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• The Supreme Court Monday said it would consider larger questions in the 2009 contempt case against lawyer Prashant Bhushan and journalist Tarun Tejpal as the issue has wide ramifications.
• The top court would hear arguments about the process that should be followed in contempt cases involving judges. Bhushan has told the court that making corruption charges against the judges would not amount to contempt of court.

While the apex court has justified going ahead with the contempt case, some arguments against the contempt law itself have been put out in the last few days. Here are some:

• The trend: In most legal systems globally, contempt of court is no longer a criminal offence but only a civil offence punishable with fines. Britain officially abolished scandalising judges as a crime in 2013.
• An act: In 2018, four SC judges themselves came out publicly against the then chief justice of India. That was not seen as contempt.
• Conflict of interest? The contempt law is “all too vulnerable to being seen as self-serving — enforced by judges, targeting offensive remarks about themselves, says this Indian Express editorial.
• Bypassing the Act? The consent of either the Attorney General (AG) or the Solicitor General is necessary under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act 1971, for initiating contempt proceedings against a person. Senior advocate Indira Jaising writes here: “In this case, a contempt petition was presented without the approval of the Attorney General, a requirement under the Act.”
• Fair criticism? Though Article 129 of the Constitution empowers the court to act against contempt, the constitutional values of free and fair criticism go hand in hand too. A petition filed in the SC this month had said that contempt law violates the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) and creates a “chilling effect” on free speech.

Meanwhile, a couple of lawyers have sought the AG’s consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar for her alleged “derogatory and scandalous” statements against the SC on its verdict in the Ayodhya temple case.

• While Maharashtra and the southern states continue to log the highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country, there has been a significant surge in infections in at least six states of north and east India, home to millions of workers employed in other parts of the country.
• In the past 23 days (July 24-August 16), when cases in India doubled, infections in these six states put together rose 2.6 times. The six — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bengal and Assam — were also among states where concerns had been raised over inadequate testing, leading to a rise in the number of tests in recent days.
• The surge of the coronavirus in the six states can also be gauged from their rising share in India’s total cases. On July 24, the collective share of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bengal and Assam in the country’s Covid cases was 15.6%. By August 16, it had risen to over 20%.

Monday’s count

• Cases: 53,230, Overall: 2,698,877
• Deaths: 902, 900+ cases for sixth day running
• Recoveries: 1.97 million+
• Active Cases: 674,650, an 8,000+ drop from Sunday (683,401).

• Further, the positivity rate has stabilised at around 8% over the last fortnight even as daily testing has increased by almost 10 times as compared to July. The growth factor in new cases (daily new cases divided by the previous day’s cases) has also remained largely constant at around 1 percentage point while the overall active cases and fatality rate have started declining.

• Finally, less than one out of five deaths in India is medically certified to denote cause of death. Deaths with medical certification of the cause were a mere 2.5% of estimated deaths in Jharkhand, 3.1% in Uttar Pradesh and 4.7% in Bihar. This emerges from an analysis of data from two reports recently released by the census commissioner’s office.
• This assumes greater significance at a time when a debate is raging on whether Covid deaths are being accurately counted. The problem in states such as Bihar, UP and Jharkhand is two-fold — a low level of deaths registrations and a low proportion of even registered deaths being certified for cause (see above graphic).

The political storm following the Wall Street Journal report that a Facebook public policy executive opposed the removal of communal content by a BJP MLA continued, with the Delhi Assembly’s peace and harmony committee — set up after the Delhi riots — saying it will summon Facebook officials over “intentional inaction to contain hateful content in India”.

• A complaint: The row once again sheds light on the questionable content policy at Facebook, which has been facing heat over its lackadaisical approach towards hate-speech and fake news in many countries. In the US, the matter has gained heightened scrutiny in view of the November presidential election.
• A solution? In response to the growing criticism, Facebook recently set up a Content Oversight Board that it said will be the “Supreme Court” on decisions pertaining to removal of content from its platform. To make it independent, Facebook said the company cannot remove members of the board. Among the 20 members on the board is Sudhir Krishnaswamy, the India vice-chancellor of the National Law School of India University and the co-founder of the Center for Law and Policy Research.
• But... Facebook hasn’t empowered this “Supreme Court” to make all decisions regarding content, at least not initially. It will only rule on appeals against decisions to remove content. The company said the limited ambit is “due to the way our existing content moderation system works, and in line with Facebook’s commitment to free expression”.
• Which is to say, the existing content moderation team will decide on leaving some content up. As the WSJ story details, this isn’t fail-safe: Facebook India’s public policy executive, Ankhi Das, opposed the removal of content that violated the company’s hate-speech policy.

Meanwhile, Das has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police saying she is facing “violent threats against my life and body through online posting/publishing of content”.

Even as the legal battle over dues owed to the central government by telecom companies continues, a larger question on policy has confronted the Supreme Court: Is spectrum an asset and can telecom companies sell it to raise capital?

Here’s what you need to know:

• A spectrum is a band of radio frequencies that wireless signals travel over. It is an asset owned by the government. Every now and then the government auctions these spectra (3G auction, 4G auction and the like) so that telecom companies can use these frequencies for commercial use. Without a spectrum there is no telecom service, and thereby no telecom company.
• It is big money. For instance, the central government expects to fetch at least Rs 5.22 lakh crore by auctioning 8,300 units of 4G and 5G airwaves this year. The last such auction held in 2016 earned the government Rs 65,789 crore, which was below expectations.
• But telecom companies are not necessarily buying these spectra, instead, they are paying for the right to use them. The ownership remains with the government.
• This has raised many questions due to the ongoing financial crisis telecom operators are facing even as they are slapped with hefty AGR dues by the department of telecommunications. AGR, or adjusted gross revenue, is a fee-sharing mechanism between the government and telecom companies on spectrum usage. More on AGR here
• Last week, SBI in a petition said spectrum is an “essential and integral” asset of telecom companies. “Spectrum is the security on the basis of which banks grant loans to telecom companies.” Hence, it argued, on default of loans, the security (spectrum) can be sold or auctioned under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) so that creditors recover money.
• This is squarely opposed by the Centre which says an asset of the state is not part of the IBC proceedings. Lenders say, without spectrum, there isn’t much value in the rest of the assets owned by the borrower.

Border Security Force (BSF). Bureau of Civil Aviation Security chief Rakesh Asthana was appointed as director general of the BSF on Monday. The 1984 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, who earlier served as CBI special director, will continue to hold additional charge as DG, Narcotics Control Bureau. The government also approved the appointment of VSK Kaumudi, chief of Bureau of Police Research and Development, as special secretary (internal security) in the home ministry.