Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure. CONTEXT Fifteenth Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh has called for a fresh look at the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule , which forms the basis for allocating subjects to the Centre and States. This is necessary to give more flexibility to States in implementing centrally sponsored schemes and to reinforce trust in fiscal federalism. Seventh Schedule The seventh schedule under Article 246 of the constitution deals with the division of powers between the union and the states. It contains three lists- Union List, State List and Concurrent List. The union list details the subjects on which Parliament may make laws while the state list details those under the purview of state legislatures. The concurrent list on the other hand has subjects in which both Parliament and state legislatures have jurisdiction. However the Constitution provides federal supremacy to Pa...

CONTEXT India’s first Member of Parliament to have been disqualified from the Lok Sabha has now been disqualified as an MLA in Mizoram. Mizoram Assembly Speaker disqualifies Zoram People’s Movement MLA Lalduhoma. Ground for disqualification The disqualification was on the ground that Mr. Lalduhoma had declared himself as a representative of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) despite being elected as an independent candidate from the Serchhip Assembly constituency. He lost the character of an independent legislator because of the declaration. What is the Anti-Defection Law? The Tenth Schedule was inserted in the Constitution in 1985 by the 52nd Amendment Act . It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House. The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies. When can a member be disqualified? If a member of a house belonging to a political part...

Voters overwhelmingly approved a bid to scrap the charter inherited from Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, a move that could set a new course for the country. Voters in Santiago, Chile, cast ballots in a  constitutional referendum on Sunday.Credit...Martin Bernetti/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The protests started over a small hike in metro fares, then exploded into a broad reckoning over inequality that shook Chile for weeks. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets, calling for sweeping change in their society, with higher wages and pensions, better health care and education. The movement soon seized on a vehicle for their demands: Chile’s Constitution. The existing charter, drafted without popular input during the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and approved in a fraudulent plebiscite in 1980, was widely blamed for blocking change — and seen as a lingering link to a grim chapter in Chile’s history. On Sunday, just over a year af...