Civil Service Bytes

Supreme Court  said , a Public Interest Litigation PIL, once filed & heard, cannot be withdrawn. The observation came during a hearing on a lawyer’s plea that he was getting threats for filing a PIL seeking entry of girls and women in Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. The court  noted this when Naushad Ahmed Khan, President of Indian Young Lawyers’ Association, which has filed the PIL on Sabarimala issue, sought urgent hearing of the matter. He said he has received 500 threatening phone calls in recent times and asked to take back the PIL.  What is Public Interest Litigation (PIL)? Public-Interest Litigation is litigation for the protection of the public interest. In Indian law,  Article 32  of the Indian constitution contains a tool which directly joins the public with judiciary. Article 32: The Supreme Court shall have power to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, q...

The Supreme Court today stayed the Centre’s notification lifting ban on controversial bull taming sport Jallikattu The court rejected the plea of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Tamil Nadu that Jallikattu is part of the ancient tradition and culture and should not be stopped as there were enough safeguards provided. The four-year-old ban on holding of Jallikattu was lifted by the Centre in poll-bound Tamil Nadu with certain restrictions recently. What is Jallikattu? “Jallikattu”   is a cattle/ bull taming tradition   played in Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal celebration. This is one of the oldest living ancient sport seen in the modern era. It is held in the villages of Tamil Nadu as a part of the village festival. The festivals are held from January to July, every year. The sport    results in major injuries and deaths with over human 200 deaths over the past two decades.  Animal activists and PETA India has prot...

The Supreme Court today stayed the Centre’s notification lifting ban on controversial bull taming sport Jallikattu The court rejected the plea of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Tamil Nadu that Jallikattu is part of the ancient tradition and culture and should not be stopped as there were enough safeguards provided. The four-year-old ban on holding of Jallikattu was lifted by the Centre in poll-bound Tamil Nadu with certain restrictions recently.   What is Jallikattu? “Jallikattu”   is a cattle/ bull taming tradition   played in Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal celebration. This is one of the oldest living ancient sport seen in the modern era. It is held in the villages of Tamil Nadu as a part of the village festival. The festivals are held from January to July, every year. The sport    results in major injuries and deaths with over human 200 deaths over the past two decades.  Animal activists and PETA India h...

The Supreme Court  said: No temple or governing body can bar a woman from entering the famous Sabarimala shrine in Kerala where lakhs of devotees throng annually to worship. When the Devaswom Board countered that the prohibition was based on custom followed for the past half century, court asked what proof the Board had to show that women did not enter the sanctum sanctorum over 1500 years ago. Court observed that the Constitution rejects discrimination on the basis of age, gender and caste.  The petition filed by the Indian Young Lawyers Association and five women lawyers seeking a direction to allow entry of women into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple without age restriction. Women in the age group 10-50 are not allowed entry. The apex court had issued notice in the case way back in 2006. The petition had contended that women, aged between 10 and 50, touching the idol was considered an act of desecration. Backthen: An attempt was made to prosecute...

The Supreme Court today asked the government to appoint three Information Commissioners (ICs) in the Central Information Commission (CIC), whose posts are lying vacant for quite some time, within six weeks. The bench was hearing the plea of the central government filed against the November 6 Delhi High Court order asking it to appoint three ICs at the apex transparency panel. Background : The CIC, which is mandated to hear complaints and appeals from information seekers under the RTI Act, comprises a chief Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners. The government has been facing criticism from RTI activists over the delay in filling up the vacancies in the transparency watchdog. At present, there are 7 Information Commissioners. The DoPT had in 2014 called for the advertisements to fill vacant posts of Chief Information Commissioner and Commissioners. Instead of filling all the posts from the applications received in response to these advertisements, the Do...