The constitution prescribes that the members of the Vidhan Sabha of each state shall be part of the Electoral College constituted for the election of President. However, the constitution does not provide specifically whether members of Vidhan Sabha of each state shall be available during the election or not. But it was subsequently incorporated by 11th Constitutional Amendment, 1961, that the election of the president can not be challenged on the ground of any vacancy in Electoral College, constituted for the election of President.

Skill India Mission, an initiative of the Government of India, was introduced by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on July 16, 2015. This mission intends to provide training to over 40 crore people having different skills by 2022 in India. The Mission consists of National policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (NPSDE) 2015; Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas yojna (PMKVY) scheme and the Skill Loan Scheme.

Why Skill India Mission

In order to survive in this highly technological world one must have some sort of skill. In this context India has been doing very poorly and faces a big challenge to remain in the race of becoming a developed country.

Recently, it has been estimated that only 4.69% of the total work force in India has got formal skill training as compared to 68% in UK; 75% Germany, 52% in USA; 80% in Japan; and 96% in South Korea. In this context one has to keep in mind the fact that the number of people who find a place in the work force age group every year is estimated to be 26.14 million.

Most of the previous skill development programmes have been scattered across more than 20 Ministries/Departments without any appropriate coordination and mechanism to ensure convergence.

The existing multiplicity in assessment and certification system has produced inconsistent results causing confusion to employers.

Lack of good quality of trainers is a major area of concern. It has been noticed that there has been empathy towards development of trainers training programmes.

A continuing fall has been noticed in labour- force- participation rate of women from 33.3% to 26.5% in 6 urban areas between 2004 and 2011.

In India the number of local entrepreneurs emerging every year is very low. It is important to know that India has been ranked 81 (out of 141 countries) by the Global Innovation index.

The Skill India Mission, in an attempt to address these serious affairs, has tried to bring the field of education and training closer to the arena of work in order to enable them build a strong India.

Must Read: Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojna (PMMY)

The Three Components of the Mission

 National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015

The policy has the intention to create an ecosystem skilling on a large scale with high standards. It also aims to encourage a culture of innovation based entrepreneurship to secure sustainable livelihoods for all citizens of the country.

The Principal objective of the Policy is to enable the individual in realizing their full potential through a process of life-long learning where competencies are garnered via instruments and such as credible certifications, credit accumulation and transfer etc.

In order to make this idea functional the government, through the policy, has made it clear that it is going to make quality vocational training  aspirational for both youth and employers; to provide seamless integration of skill with formal education; to increase the capability and quality of training  infrastructure and trainers to assure equitable and easy access to every citizen of India and to set up an IT based information system for collecting demand and supply of skilled workforce that can assist in matching and linking supply with demand.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY)

PMKVY is a flagship scheme of the new Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSAE). It is a certification and reward scheme. The scheme aims to, being a part of the Skill India Mission, to enable and mobilize a large number of Indian youth to go through the skill training and become employable .

The Objective of this scheme is to promote skill development among youth by catering monetary rewards after successful completion of the sanctioned training programmes. The scheme intends: to encourage standardization in certification process and being a process of creating a registry of skill and to reward candidates who are getting skill training by authorized institutions at an average reward of Rs. 8,000 per candidate. It has an aim of providing skill training to 24 lakh youth in one year.

Skill Loan Scheme

The Prime Minister initiated the Skill Loan Scheme, a part of Skill India Mission, with an intention to assist youth who desire to be a part of the Skill training programmes running in the country. Under this scheme Loans varying from Rs. 5,000 to 1.5 Lakh are going to be made available to 34 lakh youth of India who wish to attend the Skill Development Programmes over the next five years (that is by 2020).

 Also Read: PRADHAN MANTRI JAN DHAN YOJNA

The Constitution of India has well defined prerequisite qualifications for a person to be elected as a member of the State Legislature.

Qualifications

While dealing with the qualification for membership of the State Legislature, Art. 173, of the constitution says: “A person shall not be qualified to be chosen to fill a seat in the Legislature of a State unless he” or she “is a citizen of India”, and he or she must make or subscribe an oath of affirmation before the person who has been authorized by the Election Commission for this purpose; he or she must not be less that twenty-five years of age, while in the case of Legislature Council the age bar is fixed at 30 years.

Following the parameters set by the Constitution, the Parliament through the Representation of People Act, (RPA) 1951, has laid down some additional qualification in the matter of being a Member of the Legislature Assembly (MLA):

What the RPA Says

According to the RPA, 1951,: a person wishing to be elected as the Legislature Assembly must be an elector for an assembly constituency in the concerned state; person to be elected to the Legislature Council must be an elector for an assembly constituency in the concerned state and to be qualified for the Governor’s nomination, he or she must be a resident in the concerned state; he or she must be a member of scheduled caste or schedule tribe if h/she wants to contest a seat reserved for them. However, it is very important here to mention, a member of scheduled castes or schedule tribes can also contest a unreserved general seat.

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Disqualifications

Clause 1 of the Article 191 of the Constitution of India, while dealing with the disqualification of the membership of the Legislature Assembly or Legislature Council, states that a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being a member of the Legislative Assembly or State Legislature Council : if s/he holds any office of profit under the Central Government of the Government of any State specified in the first schedule; if s/he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court; if he is an undischarged insolvent; if s/he is not a citizen of India or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship a foreign State, or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State; and of s/he is so disqualified by or under any law made by Parliament.

In this case also, like with the “qualification” process, the Parliament according to the parameters set by the Constitution, has prescribed some additional rules for disqualifications in the RPA, 1951.

The clause 2 of the Articles 191 States that a person shall be disqualified for being a member of the Legislature Assembly or State Legislature Council is s/he is so disqualified under the 10^th schedule.

Deciding the Disqualifications of the Members

Dealing with the issue of “Decision on questions as to disqualifications of members”, the clause 1 of the Article 192 of the Constitution says that if any question arises as to whether a member of the House of the Legislature of a State has become subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in clause 1 of the Article 192, the decision of the Governor shall be final.

However, clause 2 of the Article 192 states that before giving any decision on any such question, the Governor would have to obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and act according to such opinion.

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Disqualification on the Ground of Defection

The provision of Disqualification on the ground of defection have been described in the Tenth schedule. According to the tenth schedule the question of disqualification is decided by the Chairman in the case of Legislative Council and the Speaker in the case of Legislative Assembly. The Supreme Court, in Kihota Hollohan v. Zachilhu (1992) case, ruled that the decision of chairman/speaker in this regard is subject to judicial review.

Vacation of Seats

The Article 190 deals with the ‘vacation of seats’ that comes within the larger canvas of the phrase disqualification of membership.

Clause 1of the Article 190 says that no person can be a member of both Houses of the Legislature of a State; if a person is elected to both the Houses, his seat in one of the House automatically falls vacant; if a member of a House of Legislature of a becomes subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in clause(1) or Clause (2) of Article 191; or resigns his seat by submitting his resignation letter to the Speaker or Chairman (sub clause ‘a’ and ‘b’ of clause 3 of Article 190).

Clause 4 of the Article 190 says that a House of the State Legislature can declare a seat of a member vacant if s/he remains absents from all its meeting for a period of sixty days without getting the permission of the House.

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Lok Adalat, a forum where the disputes or cases pending or at pre-litigation stage are settled amiably, has been granted statutory status under the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987. According to the Act, the order or award pronounced by the Lok Adalats is deemed to be the decrease of a civil court and appeal can be made against its order in any court as its order is final and binding to all parties.

The Type of cases a Lok Adalat takes up

The cases or disputes that can be referred to a Lok Adalat includes any case pending before any court; and any dispute that has not been put before any court and is likely to be brought before the court. Provided that any matter relating to an offence not compoundable under the law shall not be settled in the Lok Adalat.

Process of Getting the case referred to the Adalat

There are two ways of bringing the case before the Lok Adalat: first, if the case is pending in the court and if parties entangled in the dispute agree to settle it in Lok Adalat or one of the party files an application to the court or the court is satisfied that the matter is an appropriate one for settlement in Lok Adalat; and second, in the case of dispute being at pre-litigation stage, it can be referred to the LokAdalat.

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History of Lok Adalats in India

The concept of Adalat, as it has been widely accepted, is a novel Indian contribution the world jurisprudence. Lok Adalat, as the name is in Hindi, can be translate in English as “People’s Court”. “People” stands for “Lok” and “Court” stands “Adalat”. India has got a long history of having suck systems at the grass roots level known as Pachayats. Panchayats, legally arbitration, are widely used in India for resolution both commercial and non- commercial disputes.

Behind the concept and establishment  of Lok Adalat is the ancient concept of settlement of disputes through mediation, negotiation or through arbitral process popularly known as decision of “Naya-Pancha” or “People’s Court verdict”.

During the British regime the concept of Lok Adalat was pushed back into oblivion. However, it has been rejuvenated once again. This system is very popular among litigants because of its deep roots in India legal history and its close allegiance to the culture and perception of justice in India.

Lok Adalat, as a movement, were established with a strategy to abate heavy burden on the courts with pending cases and to provide relief to the litigants who were in queue to obtain justice. It is so the primary intention of setting up Lok Adalats is to dispense justice summarily, of course with the consent of the parties involved, without giving too much emphasis on legal technicalities.

The camps of Adalats initially started in Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, where on March 14, 1982, at Junagarh, the First LokAdalat was held. Lok Adalat has been very successful in settlement of matrimonial/family disputes; labour disputes; disputes related to public services like electricity, bank recovery cases, telephone; motor accident claim cases and so on.

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Procedure and composition

A Lok Adalat has very simple procedure that is shorn of almost all legal formalities and rituals. The Adalat has only three members who preside over it, of these their members one is a sitting or retired judicial officer; the other two include usually a lawyer and a social worker. It has been experienced that it is easier to settle money claims in Lok Adalats because in most such cases the quantum (of Money) alone may be in dispute. Thus, most of the motor accident claims cases are brought before the Lok Adalats.

Consent of Parties in Lok Adalat

The most important condition in the process of dispensation of justice in a Lok Adalat is that both parties in the dispute must agree for the settlement through it and abide by its decision.

The decision cannot be forced on any Party. However, once the parties agree that Adalat can decide the matter, then no party can walk away from the decision of Lok Adalat. In several cases, the Supreme Court of India has made it very clear that if there is no consent, the award of the Lok Adalat is not executable, and the Court has also said that if the parties fail to agree to settle dispute through Lok Adalat, the regular litigation process remains open for the contesting parties.

Benefits of Lok Adalat

There are many benefits of Lok Adalats. First, there is no court fee and even if the case is already in a regular court the fee deposited in the regular Court is refunded if the dispute settled in the Lok Adalat.

Secondly, as there is no strict legal procedures such as Evidence Act, it saves the time of the litigants.

Thirdly, application for settlement of dispute can be filed directly in the Adalat instead of approaching a regular court first then to Lok Adalat.

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