Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991
Mains level: Paper 2- Lower judiciary
Context
The Supreme Court order of May 20, transferring the suit on the Gyanvapi Masjid dispute from the civil judge (senior division) Varanasi to the district judge casts aspersion, though unintended, on the competence of civil judges in general.
Background
- The matter had reached the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the Mosque Management Committee, which challenged the civil judge’s orders.
- The order permitted inspection, survey, and videography of the mosque’s complex to collect evidence about the alleged existence of idols of Hindu deities inside the mosque, which is adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
- The Mosque Management Committee had filed an application before the civil judge seeking the rejection of the plaint on the ground that it was barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
- Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 prohibits individuals and groups of people from converting, in full or in part, a place of worship of any religious denomination into a place of worship of a different religious denomination, or even a different segment of the same religious denomination.
- It was argued before the SC that given the said Act, the suit was liable to be rejected at the threshold as the civil judge had no jurisdiction to entertain the same, much less to pass the aforesaid interim orders.
- The SC has not found any fault with the order of the civil judge, though there is also a view that it was mandatory on the part of the civil judge to have first passed an order on whether he had the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
- However, it appears that in the SC’s view, this was not a serious infraction.
- So, in a way, the SC has affirmed the orders of the civil judge.
- The civil court had territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
- The question that arises is: Why has the Supreme Court transferred the matter to the court of the district judge?
Issues with the SC transferring the case to the district judge
- The SC has seemingly declared civil judges to be not competent to decide a matter alleged to be complex.
- When the Civil Procedure Code, the High Court Rules and Orders invest a civil judge with jurisdiction, why take it away merely on the plea that the matter is complex?
- Unhealthy precedent: Fransfer of the case to the district judge has set an unhealthy precedent and will have a demoralising effect on the subordinate judiciary.
- In the recent past, many lower-level judicial officers have passed outstanding orders in matters concerning the liberties of the citizens, which are under threat as never before.
- The subordinate judiciary provides the foundation of our judicial system.
Conclusion
Supreme Court order inadvertently casts aspersions on competence of subordinate judiciary. District court should not be weighed down by SC observation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Implications of Supreme Court's ruling for GST regime
Context
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the decisions taken by the GST Council are merely recommendations with “persuasive value” and are not binding.
GST as a advisory body
- The court has rejected the Centre’s contention that the entire structure of GST would crumble if the Council’s decisions were not treated as enforceable.
- In some ways, the verdict states the obvious.
- Article 246-A inserted after the 122nd constitutional amendment states, “Notwithstanding anything contained in articles 246 and 254, Parliament, and, subject to clause (2), the Legislature of every state, have the power to make laws with respect to the GST imposed by the Union or by such state.”
- Thus, the power to levy the central GST (CGST) vests with Parliament, the power to levy state GST (SGST) vests with state legislatures and Parliament has exclusive power to make laws with respect to the GST on items that are part of inter-state trade or commerce.
- Thus, the GST Council is only an advisory body and the actual decisions regarding model GST levies, principles of levy, apportionment of GST levied on inter-state supplies, principles relating to place of supply, exemptions and rate structure and any special provisions will have to be taken by either Parliament in the case of CGST and IGST or the states in the case of SGST.
- In effect, decisions on the structure and operation of the tax can be made by the Centre and individual states without discussion and deliberation in the Council and both can ignore any recommendation made by the Council.
- The judgment reiterates that the sovereign right to levy the tax still exists with the Union and state governments and it is for them to consider the recommendations of the Council.
- The chance of having a harmonised GST and reforms in the tax regime will crucially depend upon continued negotiation and bargaining between the Union and states.
- Intergovernmental cooperation has been kept alive to ensure a harmonised GST and unless both the Centre and the states see the gains, reforms will be hard to come by and if the Centre desires the reforms more than the states, it will have to ensure a “buy in” from the states to agree for the reform.
Implications of the judgement
- Given that the GST Council has been declared as only an advisory body with a persuasive value, what happens to the dream of having a harmonised one nation, one tax, if a state or a group of states decides to deviate?
- But the judgment paves the way for more intensive bargaining and negotiations, placing states on an equal footing with the Centre in taking decisions on the structure and operations of the tax.
- At present, decisions get approved in the GST Council when passed by a majority of three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting, with the Centre having one-third weight and individual states (and UTs) having an equal share of the remaining two-thirds weight.
- However, in the past, all decisions in the Council have been taken by consensus (except in the case of determining the rate on lotteries), and the Supreme Court decision reinforces this convention.
- The immediate impact of this will be bargaining by states for extending the period of compensation for the loss of revenue.
- As the five-year period of compensation gets over at the end of June, this decision will now help the states to bargain hard for the extension.
Way forward
- Though the period of collecting compensation cess has been extended till March 2026 to meet the interest and repayment requirements of the funds borrowed from the RBI to meet the compensation requirements, the lasting solution lies in increasing the revenue productivity of the tax by pruning the list of exempted items, rationalising the rates and taking administrative measures.
- These reforms will require strengthening the cooperative spirit.
Conclusion
This has come at a time when reforms have to be set in motion and hopefully, the Court’s decision will strengthen the cooperative spirit in reforming the domestic consumption tax system in the country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Taiwan as a new global flashpoint
The US President made a controversial statement on whether the US will come to the aid of Taiwan militarily in case of an invasion by China.
What is the Taiwan issue?
- Taiwan is an island territory located off the coast of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait.
- After their defeat to the communist forces in the Chinese civil war (1945-1949), the ruling Kuomintang (Nationalist) government of China fled to Taiwan.
- They transplanted the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taiwan, while the Communist Party of China (CPC) established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the mainland.
- Since then, the PRC considers the island as a renegade province awaiting reunification by peaceful means, if possible.
Game changer: Cold war affiliations
- Meanwhile, the ROC retained its membership at the United Nations and its permanent seat at the UN Security Council (UNSC).
- The cross-strait relations became strained as a result of the Cold War, with the PRC allying itself with the Soviet Union (USSR) and ROC with the U.S.
- This resulted in the two Taiwan Strait crises of the 1950s.
The US and One-China Principle
- With the shifting geopolitics of the Cold War, the PRC and the U.S. were forced to come together in the 1970s to counter the growing influence of the USSR.
- This led to the US-China rapprochement demonstrated by the historic visit of then US President Richard Nixon to PRC in 1972.
- The same year, the PRC displaced ROC as the official representative of the Chinese nation at the UN.
- Diplomatic relations with the PRC became possible only if countries abided by its “One China Principle” — recognizing PRC and not the ROC as China.
Rise of Taiwan
- Taiwan transitioned from a single party state to a multi-party democracy.
- At the same time that China reformed its economic system under Deng Xiaoping, and by the end of the Cold War they became economically entangled.
- Nevertheless, they continue to compete for international recognition and preparing themselves for the worst possible scenario.
How has the US’s stance on the Taiwan question evolved vis-à-vis China?
- The very foundation of the US rapprochement as well as its recognition of the PRC is a mutual understanding on the Taiwan question.
- This has been outlined in three documents — the Shanghai Communique (1972), the Normalisation Communique (1979) and the 1982 Communique.
- According to the 1972 communique, the US agreed to the ‘one China principle’, with an understanding that it “acknowledges” and “does not challenge” that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
- It maintained that there is one China and Taiwan is a part of China.
- However, the US also established unofficial relations with Taiwan through this communique in the name of the people of both the countries.
Why is the issue significant today?
- As Taiwan’s democracy flourished, the popular mood drifted towards a new Taiwanese identity and a pro-independence stance on sovereignty.
- The past decade has seen considerable souring of ties across the Strait, as the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) became the most powerful political force in Taiwan.
- The DPP government has been catering to the pro-independence constituency in Taiwan and seeks to diversify economic relations away from China.
- China has always seen Taiwan as a territory with high geopolitical significance.
- This is due to its central location in the First Island Chain between Japan and the South China Sea, which is seen as the first benchmark or barrier for China’s power projection.
Why is China so obsessed with Taiwan?
- Taiwan is at China’s geostrategic calculus.
- Moreover, its reunification will formally bury the remaining ghosts of China’s “century of humiliation”.
- China under Xi Jinping seems to have lost its patience and currently sees very slim chances of a peaceful reunification.
- China usually makes aerial transgressions in Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).
- Also, this build-up of tensions is happening simultaneously and drawing parallels with the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
Is US strategy towards Taiwan witnessing a major transformation?
- The US strategy towards Taiwan in light of the unresolved nature of the cross-Strait relations has been marked by what has been called “strategic ambiguity”.
- This is under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979.
- As per the TRA, the US has stated clearly that the establishment of bilateral relations with the PRC rests upon “the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means”.
- It also states the US policy to maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardise the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.
- Hence, there is no clear guarantee here that the US will militarily involve in a situation where China attempts to invade Taiwan, short of supplying “defensive weapons”.
Enjoying the ambiguity
- The US has for long utilized this strategic ambiguity with its own interpretation of the ‘one China principle to maintain its strategic interests in the Western Pacific.
- It is in this context that Mr. Biden’s statements have made controversy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Monkey Pox
Mains level: Rise in zoonotic diseases
With cases being reported from across the world, monkeypox has caught everyone’s attention.
What is Monkeypox?
- Monkeypox is not a new virus.
- The virus, belonging to the poxvirus family of viruses, was first identified in monkeys way back in 1958, and therefore the name.
- The first human case was described in 1970 from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Many sporadic outbreaks of animal to human as well as human to human transmission has occurred in Central and West Africa in the past with significant mortality.
- After the elimination of smallpox, monkeypox has become one of the dominant poxviruses in humans, with cases increasing over years along with a consequent reduction in the age-group affected.
How is it transmitted?
- Since the transmission occurs only with close contact, the outbreaks have been in many cases self-limiting.
- Since in the majority of affected people, the incubation period ranges from five to 21 days and is often mild or self-limiting, asymptomatic cases could transmit the disease unknowingly.
- The outbreaks in Central Africa are thought to have been contributed by close contact with animals in regions adjoining forests.
- While monkeys are possibly only incidental hosts, the reservoir is not known.
- It is believed that rodents and non-human primates could be potential reservoirs.
Does the virus mutate?
- Monkeypox virus is a DNA virus with a quite large genome of around 2,00,000 nucleotide bases.
- While being a DNA virus, the rate of mutations in the monkeypox virus is significantly lower (~1-2 mutations per year) compared to RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
- The low rate of mutation therefore limits the wide application of genomic surveillance in providing detailed clues to the networks of transmission for monkeypox.
- A number of genome sequences in recent years from Africa and across the world suggest that there are two distinct clades of the virus — the Congo Basin/Central African clade and the West African clade.
- Each of the clades further have many lineages.
What do the genomes say?
- With over a dozen genome sequences of monkeypox, it is reassuring that the sequences are quite identical to each other suggesting that only a few introductions resulted in the present spread of cases.
- Additionally, almost all genomes have come from the West African clade, which has much lesser fatality compared to the Central African one.
- This also roughly corroborates with the epidemiological understanding that major congregations in the recent past contributed to the widespread transmission across different countries.
Does it have an effective vaccine?
- It is reassuring that we know quite a lot more about the virus and its transmission patterns.
- We also have effective ways of preventing the spread, including a vaccine.
- Smallpox/vaccinia vaccine provides protection.
- While the vaccine has been discontinued in 1980 following the eradication of smallpox, emergency stockpiles of the vaccines are maintained by many countries.
- Younger individuals are unlikely to have received the vaccine and are therefore potentially susceptible to monkeypox which could partly explain its emergence in younger individuals.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Service charges on food
Mains level: Not Much
The Centre has called a meeting of restaurant owners over service charge levied by them on customers.
Why in news?
- The restaurants are collecting service charges from consumers by default, even though collection of any such charge is voluntary and at the discretion of consumers and not mandatory as per law.
What are the components of a food bill?
- A restaurant bill in India comprises food charge (from the menu), with an addition of service charge (anywhere between 5 to 15 per cent) and a 5 per cent GST on this amount (IGST+SGST).
- This is for all kinds of standalone restaurants.
- In case a restaurant is located inside a hotel wherein room rate is upwards of Rs 7,500 (mostly in case of five-stars), the GST would be 18 per cent.
Nature of Service charge
- While the GST is a mandatory component as per law, the service charge is supposed to be optional.
- It is the equivalent of what is known as gratuity around the world, or tip, in casual parlance.
- Most restaurants decide the service charge on their own, and print it at the bottom of the menu with an asterisk.
Policy measures
- The Ministry of Consumer Affairs had come out with “Guidelines on Fair Trade Practices Related to Charging of Service Charge from Consumers by Hotels/ Restaurants”.
- Here it was clearly mentioned that a component of service is inherent in the provision of food and beverages ordered by a customer.
- Hence the pricing of the product is expected to cover both the goods and service components.
- It said that the bill “may clearly display that service charge is voluntary, and the service charge column of the bill may be left blank for the customer to fill up before making payment.”
What do the restaurants say?
- The levy of service charge by a restaurant is a matter of individual policy to decide if it is to be charged or not.
- There is no illegality in levying such a charge.
- Once the customer is made aware of such a charge in advance and then decides to place the order, it becomes an agreement between the parties, and is not an unfair trade practice.
- GST is also paid on the said charge to the Government.
Where does the fund go?
- Restaurants claim that a major chunk of the service charge thus collected goes to the staff, while the rest goes towards a welfare fund to help them out during good and bad times.
- It’s a default billing option, even as customers can choose not to pay it if they don’t want to.
- Of course, they are paid the salaries but the service charge works as an incentive for them.
- Restaurateurs also say that patrons can decide not to pay the charge and tip the server directly, but in this case, the backroom staff doesn’t get anything.
- A service charge ensures all staff members are rewarded evenly.
What is the issue then?
- The issue is that almost all restaurants have put service charge (fixed at their own accord) as a default billing option.
- And if a consumer is aware that it is not compulsory and wants it removed or wants to tip the server directly, the onus is on them to convince the management why they don’t want to pay it.
- The department says they received several complaints saying it leads to public embarrassment and spoils the dining experience since at the end of it, they either pay the charge quietly and exit the place feeling cheated, or have to try hard to get it removed.
- Also, there is no transparency as to where this charge goes.
- The officials also say that collecting service charge on their own and paying GST on it to the government doesn’t make it authorised.
Problems faced by customers
- It is this component which has come under dispute from time to time, with consumers arguing they are not bound to pay it.
- It also said that hotels and restaurants charging tips from customers without their express consent in the name of service charges amounts to unfair trade practice.
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