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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 May 2015

:: National ::

SC upholds validity of Company Law Tribunal

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and its appellate forum under the Companies Act of 2013.
A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, however, quashed Section 409(3)(a) and (c) and Section 411(3) of the Act providing for qualifications of technical members.
It held that for appointment of technical members to NCLT, directions contained in the 2010 judgment should be “scrupulously followed.”
The 2010 decision held that persons below the rank of a Secretary or Additional Secretary should not be appointed as a technical member to NCLT.
Justice A.K. Sikri, who delivered the verdict for the Bench, said the provision should not be “tinkered” with as it would dilute standards “so zealously sought to be secure[d].”
It also held as invalid Section 412 of the new Act, which contemplates selection by a committee consisting of two Judges and three secretaries.
The court directed the Centre to ensure that the bodies are adequately manned and start functioning at the earliest.

TV channels flout rules under garb of media freedom: activist

The Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has reported 13,000 instances of violations of regulatory norms by television channels in 2013-14.
These violations came to light after Guntur-based Edara Gopi Chand, an activist with Media-Watch India, waged a three-year battle to expose the poor regulation of content on India’s TV channels. Using the RTI Act, Mr. Chand succeeded in getting the EMMC to disclose information on TV channels violating programming and advertising codes after the Central Information Commission issued an order in March. After the EMMC disclosure in May, many violations in 2014-15 have been exposed.
EMMC data show 5,566 violations pertaining to distracting ‘part-screen’ and ‘scrolling’ ads that interfere with the programme and ‘paid promotional programmes’ telecast in the garb of news/interviews. By Rule 7(10) of the Cable Networks Rules, 1994, all advertisements should be clearly distinguishable from the programme and should not in any manner interfere with the programme such as using the lower part of the screen to carry captions, static or moving messages alongside the programme.
The EMMC reports 2,965 instances of surrogate advisements of liquor/tobacco products. It found 1,245 instances of misleading advertisements, which include superstitious and deceptive ads of kavachas, yantras , medicines, creams and so on, claiming to possess miraculous powers which are otherwise serious offences under the Drugs and Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1955.
“Merely publishing statistics of violations is meaningless unless the names of the violating channels and the nature or gravity of each of these violations is revealed. It is an open secret that the I&B Ministry sits on these reports without taking any action. It issues occasional ‘advisories’ to which no channel pays heed,” Mr. Chand said.
According to information on the EMMC website, 37 per cent of the violations in 2014 pertained to vulgarity or obscenity and 11 per cent related to representation of women. But National Commission for Women chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam told The Hindu that no complaints pertaining to TV channels were received by her office, although complaints about social media often reach her.
“Even if complaints against TV channels do come to us, there is so much hoo-ha over freedom of speech these days, I wonder what concrete action we could initiate against them,” she said.
Mr. Chand says that when the Ministry enforces the regulations by prohibiting telecast of the offending channel for a few days, TV channels scream government regulation and approach the courts for relief, thus preventing any action.

Don’t judge a woman by her husband’s past: SC

Highlighting that a woman is not a proxy for her husband and enjoys her own identity, the Supreme Court has held that a woman’s character cannot be judged merely on the basis of her husband’s criminal past.
The verdict by a three-judge Bench, led by Justice T.S. Thakur, came on a petition filed by Manyata Devi, who runs a construction firm.
She had moved the Supreme Court against a decision of the District Magistrate at Basti in Uttar Pradesh to deny her a character certificate. The Allahabad High Court had refused to intervene in the case.
The certificate was required to renew her firm’s registration as a contractor for the State Irrigation Department.
The District Magistrate was swayed by the fact that her husband had faced several criminal cases, though he was acquitted in all of them.
“It is difficult to appreciate how criminal cases registered against the husband of the appellant [Manyata Devi] could possibly deny her a certificate of good moral character,” the judgment on May 15 said.
In the apex court, the Uttar Pradesh government said a ‘contract mafia’ was operating in the State. In Ms. Devi’s case, she would be used as a front for her husband to run the operations. The State said she had no experience whatsoever in the construction business.
The State quoted the law that “registration is granted only to people who have no criminal background.” This was to ensure that only genuine contractors win govern-ment contract works.
The Bench observed that the grant of character certificate had nothing to do with her professional inexperience or her husband’s criminal background, and asked the DM to reconsider her case.

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:: International ::

German spy agency helped U.S. find Osama: report

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan where U.S. special forces killed the al-Qaeda leader, according to a German news report published on Sunday.
The BND spy service provided a tip-off that Osama was hiding in Pakistan, with the knowledge of Pakistani security services, according to the Bild am Sonntag report, which was published as the agency is battling heavy criticism in a spy scandal. The information came from a BND informant within Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and confirmed CIA suspicions, said the newspaper report which cited unnamed U.S. intelligence sources.
The American source was quoted as saying the German tip-off was of “fundamental importance” in the hunt for Osama.
The German newspaper said that ultimately U.S. services tracked down Osama’s exact location by following one of his couriers, as Washington has said.
News portal Spiegel Online pointed out that the newspaper report about the German spy agency’s “apparent act of heroism” was published “right in the middle of the BND affair” and asked “is it plausible?”
The BND has been accused of helping the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spy not just on extremists and criminals but also on political and business targets, including the French government, European Commission and Airbus Group.

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:: Sports ::

Bronze for Archana

India’s Archana Kamath won a bronze medal in the cadet girls’ singles at the Thailand Open table tennis tournament .
Archana lost 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Ting-Ting, the eventual winner, in the semifinals.