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- October 2019
Index
Toppers Talk
Art & Culture
Polity
- Right to access internet is fundamental right declares Kerala High Court
- Legal rights of Deities in India, Difference in Natural and Juristic Person
- Bru refugees refuse to return to Mizoram
- No animal sacrifice in Tripura temple-Orders High Court
- EC’s Order on Reducing Sikkim CM’s Disqualification Period
- Law Ministry issues corrigendum to Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act
- Appointment of the Judges in India.
- New Chief Justice of India- How is CJI appointed?
- Indian Penal Code 1860, HM Amit Shah wants to Overhaul IPC
- National Population Register (NPR) 2020
- Whistle Blowers Allegations on Infosys
Governance & Social Justice
- 60% girls in Delhi colleges anaemic
- Niti aayog’s School education quality index
- Multipurpose National Identity Card
- Population pyramid : India Vs China, Demographic dividend Phase of India
- UN Population Report, India will become the most populous country by 2027
- Supreme Court upholds SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendments Act
- Comparing Population Pyramids of India and China
- Waqf boards-Their governance and purpose
- Harvard Admissions Case
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana- Ist Anniversary, Problems and solutions
- Significance of sexual and Reproductive Health-Status of reproductive services in India
- Pregnancy in Old Age, What is In Vitro Fertilisation-Risks and legal shortcomings
- Supreme Court Judgement on NGOs and RTI
- Social Stock Exchange
- Rajasthan Govt changes EWS norms, Sets Rs 8 lakh family income as only criteria
- Global hunger index 2019
- No Government job for those with more than two kids
- Ranitidine CANCER risk
- IIT Council Introduces Tenure track system
International Relations
- Bangladesh growing faster than India ?
- Cyprus dispute explained
- Donald Trump impeachment
- India wins Hyderabad Nizam case against Pakistan
- India’s reply to Pakistan at UNGA
- Prime Minister of Malaysia calls India and invader in Kashmir
- Should India recognise the armenian genocide ?
- Why are CARICOM countries important for India ?
- Why are countries leaving OPEC ?
- Attacks on Saudi Oil facilities
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation issues statement on Jammu and Kashmir
- Sri Lanka’s relations with India & China
- US troops start pullout in Syria as Turkey prepares for operation
- What are Vanilla Islands?
- India-USA trade deal
- UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award-2019
- Modi – Xi Informal meet at Mamallapuram – Historic Chinese links
- India China informal summit in Tamil nadu
- Pakistan save from FATF blacklist till 2020
- USA blacklists China organisations over Uighur Muslim abuse
- Why is Chile burning ?
- Why is the Philippines important for India
- Xi jinping Nepal visit 2019 and impact on India
- India Pakistan Cross LOC Trade suspended, Should India revoke suspension?
- Protests in Lebanon
- Chennai to Vladivostok Sea Route
- End of baghdadi
- Indian government’s security advisory
- Indians no longer require Visa to visit Brazil
- Non Aligned Movement 2019 summit
- US backed Ceasefire between Turkey and Kurds
- Pakistan stops postal exchange with India
- China’s GDP growth slows to 6% slowest in 27 years
- Common Goods for Health project by WHO
- Turkey attack Kurds in Syria
Geography
Economy
- Behavioural Aspect of Farmer Suicide
- Is rural India really open defecation free ?
- Global Growth Slow Down
- Nobel Prize in Economics 2019
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
- SBI wrote off bad loans worth 76,000 crores
- Surge in Onion Price
- Agriculture Credit by RBI’s Internal Working Group
- What is Debt to GDP Ratio?
- Yes Bank Crisis
- Nobel prize in Literature – Controversy
- Boosting Indian Exports
- Sopore Fruit Mandi deserted
- What is Pink Collarisation?
- Mizoram to have Broad Gauge railway line by 2021
- Demand downturn in Indian Economy
- Payment facilitation fund
- Participatory Guarantee Scheme
- RBI’s 4th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy 2019-20
- Tourism restrictions lifted in Kashmir
- Link between Jobs, Farming, and Climate
- Draft Social Security Code 2019
- State Tax Revenues, SGST and Central Tax Devolution are likely to fall short
- Competitiveness Index 2019 by World Economic Forum
- NITI Aayog’s Water Resources Strategy
- BSNL and MTNL financial issues-DoT prepares Rs 74000 crore revival plan
- 20th Livestock Census
- India falls 10 ranks in World economic forum’s Global competitiveness index
- RBI stops Printing Rs 2000 Notes
- What is the Unified Approach proposal of OECD?
- FCI granaries overflowing
- India’s Economic Growth 2019
- Financial Sector Scams in India
- Labour Market of India
- New Strategic Disinvestment Process
- Payment Delays to Sugarcane Farmers
- Why India’s IMF Quota is not increased
- What is monetary policy Transmission? Why banks are not reducing interest
- Mahatma Gandhi’s theory of Economics
- India moves up 14 spots to 63 on world Bank ease of doing business index
- New amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act
- Power Sector Scenario in India
- Telecos to Pay Rs 96,642 crore to the Government
- Camel population declines in Rajasthan
- Merger of BSNL and MTNL
- World bank on Indian economy
Defence & Security
- Nagas Kukis Conflict, What is the cause of the latest tensions?
- Case against 50 Celebrities controversy
- Can Indian Government intercept WhatsApp?
- UP Government fires 25000 home guards, Is Yogi Government’s decision justified?
- NCRB’s Crime in India 2017 report
- Aadhaar Social Media mandatory linking case
- What is TechSagar? National repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities.
Disaster Management
Science & Technology
- ISRO’S Project NETRA
- Facebook’s LIBRA Currency in trouble
- WHO launches first World report on Vision
- 2019 Nobel prize in physics
- 2019 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine
- Elon musk’s starlink project
- NASA’s ICON mission
- New King of the Moons in the Solar system is Saturn
- What Is Spectroscopy ?
- Quantum supremacy
Environment
- Climate Vulnerable Mapping Of India
- C40 Cities
- Gujarat Unveils emission trading scheme
- Forest Plus 2.0
- Himalayan States seeks Green Bonus
- India to Phase Out Single Use Plastic (SUP) by 2022
- Role of Volcanoes in Global Warming
- NH 766 ban controversy, Protests in Kerala against night traffic ban on the forest stretch
- Climate Change needs Global Solution
- Aarey Forest -2185 trees to be cut for Mumbai metro
- Government to build 1400 km long Green wall
- Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi
- Aerosol formation brightening clouds
- Anthrax outbreak in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Two affected buffaloes died
- Species in News from June to October 2019
- Climate Action Summit 2019
Prelims bits

Tag: GS -2|| Polity ||Constitutional Framework ||Fundamental Rights
Why in news?
- There would be no sacrifice of animals during Durga Puja in the temples of Tripura for the first time in 525 years.
- The Tripura High Court had banned the centuries-old tradition of animal sacrifice in religious places.
Background
- Animal sacrifice has been happening for at least 500 years in Tripura.
- The major sites are
- Tripureswari Devi temple in Udaipur
- Chaturdashi Devta temple in Agartala
- Durga Bari Temple in Agartala
- These temples were founded by the Manikyas, Tripura’s ruling dynasty from the late 13th century until September 9, 1949.
- The Tripura Sundari temple is considered to be one of the holiest shrines of the country.
- Also known as Tripureswari temple, it is one of the 51 Shaktipeeths in the Hindu religion.
- The Tripura government has been sponsoring the Puja in the Durga Bari temple for the last 70 years.
- Till last year, a young buffalo, several goats and pigeons were sacrificed during the five-day festival at Durga Bari.
The High court ban
- On September 27, a Tripura High Court Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Arindam Lodh banned the sacrifice of animals and birds in temples of the state and directed the government to sensitize people about constitutional values and the importance of love, humanism, and compassion towards all animals and birds.
- The decision was given on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one retired judge Subhash Bhattacharjee in 2018.
- According to the prevailing law, the sacrifice of animals in religious places does not mean cruelty against animals.
- Hence, the state government has decided to file an SLP before the Supreme Court.
The Royal angle
- The scion of Tripura’s former royal family, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman, also the former President of the Tripura Pradesh Congress, has declared that he would file a petition before the top court soon against the high court judgment, saying the court cannot overrule the provisions of the merger agreement which was signed in
- The agreement made it mandatory for the Tripura government to continue the sponsorship (including the sacrifice of animals at government expenditure) of several traditional tribal pujas and 14 temples, including the Mata Tripura Sundari Temple and Durga Bari, run by the Hindu princely rulers.
Observations of the HC in the judgment
- Which religion or community mandates infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on an animal?
- Which religion prescribes that physical or mental pain or suffering should not be eliminated in the pre-slaughter stage?
- Which religion would want its followers not to treat an animal with compassion, care or a humane approach?
- If the substratum of the ritual of animal sacrifice is taken away, the ceremony of performance of puja cannot be said to have been defiled or the right to practice and profess religion, obstructed, hindered or diminished in any manner.
- The court ruled that the tradition of sacrificing animals “lacks the essence of economic, commercial, political or secular character” and cannot be protected under Article 25(1) of the Constitution.
- Freedom of religion is subject to the rigors of public order, morality, and health.
- Also, animal sacrifice in a temple is violative of Article 21.
- Religious practice cannot override provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
- Article 25
- Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion
- Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.
Court observation on Animal Sacrifice in Islam
- “The issue of animal sacrifice by the minority community (Muslims) on the occasion of Bakr Id, already stands settled in
- Hanif Qureshi & Others vs The State Of Bihar, 1958,
- State Of West Bengal vs Ashutosh Lahiri, 1994
- Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab vs State Of Gujarat And Ors, 1998
- Hence, such plea needs to be repelled at the threshold’’
- Even in those cases, the Supreme Court had ruled that animal sacrifice was not an essential part of Islam and could not be granted protection on the ground of religious freedom and that states were free to enact laws to ban the practice.
Conclusion
- While on one side the High court’s order is being seen as hurting the religious sentiments of the people while on the other side HC’s order is justified since it upholds the essence of humanity.
- The government should work towards sensitizing people about the constitutional values and the importance of love, humanism, and compassion towards all animals and birds.
Mains Model question
- Judicial intervention has now become prevalent in religious affairs. Can intervention of the Judiciary in religious affairs be justifiable? Discuss
References