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Daily Current Capsules - 04th May 2019

Social Issues/Reforms
Relative of victim can lodge complaint of dowry harassment: SC
Rashmi Chopra vs. State of UP case
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the case and about In- house panel)

What's the NEWS
  • The Supreme Court of India in a landmark judgement ruled that any relative of a woman, who is undergoing cruelty and dowry harassment by her husband or in laws, can file a complaint against them.
Know! more about the judgement
  • The judgement was delivered by a bench comprising SC Justices Ashok Bhushan and Justice KM Joseph.
  • The bench stated that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with matrimonial cruelty against women, does not contemplate that complaint should be filed only by women, who is subjected to cruelty by husband or his relative.
Know! about Section 498A of IPC
  • The section 498A of the Indian Penal Code was passed by the Indian Parliament in 1983. It was introduced to protect married women from being subjected to matrimonial cruelty.
  • It is a criminal law that states that "Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty-Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.
Know! the highlights of The Judgement and its impact
  • The bench observed that there is nothing in Section 498A, which may indicate that when a woman is subjected to cruelty, a complaint has to be filed necessarily by the women so subjected.
  • As per the order, any relative can lodge a complaint on behalf of the victim, which will be deemed to be maintainable.
  • The landmark judgement will help the women victims, who are unable to lodge a complaint against her husband and in-laws.
National Affairs
CJI meets SC in-house panel on sexual harassment allegations
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SC in house panel and about the committee constituted)

What's the NEWS
  • The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had a meeting with the three-member in-house Supreme Court committee that was looking into the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by a former woman employee of the court.
Know! more about the in house meeting
  • The meeting took place in response to a letter of request, which was issued to the CJI asking him to meet the committee on the issue.
  • The move comes after the complainant on April 30 decided to boycott the proceedings of the in-house panel set up by the apex court to inquire into the charges.
  • The complainant declined to participate in the proceedings saying that she felt "nervous" and "intimidated" by the panel and felt that she "won't get any justice" from it.
Know! the previous developments
  • The woman's case had been referred to the three-judge panel with the CJI himself sitting on the judicial side on a court non-working day to clarify his position on the issue.
  • In the full court sitting, Justice SA Bobde, who is the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court after the CJI, was asked to create a mechanism to look into the sexual harassment allegations.
  • Justice SA Bobde named two other Justices to be a part of the panel besides him, among whom Justice N V Ramana recused himself due to his close relations with the CJI.
  • He was replaced by Justice Indu Malhotra. The third member of the panel is another woman judge, Justice Indira Banerjee.
Miscellaneous Facts
Former ISRO Chairman awarded France's Highest Civilian Honour
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the highest civilian award and about Kiran kumar)

What's the NEWS
  • Former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar conferred with France's highest civilian honour, Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Legion d'Honneur, for his contribution to India-France space cooperation.
Know! more about the award and about Kiran Kumar
  • The award aims to recognise A S Kiran Kumar's invaluable contribution to the development of India-France space cooperation.
  • During his whole career span at the Indian space agency, including when he was the Chairman, Kumar worked to foster ambitious space cooperation between India and France.
  • He directly contributed to making it cooperation of the people as well as one of the cornerstones of Indo-French strategic partnership.
  • A S Kiran Kumar served as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation from 2015 to 2018. He was succeeded by K Sivan, the former Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and Liquid Propulsion centre.
  • He currently holds the Chair of the ISRO Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.
  • He is known to have made significant contributions to the Indian space programmes, starting from earlier projects like Bhaskara TV payload till the later programmes such as Chandrayaan-1 and Mangalyaan.
  • Kumar is credited with the design and development of the electro-optical image sensors used in India's first remote sensing satellite, Bhaskara, which was launched in 1979 and the subsequent one in 1981, as well as the ocean colour instruments used in weather forecasting, sea zone and landscape mapping and telecommunications.
  • He is also reported to have contributed to the design and development of the imaging instruments for projects such as INSAT-3D, Resourcesat, Micro Satellite and Cartosat.
  • The Terrain Mapping Camera and Hyperspectral Imager payloads of Chandrayaan-1 project is also credited to the efforts of Kiran Kumar.
Know! about Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Legion d'Honneur
  • The National Order of the Legion of Honour is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all later French governments and regimes.
  • It is the highest civilian award conferred by France for outstanding service to the nation, regardless of the nationality of the recipient.
  • The President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur
  • The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand-Croix (Grand Cross).
Space Awareness
ISRO to launch radar imaging satellite ‘RISAT 2BR1'
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the radar imaging satellite RISAT 2BR1) + Mains ( GS III space awareness)

What's the NEWS
  • India is planning to launch its latest radar imaging satellite RISAT 2BR1 towards the end of May 2019 on one of the variants of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket.
Know! more about RISAT 2BR1
  • The satellite, RISAT 2BR1, is expected to be launched aboard one of the reusable PSLV rockets on May 22, as per officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Know! more about the launch
  • The rocket that would carry the radar imaging satellite is designated as PSLV-C46 as per ISRO's numbering system.
  • It would take off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
  • Following the launch of RISAT 2BR1, ISRO will send up a cartography satellite Cartosat-3.
  • India is also planning to launch two more defence satellites in either July or August with its new rocket, Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
Know! about RISAT
  • The RISAT, which was first deployed in orbit on April 20, 2009 as the RISAT-2, uses synthetic aperture radars (SAR) to provide Indian forces with all-weather surveillance and observation, which are crucial to notice any potential threat or malicious activity around the nation's borders.
  • Following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the launch of RISAT-2 was prioritised over RISAT- 1, as its C-band SAR radar was not yet ready and RISAT -2 carried an Israeli-built X-band radar.
  • The to-be-deployed RISAT-2BR1 satellite uses the same SAR band and will further improve India's imaging reconnaissance abilities.
Miscellaneous Facts
750th Birth Anniversary of Sri Vedanta Desika
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Vedanta desika)

What's the NEWS
  • Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu released postage stamp in New Delhi to commemorate 750TH birth anniversary of Sri Vedanta Desikan and his great philosopher's life and highly valued work.
  • Releasing commemorative postage stamps is an initiative to pay tribute to great contributions of visionaries like Sri Vedanta Desikan but it also aims to inspire our younger generation to follow in their footsteps.
Know! the objective of this organisation
  • It emphasizes that children must internalize and practice lofty ideals of humanism, peace and compassion propagated by the great saint and spiritual icon.
Sri Vedanta Desikan
  • He is one of most prominent preceptors in ‘Sri Vaishnava' tradition post Ramanuja period.
  • He had authored brilliant poems, prose, drama, epics, commentaries, scientific texts and philosophical treatises in many languages, mainly Sanskrit, Tamil, Prakrit and Manipravalam.
  • He was a multi-faceted personality which included philosopher, master-teacher (desikan), spiritual teacher,scientist, logician, poet, mathematician, literary genius, linguist, military strategist etc.
  • The most essential features of his philosophy is the ‘aspect of inclusion' which means anyone, irrespective of any caste or creed could join Sri Vaishnava fold.
  • This was a truly democratizing movement in eradication caste distinctions. He truly worked towards shaping our Bharat into a "Jnana Bhoomi".

Prelims Practise Questions

Consider the following statements regarding section 498 A of IPC
1. The Supreme Court in its recent judgement ruled that any relative of a woman, who is undergoing cruelty and dowry harassment by her husband or in laws, can file a complaint against them.
2. The bench stated that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code does not contemplate that complaint should be filed only by women, who is subjected to cruelty by husband or his relative.
3. The section 498A of the Indian Penal Code was passed by the Indian Parliament in 1983. It was introduced to protect all women from being subjected to matrimonial cruelty.
Find the correct statement from the option given below
a. 1 and 2
b. 2 and 3
c. 1 and 3
d. All

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