 18-44 years, describing it as prima facie arbitrary and irrational. In a 32-page order published on Wednesday, a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has sought detailed information on the percentage of population vaccinated (with one dose and both doses) as against eligible persons in the first three phases of the vaccination drive. This shall include data pertaining to the percentage of rural population as well as the percentage of urban population so vaccinated, the court stated. It also sought the complete data on the Centre’s purchase history of vaccines till date, including Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik. The data should clarify: (a) the dates of all procurement orders placed by the Central Government for all three vaccines; (b) the quantity of vaccines ordered as on each date; and (c) the projected date of supply, the order said. The court asked the government to outline how and when it would vaccinate the remaining population. The government had mentioned in court that it would complete the vaccination of the entire eligible population by December-end. It directed the Centre to submit all the relevant documents and file notings reflecting its thinking and culminating in the vaccination policy along with an affidavit in two weeks. Referring to the Centre’s stated position that every State/UT Government shall provide vaccination free of cost to its population, the court asked the States and Union Territories to confirm whether or not it would do so. It is important that individual State/UT governments confirm/deny this position before this court. Further, if they have decided to vaccinate their population for free then, as a matter of principle, it is important that this policy is annexed to their affidavit, so that the population within their territories can be assured of their right to be vaccinated for free at a State vaccination centre, it explained. The court directed the States and UTs to file their affidavits in this regard within the next two weeks and clarify their individual policies for free vaccination.
B) Centre amends pension rules to bar retired security officials from writing without prior clearance.
The Narendra Modi government has amended the Pension Rules for Civil Servants, prohibiting retired officials in intelligence or security-related organisations from publishing any information related to their organisation without clearance from the competent authority. The retired officials will have to sign an undertaking to the effect and pension could be withheld or withdrawn for failure to comply with the rules. The order is said to have a bearing on retired police chiefs and intelligence agency officials who have either penned a book or regularly write columns in newspapers and magazines. The amended rule says that No government servant, who, having worked in any Intelligence or Security-related organisation included in the Second Schedule of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005), shall, without prior clearance from Competent Authority publish in any manner, while in service or after retirement, any information or material or knowledge which is related to the domain of the organisation and obtained by virtue of working in the said organisation. It bars retires officials from sharing sensitive information the disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, or relation with a foreign State or which would lead to incitement of an offence. The retired officials will have to sign Form 26, where they will have to give a legal undertaking to not share such information in the public domain.
C) Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik writes to all CMs, pitches for Covid-19 vaccine procurement by Centre.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has called for a consensus among all States for a universal vaccination programme. In a letter to all Chief Ministers, and personal calls to a few of them, he expressed grave concern at the prevailing Covid-19 situation and suggested that the Centre should procure vaccines and distribute them. After the second wave, people are very scared about future waves and variants. Every citizen in India has been affected by this pandemic in one way or the other. It could be losing a loved one or losing a job or loss in business or just the mental trauma because of the present situation. None has been spared by this pandemic, said the five-time Chief Minister. The only way to protect our people against future waves and provide them with a hope of survival is vaccination. Countries which have focused on vaccination programme have seen remarkable improvement in their Covid-19 situation. We have to provide this healing touch to our people, he said. After the Union Government announced Phase-3 of the vaccine policy, allowing vaccination of those above 18 years and procurement by State governments and the private sector, there has been great demand for vaccines, the letter says. Many States floated global tenders for vaccine procurement. However, it is quite clear that the global vaccine manufacturers are looking forward to the Union government for the clearances and assurances. They are unwilling to get into supply contracts with the State governments, while the domestic vaccine manufacturers are having supply constraints and are not able to commit required supplies. No State was safe unless all the States adopted vaccination as a top priority and executed it on war-footing. This cannot be a battle among the States to procure vaccines. Under the circumstances, he said, the best option available is for the Government of India to centrally procure the vaccines and distribute among the States so that our citizens are vaccinated at the earliest. Patnaik also suggested decentralisation of the vaccination programme. States should be allowed the flexibility to determine their own mechanism to ensure universal vaccination, he said. Internet was inaccessible in many hilly areas and therefore online registration had to be flexible. Some vulnerable tribes could be given vaccines on priority.
D) Google says new IT rules not applicable to its search engine.
Google has contended that the new Information Technology rules for digital media are not applicable to its search engine, and urged the Delhi High Court on Wednesday to set aside a single judge order which applied the rules on the company while dealing with an issue related to removal of offending content from the internet. The single judge’s decision had come while dealing with a matter in which a woman’s photographs were uploaded on a pornographic website by some miscreants and despite court orders, the content could not be removed in entirety from the World Wide Web and errant parties merrily continued to re-post and redirect the same to other sites. Google claims the court mischaracterised its search engine as a ‘social media intermediary’ or ‘significant social media intermediary’. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Centre, Delhi government, Internet Service Providers Association of India, Facebook, the pornographic site and the woman, on whose plea the single judge’s ruling had come, and sought their responses to Google’s plea by July 25. The court also said that it was not going to issue any interim order at this stage. Google has contended that the single judge, in his April 20 judgment, had mischaracterised its search engine as a ‘social media intermediary’ or ‘significant social media intermediary’ as provided under the new rules. The single judge has misinterpreted and misapplied the New Rules 2021 to the appellant’s search engine. Additionally, the single judge has conflated various sections of the IT Act and separate rules prescribed thereunder, and has passed template orders combining all such offences and provisions, which is bad in law, it has said in its appeal against the April 20 judgement.
E) Plea in SC challenges HC’s dismissal of petition on halting Central Vista construction activity.
A Supreme Court lawyer on Wednesday appealed to the apex court against a Delhi High Court judgment dismissing a plea to stop construction activity in the Central Vista area of the national capital amidst a surge in the pandemic. Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav said the High Court erred in concluding that the workers stayed at the site whereas they were brought in daily from outside at a time when restrictions were in place on public movement to halt the spread of the virus. The High Court failed to appreciate that allowing a big construction work with a huge number of innocent laborers workers to continue during peak Covid-19 pandemic period is a serious public health issue concern, Yadav’s petition said. The special leave petition said that there was no justification for holding that the Central Vista Avenue Development project was an essential activity during the peak pandemic crisis. The Delhi High Court had found no reason to suspend the construction activities as it held that the workers were staying at the project site. It concluded that COVID-19 protocols are adhered to and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour is being followed. It imposed ₹1 lakh costs on the petitioners, Anya Malhotra and Sohail Hashmi, for filing a motivated petition.
F) Govt eases norms for supply of foreign-made Covid-19 vaccines in India.
To ease the supply of imported Covid-19 vaccines, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has waived the requirement of conducting bridging clinical trials and testing of every batch of vaccine by the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), Kasauli for foreign-made vaccines. The DCGI said it has been decided that for approval for restricted use in emergency situations which are already approved for restricted use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, U.K., Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, Japan, or which are listed in WHO Emergency Use Listing, and which are well established vaccines, the requirement of conducting post-approval bridging clinical trials and of testing every batch of vaccine by CDL, Kasauli can be exempted, if the batch/lot has been certified and released by the National Control Laboratory of the country of origin.
G) Man sings Juhi Chawla’s songs during the HC hearing of her plea against 5G.
Some of the hit songs of actor Juhi Chawla’s movies made their way in the proceedings before the Delhi High Court on Wednesday when a man started singing them during the virtual hearing related to the Bollywood star’s plea against the setting up of 5G wireless network in the country. The action of the man resulted in the periodic interruption of hearing and on the judge’s directions, the person was repeatedly removed from the hearing, but he kept on joining and started singing till the time the proceedings were locked. Chawla also joined the virtual proceedings from South Africa. The man, who was logging in the virtual hearing with different names, first started singing ‘Ghoonghat ki aad mein dilbar ka didaar adhura’ from her block buster movie ‘Hum hai rahi pyar ke’ and he was then removed. He again joined the proceedings and started singing another song, ‘Lal lal hoton pe gori kiska naam hai…’ from another of her hit films, and was again removed from the hearing. The third time, he joined and sang ‘Meri banno ki aayegi baraat ke dhol bajao ji’ from the movie Aaina. At the outset, the man was heard saying, Where is Juhi Ma’am I can’t see her and when the judge asked the court master to mute the concerned person, he said, You want to mute me? Oh really! Chawla had earlier shared the link for joining the proceedings on her Twitter handle, tweeting, If you do think this concerns you in anyway, feel free to join our first virtual hearing conducted at Delhi High Court to be held on 2nd June, 10.45 AM onwards. As for her plea, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday termed it as defective and said it was filed for media publicity. The court also questioned Chawla for filing the suit without giving any representation to the government on her concerns related to 5G technology. Justice JR Midha said the plaintiffs, Chawla and two others, were required to first approach the government for their rights and if denied, only then they should come to the court. Chawla’s plea claimed that 5G wireless technology could cause serious, irreversible harm to humans and permanent damage to the earth’s ecosystems. It said that if the telecom industry’s plans for 5G come to fruition, no person, animal, bird, insect and plant on earth will be able to avoid exposure, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to levels of radiation that are 10x to 100x times greater than what exists today.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) President Biden vows to strengthen voting rights.
Speaking from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre in which an estimated 300 blacks were killed by white supremacists and many left homeless U.S. President Joe Biden said he would fight with every tool at my [his] disposal to ensure the Senate passed its version of a voting rights Bill, the For the People Act, already passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year. The President also announced that he had appointed Vice-President Kamala Harris, who is African American and Indian American, to head the White House’s efforts to strengthen voting rights. Describing the massacre in the Greenwood neighbourhood (called the ‘Black Wall Street’ as it was the most prosperous black neighbourhood in America at the time), accounts of which have not made it into most history lessons, Mr. Biden described a belief that America did not belong to everyone. A belief enforced by law, by badge, by hood and by noose, he said following remarks after he met survivors of the massacre. Mr. Biden toured the Greenwood Cultural Center and met the only three known survivors, now aged 107, 106 and 101. Mr. Biden’s actions come at a time when Republicans on Capitol Hill and State legislators are advancing legislation which they say is to curb voter fraud but Democrats say they are aimed at restricting access to the ballot box, especially for minority communities. The President said the sacred right [voting] was under assault with incredible intensity like I’ve never seen. On Monday Texas’s Republican Governor, Greg Abbot, threatened to cut the salary of legislators after Democrats, on Sunday, boycotted a vote on a Bill they said would restrict voting and make it easier to overturn results. Florida, Arizona and Georgia have also passed voting restriction legislation this year. Following the loss of several key swing States and the presidency, Republican lawmakers across the country have acted to bring further controls on voting, echoing former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of large-scale voter fraud.
B) China, Pakistan, Afghanistan to hold talks amid U.S. withdrawal.
China on Thursday will chair a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as Beijing looks to step up its engagement with both Kabul and Islamabad amid the withdrawal of U.S. China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday the fourth meeting between the three countries’ Foreign Ministers will be held via video link and would be chaired by China. The US central command said that between 30-44% of the withdrawal of had been completed, with President Joe Biden announcing in April a complete withdrawal by September 11 this year. The three countries’ Vice Foreign Ministers, at a virtual dialogue in July, had -urged for an orderly. responsible and condition based withdrawal. Ambassador to China, Javid Qaem, was quoted as telling Chinese media this week that China’s good relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan could see Beijing playing a critical role in building trust between these two neighbouring countries. The Afghan envoy cited China’s offer to facilitate Afghan peace talks in the future, the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying, noting that Foreign Minister Wang Yi had in a May 17 phone call with Afghan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib offered to facilitate internal negotiations among various parties in Afghanistan, including creating necessary conditions for negotiations in China. He also called on India and China to work together despite their other bilateral problems. Afghanistan being a stable country is in favour of countries such as the U.S., China and India, the Communist Party-run Global Times quoted him as saying. It is more important how we and Pakistan can build trust and how China and India can build trust regarding Afghanistan regardless of other issues.
