Abhimanu recipe for breaking UPSC chakravhyu

CONVICTED LAWMAKERS TO LOSE MEMBERSHIP: SC

•  In a landmark judgment that has the potential to cleanse Parliament and assemblies of criminals in a big way, the Supreme Court has held that from now on MPs, MLAs and MLCs would automatically lose their membership if sentenced to jail for not less than two years by the trial court.

 THE RULING:

• Parliament has exceeded its powers conferred by the Constitution in enacting Sub-Section (4) of Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, that protected the sitting lawmakers against immediate disqualification upon conviction
• The provision is ultra vires the Constitution as Articles 101(3)(a) and 190(3)(a) of the Constitution expressly prohibits Parliament to defer the date from which the disqualification will come into effect in case of sitting members
• MPs, MLAs and MLCs will now automatically lose their membership, if sentenced to jail for not less than two years by the trial court
• Terrorism, smuggling, drug trafficking, hoarding and crimes under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act would also attract disqualification, irrespective of the period of sentence.
•  The verdict will, however, not affect convicted legislators who have already filed appeals against their conviction

WHO CAN DISQUALIFY LEGISLATORS?

• Since the provision that has been quashed relates to the Representation of the People Act, the disqualification of convicted legislators will be ordered by the Election Commission of India.
•  Speaker has power to disqualify a member only on the grounds of defection.
• According to a survey, as many as 162 sitting MPs and 1,460 MLAs are facing criminal charges. To rid politics of criminals, the Supreme Court has withdrawn the benefit of a pending appeal to convicted lawmakers prospectively. The judgment, which has far-reaching implications, has struck down a provision in the Representation of the People Act allowing a convicted MP or MLA three months time to file an appeal and stick to his post until its final disposal, which usually took years. A convicted politician cannot contest elections for six years after a jail term, if any. This is the second major initiative to clean up electoral politics. In a ruling on June 3 the Central Information Commission had brought political parties under the Right to Information Act, thus forcing them to share information about, among other things, sources of their funding. The use of unaccounted money in elections and the presence of criminals in Parliament and assemblies are two major challenges to the growth of healthy democratic practices in the country.

US SENATE OKAYS IMMIGRATION BILL

• The United States Senate has passed a comprehensive immigration reform legislation that includes a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and, worryingly for the Indian tech sector, places restrictions on companies that depend on skilled foreign workers.

IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION: WHAT IT MEANS

• The Senate legislation puts the undocumented immigrants on a 13-year path toward achieving permanent residency status or US citizenship
• However, it would require them to pay thousands of dollars in fines and back taxes.
• Raises the cap on the H-1B non-immigrant visa for high-skilled workers from 65,000 a year to 110,000 and eventually 180,000 a year, depending on demand. 
• It also places restrictions and onerous fees on firms that rely on foreign workers on H-1B and L1 non-immigrant visas by raising the cost of doing business.

 IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA:

•  It will deal a body blow to Indian IT services firms using the guest worker visa (H1B program) to win contracts in the US because it legislates higher fees and salaries, robbing Indian companies of their competitive low-cost edge. 
•  The bill will also pave way for fast-track permanent residency (Green Card) for foreign students who graduate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects, which may be good news for those seeking to buy their way into American residency through the education route, but will leach elite Indian talent.

The Senate bill has some distance to go before it becomes law. The US House of Representatives is considering its own set of immigration bills that are different from the Senate version, though there is little salve there either for Indian interests. But the two chambers have to reconcile their differences before the bill goes to the President for assent in order to become law.