Today’s Important Prelims Bits 19-05-2022

National Register of Citizens (NRC)

In News: The Assam state coordinator for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) has written to the members of foreigners’ tribunals (FT) across the state that the NRC list published by the state government in 2019 is not final and instructed them not to consider that list (or its supplementary list) as evidence to dispose of cases.

About NRC

• The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register containing names of all genuine Indian citizens. At present, only Assam has such a register.
• The exercise may be extended to other states as well. Nagaland is already creating a similar database known as the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants.
• The Centre is planning to create a National Population Register (NPR), which will contain demographic and biometric details of citizens.

NRC in Assam

• The NRC in Assam is basically a list of Indian citizens living in the state. The citizens’ register sets out to identify foreign nationals in the state that borders Bangladesh.
• The process to update the register began following a Supreme Court order in 2013, with the state’s nearly 33 million people having to prove that they were Indian nationals prior to March 24, 1971.
• The updated final NRC was released on August 31, 2019. This draft excluded 19.06-lakh out of the 3.3 crore  people who had applied for inclusion.

• Non-inclusion of a person’s name in the NRC does not by itself amount to him/her being declared a foreigner. Such individuals will have the option to present their case before foreigners’ tribunals.
• If one loses the case in the tribunal, the person can move the high court and, then, the Supreme Court.
• In the case of Assam, the state government has clarified it will not detain any individual until he/she is declared a foreigner by the foreigners’ tribunal.

 Drought in Numbers report

In News: World at crossroads in the drought management as the Drought in Numbers 2022 report suggests.

Key Points

• The Drought in Numbers report is a collection of data on the effects of droughts on our ecosystem and how they can be mitigated through efficient planning for the future.
• The report also helps inform negotiations surrounding key decisions by the UNCCD’s 197 member parties at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15), currently underway in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Drought, land restoration, and related aspects such as land rights, gender equality and youth empowerment are among the top considerations at COP15.
• The number and duration of droughts around the world has increased by an alarming 29% since 2000.

What is COP15?

• UNCCD’s COP15 focuses on desertification, land degradation, and drought, with the theme for the conference being “Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity.”
• The conference has brought together government representatives, private sector members, and civil society stakeholders to ensure that land continues to benefit present and future generations.

Clemency powers under Articles 72 and 161

In News: The Supreme Court on Wednesday invoked its extraordinary powers to do complete justice under Article 142 of the Constitution and ordered the release of A.G. Perarivalan in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

A brief history Of Perarivalan Case

• The apex court had, in May 1999, upheld the TADA court’s verdict of death for Perarivalan. The court had also quickly dismissed his review petition five months later. The Tamil Nadu Governor had dismissed the mercy petitions of the convicts the same October. The Governor repeated the act of rejection of mercy in April 2000.
• The President took 11 whole years to reject his mercy plea on August 12, 2011.
• On February 18, 2014, when a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by then Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam commuted the death penalty of his and two others to life sentence and made a strong observation in the verdict that “apex constitutional authorities” like the President and the Governor must exercise their clemency powers under Articles 72 and 161, respectively, within the “bounds of constitutional discipline” and in an “expeditious manner”.

What is Article 142 of the Constitution?

Subsection 1 of Article 142 (“Enforcement of decrees and orders of Supreme Court and orders as to discovery, etc.”) says “the Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or order so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe.”

Pardoning Power of President(Art 72)

(1) The President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence –

a)in all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial;
b)in all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends;
c)in all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death.

Thus, Article 72 empowers the President to grant pardons etc. and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases.

Pardoning Power of Governor(Art. 161)

The Article deals with the power of the Governor to grant pardons, etc, and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases.

The Governor of a State shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends.

What is the difference between the pardoning power of the president and the governor?

The scope of the pardoning power of the President under Article 72 is wider than the pardoning power of the Governor under Article 161. The power differs in the following two ways:

• The power of the President to grant pardon extends in cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial but Article 161 does not provide any such power to the Governor.
• The President can grant pardon in all cases where the sentence given is a sentence of death but the pardoning power of the Governor does not extend to death sentence cases.

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