Pinaka Rocket System, Clause- 6 of Assam Accord & Hindu Women Inheritance rights

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 05, Nov 2020

Why in News?

Enhanced PINAKA rocket, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been successfully flight tested from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha today, 04 November 2020.

About Pinaka Missile

• The Pinaka MK-II Rocket is modified as a missile by integrating with the Navigation, Control and Guidance System to improve the end accuracy and enhance the range.
• The Navigation system of the missile is also aided by the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
• The system has a maximum range of 40 km for Mark-I and 75 km for Mark-II.
• Pinaka is a multibarrel rocket launch (MBRL) system used by the Indian Army.
• It was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• Pinaka integrates state-of-the-art technologies for delivering superior combat performance.
• Development of Pinaka commenced in 1986 at a Pune-based DRDO facility, known as Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE).
• DRDO was responsible for the overall design and development.

Its versions and capabilities:

• The Pinaka, which is primarily a multi-barrel rocket system (MBRL) system, can fire a salvo of 12 rockets over a period of 44 seconds.
• One battery of the Pinaka system consists of six launch vehicles, accompanied by the loader systems, radar and links with network-based systems and a command post.
• The Mark-I version of Pinaka has a range of around 40 kilometres and the Mark-II version can fire up to 75 kilometres.
• The Mark-II version of the rocket has been modified as a guided missile system by integrating it with the navigation, control and guidance system to improve the end accuracy and increase the range.
• The navigation system of the missile is linked with the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System.

Topic: For Prelims and Mains

Why in News?

In February, a government-appointed committee had submitted its recommendations for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, a key provision that has been contentious for decades.

The government has recently made the report public.

Clause-6 is part of the Assam Accord that was signed between the Government of India, Government of Assam and representatives of Assam movement in 1985.

Why is clause-6 important?

1. It provides constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social and linguistic identity of the Assamese people.
2. Therefore in order to determine the safeguard Government of India (GoI) constituted a committee under the retired High court judge Biplab Kumar Sarma and others.
3. The GoI needs the recommendations so that the contentious citizenship amendment act can be enforced in the state of Assam.
4. The committee submitted its report this year but due to some contentious issues (such as who constitute Assamese people) it was not made public, while some members of the panel have put it in public recently.

What are its recommendations?

1. It proposed the definition of Assamese people for the purpose of clause 6 as all those citizens of India who are part of:
   1. Assamese community residing in Assam on or before 01-January-1951 or
   2. Any indigenous tribal community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951 or
   3. Any other indigenous community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951.
   4. All other citizens of India residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951.
2. The descendants of the above categories of people are also considered as Assamese under its recommendations.

How was 1951 chosen?

1. During the Assam agitation , the main demand was for detection and deportation of illegal migrants who entered Assam after 1951.
2. While the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Assam accord set the cut-off date as 24-March-1971 to become a citizen of India.
3. The clause 6 was meant to give safeguard will not be applicable to migrants who entered between 1951 and 1971.
4. If the GoI accepts these recommendations, people who entered between 1951 and 1971 will be considered as Indian citizens under the Assam accord but will not be provided safeguards under clause-6.

What are the safeguards recommended?

1. The panel recommended reservation of seats in parliament, state legislature and local bodies and others for the Assamese people.
2. 80 to 100% reservation in parliamentary seats, assembly and local body seats.
3. 80 to 100% reservation for Group-C and D posts in state government departments.
4. Land rights, with restrictions on transferring land to other than Assamese people.
5. Assamese language should be the official language throughout the state with provisions for use of local languages.
6. To set up academies for all round development of each indigenous tribal language such as Bodo, Mishing, Rabha, Deuri etc.

Why in news? The Supreme Court has recently expanded on a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint legal heir and inherit ancestral property on terms equal to male heirs.

Observation made by the SC in the ruling:

• Inheritance right has nothing to do with father’s death: Hindu woman’s right to be a joint heir to the ancestral property is by birth and does not depend on whether her father was alive or not when the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 was enacted.
• Coparcenary is by birth: The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave Hindu women the right to be coparceners or joint legal heirs in the same way a male heir does.
• Section 6 creates an unobstructed heritage: Or a right by birth for the daughter of the coparcener, the right cannot be limited by whether the coparcener is alive or dead when the right is operationalised.
• Retrospective application: Though the rights can be claimed with the enforcement of 2005 amendments, the provisions are of retroactive application. They confer benefits based on the antecedent event, and the Mitakshara coparcenary shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter as a coparcener. Directed High Courts: To dispose of cases involving this issue within six months since they would have been pending for years.

What is the 2005 law?

The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.

The law applied to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.

Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj are also considered Hindus for the purposes of this law. In a Hindu Undivided Family, several legal heirs through generations can exist jointly.

The law on inheritance:

Traditionally: Only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family. The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956:

The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.

Application of the law: Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj are also considered Hindus for the purposes of this law. However, the law is not applied to a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.

Amendments made in 2005:

• Women were recognised as coparceners: Or joint legal heirs for partition.
• Section 6: Of the Act was amended in 2005 to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth in her own right in the same manner as the son.
• Same rights and liabilities: To daughters in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son. The law applies to ancestral property: And to intestate succession in personal property, where succession happens as per law and not through a will.

What did the law bring in?

• Section 6 of the Act was amended that year to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.
• The law also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.
• The law applies to ancestral property and to intestate succession in personal property — where succession happens as per law and not through a will.

How did the case come about?

• While the 2005 law granted equal rights to women, questions were raised whether the law applied retrospectively and if the rights of women depended on the living status of their father.
• Different benches of the Supreme Court had taken conflicting views on the issue. Different High Courts had also followed different views of the top court as binding precedents.
• The Prakash v Phulwati (2015) case held that the benefit of the 2005 amendment could be granted only to “living daughters of living coparceners” as on September 9, 2005 (the date when the amendment came to force).
• In February 2018 a bench headed by Justice A K Sikri held that the share of a father who died in 2001 will also pass to his daughters as coparceners during the partition of the property as per the 2005 law.

The present case:

• These conflicting views led to a reference to a three-judge Bench in the current case.
• The ruling now overrules the verdicts from 2015 and April 2018.
• It settles the law and expands on the intention of the 2005 legislation to remove the discrimination as contained in section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
• It gave equal rights to daughters in the Hindu Mitakshara coparcenary property as the sons have.

What was the government’s stand?

• The solicitor argued in favour of an expansive reading of the law to allow equal rights for women. He referred to the objects and reasons of the 2005 amendment.
• The Mitakshara coparcenary law not only contributed to discrimination on the ground of gender but was oppressive and negated the fundamental right of equality guaranteed by the Constitution.

Facts For Prelims

❖ 13th Urban Mobility India Conference 2020:

Union Housing and Affairs Minister has inaugurated the 13th Urban Mobility India Conference 2020.

Facts:

Organized by: The conference is being organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

• Aim: To disseminate information to the cities whose officials attend the conference to help them keep up-to-date with the latest and best urban transport practices globally.

Theme: “Emerging Trends in Urban Mobility”.

❖ Green Windows:

• Green windows, like green banks, are public entities created to work with the private sector to increase investment in green energy and bring clean energy financing into the mainstream.
• They are innovative and new tools that have been successful in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and the United States.
• It is an initiative of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).