 A very good evening aspirants. The much awaited Shankara A.S. Academy's free main scholarship test 2020 starts from today. Let us move on to today's Hindi news analysis. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of Hindi newspaper. Let us move on to today's first news article discussion. Our first discussion for today is based on these three editorial articles which are with reference to the contempt of court proceedings initiated by the Supreme Court on its own against and advocated the Supreme Court. That is Mr. Prashant Bhushan. And this move of Supreme Court has provoked public outrage and many have even criticized this move. And that is why it becomes an important topic for discussion. So today we will see the definition of contempt of court. We will also see a brief background of what happened and then the opinions of the authors in the editorial. It is important because one of these editorials is authored by a retired Chief Justice of Delhi and Madras High Court and who was a former chairperson of Law Commission of India. So the editorials provide expert opinion which we will see today. Then we will see whether contempt of court is still relevant or required. And finally we will also see what the Law Commission's report say about this contempt of court. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now first what do we mean by contempt of court? We will see its definition as per the contempt of court act of 1971. And according to section 2 of this act contempt of court means civil contempt or criminal contempt where civil contempt means willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or it is the willful breach of an undertaking given to a court. Then a criminal contempt means the publication of any matter or doing any other act which scandalizes or tends to scandalize or lowers or even tends to lower the authority of any court. Now here the term scandalizing the court refers to something that brings disrepute or disgrace to the authority and administration or that brings disrepute or disgrace to law by the courts and which creates distrust and disbelief in the minds of litigant public and the general public at large. And this criminal contempt also includes the publication of any matter or doing any other act which prejudices or interferes with the due course of any judicial proceedings or which interferes with the administration of justice or which obstructs the administration of justice in any other manner. And in this the publication could be by words, it could be spoken or written or even by signs or by visible representations such as cartoons etc. Now as you have heard contempt of court attracts punishment and know that a contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with a fine which may extend to 2000 rupees or even with both. But this punishment is moderated for a civil contempt. So for a civil contempt mostly fine may be ordered and if not in rare cases instead of simple imprisonment the person may be detained in a civil prison for a period not extending six months. For this is the definition of contempt of court and punishment for it according to the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971. See the objective behind contempt of court is to safeguard the interests of the public because if the authority of the court is denigrated or belittled then public confidence in the administration of justice will be weakened or it will be eroded. But we can observe that the definition of criminal contempt in India is extremely wide and it can be easily invoked. So this is the background about contempt of court. So what is the issue that led to the proceedings of contempt of court against Mr Prashant Bhushan? It is because of some of the remarks by him that were reportedly considered as criminal contempt by the Supreme Court. See he has published some personal remarks in Twitter that is the social media platform and in that he had mentioned that some persons who held offices of Chief Justice were corrupt. Secondly he has also seemingly made remarks against the Office of Chief Justice of India with reference to a picture. You would have also seen this picture in social media. In this picture the present Chief Justice of India is seated in a costly motorcycle and is about to drive it. And in this particular picture the Chief Justice of India is reportedly found without a mask or helmet and this picture was linked with the lockdown and access to justice in Supreme Court during the lockdown. And that is why one of the editorials which we are discussing now is titled as a motorcycle and the art of court management. Now based on these personal remarks the Supreme Court bench has issued notice of contempt of court to Mr. Prashant for undermining the dignity and authority of institution of Supreme Court in general and for undermining the dignity and authority of the Office of Chief Justice of India in particular. So this is the issue. Now what is the opinion of the authors? Broadly authors say that this move is unwarranted from the Supreme Court. This is because in a democracy even the courts have to be tolerant towards criticism. We should be very careful here because some allegedly made remarks might be interfering with the administration of justice or such remarks could be obstructing the administration of justice. And such remarks should be treated as contempt and they have to be dealt accordingly. But criticisms other than such interfering remarks have to be tolerated by the judiciary particularly in a democracy. And this viewpoint is also highlighted by the authors who mention that courts in two democracies that is USA and UK are not resorting to use of contempt laws. It is because the courts in these countries consider that no one is above criticism and they consider that using laws court should not silence criticism and dissent. For instance if we consider during the Brexit issue in 2016 with reference to a Brexit judgment the Daily Mail published a photo of three judges with the caption enemies of the people. Even in this instance also contempt proceedings were not initiated. So authors try to convey that judiciary has to tolerate such criticisms. And because of this authors call that initiating contempt proceedings for criticisms is not required in this modern age and there is also need to revisit the law of contempt of court. And this is to make amendments so that healthy criticisms against judiciary need not be seen as criminal contempt of court. And even if you see in the recent scenarios many criticisms made against judiciary is relevant because of lack of transparency in the functioning of Supreme Court. For example judges at present need not say a reason why they recuse from hearing a particular case. Then we also saw issues with a segment of sensitive cases to a particular judge in Supreme Court. Then we also saw a case where the alleged former Chief Justice of India presided a bench that looked into the sexual harassment allegations made on himself. So these actions certainly warrant criticisms on the judiciary and its functioning and such criticisms have to be taken in good spirit so as to bring reforms and it should not be taken in a bad sense to punish those who make such remarks. But here we should know that over the time Supreme Court has been tolerant even than the high courts. But the recent actions against Mr. Prashant is seen as unbecoming of the Supreme Court by many experts. So in this scenario we should know about the recommendations of law commission. In its 274th report titled as review of contempt of court act of 1971 limited to section 2 of the act law commission reviewed the section 2 which deals with the definitions and which also has the definition for civil contempt and criminal contempt. I know that this commission at that time was chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan and this report recommended that there is no requirement to amend section 2 of the contempt of courts act of 1971 and this is because of some reasons. And one reason is that there are high number of cases of civil and criminal contempt and this justifies the continuing relevance of the act. Then contempt proceedings at the international level even though they are used rarely they still exist in law books in one form or the other. For example, they even exist in law books in UK. So this was cited as one of the reasons. Then thirdly the report mentioned that the present definition in the Indian law gives much clarity and apart from this the act also provides for several safeguards to protect the misuse. Now this suggests that the courts will not prosecute all cases of contempt and more importantly the law commission observed that contempt of court acts of 1971 just outlines the procedure in relation to investigation and punishment for contempt. But the power of Supreme Court and the high courts to punish for contempt is a constitutional power under articles 129 and article 215 of the Indian constitution. So because of this law commission noted that even if this act is amended the power will remain unaltered because it is a constitutional power. So for these reasons the law commission felt that the section 2 glossy of the act which defined criminal contempt need not be amended. And these observations are debated in the current scenario because the present notice to Mr. Prashant is considered by many as a misuse and unwarranted move from the Supreme Court and many even suggest to amend the act to allow healthy criticisms on the judiciary in the democracy. So from these observations what we can say is contempt of court is relevant but its usage should be restricted. That means the law can be modified to restrict its usage. So that is all about this discussion. Today we had a detailed discussion on the contempt of court. Moving on to the next discussion. This news article discusses about the decision of Poland to withdraw from a European treaty on violence against women. So in this discussion we will see what this treaty is about and we will also see some other relevant mechanisms at the international level for protection of women's rights. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See the news is that the justice minister of Poland has said that Poland will take steps to withdraw from a European treaty on violence against women. Just know that this treaty is also known as Istanbul Convention. So why this decision is taken by Poland government? It is because according to the news article Poland's ruling law and justice party is closely aligned with the Catholic Church and they promote a conservative social agenda. And because of this according to the news article they are against most radical reforms like gender equality, gay rights etc. And because of this the present government of Poland is saying that the treaty is disrespectful towards religion because it requires teaching liberal social policies in schools. So citing such reasons now Poland government has decided to quit this treaty which it ratified in the year 2015. See even though the Poland government has decided this the people of Poland are certainly against it. Even protests are happening in Warsaw which is the capital of Poland against this decision because many of them feel that withdrawing from this treaty is like legalizing domestic violence. So now let us see some of the important features of this treaty. See as you know violence against women including domestic violence is one of the most serious forms of gender-based violations of human rights and these violations deprives women of their ability to enjoy fundamental freedoms and these violations also represent a serious obstacle in achieving equality between women and men. So to address these issues only Europe has a convention which is called as the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence and as we already saw this convention is also known as Istanbul Convention and as the name indicates this treaty was launched by Council of Europe in the year 2011. Just know that Council of Europe is Europe's leading human rights organization which was founded in 1949 and it includes 47 member states and out of these 27 members are also the members of European Union. Now this treaty is very important because this Istanbul Convention is a legally binding international treaty to combat violence against women. See just now we saw that this convention was launched by Council of Europe then how we are saying that it is an international treaty. It's an international treaty because this treaty is open for signature by the member states of Council of Europe and it is also open for the non-member states which have participated in its elaboration and it is also open for the member states of European Union obviously and apart from this this treaty is also open for accession by other non-member states and know that this treaty entered into force in the year 2014. Now let us see the purposes of this convention. As you can see here this convention aims to protect women against all forms of violence and it also aims to eliminate violence against women including the domestic violence. Not only that it also wants to promote international cooperation with the view to eliminating violence against women and also domestic violence. So these are the other purposes of this convention we have given it here for your preference. So what are the important obligations under this treaty? See those who are signatories to this treaty they will have to provide helplines, shelters, medical care and legal aid for women who have suffered violence. So what are the kinds of violence this treaty addresses? It addresses the crimes such as rape, domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, sexual harassment, forced abortion and also forced sterilization. And not only this according to this treaty the signatories have to strengthen the prosecution of those who are responsible for domestic violence also and more importantly this treaty rejects excuses on the grounds of culture, custom, religion and honor. So that means the member states which are party to this convention cannot state any excuses for carrying out the crimes which we just mentioned. But how this convention ensures that the member countries are going to stick to their commitments under this convention? This convention ensures it by an independent expert group which is tasked with ensuring that the treaty countries are sticking with their commitments. So from this you can understand that this treaty is a comprehensive legal framework to protect women against all forms of violence. But what is the provision based on which Poland has decided to withdraw from this convention? It is the article 14 of this convention which mandates the parties to include teaching materials on gender equality. Like as you can see here the convention mandates that necessary steps have to be taken to include teaching material on issues such as equality between women and men, non-sterotyped gender roles, mutual respect, non-violent conflict resolution and interpersonal relationships, gender-based violence against women and that should also be teaching material on the right to personal dignity. And all these have to be included in the formal curriculum and at all levels of education according to this convention. So we can see that these are all the progressive steps for achieving gender equality and for empowering women. But unfortunately Poland has decided to take a regressive step. So this is all about this news article. But from examination perspective you should also know about some important internationally agreed norms and standards which are relating to ending violence against women. It includes the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, then world conference on human rights, then declaration on the elimination of violence against women, then beaching platform for action, etc. Now in this the 1993 declaration on the elimination of violence against women is very important because it is the first international instrument which explicitly addressed violence against women and it provides a framework for national and international action on this issue. But before that we have the CEDAW that is convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. But this convention does not explicitly mention violence against women. And other than this there are also other internationally agreed norms and standards which we have given here for your reference. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we saw about the European Treaty on Violence Against Women that is the Istanbul Convention. Then we also saw why Poland wants to withdraw from this convention. And then finally we also saw some international norms and treaties related to ending the violence against women. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The respect practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now let's get to the next discussion based on this news article. It mentions about the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The news is that the NCDRC has ordered the developers of a housing project to refund money since they failed to construct and deliver houses in time. So in this manner let us see about NCDRC from exam perspective. First know that the NCDRC that is presently functioning was set up in 1988 under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. But as we know this act has been repealed and replaced by the Consumer Protection Act of 2019. And we saw about this 2019 act in our 21st July in the news analysis. And we also saw that government has notified most of the provisions of this act. And one such notification is the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission rules of 2020. So let us see the provisions related to NCDRC from this 2019 act and the 2020 rules. First it provides about the composition of NCDRC. As per the 2019 act, NCDRC shall consist of a precedent and not less than four members. And the upper limit of number of members is to be fixed by the central government. And now it has been fixed at the maximum of 11 members as per the 2020 rules. The rules also state that at least one member shall be a woman. Then it also mentions that NCDRC shall function at the national capital region that is NCR. And the regional benches of NCDRC will be notified by the central government in consultation with NCDRC. And according to the act the term of office of the president and the members shall not exceed five years and know that they are eligible for reappointment. Also know that the president shall not hold office if her age exceeds 70 years and the members shall not hold office if their age exceeds 67 years. And apart from this the qualifications, appointment, term of office, salaries and allowances, resignation, removal and other terms and conditions of the service of the president and the members of this commission will be notified by the central government. And this is as per the 2019 act. Now next is the jurisdiction of NCDRC. So you know that the commission has both original and appellate jurisdiction. So generally when we say a court has an original jurisdiction it means these are the courts where civil and criminal cases first originate and they impose punishment according to their liability. And when we say a court is having appellate jurisdiction it means the court which reviews the proceedings of a trial court when there is an alleged error of law. And this simply means the court can hear appeals. Now this NCDRC has original jurisdiction over complaints where the value of goods or services that is paid as consideration that is payment exceeds rupees 10 crore or any other value prescribed by the central government. And it also has original jurisdiction over the complaints against unfair contracts where the value of goods or services that are paid as consideration exceeds 10 crore rupees. And this NCDRC has appellate jurisdiction or appeals against the orders of any state commission and the central authority that is the central consumer protection authority. So that means after the orders of the state commission and the central authority if the agreed person wants to appeal they can appeal to NCDRC. But if the agreed person is not satisfied with the NCDRC order then the person can appeal only in the Supreme Court. So based on this discussion we can say that NCDRC is a quasi-judicial commission. When we say a quasi-judicial body it means it is a non-judicial body which can interpret law and it has partly judicial character because it can hold hearings and it can conduct investigations into disputed claims. So in this manner NCDRC is a quasi-judicial commission. So these are some of the important information that you should know with respect to NCDRC. With this we come to the end of this discussion that is the practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion which is based on this news article it talks about the recent guidance document released by the department of biotechnology. This guidance document is made based on the recommendation of review committee on genetic manipulation in short RCGM and the central drugs standard control organization that is CDSCO. So this document deals with applications for development of vaccines diagnostics and therapeutics under rapid response regulatory framework for COVID-19 of Government of India. So in this context now we will discuss about this document. Know that the document first talks about the preclinical data which are generated outside India. See here preclinical data means research using animals to find out if a drug procedure or treatment is likely to be useful or not and the preclinical studies take place before any testing in humans is done. So the document tells that such data will be considered in the regulatory submission of applications. It also says that the individual application will be examined based on quality of data generated. But it is to be noted here that the conduct of a limited preclinical study may be asked later if required after examination. This means now Indian companies which are willing to import or test the potential COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed internationally then these Indian companies will not require to conduct many India specific tests and trials. Here you should note that normally a vaccine that has been licensed in another country would still need to repeat all the human safety tests in India also. But this guidance document eases such restrictions. Now the document also says that the applicant may submit parallel application for conducting appropriate phase of clinical trial to the CDSCO. This is for the consideration at the time of conduct of preclinical trial studies. Now in addition to this the document also talks about the consideration of data available on clinical trials. Now in this clinical trials means conducting trials on human beings directly. So now these data which are generated outside India will be considered and examined. But it will be based on scientific rational and level of completeness of data in the human trials along with the satisfactory preclinical data. And also know that the application for clinical trial will be approved subject to the no objection certificate from the RCGM after the examination of data of preclinical studies. Now in this scenario we should know about this RCGM that is review committee on genetic manipulation. Know that this committee functions under the department of biotechnology under the ministry of science and technology. And this committee monitors the safety related aspects of ongoing research projects or activities that involves hazardous microorganisms or genetically engineered organisms and cells and their products. And this RCGM includes representatives from DBT, ICMR, ICAR, CSIR and even other experts. Then RCGM also brings out manuals of guidelines specifying procedure for regulatory process with respect to activities involving genetically engineered organisms. This includes activities in research use as well as for the industrial and environmental applications. And this is with a view to ensure human health and environmental safety. Now all the ongoing research projects involving hazardous microorganisms, GE organisms or cells and products should be reviewed by this committee to ensure that adequate precautions and containment conditions are being met. Apart from this RCGM also lays down procedures that restrict or prohibit the production, sale, import and use of such hazardous microorganisms, GE organisms or cells. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we saw about the guidance document released by department of biotechnology which is with respect to the clinical trials and we also saw about review committee on genetic manipulation. With this we come to the end of this discussion that is play practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, this news article talks about the investment proposals from China which are awaiting security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to the news article around 200 new investment proposals are waiting for clearance and this comes after new rules on foreign direct investments were notified in April and the news article also talks about the recent amendment to the general financial rule of 2017. So in this discussion we will see about the recent changes made to the FDA policy of India and we will also see the changes made to general financial rules. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See as you know foreign direct investment is an investment from a party in one country into a business or corporation in another country with the intention of establishing a lasting interest. Now here this lasting interest is what differentiates foreign direct investment from the foreign portfolio investments because in a foreign portfolio investments the investors passively hold securities from a foreign country. So foreign investors can invest directly in India either on their own or they can invest through joint ventures in all the sectors except in very small list of activities where foreign investment is prohibited by the government. So in this scenario you should know about the foreign direct investment routes because FDA's can be made through two routes one is automatic route and the second one is government approval route and the FDA in majority of the sectors is under the automatic route that is it does not need regulatory approval prior to such investment. So what is the government approval route? This means certain activities that are not covered under the automatic route require prior government approval for foreign direct investments and some of the sectors or activities which require government approval include mining, defense, broadcasting, print media, civil aviation, satellites, telecom, pharmaceuticals etc. So you can see that all these sectors are important and in one way or the other they contribute to the national security. Now based on these two routes FDIs are divided into three categories category one is sectors in which 100% FDI is permitted under automatic route then category two is sectors in which FDI is permitted up to 100% under the government route then category three is sectors where FDI is permitted up to a certain limit under both the government route and automatic route and based on the FDI policy the Indian company should report to Reserve Bank of India within 30 days of receipt of money from that foreign investor. So this is the basic background you should know about foreign direct investment in our country. So what is the recent amendment? The government has made amendments to the existing FDI policy to block the looming threat of opportunistic Chinese takeover of Indian forms and the amendment is that the investment by entities from countries that share a border with India will require a clearance from the center. That means all the FDIs from the countries which share a border with India have to come through government approval route only. In addition to this a new policy also blocks the indirect acquisition of investments by entities based in China. That means change in ownership of the investment will also have to be cleared by the union government. So it blocks the indirect acquisition. Now here you should note about the Ministry of Home Affairs framework for security clearance policy on investments. The objective of this national security clearance is to evaluate potential threats which are visible or embedded in proposals received by the Ministry of Home Affairs. And as per this policy the promoters owners and directors of the company are mandated to give self declarations regarding any criminal history on their part. Now what is the change made to the general financial rules of 2017? Now first know that these general financial rules are a compilation of rules and orders of government of India to be followed by all while dealing with the matters that involve public finances and these general financial rules or GFRs lay down the general rules which are applicable to ministries or departments and also detailed instructions relating to the procurement of goods are issued by the procuring departments broadly in conformity with these general financial rules. Now the recent amendment which was made last week to this GFR enables imposition of restrictions on bidders from countries which share a border with India and this restriction is in relation to the public procurements and this amendment impowers department of expenditure under the Ministry of Finance to impose restrictions on grounds of defence of India and on matters that directly or indirectly relates to the country's national security. So if department of expenditure feels that for safeguarding national security it is important to impose restriction on some public procurements then it can do so and if such restrictions are imposed then no procurements shall be made by that ministry or department. So from this whole discussion you can see that how the government is taking every step to safeguard the national security especially related to investments. So that is all about this discussion. Now we have come to the last session for the day which is the practice questions discussion session. Now this question asks is the UN will convention recently seen in news is related to the first one is diplomatic relations second one protection of human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury then third one preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence then the fourth one preventing of pollution from ships. So the correct answer is option C preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence and know that the first one that is the diplomatic relations convention is known as the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961 then the second one is related to the Minamata convention on mercury 2013 last one is the Marpole convention of 1973. Now this next question is based on national consumer disputes redressal commission established as per the provisions of consumer protection act 2019 three statements are given and we have to choose the incorrect statements it has original as well as appellate jurisdiction this is the first statement now this statement is correct we saw this during discussion if you know the first statement is correct then you can easily arrive at the correct answer because the question asks for the incorrect statements so one should not be in answer so eliminate option a b and d so the correct answer is option c 2 and 3 only now the second statement mentions its precedent and members are not eligible for reappointment this statement is wrong because they are eligible for reappointment now the third statement is a person agreed by an order made by the commission may appeal in any of the high courts in India now this statement is wrong because they can appeal only in the supreme court now this next question is with reference to review committee on genetic manipulation two statements are given the first statement is it reviews all the ongoing research projects involving hazardous microorganisms GE organisms or cells and products GE means genetically engineered and this first statement is correct this is one of the functions of this committee now the second statement states it functions under the ministry of health and family welfare now this statement is incorrect because this review committee functions under the department of biotechnology which functions under the ministry of science and technology and here the question asks for the correct statements so the correct answer is option a one only now this is the first question for Shankar IS Academy's main scholarship test 2020 read this question carefully and answer accordingly this question is based on GS paper 2 the question asks a need has arisen to revisit the provisions of contempt of court in India discuss and this question is a 10 mark question you have to write the answer within the word limit of 150 words now for writing the answers you can take the printout of the mains answer sheet which is available in the link given in the description and in the comment section and if you do not have access to the printer then you can simply draw margins on an a4 sheet now to know about how to draw margins you can access the link given in the description and in the comment section and we hope that all the registered aspirants are aware of the process to upload your answers in the portal and here know that the answer upload portal link is available in the description section as well as in the comment section and remember this link will be disabled tomorrow evening at 6 p.m so make sure to upload your answer before the upload portal is closed now once the upload portal is closed no answer will be accepted through the email and our regular viewers don't post your answers in the comment section or send it through email like you normally do because if answers are posted in the comment section or even sent through email they will not be evaluated and your answers will not be considered for this scholarship test a new portal link will be shared for tomorrow's question so ensure that you upload your answers for today's question before 6 p.m of tomorrow and most importantly before uploading the answer rename the file name to your unique id and before uploading check whether you have written your answers as per the instructions which we saw in the beginning we wish you all the best if you like this video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to shankar eyes academy youtube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation