ALL INDIA POLITICAL PARTIES’ MEET

BACKGROUND GUIDE

All India Political Parties’ meet is a forum wherein all the prominent parties in the Indian democracy whether national or regional come together to discuss the issues revolving around the Indian democracy. The committee comprises of ace politicians from the government and the opposition, who come together amidst political turmoil to discuss debate and reach consenses to concerning problems. This time, the committee comes together to discuss three important issues that revolve around the country, these are: juvenile justice, electoral reforms and the demand for special status by Indian states. The first part of the agenda would cover the issue of juvenile justice, which involves giving justice, care and protection to juvenile offenders. The second part of the agenda covers the reforms in the electoral process of India. The committees concentration under this agenda should be to either defend the electoral system we today in the country or make room for changes and improvements in the electoral process in India. At last, the third part of the agenda covers the demand for special status by various states. Various states have been demanding special status and this poses a challenge for the country.

AGENDA 1

It’s the 21st century, when our country has made progress in almost all possible

areas, but the rising number of cases against juveniles, growing number of

rapes of young children, murders etc. Make us ponder over the success of this

progress.

The list of crimes against juveniles are never ending. Juvenile security along

with juvenile justice continues to be an important issue.

Juvenile is the term used in Indian legal terms to refer to all the citizens of the

country who are aged 16 years or below. The age was recently reduced after

the 2012 Nirbhaya Gang rape case. The Juveniles of the country are given

protection and separate rights by the Constitution of India.

Difference between a Juvenile and a Minor

Though in common language we use both the terms interchangeably but

‘juvenile’ and ‘minor’ in legal terms are used in different context. The term

juvenile is used with reference to a young criminal offender and the term

minor relates to legal capacity or majority of a person.

The history of Juvenile Justice in India starts with the coming up of the JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT, 1986. The Juvenile Justice, 1986 which repealed the earlier Children Act, 1960, aimed at giving effect to the guidelines contained in the Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice adopted by the U.N. countries in November 1985.The above mentioned Act consisted of 63 Sections, 7 Chapters and is extended to whole India expect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The primary purpose of the Act was to provide care and protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of the neglected juvenile delinquent. The main objectives of the Act were:- The act basically laid down uniform framework for the juvenile justice in country in such a way that it protects the right and interest of juvenile. It talks about the machinery and infra – structure for the care, protection treatment, development and rehabilitation of the juvenile offenders. It set out the basic provisions for the proper and fair administration of criminal justice in case of heinous crime done by juvenile offenders.

The Act was enacted in year 2000 with aim and intent to provide protection for children. The mentioned was amended twice – first in the year of 2006 and later in year of 2011. Further, the increasing number of cases of juvenile crimes in the last recent year and frightful incident of “NIRBHAYA GANG RAPE IN DELHI” has forced the law makers to come up with the law. The major drawback of the Act was that it contains ill equipped legal provisions and malfunctioning juvenile system was also the major reason in preventing the juvenile crimes in India. The act was replaced soon by The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015. This amendment was made in response to the growing number of heinous crimes that involved juvenile as an accused.

The aims to consolidate the laws relating to children alleged and found to be in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection by catering and considering their basic needs through proper care& protection , development, treatment , social- integration , by adopting a child friendly approach in the

adjudication and disposal of matters in the best interest of children. The act also focuses on rehabilitation of juvenile offenders through various child care houses and institutions. The most important subjects of the Act are as follows:-

The claim of Juvenility is to be decided by Juvenile Justice Board. The Board has to decide the claim of juvenility before the court proceedings but the claim of juvenility can be raised before the court at any stage of proceedings and even after the disposal of the matter by the Board .The Board had to consider Rule 12 of the Juvenile Justice Rules, 2007 in order to determine the claim of juvenility. In case of Kula Ibrahim v. State of Coimbatore it was observed by the Court that accused has right to raise the question of juvenility at any point of time during trial or even after the disposal of the case under the Section 9 of Juvenile Justice Act , 2015.

The other important development under this act has been the creation and

setting up of the JUVENILE JUSTICE BOARD. The board’s primary function lies in

the task of deciding if the person accused of a crime, who is less than the age

of 18 years, is to be tried as a juvenile or not. The board depending on the

crime committed gives it decision if or not the accused is to be tried as a

juvenile; depending on which the accused is tried under the law. The bench of

the board comprises of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of

First Class not being Chief Metropolitan Magistrate or Chief Judicial Magistrate

(hereinafter referred to as Principal Magistrate) with at least three years’

experience and two social workers selected in such manner as may be

prescribed, of whom at least one shall be a woman.

The functions and responsibilities of the Board shall include’––

1. ensuring the informed participation of the child and the parent or guardian, in every step of the process;

2. ensuring that the child’s rights are protected throughout the process of apprehending the child, inquiry, aftercare and rehabilitation;

3. ensuring availability of legal aid for the child through the legal services institutions;

So, the main aspects and issues the juvenile justice act (care and protection) act, 2015 deals with are:

The act allows for juveniles 16 years or older to be tried as adults for heinous offences like rape and murder. Heinous offences are those which are punishable with imprisonment of seven years or more.

The law mandates setting up Juvenile Justice Boards and Child Welfare Committees in every district. Both must have at least one woman member each.

According to the law, the decision to try a juvenile 16 years or older as an adult will be taken by the Juvenile Justice Board, which will have a judicial magistrate and two social workers as members. If the board decides against it, the juvenile will be sent for rehabilitation.

The law also aims at adjudicating and disposing cases dealing with juveniles keeping in mind "the best interest of the children and their rehabilitation."

Also important is the fact that India is a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which mandates that all children under the age of 18 years be treated equal. The pending bill has been criticised for violation of the Convention.

The law also deals with adoption of children and lays down the eligibility criteria for adoptive parents. A central adoptive resource agency will frame the rules for adoption, which will be implemented by state and district level agencies

QUESTIONS UPON THE JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT, 2015

The very first question raised against this act is the fact that this act, which states that juveniles aged between 16-18 years of age and accused of heinous crimes are to be tried as adults but according to the National Crime Record Bureau, only 33,526 of 28, 51,563 cognisable crimes were committed by persons below 18 years in 2014, which is only 1.2% of the total. Out of 44 crore children under the age of 18, only 2,000 are allegedly involved in any kind of rape.

Ironically, this Bill primarily affects the most marginalised and poor sections of our society. More than 50% of the children in conflict with law come from illiterate families and extremely poor homes. This law has the potential for misuse by framing false cases against most vulnerable children, especially where

they are involved in elopement/consensual sex. Children living in conflict areas would be the worst affected.

Reducing the age of juvenility will violate guarantees made under the Constitution, the United Nation Convention of Rights of the Child and 'Beijing Rules'. In September 2015 at UNGA, India shared its vision of SDGs to make the world safer and a better place for global population. This move could send wrong signals about India's commitment towards international treaties and may have repercussions for the nation.

Seeing these aspects of the Juvenile Justice System in India, the committee would want to discuss upon this matter. The committee's direction should be to either withstand the present act in care or protection of the juveniles in India or it should be propose changes in the act. Looking upon the act, one has to ponder is this enough? Would it reduce the number of crimes by juveniles? Will it benefit the juveniles in anyway? And will it justify the rights of the juveniles in the country?

India is a democracy with each and every citizen of the country, who is 18 years of age or above, having the right to elect their representatives. In such a setup where we have 29 state elections, one general elections and many more of other elections, there is always a room for electoral reforms.

Electoral reforms are the changes in how the original electoral system of a country works. It makes room for changes in the election system that has been practiced in a country for years. The committee comes together to discuss if there is some scope of improvement and changes in the election processes that Indian democracy practices today.

India is a Democracy which practices a democratic setup of government. The country has the general elections every 5 years where every adult citizen’s vote counts equally, and the states governments to have a term of 5 years. In India, there are three levels of government, i.e.

i. Centre level ii. State level iii. Local level

At centre level, elections are conducted to elect Member of Parliament, which is known as Lok Sabha elections. For Lok Sabha election, the whole country is divided into 543 constituencies and each constituency elects one representative as a Member of Parliament (MP). At the State level, an election is called assembly election; however, unlike centre, each state is divided into a different specific number of Assembly constituencies .The elected representative in the assembly election is called as the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). Similarly, at the local level, elections are held for the election of Pradhan in Panchayat (rural) areas and counsellor in Municipal (urban) areas. Each village or town is divided into several ‘wards’ (similar to constituencies) and each ward elects one member of the village or the urban local body respectively.

The principle of a universal adult franchise is the foundation of the democracy that gives every citizen a right to have one vote and each vote should have equal value.

Every citizen of 18 years or more has the right to vote, irrespective of his caste, religion, gender, educational qualification, financial status, etc.

To ensure that not even a single person is denied of this basic right for any reason whatsoever, a list of all voters (eligible to vote) is prepared. This list is officially called as the Electoral Roll or the Voters’ List.

The voters’ list is provided to the voters of each constituency much before the election for the purpose of inspection and correction.

On the day of election, the people cast their votes as per their names mentioned in the voter list.

This method ensures that not a single person is denied his/her right to vote and thus everyone should get an equal opportunity to choose their representatives.

The government is responsible to update the voter’s list before the election; new names of all the eligible voters are added to the voters’ list and names of those who move out from their residential place or those who have been died are deleted.

A complete revision of the voter’s list takes place every five years.

The Indian election system is based on the law, which provides a code of conduct for every person contesting an election.

If any political party or candidate violates this code of conduct, his/her election can be rejected by the court even after they have been declared elected.

This code of conduct states that no party or candidate can −

Bribe or threaten voters;

Appeal/mesmerize voters in the name of caste or religion;

Use government resources for election campaign;

Spend more than Rs.25 lakh in a constituency for a Lok Sabha election;

Spend more than Rs.10 lakh in a constituency for an Assembly election.

In addition to the laws, all the political parties in India have agreed to a Model Code of Conduct for election campaigns. According to this, no party or candidate can −

Use any place of worship for election propaganda;

Use government vehicles, aircraft, and officials for elections;

Once elections are announced, Ministers shall not lay foundation stones of any projects;

Take any big policy decisions or make any promises of providing public facilities.

Any violation of any rule needs to be reported to the Election Commission, which has sufficient power and authority to take appropriate action against the violators.

The country has a voting mechanism using the EVM (electronic voting machines) and these are used in all the elections taking place in the country today. The machine shows the name of the candidate along with the symbol of the party. The voter presses the button against the party he/she wishes to vote for. After the election the counting process begins which is carried out by the members of the Election Commission of India.

The Election Commission of India is a constitutional body which is an autonomous body independent of the government. It enjoys the same kind of independence like the judges of the Supreme Court of India. The Chief Election Commission of India (CEC) is appointed by the President of India, but his appointment, the Chief Election Commissioner is not answerable to the President or the government. In a matter of election, it has been given wide powers to conduct free and fair election. They actively use these powers to form fair government. The government or the ruling party has no occasion to influence or pressurize the election commission.

The Election Commission takes decisions on every aspect related to the election from the announcement of elections to the declaration of results.

The Election Commission supervises and controls the administration of elections. It checks and correct any fault immediately.

The Election Commission implements the Code of Conduct and punishes any candidate or party who is found guilty of any violation.

During the election period, the Election Commission acquires powers to order the government to follow settled guidelines to prevent use and misuse of governmental power to enhance its chances to win elections, or to transfer some government officials.

All the officers and staff of the government that is put on election duty works under the control of the Election Commission and not under the government.

Ever since the implementation of the VVPAT system last year, machine malfunction and subsequent delays in polling have been recurring issues. The ECI has suggested that these machines were more prone to malfunctioning due to their sensitivity to extreme weather conditions and exposure to light. It also blamed the relative inexperience of polling officers handling them, compared to the ballot and control units for the electronic voting machines (EVMs) that have been in use for much longer. Demand for “ONE STATE, ONE ELECTION”

The present Government is in support of the notion of having one election for the whole nation, which means simultaneous elections for the centre, state as well as local bodies. While the present government states that this would help reduce the money that goes into these elections, the opposition is continuously denying it as they state it would create monopoly of only one party.

The excess use of money in election campaigns

The amount of money used in election campaigns is way beyond the amount fixed by the Election Commission. In 2014 General elections the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) spent a total of Rs 7,14,28,57,813, the Congress shelled out Rs 5,16,02,36,785. There are many such issues that remain unsolved and static, the committee comes together to discuss these issues and bring about such issues to the limelight so as to reform the election process and help bring about a better electoral process in the country. The committee, keeping in mind all these deficits of our electoral system has to suggest reforms in it and make a better future for Indian democracy.

AGENDA 2

The special status with regards to Indian states is that some of the states ensure a special status in front of constitution as compared to the others. While the Constitution does not have any provision for categorisation of any state as a Special Category Status (SCS) State, but considering the fact that some areas in India are historically disadvantaged as compared to others, the Centre has assisted states with funds in the past allocated by the former Planning Commission body called the National Development Council (NDC).

In the past, the NDC considered factors such as difficult and hilly terrain, low population density and/or a sizeable share of tribal population, strategic location along borders, economic and infrastructural backwardness, and non-viable nature of state finances. The NITI Aayog, which has replaced the Planning Commission, has no power to allocate funds — therefore, the discretion that the ruling party at the Centre had to dole out special favours to states through the Plan panel, no longer exists.

These states are as follows:-

- Arunachal Pradesh

- Assam, Manipur

- Meghalaya

- Mizoram

- Nagaland

- Tripura

- Sikkim

- Jammu and Kashmir

- Himachal Pradesh

- Uttarakhand

The central government pays 90 per cent of the funds required in a centrally-sponsored scheme, while the remaining funds are provided by the state governments whereas in the case of normal category states, the government sponsors only 60 percent.

The SCS are highly dependent on the central grants from the Union Government for meeting their financial requirements. These states show a revenue surplus position because any expenditure that they make on creating assets out of grants from the centre is not treated as revenue expenditure. This is contrary to the existing accounting standards which treats all expenditure from grants as revenue expenditure.

Criterias for granting Special Category Status (SCS) which were set by the government

In the past, the government considered factors such as difficult and hilly terrain, low population density and/or a sizeable share of tribal population, strategic location along borders, economic and infrastructural backwardness, and non-viable nature of state finances, on these basis a state was granted SCS status.

The 14th finance commission listed that from now onwards any special category status won’t be granted to any state. It wanted to reduce the number of Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and to restore the predominance of formula-based plan grants, which stated that 60% would be centrally sponsored and rest would be sponsored by state.

After the undesirable division between Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, the latter has to suffer due to majority of resources gone to Telangana due to division.

It was promised that AP should be given special category status, he said. “At that time, special category state concept did exist. But, the 14th Finance Commission removed the concept of special category,” Jaitley clarified further.

The centre said that it is ready to give benefits dispensed under special category status. “Special category status means that you get a 90-10 advantage, not 60-40. The Centre stands committed to it. The state has to tell us what manner it wants it in. At no stage has the Centre said that it will not be given,” But instead of granting them a special category status, they will be provided with a special package, which gives same monetary benefits that a special category state is given but it won’t be more than 5 years.

After the partition between the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs and MLCs had voted in favour of snapping ties with the BJP for its “refusal to help” Andhra Pradesh after state’s bifurcation in 2014. AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu had held an impromptu meet during a legislature party meeting at Amaravati. Addressing his party workers, Naidu said Jaitley “cold shouldered” a delegation led by state Finance Minister Y Ramakrish-nudu that met him on Monday evening. On reacting to it, the Centre agreed to give “special assistance” to AP for five years, which would make up for the additional central share the state might have received during these years — 2015-16 to 2019-20, as envisaged by Singh’s 2014 statement. This will be in the form of Union funding for externally aided projects that have been signed and disbursed during these years. AP is demanding that special assistance funding should be in the 90:10 ratio (Centre: state) for both EAPs and centrally-sponsored schemes — which adds up to about Rs 20,010 crore of central assistance. Because the state government may not be able to spend this amount on EAPs in the stipulated five years, AP is demanding that the Centre allow it to use the money to clear outstanding loans. It is seeking permission to borrow from internal lenders like NABARD, HUDCO and other commercial banks, and to use the gap to pay interest commitments to the Government of India, NABARD and EAPs.

The Centre is also willing to accept the state government’s suggestion of raising funds through NABARD. At meetings with the state government last month, the Centre suggested creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) where NABARD could give the money so as not to upset the fiscal deficit of the state, Jaitley said, adding that the Andhra Pradesh government is yet to come back on the modalities of this proposal. On meeting the revenue deficit of the state,

he said, the Centre has already paid around Rs 4,000 crore and only Rs 138 crore remain.

Aside from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Goa, and Bihar had demanded SCS status. However, they have not been granted the status as they did not fulfil the criteria to be qualified as an SCS State.

Seeing their neighbouring state’s demand getting fulfilled, Odisha CM Naveen Natnaik, also demanded for the similar status, citing reason that they were already demanding for it even long before the Andhra Pradesh started and therefore they should get the status.

As a result, the Maoists in bordering areas with Andhra Pradesh had called for “stateband” in order to get their demand fulfilled.

CM Nitish Kumar stated that "Categories of land-locked and least developed states are internationally eligible for special and differential treatment."

"The 15th Finance Commission must locate the resource gaps and support backward states like Bihar in their efforts to catch up with the developed states,"

Article 370 of Indian constitution gives autonomous powers to Jammu and Kashmir which other normal states don’t have.

These are provisions are listed below:-

It exempted the State from the complete applicability of the Constitution of India. The State was allowed to have its own Constitution.

Central legislative powers over the State were limited, at the time of framing, to the three subjects of defence, foreign affairs and communications.

Other constitutional powers of the Central Government could be extended to the State only with the concurrence of the State Government.

The 'concurrence' was only provisional. It had to be ratified by the State's Constituent Assembly.

The State Government's authority to give 'concurrence' lasted only until the State Constituent Assembly was convened. Once the State Constituent Assembly finalised the scheme of powers and dispersed, no further extension of powers was possible.

The Article 370 could be abrogated or amended only upon the recommendation of the State's Constituent Assembly.

Links are as follows:-

http://indianexpress.com/article/what-is/what-is-special-category-

status-5090274/

http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Special_Category_States

https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/why-special-status-cant-

be-given-to-andhra-pradesh-arun-jaitley-gives-this-

explanation/1090635/

https://www.newsbytesapp.com/timeline/Politics/23902/109105/what-

s-the-reason-behind-special-category-status-demand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finance_commission#14th_Finance_Com

mission

http://www.uniindia.com/~/maoists-bandh-disrupts-normal-life-in-

vizag-tribal-agency-area/States/news/1237690.html

http://www.iasparliament.com/current-affairs/special-status-of-jk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_370_of_the_Constitution_of_India

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