Legal Current Affairs

CLAT is one of the most popular and toughest law entrance exams. And, cracking CLAT is not a cakewalk, so you need to put all your effort into it. One of the most important sections in the CLAT exam is General Knowledge and Current Affairs, so to score well, you need to be updated with the daily current affairs. Below is the list of legal current affairs that will help you in your preparation. 

SC gives time to fill vacancies in Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions.

The Supreme Court of India directed Union and State governments to fill vacancies in the consumer disputes redressal commission within eight weeks.

Key Points

• There are around 800 vacancies in consumer courts across the country.
• The bench has been ordered to fill all the vacancies in consumer courts at national, state, and district levels and has also notified rules to appoint, advertise posts and set up selection committees.

Background

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Union minister of state for consumer affairs, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, noted that there were 638 districts for functional in 28 states and 8 Union territories. He also informed that all 36 state consumer commissions were operational. According to him, 25 presidents and 68 members were appointed in state commissions, while 367 presidents and 695 members were working in district fora as of June 2021. He did not cite any vacancies in the commission.

Suo Motu Case

Senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Aditya Narain registered the case suo motu and produced a tabular chart stating that district consumer fora have 721 vacancies, including 188 for presidents. 72 posts were vacant across state commissions, while the national consumer commission has 3 vacancies.

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC)

NCDRC is a quasi-judicial commission of India. It was set up in 1988 under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. It is headquartered in New Delhi. NCDRC is headed by a sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. Justice R K Agrawal, former judge of the Supreme Court, is the present head of the commission.

Section 21 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986

Section 21 of the act provides for the jurisdiction of NCDRC to entertain any complaint with the value of more than one crore. It also provides for Appellate and Revisional jurisdiction from orders of State Commissions or District fora.

National Council for Older Persons

The National Council for Older Persons (NCOP) was constituted in 1999 in accordance with the National Policy for Older Persons (NPOP).

Key Points

• It was constituted under the Chairpersonship of the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The Council looks after the implementation of the Policy and advises the Government to formulate and implement policy and programs for senior citizens.

Reconstitution of NCOP

NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).

Meeting of NCOP

• The third meeting of the Council was held in June 2018.
• Issues like Schemes, Programmes, and Acts were discussed in the meeting for the welfare of Senior Citizens.
• Status or action taken by the Government is listed below:

1. The Council suggested strengthening the “Amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007”. Following it the government introduced the “Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019” in the Lok Sabha.
2. The council suggested organising more distribution camps under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RYY). Based on this, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment revised RVY to cover all the districts across the country.
3. Council also advised to simplify the process of registration of NGOs, following which, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been running a simplified Online NGO portal called e-Anudaan.
4. It suggests providing financial assistance to senior citizens who are cancer patients from the Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund (SCWF). In line with the suggestion the government is providing financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.

PM announced Rs 1,625 crore for women SHGs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with members of women self-help groups (SHGs) under the “Aatmanirbhar Narihalti se Samvad” event on August 12, 2021, across the country and announced to release capitalization support funds of Rs 1,625 crore.

Highlights

• Capitalization support fund will benefit over 4 lakh SHGs.
• The Prime Minister also released Rs 25 crore as seed money which is going to benefit 7500 SHG members under the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises, which is run by Union Food Processing Industries.
• Rs 4.13 crore was also released as funds for 75 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) being promoted under National Livelihood Mission.
• He also announced that the limit of loans available to self-help groups without guarantee had now been doubled to Rs 20 lakh.
• The condition of linking savings accounts with the loan account has also been abolished.
• These SHG members or community resource persons are also promoted under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
• On the occasion, a compendium of success stories of women SHG members was also released along with a handbook on universalization of farm livelihoods.

What are SHGs?

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are defined as informal associations of people who come together to find ways of improving their living conditions. It is a self-governed, peer-controlled information group of people coming from a similar socio-economic background with a desire to perform a common purpose collectively.

Significance of SHGs

SHGs are mostly formed in villages that face numerous problems like illiteracy, poverty, lack of skills, lack of formal credit, etc. Such problems cannot be tackled at an individual level. Thus, SHGs act as a vehicle of change for the poor and marginalized. It helps in building the functional capacity of the poor and the marginalized with respect to employment and income-generating activities.

127th Constitution Amendment Bill introduced

The Central Government introduced the 127th Constitution (amendment) bill, 2021, in Lok Sabha on August 9, 2021. The bill seeks to restore the state’s power to make their own OBC lists.

Highlights

• Bill was introduced by the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Virendra Kumar.
• It was introduced in the Parliament to clarify some provisions of the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Bill, restoring the power of states to identify backward classes.

Constitutional provisions

Articles 15 (4), 15 (5), and 16 (4) of the Indian constitution confer power on the State Government to declare and identify a list of socially and educationally backward classes. Central and state governments draw separate OBC lists as a practice.

Background of the 127th Bill

The need for the latest amendment arose after the Supreme Court in its Maratha reservation ruling of May 2021, upheld the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act. SC also stated that the President will determine which communities will be included on the state OBC list, on the recommendations of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).

About 127th Constitution Amendment Bill

• The 127th Constitutional Amendment Bill will amend clauses 1 and 2 of Article 342A.
• It will introduce a new clause 3.
• It will also amend Articles 366 (26c) and 338B.
• The bill has been designed to clarify that State Governments can maintain a state list of OBCs, restoring the system prior to SC judgment.
• Under the amendment, the latest ‘State List’ will be taken out of the purview of the President completely, and it will be notified by the State Assembly.

Also read – UP Population Bill 2021