revisiting GS : 4-6may

1.Establish national court of appeal:

it can act as an intermediate forum between supreme court and various high courts.
can relieve supreme court of the weight of hearing regular civil and criminal appeals allowing supreme court to only concentrate on questions of constitutional importance.
Also regional branches of national court of appeal would allow greater access to litigants from remote areas of the country.
But based on India’s constitutional structure there is little scope for establishing this court of appeal.
To create intermediate courts of appeal where senior judges can deal with these cases, giving them the time and consideration they deserve.
These need to be located at different parts of the country, to handle appeals coming from courts in the four compass areas.
They can be manned by senior judges retiring from the High Courts at 62 years. These courts of appeal will signal the full stop to civil and criminal litigation at large.
o There was not one instance of all the judicial posts being filled. The average vacancy in the Supreme Court, high courts and lower courts is about 10, 30 and 20 per cent, respectively
Number of cases decided by constitutional benches has steadily declined from the time of the court’s inception. From 1950-1954-15% cases were handled by constitutional benches but in 2005-2009 -only 0.12% cases.

Why only handful of Indians pay taxes?

The complete absence of economic, statistical, behavioral, or operations research-based analysis of policy or of taxpayers prior to making major or minor legislative or subordinate legislation-based (rule-based) decisions
Administrative decisions and tax policy making are both based on nil analysis by international standards.
No ‘impact assessment’ is carried out before introducing major legislative changes.
Even changes in rules that Boards announce have no reference to what background analysis has preceded the decision.
given that the poor generally spend a greater fraction of their income on essentials than the rich do, with wider indirect taxation, they end up paying a higher individual tax rate than people considerably wealthier.
shome panel recommendation to be implemented

- If the right to vote is a statutory right, then the right to reject a candidate is a fundamental right of speech and expression under the Constitution
The judges themselves pointed out that it can widen participation and curb impersonation.
This introduction will draw in new voters. The overall voter percentage shall definitely improve in the next elections.
This move puts common man on top and shall also give rise to a consciousness among the political parties of being scrutinized for not nominating honest candidates. The main purpose of decriminalization of politics would be served to an extent.\\
If the rule of probability plays out and no candidate gets an adequate number of votes to win an election, the election commission or the aggrieved party will go to the court and seek necessary permission to conduct a re-election. So, doors of litigation will open again and pendency of cases will increase.

Government should consider doing away with export duties on pulses. This will prompt farmers to produce more for both the domestic and foreign markets.
Recently the Maharashtra government has taken steps to help farmers move away from crops that use water intensively.
- It will make it more attractive for farmers to grow pulses by offering to pay a guaranteed price that is 5-10% higher than the central minimum support prices (MSPs) for pulses, as well as provide free seeds and fertilizers to farmers who grow pulses.
Effective implementation needed:
- The centre has issued an early directive to the states to project pulses demand and keep hoarding in check.
- To prevent another full-fledged pulse crisis, a sum of Rs.500 crore was allotted to pulses under the National Food Security Act, and a Price Stabilisation Fund with a corpus of Rs.900 crore was made in this year’s budget exclusively for pulses.

revisiting GS