Power of President to grant pardons

Article 72 of the Constitution of India-Power of President to grant pardons, etc., and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases-

(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.

(2) Nothing in sub-clause(a) of clause(1) shall affect the power conferred by law on any officer of the Armed Forces of the Union to suspend, remit or commute a sentence passed by a Court Martial.

(3) Nothing in sub-clause (c) of clause (1) shall affect the power to suspend, remit or commute a sentence of death exercisable by the Governor of a State under any law for the time being in force.

Power of Governor to grant pardons

Article 161 of the Constitution of India-Power of 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 offense against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends.

Court decisions:-

(i) The power under Article 161 is a statutory power which can’t be fettered by position such as section 432,433,433A of the Indian Penal Code,1860.

– State of Punjab v. Joginder, AIR1990 SC 1396.

(ii) The power of granting pardon under Article 161 is very wide and do not contain any limitation as to the time on which and the occasion on which and the circumstances in which the said power could be exercised. But the said power being a constitutional power is amenable to judicial review on certain limited grounds. The court, therefore, would be justified in interfering with an order passed by the Governor in the exercise of power under Article 161 of the Constitution. If the Governor is found to have exercised the power himself without being advised by the Government or if the Governor transgresses the jurisdiction in exercising the same or it is established that the Governor has passed the order without application of mind or the order in question is a mala fide one or the Governor has passed the order on some extraneous consideration.

– Satpal v.State of Haryana, AIR 2000 SC 1702

The meaning of these terms 

Pardon: Complete pardon 

Reprieve: Temporary suspension of sentence 

Respite: awarding less sentence Remission: Reducing amount of sentence 

Commutation: Changing one punishment to another

By referring the LGBT community’s case – seeking to legalize consensual sex between same sex adults in private – to a five-judge constitution bench curative petition the Supreme Court on Tuesday has created a last narrow window of hope for the community.

What is meaning of LGBT?

LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

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What is the issue?

On July 2, 2009 The Delhi high court had decided to decriminalize section 377 to uphold gay sex rights. This order was challenged by the Union Government in the Supreme Court which in turn on 11 Dec. 2013 reversed him ruling of the Delhi High Court.

The Supreme Court had, on Jan 28, 2014, also rejected the petition seeking review of its earlier judgments.

After that on 23 Apr. 2014 the bench comprising the then chief justice P. Sathashivam, justice R. M. Lodha, Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice S. J. Mukhopadhy had passed the order that the court will hear the curative petition in open court. Now all the four judges are retired.

What is Section 377 of IPC?

Section 377 of Indian Penal Codes says –

“Unnatural offences. Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with 1[imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. “

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What is curative petition?

A judge of the Supreme Court can also do mistake. If the court errs in its last judgment, in that case will the innocent suffer the result.

When this question was raised before the constitution bench of the Supreme Court in 2002, then the bench decided to provide the rule of curative petition.

The process of curative petition was used for the first time in the case of Rupa Ashok vs. Ashok Hurra.

In simple words, when a review petition filed under Article 137 of the constitution is rejected, it still can be pleaded that the petition be heard as curative ‘petition’.

A review petition can field within 30 days of the Supreme Court judgement.

How world looks at it.

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India has an asymmetric federal government, with elected officials at the federal, state and local levels. At the national level, the head of government, the Prime minister, is elected by the members of Lok Sabha, the lower house of the parliament of India. All members of Lok Sabha except two, who can be nominated by the president of India, are directly elected through general elections which take place every five years, in normal circumstances, by universal adult suffrage. Members of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, are elected by elected members of the legislative assemblies of states and Electoral college for Union Territories of India.

The size of the huge electorate mandates that elections be conducted in a number of phases (there were four phases in 2004 General Elections and five phases in 2009 general election). It involves a number of step-by-step processes from the announcement of election dates by the Election Commission of India, which brings into force the ‘model code of conduct’ for the political parties, to the announcement of results and submission of the list of successful candidates to the executive head of the state or the centre. The submission of results marks the end of the election process, thereby paving the way for the formation of the new government.

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The Parliament of India comprises the head of state and the two houses which are the legislature. The president of India is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of members of federal and state legislatures.

The House of the People (Lok Sabha) represents citizens of India (as envisaged by the Constitution of India, currently the members of Lok Sabha are 545, out of which 543 are elected for the five-year term and two members represent the Anglo-Indian community). The 545 members are elected under the plurality electoral system. Council of States (Rajya Sabha) has 245 members, 233 members elected for a six-year term, with one-third retiring every two years. The members are indirectly elected, this being achieved by the votes of legislators in the state and union (federal) territories. The elected members are chosen under the system of proportional representation by means of theSingle Transferable Vote. The twelve nominated members are usually an eclectic mix of eminent artists (including actors), scientists, jurists, sportspersons, businessmen and journalists and common people.

Electoral Process in India takes at least a month for state assembly elections with the duration increasing further for the General Elections. Publishing of electoral rolls is a key process that happens before the elections and is vital for the conduct of elections in India. The Indian Constitution sets the eligibility of an individual for voting. Any person who is a citizen of India and above 18 years of age is eligible to enroll as a voter in the electoral rolls. It is the responsibility of the eligible voters to enroll their names. Normally, voter registrations are allowed latest one week prior to the last date for nomination of candidates.

In recent polls of 2014 Bharatiya Janata Party has achieved the simple majority on its own with securing 282 seats and their alliance NDA has secured 335 seats. Narendra Modi widely recognized as a strong leader with economic developmental focus is now the prime minister.

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On 14 August 2013, the Government of India amended the elections rules to permit the use the Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) system. The first election to implement the new system was a by-election held in the 51 Noksen Assembly Constituency of Nagaland. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) system is introduced in 8 of 543 parliamentary constituencies as a pilot project in Indian general election, 2014. VVPAT is implemented in Lucknow, Gandhinagar, Bangalore South, Chennai Central, Jadavpur,Raipur, Patna Sahib and Mizoram  constituencies. Generated slip tells voter to which party or candidate vote has been given and also includes the name of voter, constituency and polling booth.

At first before the elections the dates of nomination, polling and counting take place. The model code of conduct comes in force from the day the dates are announced. No party is allowed to use the government resources for campaigning. The code of conduct stipulates that campaigning be stopped 48 hours prior to the end of polling.

“None of the above” is a proposed voting option in India that would allow voters who support none of the candidates available to them to register an official vote of “none of the above”, which is not currently allowed under India election regulation. The Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court in 2009 that it wished to offer the voter a None of the above buttons on voting machines; the government, however, has generally opposed this option.

In the 2014 general election, NOTA polled 1.1% of the votes, counting to over 6,000,000.

Recently various opposition parties have raised questions regarding EVM and demanding an increased number of counting from VVPAT, some regional parties have demanded to reintroduce old paper ballot system.

Government and Election Commission are exploring options to reduce the number of election years in the country by clubbing state elections and if possible national general election with state elections at same time.

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Beginning of Naxalism in India: The exploitation of poor people, depressed classes and tribal people by superior classes has been the situation in India from the earlier periods till now. When this exploitation reaches a saturation level, a revolution will automatically rise from the victims and sometimes it takes a form of a movement questioning the entire system itself. A good example for this is the NAXAL MOVEMENT in India.

The NAXAL MOVEMENT (derived its name from a village in West Bengal called NAXALBARI) shortly called as NAXALISM is a radical communist movement where the social masses strongly believe that the solution for the social wrongs happening is to overthrow the existing political system completely. The NAXALITE MOVEMENT in India initially began in West Bengal (in a village called NAXALBARI) and later spread to the rural areas of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Orissa, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

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HISTORY OF NAXALISM:

The movement of NAXALISM in India has its seeds in the Russian revolution which was based on MARXISM and SOCIALISM that is all the resources of the state should be equally distributed among all the sections of people. This concept was inherited by MAO ZEDONG of COMMUNIST PARTY of China including revolutionary and radical dimensions to it. This was popularly known as MAOISM.

The COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (CPI), taking inspiration from MAOISM followed the method of armed rebellion (MAOISTS) to counter the British forces during the freedom struggle with West Bengal as the centre and later on spread to other states as well.

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TEBHAGA MOVEMENTwas the first Maoist movement started in West Bengal in 1946 during which the poor peasants turned against their landlords, who were acquiring a maximum share in the harvest and oppressing the peasants. This movement turned violent as the farmers started an armed fight against the landlords.

TELANGANA MOVEMENTwhich was led by the people of Telangana in the period of 1946-51 against the atrocities of the NIZAM rule also acquired radical dimensions as it progressed.

The pre-independence Maoist movements are mostly inspired by the Indian freedom struggle whereas after independence the poor socio-economic conditions and the exploitation of the resources available to the locals (such as destruction of forests in tribal areas)are the main causes of the NAXAL movements.

NAXALBARI MOVEMENT IN 1967was the landmark movement in the history of NAXALISM. On 3^rd March 1967, in a village called NAXALBARI in West Bengal, police opened fire on the farmers who were protesting against the agricultural laws and many farmers were died. Then the uprising started against the government which was led by CHARU MAZUMDAR of CPI. The armed rebellions killed many police officials and the movement got National attention.

Many uprisings started with the inspiration of the NAXALBARI movement in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, tribal areas of Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh and Mahendragiri forest region in Orissa. The most subdued and socially marginalised people and tribal people mostly participated in these uprisings against the government and these areas are still the NAXAL affected ones.

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ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT:

ANTI NAXAL FORCES:

The government in retaliation to the NAXAL movements, created SALWAJUDUM military campaign, Operation GREEN HUNT in Naxal-affected areas. As of now the CRPF (CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE FORCE) are in charge to these anti-Naxal operations.

AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS IN NAXAL AFFECTED AREAS:

Mostly these movements gather the support of the people due to their ignorance and backwardness. Hence, Government started organising awareness camps and giving employment to the people, setting up ANGANWADI centres for their health care and so on.

CONCLUSION:

However, this is an on-going problem in our country and more steps are to be taken in a more organised manner to reduce the grievances.

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