The Evening Wrap: Parliamentary panel approves Hindi names for proposed criminal laws

A Parliamentary panel has held that the Hindi names given to the three proposed criminal laws is not unconstitutional, dismissing criticism against the move by some political parties and their leaders. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by BJP MP Brijlal has taken note of the wording of Article 348 of the Constitution, which says that the language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the high courts, as well as for Acts, Bills and other legal documents shall be in English language. “The committee finds that as the text of the Sanhita is in English, it does not violate the provisions of Article 348 of the Constitution. The committee is satisfied with the response of the Ministry of Home Affairs and holds that the name given to the proposed legislation is not in violation of Article 348 of the Constitution of India,” the panel said in its report submitted to Rajya Sabha. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS-2023), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS-2023) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA-2023) were introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 11. The proposed laws will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Act, 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram had questioned the rationale behind the central government giving Hindi names to the bills. “I am not saying Hindi names must not be given (to bills). When English is used, it can be given an English name. If Hindi is used, it can be given a Hindi name. When laws are drafted, it is done in English and later it is translated to Hindi. But they have drafted the laws and provisions of the bill in English and given it a Hindi name. It is difficult to even pronounce,” he had said. Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had also voiced strong objections against the use of Hindi names for the proposed criminal laws. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin had said the Centre’s move “reeks of linguistic imperialism” and that it was an attempt to carry out “recolonisation in the name of decolonisation”. The Madras Bar Association has dubbed the Centre’s move to name the three bills in Hindi as against the Constitution. The association has also passed a resolution in this connection. DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran had sent a letter to the panel chairman Brijlal, objecting to the Hindi titles of the bills, saying they violate the unitary nature of the country where the citizens speak a variety of languages other than Hindi. However, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had termed Stalin’s statement as “petty politics”. Pradhan said such “petty politics” may serve the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s political ambitions well but “it weakens the spirit of India”. During the course of the panel’s deliberations, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla had also tried to address the objections of some Opposition MPs, including DMK’s N. R. Elango, Dayanidhi Maran and Congress’s Digvijaya Singh, against the Hindi titles of the bills. Bhalla had reportedly maintained there is no violation of any constitutional provision since the bills and their texts are written in English. He conveyed to the MPs that as Article 348 provided for the use of English language in the texts of all bills, acts and ordinances, there was no breach if the bills were written in English. The farmer is not the villain, only he can tell why he burns his field, Justice Dhulia says Supreme Court judge, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, on November 21 said it was necessary to hear the farmer before painting him a “villain” who deliberately set his paddy fields ablaze to add his share to the toxic fumes hunkering over the national capital. “You are all making him [the farmer] a villain. He is not a villain. He must be having reasons for what he is doing. He is the only person who can tell us why he is doing it. But he is not here… The ‘villain’ is not being heard. He should come,” Justice Dhulia said. The judge’s remarks were in response to submissions by amicus curiae, senior advocate Aparajita Singh, in court, that 748 fires were lit across stubbled paddy fields in Punjab on Sunday alone. “The Punjab government says it is doing everything. But it is not visible on the ground,” Singh said. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the judge leading the Bench, said farmers who violate the law, despite court orders and counselling against stubble-burning, should feel the pinch. “Despite court orders and counselling, for their two bit of money and no matter how the fires affect the environment and children, they do it… Why should people who violate the law benefit monetarily?” Justice Kaul asked. He asked the Centre and Punjab why such errant farmers should be allowed to take the benefit of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) policy. “Take away the incentive,” Justice Kaul remarked. But Justice Dhulia said MSP was a “sensitive issue”. There is a representative of everybody here except farmers… Farmers must be here,” Justice Dhulia said. “People lighting fires will not come here and people following the law need not come here,” Justice Kaul said. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh informed the court that 8,481 meetings had been held with farmers across the State. The State has deployed 1,092 flying squads to prevent blazes. Over 980 First Information Reports (FIR) had been lodged against landowners and more than ₹2 crore had been estimated as environment compensation due. Justice Kaul expressed his concern about the land in Punjab becoming increasingly arid due to extensive paddy cultivation. “Somewhere, farmers have to understand the fallout of paddy cultivation… Whether there can be a policy by which you [the government] could discourage paddy and encourage other crops in Punjab… water is becoming scarce and the wells are running dry,” Justice Kaul said, conveying anxiety about the future. The Punjab law officer had said that wells had to be dug 700 m to 1,000 m deep to find drinking water. The court was informed that centres where farmers or their cooperative bodies could hire machinery at a heavy subsidy to de-stubble their fields without burning had been opened in Punjab and Haryana. However, the court asked who would pay the cost of running and maintaining these machines. “These machines would require diesel, drivers, tractors,” Justice Dhulia noted. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Analysing the World Cup final: What went wrong for India? After winning ten matches on the trot, India could not win one more and bring home the World Cup. It started the final as favourites, but things did not go according to the expectations that fans had built up over one month of pure magic. So, what went wrong for India? Was the match lost with the toss itself? Was Australia too good on the day? Or did India make mistakes? If it did, what were they, and what are the positives we can take away from this tournament? WHO deliberates strategies to integrate COVID-19 vaccines with routine immunisation Aimed at integrating COVID-19 pandemic vaccines with national immunisation programmes in countries of the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Region, vaccine regulators and officials from the WHO on Tuesday began deliberating strategies for member countries to transition from the use of COVID-19 vaccines under Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to full Marketing Authorisation (MA). “Even though the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the virus is still circulating. We need to make sure people continue to stay protected from existing and future variants. For this, it is crucial that the regulatory authorities of member states are better equipped to take considered decisions to grant long-term authorisation to COVID-19 vaccines, and introduce them in national immunisation programmes as per requirements,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia said at the start of the three-day regional workshop on ‘Conversion of Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to full Marketing Authorisation (MA) for pandemic vaccines including COVID-19’, organised by the WHO in Kathmandu, Nepal. At the meeting, members of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) and National Control Laboratories (NCL) of member countries, and experts from the WHO and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia are set to deliberate key considerations in meeting regulatory requirements and licensing regulations for the pandemic vaccines. The WHO South-East Asia Region office noted that multiple COVID-19 vaccine products were developed following unprecedented global collaboration to facilitate their availability during the health emergency, and most national regulatory agencies established EUA for COVID-19 vaccines based on the WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL). Since their introduction, over 3.35 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in 10 member countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region under the EUA mechanism. Converting EUA to MA for COVID-19 vaccines is expected to be based on full analysis of clinical data with a longer period of follow-up. It will also provide the most updated technical data on vaccines and their efficacy, and provide updates on stability profiles, the WHO’s regional office said. Earlier this month, the WHO released a roadmap on the use of COVID-19 vaccines, which aims to address evolving public health needs at the present time, with Omicron and its sub-lineages dominating circulation globally. In the context of high population-level immunity, using a base case scenario assumes the virus will continue to evolve but cause less severe disease, with a possible surge in infections requiring booster doses to protect high priority groups. U.S. Supreme Court rejects TCS appeal against $140 mn punitive damages order United States Supreme Court has rejected Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) appeal against a $140 million punitive damages order passed by a district court, the company said on on November 21. The District Court of Wisconsin has awarded $140 million damages in favour of Epic Systems Corporation which alleged that TCS infringed its intellectual property for the development of hospital management system ‘Med Mantra’ which was implemented for a large hospital chain in India in 2009. “...in the EPIC Systems Corporation matter, the United States Supreme Court on November 20, 2023, rejected the Company’s petition to file an appeal against the orders passed by the US Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, which confirmed the punitive damages award of $140 million passed by the District Court of Wisconsin,” TCS said in a regulatory filing. Epic had alleged that TCS misused documents downloaded from Epic System’s user-web portal. TCS said that following the US Supreme Court order, the company intends to make the balance provision of approximately $125 million in its financial statements as an exceptional item, for the third quarter and nine months ending December 31, 2023. ICC introduces five-run penalty if bowler exceeds 60-second limit for third time; stop clock in men’s ODI and T20Is Bowling teams in men’s ODI and T20Is will be imposed a five-run penalty if the bowler exceeds the 60 second limit of bowling the next over for the third time in an innings, the sport’s governing body ICC said on November 21. It will be used on a trial basis initially. The decision was taken at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Board meeting here. “The CEC agreed to introduce a stop clock on a trial basis in men’s ODI and T20I cricket from December 2023 to April 2024. The clock will be used to regulate the amount of time taken between overs. “If the bowling team is not ready to bowl the next over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed, a 5-run penalty will be imposed the third time it happens in an innings,” said the ICC in a statement. The ICC also made a change to its process of banning a pitch from international cricket. “Changes to the pitch and outfield monitoring regulations were also approved, including a simplification of the criteria against which a pitch is assessed and increasing the threshold for when a venue could have its international status removed from five demerit points to six demerit points over a five-year period,” the ICC added. In Brief: S.S. Badrinath (83) founder of Sankara Nethralaya, and eminent vitreoretinal surgeon, passed away on November 21. He had been ill for some time. “Our visionary Founder, a legend and compassionate leader Dr. S.S. Badrinath passed away early this morning. The last rites will be held after 9.30 A.M. on November 21 at the Beasant Nagar crematorium. SN is deeply saddened by the demise of our Founder,” an early note from the institution, said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 21 November 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Parliamentary panel gives stamp of approval to Hindi names for proposed criminal laws A [Parliamentary panel has held that the Hindi names given to the three proposed criminal laws is not unconstitutional]( dismissing criticism against the move by some political parties and their leaders. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by BJP MP Brijlal has taken note of the wording of Article 348 of the Constitution, which says that the language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the high courts, as well as for Acts, Bills and other legal documents shall be in English language. “The committee finds that as the text of the Sanhita is in English, it does not violate the provisions of Article 348 of the Constitution. The committee is satisfied with the response of the Ministry of Home Affairs and holds that the name given to the proposed legislation is not in violation of Article 348 of the Constitution of India,” the panel said in its report submitted to Rajya Sabha. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS-2023), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS-2023) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA-2023) were introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 11. The proposed laws will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Act, 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram had questioned the rationale behind the central government giving Hindi names to the bills. “I am not saying Hindi names must not be given (to bills). When English is used, it can be given an English name. If Hindi is used, it can be given a Hindi name. When laws are drafted, it is done in English and later it is translated to Hindi. But they have drafted the laws and provisions of the bill in English and given it a Hindi name. It is difficult to even pronounce,” he had said. Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had also voiced strong objections against the use of Hindi names for the proposed criminal laws. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin had said the Centre’s move “reeks of linguistic imperialism” and that it was an attempt to carry out “recolonisation in the name of decolonisation”. The Madras Bar Association has dubbed the Centre’s move to name the three bills in Hindi as against the Constitution. The association has also passed a resolution in this connection. DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran had sent a letter to the panel chairman Brijlal, objecting to the Hindi titles of the bills, saying they violate the unitary nature of the country where the citizens speak a variety of languages other than Hindi. However, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had termed Stalin’s statement as “petty politics”. Pradhan said such “petty politics” may serve the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s political ambitions well but “it weakens the spirit of India”. During the course of the panel’s deliberations, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla had also tried to address the objections of some Opposition MPs, including DMK’s N. R. Elango, Dayanidhi Maran and Congress’s Digvijaya Singh, against the Hindi titles of the bills. Bhalla had reportedly maintained there is no violation of any constitutional provision since the bills and their texts are written in English. He conveyed to the MPs that as Article 348 provided for the use of English language in the texts of all bills, acts and ordinances, there was no breach if the bills were written in English. The farmer is not the villain, only he can tell why he burns his field, Justice Dhulia says [Supreme Court judge, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, on November 21 said it was necessary to hear the farmer before painting him a “villain” who deliberately set his paddy fields ablaze]( to add his share to the toxic fumes hunkering over the national capital. “You are all making him [the farmer] a villain. He is not a villain. He must be having reasons for what he is doing. He is the only person who can tell us why he is doing it. But he is not here… The ‘villain’ is not being heard. He should come,” Justice Dhulia said. The judge’s remarks were in response to submissions by amicus curiae, senior advocate Aparajita Singh, in court, that 748 fires were lit across stubbled paddy fields in Punjab on Sunday alone. “The Punjab government says it is doing everything. But it is not visible on the ground,” Singh said. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the judge leading the Bench, said farmers who violate the law, despite court orders and counselling against stubble-burning, should feel the pinch. “Despite court orders and counselling, for their two bit of money and no matter how the fires affect the environment and children, they do it… Why should people who violate the law benefit monetarily?” Justice Kaul asked. He asked the Centre and Punjab why such errant farmers should be allowed to take the benefit of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) policy. “Take away the incentive,” Justice Kaul remarked. But Justice Dhulia said MSP was a “sensitive issue”. There is a representative of everybody here except farmers… Farmers must be here,” Justice Dhulia said. “People lighting fires will not come here and people following the law need not come here,” Justice Kaul said. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh informed the court that 8,481 meetings had been held with farmers across the State. The State has deployed 1,092 flying squads to prevent blazes. Over 980 First Information Reports (FIR) had been lodged against landowners and more than ₹2 crore had been estimated as environment compensation due. Justice Kaul expressed his concern about the land in Punjab becoming increasingly arid due to extensive paddy cultivation. “Somewhere, farmers have to understand the fallout of paddy cultivation… Whether there can be a policy by which you [the government] could discourage paddy and encourage other crops in Punjab… water is becoming scarce and the wells are running dry,” Justice Kaul said, conveying anxiety about the future. The Punjab law officer had said that wells had to be dug 700 m to 1,000 m deep to find drinking water. The court was informed that centres where farmers or their cooperative bodies could hire machinery at a heavy subsidy to de-stubble their fields without burning had been opened in Punjab and Haryana. However, the court asked who would pay the cost of running and maintaining these machines. “These machines would require diesel, drivers, tractors,” Justice Dhulia noted. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Analysing the World Cup final: What went wrong for India? [After winning ten matches on the trot, India could not win one more and bring home the World Cup](. It started the final as favourites, but things did not go according to the expectations that fans had built up over one month of pure magic. So, what went wrong for India? Was the match lost with the toss itself? Was Australia too good on the day? Or did India make mistakes? If it did, what were they, and what are the positives we can take away from this tournament? WHO deliberates strategies to integrate COVID-19 vaccines with routine immunisation Aimed at integrating COVID-19 pandemic vaccines with national immunisation programmes in countries of the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Region, vaccine regulators and officials from the [WHO on Tuesday began deliberating strategies for member countries to transition from the use of COVID-19 vaccines under Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to full Marketing Authorisation (MA)](. “Even though the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the virus is still circulating. We need to make sure people continue to stay protected from existing and future variants. For this, it is crucial that the regulatory authorities of member states are better equipped to take considered decisions to grant long-term authorisation to COVID-19 vaccines, and introduce them in national immunisation programmes as per requirements,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia said at the start of the three-day regional workshop on ‘Conversion of Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to full Marketing Authorisation (MA) for pandemic vaccines including COVID-19’, organised by the WHO in Kathmandu, Nepal. At the meeting, members of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) and National Control Laboratories (NCL) of member countries, and experts from the WHO and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia are set to deliberate key considerations in meeting regulatory requirements and licensing regulations for the pandemic vaccines. The WHO South-East Asia Region office noted that multiple COVID-19 vaccine products were developed following unprecedented global collaboration to facilitate their availability during the health emergency, and most national regulatory agencies established EUA for COVID-19 vaccines based on the WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL). Since their introduction, over 3.35 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in 10 member countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region under the EUA mechanism. Converting EUA to MA for COVID-19 vaccines is expected to be based on full analysis of clinical data with a longer period of follow-up. It will also provide the most updated technical data on vaccines and their efficacy, and provide updates on stability profiles, the WHO’s regional office said. Earlier this month, the WHO released a roadmap on the use of COVID-19 vaccines, which aims to address evolving public health needs at the present time, with Omicron and its sub-lineages dominating circulation globally. In the context of high population-level immunity, using a base case scenario assumes the virus will continue to evolve but cause less severe disease, with a possible surge in infections requiring booster doses to protect high priority groups. U.S. Supreme Court rejects TCS appeal against $140 mn punitive damages order [United States Supreme Court has rejected Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) appeal against a $140 million punitive damages order passed by a district court]( the company said on on November 21. The District Court of Wisconsin has awarded $140 million damages in favour of Epic Systems Corporation which alleged that TCS infringed its intellectual property for the development of hospital management system ‘Med Mantra’ which was implemented for a large hospital chain in India in 2009. “...in the EPIC Systems Corporation matter, the United States Supreme Court on November 20, 2023, rejected the Company’s petition to file an appeal against the orders passed by the US Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, which confirmed the punitive damages award of $140 million passed by the District Court of Wisconsin,” TCS said in a regulatory filing. Epic had alleged that TCS misused documents downloaded from Epic System’s user-web portal. TCS said that following the US Supreme Court order, the company intends to make the balance provision of approximately $125 million in its financial statements as an exceptional item, for the third quarter and nine months ending December 31, 2023. ICC introduces five-run penalty if bowler exceeds 60-second limit for third time; stop clock in men’s ODI and T20Is [Bowling teams in men’s ODI and T20Is will be imposed a five-run penalty if the bowler exceeds the 60 second limit of bowling the next over for the third time in an innings]( the sport’s governing body ICC said on November 21. It will be used on a trial basis initially. The decision was taken at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Board meeting here. “The CEC agreed to introduce a stop clock on a trial basis in men’s ODI and T20I cricket from December 2023 to April 2024. The clock will be used to regulate the amount of time taken between overs. “If the bowling team is not ready to bowl the next over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed, a 5-run penalty will be imposed the third time it happens in an innings,” said the ICC in a statement. The ICC also made a change to its process of banning a pitch from international cricket. “Changes to the pitch and outfield monitoring regulations were also approved, including a simplification of the criteria against which a pitch is assessed and increasing the threshold for when a venue could have its international status removed from five demerit points to six demerit points over a five-year period,” the ICC added. In Brief: [S.S. Badrinath (83) founder of Sankara Nethralaya, and eminent vitreoretinal surgeon, passed away on November 21](. He had been ill for some time. “Our visionary Founder, a legend and compassionate leader Dr. S.S. Badrinath passed away early this morning. The last rites will be held after 9.30 A.M. on November 21 at the Beasant Nagar crematorium. SN is deeply saddened by the demise of our Founder,” an early note from the institution, said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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