Syllabus GS II

Syllabus GS II Structure, organisation and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.

Enumerate the reasons behind the overcrowding of undertrials in Indian prisons? Discuss the challenges in bail compliance.

Over 75% of India’s prison population are undertrials while overcrowding in Indian prisons stands at 118%. These stark realities are often cited to represent the scale of the crisis in India’s criminal justice system.

Reasons behind the overcrowding of the under trials

The Supreme Court of India recently acknowledged, in Satender Kumar Antil vs CBI, the ineffectiveness of India’s bail system and its contribution to this crisis.
The Court noted that despite repeated guidelines on bail law, things have not changed much on the ground.
The Court provided comprehensive guidelines on laws related to bail, such as mandating timelines for the disposal of bail applications and laying emphasis on the need to enact a separate legislation.
The judgement noted that crowding jails with undertrial prisoners ignored the principle of ‘presumption of innocence’ and that ‘bail not jail’ should be the norm. However, there is still a need to reflect on why these established principles are honoured more in their breach than observance.
Any reimagination of the law on bail needs to first understand the exact nature of the problem that results in large-scale undertrial incarceration.
An effective bail law must be based on the correlation of these answers with variables such as the demographics of undertrials, category of offences and timelines for bail, and also address socio-economic and structural barriers.
The foundations of the current bail law ensure that it is anti-poor and disproportionately burdens those from marginalised backgrounds.

Some data about the prison undertrials:

The Court averred that effective enforcement of safeguards against arbitrary arrest would eliminate the need to seek bail from courts.
These safeguards exclude a significant proportion of arrested persons, especially those from disadvantaged sections of society, who form the large majority of undertrial prisoners.
For example, the arrest of a person is justified as ‘necessary’ if the police have ‘reasons to believe’ that it is required to ensure their presence in court. Such vague justifications put migrants, persons without assets or those with no contact with family at higher risk of arrest because of their socio-economic conditions.
Data from the Fair Trial Programme (FTP) in Yerwada and Nagpur central prisons can be instructive here. Of the undertrials (2,313) represented by the FTP , 18.50% were migrants, 93.48% did not own any assets, 62.22% did not have any contact with family, and 10% had a history of previous incarceration.
Evidently, a significant proportion from the sample would be unjustifiably excluded from protections against arrest and contribute to the large proportion of undertrials in our prisons.

Challenges in bail compliance

A large number of undertrials continue to remain in prison despite being granted bail due to challenges in complying with bail conditions.
Lack of means to arrange for money/property and local sureties are the most significant reasons accounting for an undertrial’s inability to comply with bail conditions, realities borne out by our experience in the FTP.
Factors such as lack of residence and identity proof, abandonment by family and limitations in navigating the court system also undermine an undertrial’s ability to comply with bail conditions.
Compliance with bail conditions and ensuring presence in courts for the overwhelmingly structurally disadvantaged undertrials requires constant handholding, as is evident by the FTP’s interventions in the past three years.
This is a crucial aspect of ensuring last mile delivery of justice that the extant bail law does not consider.
Data shows that in 14% of cases, undertrials were unable to comply with bail conditions and remained in prison despite being granted bail. In almost 35% of these cases, it took over a month after obtaining the bail for undertrials to comply with bail conditions and secure their release.

There is an urgent need for bail reform but it would be counterproductive to undertake a reform exercise without first developing the empirical basis to understand and diagnose the problem at hand.

~Source The Hindu

Syllabus GS III Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Elucidate the importance of development of the space sector. Comment on the private space sector regulations in India.

Enhancing space technology would be beneficial to bolster connectivity and combat climate-related implications through a more secure and effective means. Private sector’s involvement in the long term, as with other commercial sectors, is believed to help spur investment and expertise in the realm which is capital-intensive and demands high technology.

Importance of development of space sector:

Enhancing space technology would be beneficial to bolster connectivity and combat climate-related implications through a more secure and effective means.
Satellites provide more accurate information on weather forecasts and assess long-term trends in the climate and habitability of a region. For example, by monitoring the long-term impact of climate change at regional, territorial, and national scales, governments would be able to devise more pragmatic and combative plans of action for farmers and dependent industries.
Additionally, they can also serve as real-time monitoring and early-warning solutions against natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires, mining etc.
Real-time tracking can also serve multiple purposes in defence.
As for connectivity, satellite communication can reach more remote areas where conventional networks would require a heavy complimenting infrastructure.
The World Economic Forum had stated that satellite communication can help connect 49% of the world’s unconnected population.
In this light, it must be noted that satellite communications, which are used to facilitate telecommunication services, are among the major categories for investment in the space technology sector.
What essentially needs to be remembered is that the space avenue is an integration of the aerospace, IT hardware and telecom sectors.
It is thus argued that investment in this arena would foster positive carryover effects to other sectors as well.

Regulations for the private space sector in India:

The establishment of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) was mandated the task of promoting, authorising and licensing private players to carry out space activities.
As an oversight and regulatory body, it is responsible for devising mechanisms to offer sharing of technology, expertise, and facilities free of cost (if feasible) to promote non-government private entities (NGPEs).
IN-SPACe’s Monitoring and Promotion Directorate oversees NGPE’s activities as per prescribed regulations and reports back in case any corrective actions or resolutions are required.
ISRO shares its expertise in matters pertaining to quality and reliability protocols, documentations and testing procedures through IN-SPACe’s ‘interface mechanism’.
Additionally, NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), is mandated to transfer the matured technologies developed by the ISRO to Indian industries. All of them are under the purview of the Ministry of Defence.
Private sector’s involvement in the long term, as with other commercial sectors, is believed to help spur investment and expertise in the realm which is capital-intensive and demands high technology.

The space sector reforms were made with the intention to provide a “level playing field” to private companies in satellites, launches and space-based services.The central idea was to bring forth a predictable policy and regulatory environment for them and additionally provide access to ISRO facilities and assets to improve their capacities.