 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IAS Academy, displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the news articles are provided in the description box and it is also provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is about Jammu and Kashmir and also about Ladakh. So the title of the news article states that the Jammu and Kashmir losses its special status and divided into two union territories. In actual sense it has been proposed to divide it into two union territories through the Jammu and Kashmir reorganization bill of 2019 that was introduced in the Rajesh Abba yesterday by the union So what was the special status it had? See under article 370 of Indian constitution Jammu and Kashmir is the only Indian state to have its own constitution and the laws passed by the Indian parliament were applicable only with the acceptance of the state government of Jammu and Kashmir that's why in most of the legislations we can find a statement that it does not apply to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the provisions about the extent of a particular law it also has a historical connection in the way it joined or acceded to India by way of a instrument of accession wherein it stated that for matters other than defense external affairs communications and some other ancillary provisions as given in the instrument of accession for all other provisions the state government will be having a say in making law it also has a special status comparing to other states in the way in which the state can decide who are eligible to be called as the permanent residence of the state. Now this status was given by article 35 capital A of Indian constitution that was inserted through a constitutional order of the president so this order is called as the constitution application to jammu and kashmir order of 1954 we can earlier there was an order by the year 1950 called as the constitution application to jammu and kashmir order 1950 and this 1954 order superseded that particular order the 1954 order was made by then president of India in exercise of the powers given by article 370 clause one of Indian constitution this order was made with the concurrence of the state government of jammu kashmir at that point of time so article 35 capital A came into picture because of article 370 if you see article 370 clause one sub clause d the president can by order specify the limits of the parliament in enacting laws in the union list and the concurrent list with respect to jammu and kashmir and there are certain matters that are not found in any list say union list state list and concurrent list in schedule 7 of Indian constitution these matters that are not found in all these lists are called as residual list on those matters that are in the residual list only the legislative assembly of jammu and kashmir has the power to make laws but this is not the case for rest of India we say the residual powers rests with the central government that is one of the factor why we say in India the center is bit more powerful than the states but that is not the case with jammu and kashmir till yesterday this article 35 capital A allowed the legislature of state of jammu and kashmir to define permanent residence so who is a permanent resident in the state of jammu and kashmir any person who belongs to the state of jammu and kashmir as a state subject on may 14 1954 is a permanent resident of the particular state or if a resident has been residing for 10 years before may 14 1954 he or she will also be a permanent resident of the state and note that because of the powers given under the 1954 constitutional order and also under article 35 capital A the citizens living in other states cannot buy any immovable property like land in jammu and kashmir and they also cannot become a permanent residence of jammu and kashmir because we have just seen the definition of who can be a permanent resident because of this order and because of article 35 capital A till 2002 the women from jammu and kashmir if they marry a person from other states they lose their land rights and also her husband and also her children will also do not have a say in land rights or any immovable property in the state but this is not the case for a man who marries a woman from other parts of India only in 2002 the jammu and kashmir high court stated that the rights of women are complete even if she is marrying an outsider even after this judgment it was not normalized for both genders in the society of jammu and kashmir so after 2002 it is said that the woman who marries an outsider will have certain rights but there are still lot of confusions and problems with respect to the rights that are to be given to her husband and also her children after partition many persons have come to India as refugees hoping to get Indian citizenship later but because they happen to reach and stay in jammu and kashmir they were still not considered as permanent residence in jammu and kashmir and therefore they are lacking identity and also or certain rights in jammu and kashmir and with respect to electoral norms people who do not have the permanent residence certificate can vote in general elections that is in lokshaba elections but if they do not have permanent residence certificate if they are not permanent residence they cannot vote in the state assembly elections or the local body elections so these are some of the provisions that made jammu and kashmir as different and special from the rest of India while this has been the points how it made jammu and kashmir special the constitutional order by the president and article 35a has been described as it was brought to safeguard the rights and the unique identity of people of jammu and kashmir so now let's see how can we say that the special provisions have been removed so this is because see the life giver of article 35 capital a is the constitution application to jammu and kashmir order of 1954 now this order of 1954 has been superseded by another presidential constitutional order that was made yesterday in concurrence with the government of state of jammu and kashmir so when we say in concurrence with the government of state of jammu and kashmir it does not mean that there is a legislative assembly or there is a chief minister so this is because as of now the state of jammu and kashmir is under presidential rule under article 356 of indian constitution we will see why there is no legislative assembly in the state of jammu and kashmir in the later part of the analysis of the same article now let's come to one another legal instrument called as jammu and kashmir reorganization bill of 2019 that has been introduced yesterday in the rajesh abha at present we have 29 states and seven union territories of the seven union territories two union territories have legislative assembly and five union territories do not have a legislative assembly well one with legislative assembly are the union territory of puducherry and the national capital territory of deli now the government has proposed to change these numbers from 29 states to 28 states and from seven union territories to nine union territories now this is because the state of jammu and kashmir has been proposed to lose the status of a state and it has to be recognized and reorganized into two union territories one union territory is to be called as union territory of jammu and kashmir and another union territory is to be called as union territory of ladakh in the existing state of jammu and kashmir the districts of kargil and leh are going to constitute the union territory of ladakh the remaining part of the state of jammu and kashmir will come under the proposed union territory of jammu and kashmir and if the reorganization bill becomes an enforceable legislation the legislative assembly of union territory of jammu and kashmir cannot make laws on the subjects polis and public order and it cannot enact in the matters in the concurrent list also so the procedure for passing the jammu and kashmir reorganization bill of 2019 has been expected to follow the procedure as given in article 3 and 4 of indian constitution if you have a look at the statement of objects and reasons mentioned in the reorganization bill it is said that the ladakh division of state of jammu and kashmir has large area but sparsely populated not densely populated and it also has a very difficult terrain and to realize development in the region and to realize their personal and societal aspirations the people of ladakh has been demanding the indian government to give it the status of a union territory and it is in pursuance of this request and demand the central government is stating that it is now creating a union territory of ladakh without a legislature and now the reason mentioned why they are going to create a union territory of jammu and kashmir with legislative assembly is that keeping in view the prevailing internal security situation that has been fueled by cross border terrorism so this is the main reason as mentioned in the bill by the union home minister so the rajesh abha has passed this bill and it has to be now passed in lokshaba now let's come to the issue of article 370 has it been already scrapped or has it been already removed or has it been totally revoked now let's see that according to press information bureau under article 370 class 3 the president has the power to amend or stop the implementation of article 370 on the recommendation of parliament through a public notification but if you see article 370 in the constitution it states that the president may by public notification declare article 370 as inoperative or cease to be operative but before the president issues such a notification the recommendation of the constituent assembly of the state shall be necessary this name of the constituent assembly has been changed to legislative assembly of the state by the constitutional order made by the president yesterday so this means before the president issues such a notification the recommendation of the legislative assembly of the state shall be necessary so we have to wait and see when the president issues such a public notification to make article 370 inoperative so as of now with respect to repealing article 370 the union home minister has introduced only a resolution in rajesh abha so as to request or recommend the president to issue a public notification to repeal article 370 of Indian constitution now let's come to the recent scenario of jammu and keshmir see last year in the month of june the bjp has withdraw its support to the coalition government in jammu and keshmir so once the party withdraw its support there was no clear majority and the governor of the state has proclaimed governor's rule on 20th june 2018 this is in exercise of his powers under the section 92 of constitution of jammu and keshmir what happened by november 2018 the legislative assembly of jammu and keshmir was dissolved by the governor so from november 2018 there is no legislative assembly and according to section 92 of constitution of jammu and keshmir the governor's rule can be there for only a period of six months and this period came to an end by 19th december 2018 so what happened after that the provision for governor rule is only six months so after this period the governor recommended president's rule under article 356 of indian constitution and therefore the president has promulgated the proclamation for president rule in jammu and keshmir and recently the president rule has been extended so as of now it is president's rule in jammu and keshmir so we have to wait and watch the way in which the recommendation of the legislative assembly is to be obtained before the public notification of the president will be issued so as to totally repeal article 370 so this is with respect to this news article in addition to two resolutions and jammu and keshmir reorganization bill of 2019 the government has also introduced jammu keshmir reservation second amendment bill of 2019 this bill aims to amend the jammu and keshmir reservation act of 2004 it seeks to extend the 10 percent quota to economically weaker sections of the society in jammu and keshmir in jobs and educational institutions so both the bills introduced yesterday have been passed in rajesh shaba now both will also go to lokshaba as well now some of the recent stated so that if article 35 capital A and subsequently article 370 is revoked there will be a lot of private investment in jammu and keshmir and it would immediately start to increase the potential for development in jammu and keshmir which will in turn increase the job creation and further socioeconomic infrastructure in the state and once these are revoked there is a possibility and there will be enough steps will be taken so as to grant citizenship status for the refugees who came from pakistan after partition so that they will also enjoy their rights and it is also stated that it will help in enjoying the rights of democracy in jammu and keshmir because it is stated that because of article 370 the 73rd and 74th amendments of indian constitution could not be applied to jammu and keshmir so for the enjoyment of democratic rights it has to be repealed so it is also stated that it will reduce the economic backwardness as it will make other people to come into the state and it will provide economic competition that will promote development and also corruption is expected to come down so once these development policies and development actually start to happen in jammu and keshmir the youths who are currently stimulated by some of the extremist sections or some of the sections that have allegiance to terrorism will start to unite and integrate with the ideals of the country and also they will be united with the rest of the country so the superseding of the 1954 order it also helps extends all the central acts to the state of jammu and keshmir and that means no more article 35 capital is valid therefore whoever discriminated so far will not be discriminated in comparison with other states particularly the women and their land rights and the home minister has also stated that if this union territory model works well for for jammu and keshmir in future there is a possibility of giving jammu and keshmir the status of statehood again these are with respect to the developments that happened yesterday now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article talks about the response from the side of Pakistan with respect to the developments about jammu and keshmir announced in rajasabha yesterday now the indian government's approach to make the state of jammu and keshmir into two union territories was unacceptable to the pakistan government pakistan is saying that the territory continues to remain as an international dispute and it says that no unilateral step can be taken by government of india to change the status of dispute with respect to jammu and keshmir it has mentioned that it is a party to the international dispute with respect to jammu and keshmir and therefore pakistan will exercise all possible options to counter the steps that are taken by the indian government it has called the steps taken by the indian government as illegal and the prime minister of pakistan has called for international mediation on keshmir government of pakistan has also mentioned that it will continue to provide support for the right to self-determination of the people of jammu and keshmir of this point has been consistently raised by pakistani government because it is demanding at some point of time there will be a plebiscite or a kind of referendum will happen in jammu and keshmir so that the people living in jammu and keshmir will say they want to align with the pakistani territory but the indian government has explained to the diplomats of various countries that whatever measures announced with respect to jammu and keshmir is an internal affair of india that is carried out by apt legislative procedure and the purpose was to ensure good governance and to promote social justice and also to ensure economic development within the territory of jammu and keshmir this is with respect to this news article now let's take our analysis to next article this news article is about an australian patient who is suffering from cancer using assisted dying law or euthanasia to end life and it is said that he is the first person in last 20 years or two decades in australia to die under assisted dying laws in 2010 the patient was diagnosed with breast cancer and since then the cancer has spread to her bones lungs brain and even liver the patient was undergoing chemotherapy treatment which is used to treat cancer but the treatment was not effective so the patient stopped receiving the treatment to end her life now this process was done based on the law that was passed by the state of victoria in australia to legalize euthanasia this law was passed in 2017 now euthanasia is also called as mercy killing it is executed when a person is suffering from an incurable painful disease so only for medical reasons euthanasia can be carried out so euthanasia is a painless killing of a patient who is suffering from an incurable painful disease so there are two types one is active euthanasia and another one is passive euthanasia active euthanasia occurs by using drugs or injection so that a patient's desire to die is carried out to escape from the incurable painful disease now this can be done by medical professional or even the patients themselves or any other person but done consciously and intentionally based on the desire of the patient to die now this type of active euthanasia is illegal in most countries but in some countries such as canada colombia netherlands and belgium it is legal if we consider passive euthanasia it occurs when patient dies because of the removal of life-supporting mechanism or life-supporting medications so this passive euthanasia within the prescribed rules is legal in countries such as switzerland germany and few united states sub-national entities such as california and origan now what is the status of euthanasia in our country see the debate for mercy killing or euthanasia in india has started with the patient miss aruna shanbak she was in a persistent vegetative state that means in non-responsiveness or in a state of coma since 1973 till she died in 2015 so before 2011 euthanasia in both forms active or passive was illegal in our country but in 2011 in the case law with respect to miss aruna shanbak the supreme court of india upheld right to die with dignity as a fundamental right the supreme court stated that the right to live with dignity under article 21 is inclusive of right to die with dignity the same judgment has also asked for removal of section 309 of indian penal code so this landmark judgment has made euthanasia in india permissible in our country okay that is what supreme court stated in 2011 even today there is no legislation that legalizes passive euthanasia but till a legislation is drafted and made enforceable the supreme court judgment will serve as guiding light or it will serve as a case law for passive euthanasia in our country now let's see a few guidelines of passive euthanasia the guidelines is that the decision to stop life support or discontinue life support should be taken by parents or spouse or close relatives in the absence of parents or spouse or close relatives the decision can be taken by the next friend or in that case even by the doctors who are treating the patient provided the decision is taken in the best interest of the patient and the guidelines say that this decision requires approval from the high court the supreme court also recognized the living will as being valid and legally enforceable a living will is a legal document by which any person can put down a set of instructions so that specific actions can be taken or specific actions that should not be taken particularly to their health and it applies in situations when they are unable to make decisions for themselves with respect to future with respect to the attempt of the government to bring a legislation after the supreme court judgment in 2011 the law commission has recommended for a legislation on passive euthanasia the government then brought a draft bill in 2016 now the bill was called as the medical treatment of terminally ill patients protection of patients and medical practitioners bill of 2016 see this bill provided protection to patients and doctors from any liability for discontinuing or withholding the medical treatment and the bill makes the decision of the patient binding on the doctor but in such cases the doctor should be satisfied that the patient has taken the decision based on free will but the bill actually dealt only with passive euthanasia now let's see one or two arguments that are in favor of euthanasia see the right to life under article 21 of indian constitution some experts argue that it is inclusive of right to die as well supreme court in 1996 in the case law of jian gaur versus state of panjab has stated that right to life did not include right to die and this was reversed in 2011 judgment of supreme court with respect to the case that was related to miss aruna so they say that legalizing passive euthanasia will save terminally ill patients from unnecessary treatment and agony and help them escape from incurable painful disease this is one side of argument now the another side is that they are saying legalizing passive euthanasia will encourage organ transplantation among the terminally ill patients only so they say that passive euthanasia in addition to giving a dignified death to the persons who are terminally ill it also gives a new life to the patients who are in need of organs so this is with respect to this news article now let's have a look at the next news this news article is about the voting rights of prisoners it is said that the election commission of india has submitted before the delhi high court that prisoners do not have voting rights under the representation of people act of 1951 now it mentioned that the right to vote is a statutory right when we say statutory right it means the right is given to the section of population through a legislation through a statute in this case the right to vote is a legal right or a statutory right given as per section 62 of representation of people's act if you see section 62 subsection one of the representation of people act of 1951 it states that every person who's entered in the electoral role of a particular constituency shall be entitled to vote but except as provided in this act now this means there is some kind of restriction now when we say electoral role it means the list of persons who are eligible to vote in a particular election so now let's see certain exceptions or some restrictions so that who cannot vote in a particular election if you see section 62 subsection 5 it states that any person confined in a prison is not eligible to vote with the exception of those persons who are in preventive detention now if you see overall the prisoners we can find some persons as remand prisoners some of them will be under trial prisoners some set of numbers of prisoners will be convicted prisoners and we can also find detainees so when we say remand prisoners they are those prisoners who are arrested by police for a particular offense or a set of offenses and are presently in judicial custody before the beginning of trial in the court so we should know when a trial will begin normally for an offense see trial begins in court after the submission of charge sheet or the final report by an investigation officer now under trial prisoners are those prisoners who are in prison but after the beginning of trial in the court of law and this trial will come to an end with the pronouncement of judgment and also the sentencing so when we say under trial prisoner the person has not yet been proven guilty or the person has not yet been proven as a innocent with respect to the offense alleged offense when we say convicted prisoners now they are persons who are convicted of committing certain offense by the court of law and they will be under the sentence of punishment pronounced by the particular court now in this categories we can find that except the convicted prisoner all the others are not yet convicted but we can find section 62 subsection 5 telling that or keeping all these prisoners in the same footing with respect to voting rights now let's see detainees detainees are those persons who are detained in prison that is here we are referring to preventive detention now the purpose is to prevent them from committing any crime or any other unlawful activity and they will be kept in preventive detention based on various orders of a competent authority under relevant preventive detention laws the replay of the election commission was with respect to a petition filed by three law students the petition the law students has sought the high court to grant and facilitate voting rights to all persons who are lodged in jails across the country and they are saying that the ban on the prisoners right to vote is a violation of the constitution and also particularly the basic principle of equality under article 14 of indian constitution with this we come to the end of this news article now let's see next article this news article is about government releasing draft e-commerce norms see the department of consumer affairs has released draft guidelines on e-commerce the main objective is to protect the interest of online shoppers or online consumers now the draft guidelines are available so that concerned and relevant stakeholders shall inform the comments for a period of 45 days after receiving the comments and feedback the government will finalize the guidelines this is a process of an extension of public consultation see these guidelines will be made applicable to business to consumer e-commerce including the goods and services from e-commerce platforms such as amazon snap deal etc when we say business to consumer it means selling goods and services directly to the consumers from the business entity or a business platform now let's see some of the important provisions in the guidelines once the guidelines are officially published after receiving the comments then every e-commerce platform or e-commerce company will be required to ensure that personal information of customers should be protected and in such methods of data collection and the data storage should comply with the provisions of information technology and all the e-commerce firms should be registered as a legal entity under relevant indian legislations and they have to submit a self declaration that they will confirm to the guidelines and one very important thing is that the promoter or the key management personnel should not have been convicted of any criminal offense that are punishable with a period of five or more years of imprisonment with respect to influencing the price rise or a prices of particular goods or a particular service the draft has said that e-commerce entities should not either directly or indirectly they should not influence the price of goods and services the objective is to ensure level playing field for all the entities these measures are addressing preventing fraud preventing unfair trade practices and ultimately it protects the legitimate rights and interests of the online consumers or in other ways consumers the guidelines also talk about disclosing the information related to seller to increase transparency in the e-commerce process it makes it mandatory for e-commerce firms to display the terms of contract with the seller this will have details related to return of goods refund exchange also about warranty or guarantee and delivery and also mode of payments and even the grievance redressal mechanisms so these are some of the steps that will help the customers to make some informed decisions and choices so that they will select the seller of their requirement there is one another responsibility with respect to this e-commerce firms that is if they come to know about any fake product then they will be requesting the seller to prove that the particular product is genuine if a seller is unable to provide any evidence that the product is genuine then the e-commerce firm has to take down the listing and has to notify the consumers of the particular fake product and also the seller who is unable to prove that his or her product is a genuine product and in order to improve the integrity of reviews the draft says that the e-commerce firms cannot falsely represent themselves as consumers to post reviews about the goods and services if in our present scenario we can see several deadlines available for processing the refund request or affecting the refund request but this draft guideline fixes a 14 day period to affect the refund request by the consumers so this means within a maximum period of 14 days the firms are required to refund the relevant payments to the customers for the refund request made in the e-commerce process one most important step with respect to grievance redressal is that this draft guidelines say that e-commerce entity or a platform has to publish the name and contact details of the grievance officer on their website itself they also have to explain the mechanism in which the users can file their complaints so this is to help the consumers to provide them a clear idea about filing and resolving their grievances or complaints one another provision is that the sellers should display the total as well as the breakup price for the goods and services that will some heads like charges for delivery charges for postage and taxes and all other relevant heads so at the end we can say that the draft guidelines addresses some important issues that are currently prevailing in the e-commerce market by improving transparency this they are doing by disclosing the seller details and addressing the problems with respect to fake products and they are also trying to promote the integrity of review of products and also to effect proper consumer complaints redressal so the purpose is to protect consumers at every stage of e-commerce transaction and it is being said that the e-commerce sector is currently seeing a huge growth predominantly because of increase in use of online platforms and increasing penetration of smartphones among the people and also the rising popularity of social media platforms and they are saying that according to an American investment bank India is adding one internet user every three seconds these are all potential points or contributing factors why e-commerce sector in India has been witnessing a huge growth in the recent times and it is estimated that by 2028 the e-commerce sector in India would reach around 230 billion US dollars there is somewhere around 16 lakh crores so these are some of the points with respect to this news article this question is with reference to the right to vote they have given two statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct the first statement it tells that the right to vote has been explicitly mentioned in the Indian constitution now this statement is incorrect because nowhere in Indian constitution the right to vote has been explicitly mentioned so even in fundamental rights we cannot find right to vote was directly mentioned in the Indian constitution so the statement is wrong the second statement the right to vote as of now cannot be exercised by the persons confined in prisons with the exception of those who are subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being enforced now this statement is correct this is correct according to section 62 subsection 5 of the representation of the people act of 1951 it says that no person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison but this provision does not apply to a person subjected to preventive detention so therefore only the second statement is correct therefore the correct answer is option b 2 only earlier in one of the preliminary examination there was a question that whether the right to vote is a statutory right or a constitutional right like that but we should know that right to vote is a legal right or a statutory right under the representation of the people act of 1951 now this question is with reference to article 370 of Indian constitution the first statement it deals with the temporary provisions with respect to the state of Jammu and Kashmir only now this statement is correct the second statement the president may by public notification declare that this article shall cease to operate or cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications now this statement is also correct this is according to clause 3 of article 370 where the president can by public notification declare it as not in operation but we studied during the analysis that but before the declaration there shall be a recommendation from the state legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir so both the statements are correct therefore the correct answer for this question is option c both 1 and 2 with this we come to the end of today's the Hindu news analysis if you like the video click the like button share comment and subscribe to Shankara's academy youtube 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