 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindi newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarae's Academy for the date 31st of July 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, let's get into the article discussion. See this FAQ article here. It deals with the recent judgment of Supreme Court. It is regarding the prevention of money laundering act. Many provisions of the act were termed draconian by the petitioners. So the provisions and their interpretations were challenged. But now the Supreme Court has upheld the validity of these sections and the act as whole. It has also upheld the provisions that gives the enforcement directorate enormous powers under the prevention of money laundering act. So let us understand what these powers are, which provisions of the act were challenged and the issues in it. And we will also see the Supreme Court's verdict regarding these. But before that the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See to understand the verdict first of all you need to understand about money laundering. See money laundering is the processing of money earned from doing criminal and illegal activities. See the processing is done to hide the illegal origin. Many criminal activities generate huge amounts of money. The criminal activities such as illegal arms sales, smuggling, drug trafficking, prostitution rings, even embezzlement inside a trading bribery, computer fraud schemes etc generate large amounts of illegal money. So through money laundering the origin of such money is disguised. That is the fact that such money is obtained from a criminal activity is hidden. But why the illegal origin is hidden? See it is done so that the criminal can enjoy the profits from a crime without jeopardizing their source. If the source is not known then they can keep on doing that criminal activity and keep on generating huge profits. So here the criminal money that is the dirty money or black money is laundered through a process and it is converted into white money which is otherwise called as clean money or legal money. See I have given here the definition of money laundering as per the Vienna Convention of 1988. Just go through it. But remember the money laundering activity not only disguises the source of money but it also changes the form. See it moves the fund to a place where they are less likely to attract attention. So several efforts have been taken globally and nationally to fight money laundering. It includes efforts like Vienna Convention 1988 Palermo Convention of 2000. Even the financial action task force FATF was set up for this purpose only and similarly India also enacted the prevention of money laundering act in 2002 with the objective of preventing money laundering. The act also aims to provide for confiscation of property derived from money laundering. Additionally know that the direct rate of enforcement or the enforcement direct rate is interested with the administration and enforcement of prevention of money laundering act since the year 2005. See ED that is the enforcement direct rate is under the administrative control of department of revenue in the ministry of finance and the ED functions as a multidisciplinary organization which is mandated with the investigation of offence of money laundering. So ED it is the nodal agency for collection of intelligence carrying out research and analysis and conducting financial investigation for cases involving money laundering. See for carrying out these functions the prevention of money laundering act that is the PMLA provides enormous powers to ED. So what are those powers the power to conduct investigation to trace the assets the power to provisionally attach the property it includes the duty to ensure the prosecution of offenders and confiscation of property and it includes international cooperation with the competent authorities and foreign jurisdictions. See the most important fact to remember is in India ED has the sole jurisdiction to investigate the money laundering cases and when the law enforcement agencies have the responsibility to investigate a predicate offense then they are required to make a reference to ED to examine the money laundering aspect of the criminal activity. See don't get confused with the term predicate offence it is nothing but a crime that is a component of a more serious crime. For example predicate offence of drug trafficking can generate revenue and then it can be laundered. So the offence here is drug trafficking but then the profits earned from drug trafficking are then laundered. So now the designation of certain crimes is predicate offences means that a person can be charged with the offence of money laundering as well as with the predicate offence itself. Like we saw in the example the predicate offence of drug trafficking leads to money laundering. So in that case the person can be charged with drug trafficking under relevant laws in addition to money laundering under the PMLA. Now coming back when the ED receives the reference or information about a predicate offence then it makes a preliminary verification and after this a case is recorded by the ED and it initiates investigation. The record is called enforcement case information report or the ECIR. It's like an FIR. See during investigation ED follows a risk-based approach and takes into consideration the factors such as materiality of offence, transnational nature of the crime, complexity of the case, the larger public interest and the availability of the resources. So I hope you got a basic understanding of what is money laundering and the functions of enforcement direct rate. Now let us come to the verdict. See the case law is the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vices union of India 2022. The case dealt with many pleas regarding PMLA. They were concerning two things. One was about the validity and the interpretation of certain provisions of the act. It includes the procedure of arrest, search and seizure, preconditions of bail etc. The second was about the procedure followed by ED while enquiring into offences under PMLA. The pleas argued that all these are violators of constitutional mandate. Now one by one let us see the challenged provisions and simultaneously we will also see the issues in it and Supreme Court's stand on it. Now the first challenged provision is the definition of money laundering under section 3 of PMLA. They mainly challenged the explanation added in 2019. The section defines money laundering as concealment, possession, accusation or use and projecting or climbing the proceeds of crime as untainted property. So when someone directly or indirectly attempts to indulge in these activities or knowingly assists or knowingly is a party to that activity then they will be guilty of money laundering. See if a person is involved in a criminal activity with or without his knowledge which produces huge amounts of money as profits then they will be guilty of money laundering. See the issue cited was even if you are just holding or using the proceeds of crime and you are not involved in the money laundering directly or indirectly just by citing the fact that you are using the proceeds of crime they can charge you with money laundering. Additionally just by citing a crime like drug trafficking a person can be accused of money laundering also. This is because the conception that since they are doing a crime its profits can be used only after money laundering. So using the definition ED was registering money laundering case solely on the basis of an original crime and without any proof that the proceeds of crime have been laundered and this was happening after including the explanation part. The petitioners argued the explanation expanded the scope of original definition but the Supreme Court rejected this climb and held that the explanation does not expand the scope of the original definition rather it is in clarifying nature. But along with this Supreme Court also added that if the original crime cannot be proven then money laundering case can also be suspended. Now let us come to the second challenge. It is regarding the ECIR and the summons under the Act. See ECIR is argued to be like first information report FIR but here ECIR is not shared with the accused person. So the person is unaware about the reasons and the basis of their arrest. See the petitioners argued that the procedure is not transparent. So why and how a money laundering probe is initiated reminds unknown. Thus the ED officials had discretionary powers to issue summons and can order search and seizure based on ECIR. See the accused person is left in the dark regarding their arrest but again Supreme Court rejected these climbs stating they are necessary and it held that ECIR cannot be equated with an FIR. So its copy cannot be given to the accused and at the same time Supreme Court also held that the grounds of arrest must be stated. Supreme Court took this decision by stating that the law already asks to record the reasons for every step taken while doing arrest search and seizure. Now this is regarding ECIR. The next issue was regarding the summons under section 50. The section provides the ED or its director the power to summon a person. This is because ED has the power of a civil court to enforce the attendance of a person under this section. As per clause 3 the summoned person has to be present, give a signed testimony and submit documents if demanded. Otherwise they are liable for punishment. See the main issue is if they lie then it can be used against that person in a trial. See this is actually testimonial compulsion that is when a testimony is obtained under compulsion. As I said if ED demands a person to be present and give testimony they cannot simply refuse. So petitioners argued that the person is being witness against ourselves. No one can be forced to be a witness against themselves under article 20 of the constitution. So this section was termed unconstitutional. But again the Supreme Court rejected the claim stating that such summoning does not amount to investigation. We can clearly see that Supreme Court is wrong here as any information that is gathered as a part of the summoning can be used against the person in a trial. Now this is about the issue regarding summons under the act. Now let me come to the last challenging provision this is regarding the bail. See section 45 deals with the grant of bail. The problem is with the twin conditions in the section. Under subsection 1 clause 2 one condition is that the court must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not guilty of an offence. The second condition is that the court must be satisfied that he or she is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. And this provision puts the burden on the accused person to prove that he is not guilty and will not commit offence. And that is to just get a bail. So it imposed a reverse burden of proof on the accused. And due to the stringent nature of this provision it is termed draconian. Because it removes the principle of the presumption of innocence. That is an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. But again Supreme Court held that due to the gravity of the offence of money laundering and its extremely heinous nature such stringent provisions related to bail are valid. So overall the Supreme Court has upheld all the challenged provisions of PMLA. And with this we have come to the end of this article discussion. With these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here it is about 5G rollout. We know that 5G spectrum auction is going on. So in this context the union minister for communications said that once the spectrum auction is over the 5G rollout will start soon. And finally he also said that if in case the 5G prices are high then the state owned telecom operator that is the BSNL will intervene and act as a market balancer. And this is about the news article given here. So as a part of this discussion let us see some points about 5G technology from prelims perspective. First of all we will see what 5G is. See as the name suggests it is a fifth generation mobile technology. All the mobile networks from 1G to 5G use radio waves to transmit data. But something must be different in the radio waves used right. Because 5G is more efficient than the other generation technologies. Know that the difference is in the frequency. 5G technology uses radio waves of higher frequency and 4G technology uses radio waves of comparatively lower frequency. If you notice with each generation of mobile network right from 1G and 2G the frequency of the radio waves used keep increasing. This is because with the increasing frequency more data can be transmitted. So with higher frequency the 5G has the edge of being more efficient. Now let us see the advantages of 5G technology. First advantage is high data speed and data capacity. See due to its higher frequency the capacity of data that is transmitted is huge and the rate at which the data can be transmitted is also huge. Due to this property that is 5G's ability to transmit huge data at a faster rate the 5G has low latency. We have seen many a times what latency is. See latency is how long it takes for data to travel between its source and destination. So lower the latency better our experience. Say for example you are playing call of duty on an internet connection with high latency. Meaning the data is transmitted very slow. In such a case if you are commanding your character to move forward by pressing the W key your character will not actually move for 5 seconds. And this is what is called a lag in gaming lingo. And this lag is caused due to higher latency. See this issue can be addressed by 5G technology. Now the second advantage adopting 5G is cost efficient. See we saw 5G tech uses high frequency radio waves and we know that frequency is inversely proportional to wavelength. So due to its lower wavelength the antenna that is used to transmit 5G is also smaller. With smaller antenna requirements precise directional control can be ensured in radio towers. This will help ensure that the coverage provided by 5G mobile towers is high. And due to higher coverage the requirement of more mobile towers can be reduced. And hence it is cost efficient. And due to these advantages there are many different applications for 5G technology. See it helps in the development of internet of things. And with the evolution of IoT that is internet of things. Many additional applications like smart homes smart cars can be developed. It is used in cloud computing also. And apart from this 5G also finds applications in augmented reality remote surgery factory automation etc. Now with this information finally let us see the major disadvantage of 5G technology. The first one is dissipation of signal. See earlier while discussing the advantage you might have had a question. If higher frequency equals high speed and higher data carrying capacity then why don't governments offer even higher frequency radio waves for auction. See there is an issue in this. In the case of electromagnetic waves with high frequency they get scattered very easily. So to ensure transfer of data direct line of sight between the antenna and the device receiving the signal must be ensured. See this is difficult to ensure all the time. And that is why there is a limitation in the frequency that can be used in mobile networks. Since the 5G have higher frequency they are easily observed by humidity, rain and other objects when compared to 4G. So sometimes when you move away from the 5G your cell phone automatically switches back to 4G network. But this can be addressed by strategically placing tiny antennas in places where it is most needed. Now the second problem is that 5G technology will provide little value addition to normal or everyday uses. See they only have very specific applications which will not seem attractive for normal consumers. So their adoption might become difficult. So these are the disadvantages. And with this we have come to the end of this article discussion. With these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. The next news article is regarding a statement made by our prime minister relating to under trials. In the first all India district legal service authorities meet PM has urged the judiciary to speed up the release of under trials who are languishing in jails. And for this he has asked the DLSA to provide the under trials legal aid. Here DLSA is nothing but district legal services authorities. So in this backdrop let us know about DLSA. See the basic purpose of any legal service authority is to provide free legal services to the weaker sections of the society such as free legal aid and to organize local adults. Free legal aid is nothing but providing free legal services in civil as well as criminal matters under Legal Services Act 1987. As you know providing free legal aid to the weaker section is a duty of the state under article 39A of the Directive Principles of State Policy. Additionally article 14 and article 22 also make it obligatory for the state to ensure equality before law and a legal system which promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity to all. In this regard legal aid strives to ensure that this constitutional pledge is fulfilled in its letter and spirit and equal justice is made available to the poor, downtrodden and weaker sections of the society. Therefore legal services authorities Act of 1987 was enacted to give a statutory base to the legal aid programs throughout the country on a uniform pattern. See the Act has established National Legal Services Authority NALSA. It is at the apex level and the state legal services authorities SLSA at the state level but our focus today is on DLSA which is at the district level. It is established under Section 9 of the Act for every district in the state. DLSA is established by state governments in consultation with Chief Justice of High Court of the State. It is situated in District Courts Complex in every district. See it has three main functions. The first one is to coordinate the activities of Taluk Legal Services Committee and other legal services in the district. The second one is to organize Lok Adalats within the district and finally to perform any other functions as fixed by state legal services authority through regulations. Now coming to its composition know that it has a chairman, members and a secretary. Here chairman is the district judge but the number of members, their experience and qualifications they all are prescribed by the state government. See the members will be nominated by the government in consultation with Chief Justice of High Court. Next coming to the secretary. The secretary of DLSA is appointed by state legal services authority in consultation with the chairman. The qualification for this is the person should be belonging to state judicial service and not lower in rank than that of a subordinate judge. The other qualification is the person should be a civil judge posted at the seat of District Judiciary. See the terms of office and other conditions of members and secretary is determined by regulations made by state legal services authority in consultation with Chief Justice of High Court. So that's all about this news article discussion. With these key takeaway points let us move on to the next article discussion. See this final article here. See last year on January 12, 2021, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change wrote to Chief Wildlife Wardens of the Elephant Reserve states to provide information about the Elephant Reserves. The Union Ministry asked this information to make the compilation of information on Elephant Reserves by its Project Elephant Division but it has been over a year but states failed to give the details. And this is about the news article given here. In this context let us see some important points about the Elephant Reserves in India. See I have displayed all of the Elephant Reserves in India and the corresponding states in which they are located. Read it one by one and try to just remember which Elephant Reserve is in which state. Because there may be a question in prilams where they ask Elephant Reserves and the corresponding states in power based questions. Now let us see two efforts to preserve the Elephant population. One is India's effort, the other one is international effort. First let us take the Indian effort. It is nothing but the Project Elephant. See it was launched by Government of India in the year 1992 and it is a centrally sponsored scheme. It means that the financial and technical support is provided by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. In India elephants occur in 16 of the 28 states in the country. It is in these 16 states the Project Elephant is implemented. And the 16 states are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Kand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. See the Project Elephant has three main objectives. First is to protect elephants and their habitat and corridors. And then to address the issues of man-animal conflict and to make sure Project Elephant ensures the welfare of captive elephants. See here also you may expect a question regarding Project Elephant. If a statement is given in your prelims question such as Project Elephant does not deal with the welfare of captive elephants then that statement is incorrect. One of the objectives of Project Elephant is to ensure the welfare of captive elephants. So while studying objectives of important projects that to specifically when it is concerned about the welfare or the conservation of wildlife read it carefully. Now moving on to the international effort it is nothing but Mike M-I-K-E that is monitoring of illegal killing of elephants. See it comes under Sites. Mike was started in 2003 in South Asia to measure levels in the illegal hunting of elephants and using this information Mike aims to provide more effective law enforcement and strengthen the regulatory measures in elephant range states. In India Project Elephant has been formally implementing Mike and I have displayed here 10 Mike sites in India just go through it. If a particular name of a location is given and it is asked as whether it is a Mike site or not you should be able to know it. Now before concluding this discussion let us see the importance of elephant conservation. See elephants are ecosystem engineers. Due to their massive size when they walk through dense forest it creates gaps for the vegetation and these gaps allow new plants to grow and create pathways for other smaller animals to use. See in addition to this it helps in the dispersal of seeds. We know that elephants are herbivorous while eating they eat the fruits and vegetables of the plant which contain seeds in them and due to this elephant dung contains seeds from different plants they eat and when this dung is deposited the seeds are sown and grow into new grasses bushes trees boosting the health of ecosystem and due to their migratory nature they also disperse seeds to different locations and in addition to this elephants are keystone species and they play critical roles in their environment. So by conserving elephants conservation of other animals are ensured and finally elephant conservation also ensures economical sense. See elephants are tourism magnets take Thailand for example they have elephant specific tourism packages which attract a lot of tourists. So these are the reasons elephant conservation is necessary and with these points in mind let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. Today we have four questions for discussion I'll solve three of them and one of them is a quiz question for you. Now let us take this first question enforcement directorate enforces which of the following acts prevention of money laundering act 2002 the foreign exchange management act 1999 the fugitive economic offenders act 2018 and we have to find the correct answer. See as for us prevention of money laundering act is concerned it is a criminal law enacted to prevent money laundering and to provide for confiscation of property involved in money laundering and regarding this the enforcement directorate has been given the responsibility to enforce the provisions of the act by conducting investigation to trace the assets derived from the crime. Now coming to the second act which is foreign exchange management act it is a civil law it is enacted to consolidate and amend the laws relating to facilitate external trade and payments and to promote the orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India and regarding this also enforcement directorate has been given the responsibility to conduct investigation into suspected contraventions of foreign exchange laws and regulations and it has been given the responsibility to adjudicate and impose penalties on those who have contravened the law. Now coming to the third act which is fugitive economic offenders act this law was enacted to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts. It is the law whereby directorate is mandated to attach the properties of fugitive economic offenders who have escaped from India warranting arrest and the directorate has also been mandated to provide for the confiscation of their property to the central government. So from this what we know we know that enforcement directorate enforces all of the three acts. So the correct answer here is option C one two and three. Now let us take the next question arrange the following waves of the electromagnetic spectrum in the decreasing order of wavelength. So what we have to do we have to arrange the waves in their decreasing order so that the waves containing the maximum wavelength should be in the first position. So what is the order then it is radio waves infrared waves visible light x-rays and then gamma rays. So the correct option here is option A three two one four five. Now coming to next question consider the following statements. Free legal services is provided in both civil and criminal matters under the legal services act 1987. See the statement is correct. Now coming to second statement the chief justice of high court is the pattern in chief of both the state legal services authority and district legal services authority. See this statement is incorrect. Chief justice of high court is pattern in chief for only state legal services authority and not the district legal services authority. See DLSA is chaired by district judge. So here second statement is incorrect. The question has asked for incorrect statements. So the correct answer here is option B. Now coming to the final question consider the following statements about Hathi mere sati. Read the statements think for a minute and try to attempt this question and post your answer in the comment section. I have displayed a main question for your practice. So interested aspirants write it and post it in the comment section and if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today post that also in the comment section and with this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful like share and comment and do subscribe to Shankaray's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.