UPSC IAS Civil Services GS Geography Help Notes and Tips: January 2016

Through a most pernicious act of judicial fiat, in a judgment delivered on December 23, 2015, Justice A.B. Chaudhari, sitting on the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, issued notice to the Booker Prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy for committing what he believed constituted a clear case of criminal contempt of court.
The conventional defences adopted in favour of the judiciary retaining powers to punish acts of contempt invariably point to the Constitution.
Article 19(1)(a) no doubt grants to the country's citizens a right to freedom of speech and expression. But the ensuing clause, Article 19(2), limits this freedom, and accords the state the express authority to make laws that establish reasonable restrictions on speech, on various grounds, including contempt of court
in 1971, Parliament enacted the Contempt of Courts Act, with a purported view of defining and limiting the powers of courts in punishing acts of contempt, it was the inherent constraint in Article 19 that it took refuge under
First, it defines civil contempt to include, among other things, a wilful disobedience of a court's judgment, order or direction.
the 1971 law recognises two common forms of contempt
second, it defines criminal contempt to include publications that do one or more of the following: (a) scandalise or lower the authority of any court; (b) prejudice or interfere with the due course of any judicial proceeding; or (c) interfere with or obstruct the administration of justice in any other manner.
in 1970, the Supreme Court famously upheld a conviction of contempt of court against the former Chief Minister of Kerala, E.M.S. Namboodiripad.
a 1996 decision in which the Supreme Court ruled that "all acts which bring the court into disrepute or disrespect or which offend its dignity or its majesty or challenge its authority" amount to punishable contempt.
In 2006, with a view to reducing the breadth of the judiciary's powers, Parliament amended the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971.
The law now provides two additional safeguards in favour of a dissenter.
One, it establishes that a sentence for contempt of court can be imposed only when the court is satisfied that the contempt is of such a nature that it substantially interferes, or tends to substantially interfere with the due course of justice.
Two, the truth in speech now constitutes a valid defence against proceedings of contempt, if the court is satisfied that the larger public interest is served through the publication of such content.
In spite of these amendments, though, courts have continued to routinely equate the supposed scandalising of the judiciary's authority to an act of contempt.
Interestingly, in England, whose laws of contempt we've so indiscriminately adopted, there hasn't been a single conviction for scandalising the court in more than eight decades.
What's more, in 2013, after a recommendation by its Law Commission, the country altogether abolished as a form of contempt the offence of scandalising the judiciary

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Important points regarding contempt of court: GS 2: IAS

Through a most pernicious act of judicial fiat, in a judgment delivered on December 23, 2015, Justice A.B. Chaudhari, sitting on the Nagpur ...

Indian states have seen some improvements in child nutrition over the last decade, the first official data in over a decade shows, but over one in three children is still stunted, and over one in five underweight.
National Family Health Survey whose fourth round was conducted in 2014-15 after delays and disagreements that took ten years to resolve.
The new NFHS-4 data for 15 states shows that 37 per cent of children under the age of five in these states is stunted, a fall of just five percentage points in a decade. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the worst off, with 48 and 42 per cent
The proportion of underweight children has reduced equally slowly, from 39 per cent to 34 per cent, with Bihar and Madhya Pradesh the worst off again.
The one success has been in the area of child wasting (low weight for height).
The states for which data is available have more than halved their proportion of wasted children in the last decade, from 48 per cent to 22 per cent,
The proportions of adult men and women with below normal Body Mass Index have also declined.
Health ministry officials cautioned that the data released so far covers only half the country and does not include high-performing states in the north-east, Kerala and Maharashtra.
The proportion of anaemic children aged 6 to 59 months fell just five percentage points to 61% in 2014, and over half of women aged 15-49 are still anaemic.
India has also failed to make progress on reducing anaemia.
Haryana has the highest proportion of anaemic children (72 per cent) and women (63 per cent) while in Bihar and Meghalaya, one in three men are anaemic, the highest in the country.
Of all men aged 15-49, a quarter are suffering from anaemia, as was in 2004
anaemia was proving to be a global public health challenge
A smaller sample survey commissioned in 2012-13 and conducted with Unicef – the Rapid Survey on Children – was also released only in 2015.
It showed a ten percentage point decline in the proportion of children under the age of five who were stunted (shorter than expected for their ages) and a 13 percentage point decline in the proportion of children who were underweight (lower weights than expected for their age).

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National Family Health Survey-4 data: Child stunting declines, but still high : GS 3 and GS 2(effectiveness of schemes) : IAS

Indian states have seen some improvements in child nutrition over the last decade, the first official data in over a decade shows, but over ...

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Impeachment of president and removal: GS 2: IAS

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List of Schedules in Constitution: Prelims : IAS

First Schedule: List of State and Union Territories. Second Schedule: Salary of President, Governors, Chief Judges, Judges of High Court ...

The Scheduled Cast order, 1950, issued by the Government of India states and certain castes belonging to only Hindu and Sikh religion are designated as Scheduled Casts.
cases – Inder Prakash Vs. Dy. Commissioner, Delhi and Dadaji Vs. Sukhdev Babu declared that the authority to modify the list of Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes les with Parliament and the court shall not consider the claims of any cast and community to be included in such lists.
the measures prescribed in the Constitution for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes:
Article 15, the state should not discriminate against any citizen only on the ground of cast creed, et
Article 15(4) further states that the state may (in spite of right to equality) make special provisions for the welfare of socially and educationally backward classes.
Article 19, the state can impose reasonable restrictions on the freedom of movement and residence of people, in the interest of Scheduled Tribes.
Article 46 of Constitution directs the State to protect the educational interests of weaker section of society especially the Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes
Article 330, 332 and 334, the seats are reserved in the Parliament and State Legislatures in favour of the Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes
Article 335 provides that the State shall consider the claim of members of SC/ST for making reservation in services, keeping in mind the efficiency of the administration.
Article 338 of the constitution (as amended in 1990 by 65th Amendment) provides for the establishment of National Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,
Article 339, the President is authorised to appoint a Commission after 10 years of the commencement of the Constitution to report on the administration of Scheduled Area and the welfare of Scheduled Castes.
The Government of India is also empowered to issue suitable directions to State for the welfare of Scheduled Area and Scheduled Tribes.
Article 275(1) of the Constitution makes provision that the Union of India shall make grants to States for implementing welfare schemes in Scheduled Areas and for Scheduled Tribes
The Fifth and the Sixth Schedules of constitution (with reference to article 244) make special provisions for the administration and welfare of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes.
As per the provision of the Constitution, there shall be a separate Ministry in few states viz Jharkhand, Chattishgarh, Orissa etc.
The 85th amendment of the Constitution restores reservation in promotion in government jobs to member of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.