Category: Polity Current Affairs

Protecting Vulnerable Witnesses: SC The Supreme Court (SC) expanded the meaning of vulnerable witnesses to also include among others sexual assault victims, those with mental illness and people with speech or hearing impairment. The SC referred to a verdict of 1996 in which it had passed similar directions, then in 2004 and in 2017, when […]

Transgender Prisons: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has written to all States to ensure separate accommodation for transgender persons in prisons. It also advised the States and the Union Territories that the prison admission register may be suitably revised to include “transgender” as a category other than male and female gender. It also asked […]

Punjab Lok Congress Has Received Its Party Symbol – Hockey Stick And Ball Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh’s newly formed party Punjab Lok Congress has received its party symbol – Hockey stick and ball As per the guidelines, to get a symbol allotted: A party/candidate has to provide a list of three symbols from the […]

Judges Recusal: Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna of the Supreme Court recused themselves from hearing a dispute among the States of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka on the allocation of the Krishna river water. When there is a conflict of interest, a judge can withdraw from hearing a case to prevent creating a perception […]

Passport Seva Programme (PSP): The government of India has announced that it will soon start issuing ePassports to citizens applying for a new passport or renewing their expiring passport. The announcement is under an agreement signed between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) which will facilitate the next phase […]

Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) missed the deadline of notifying rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA). Amidst the concerns related to CAA and for better clarity, the two parliamentary committees (committee on subordinate legislation) in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had sought MHA to frame the […]

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act: Among the 6,000 NGOs that did not have their FCRA registration renewed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently are also included the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the Ramakrishna Mission, and Shirdi’s Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST). The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act registration is mandatory for any NGO or […]

Protection Of Women From Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, 2013: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging guidelines issued by the Bombay High Court in cases under the Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, 2013. The provision that challenged pertains to blanket bar on parties and advocates from sharing records, including […]

Increased Election Expenditure Limit: The Election Commission has enhanced the existing election expenditure limit for candidates in Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies. These limits will be applicable in all upcoming elections. The ceiling on parliamentary poll expenditure has been raised from 70 lakh to 95 lakh rupees in bigger states and 54 lakh to 75 lakhs […]

Security Of The Prime Minister: With the Prime Minister’s cavalcade stranded on a flyover in Punjab’s Ferozepur district for over 15 minutes due to a protest, the Ministry of Home Affairs has sought a report from Punjab government on what it called “a major lapse in the security of the PM”. Planning of the PM’s […]