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INS Vikrant to be commissioned by PM Modi in Kochi; SC to hear plea seeking rehabilitation of Kashmiri Hindus, Sikhs; All-India Football Federation elections to take place in Delhi; Karnataka court to hear anticipatory bail plea of chief pontiff of Murugha Mutt in sexual abuse case; Durand Cup 2022 - Bengaluru Vs Mohammedan Sporting

Noting the long gap between issuing a notice on Teesta Setalvad’s bail plea and the date for further hearing by the Gujarat High Court (HC), the Supreme Court (SC) expressed its displeasure, asking the state government to give it “a case where a lady is in confinement on charges like this and the High Court has given a date like this.”

The long and short of it

• While the HC issued notice on Setalvad’s bail plea on August 2, it posted the matter for further hearing on September 19 — making it a gap of 6 weeks. Enquiring about the “normal pattern in cases like this”, the SC, which will hear the matter again today at 2 pm, also asked the Gujarat state government to provide “instances where lady accused in such cases have got such dates from High Court.”
• Noting that “these are not offences like murder or bodily injury but these are based on documents like forgery etc”, the apex court observed that “in these matters normal idea is after normal police custody is over, there is nothing for the police to insist on custody and over and above that, she is a lady.”
• Ironically, Setalvad was arrested a day after the SC, while dismissing Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging the HC’s decision to accept the closure report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, had called Setalvad “disgruntled.”

The backdrop

• Setalvad, who was arrested in June by the Gujarat police in Mumbai, had her bail plea refused by the Ahmedabad Sessions Court in July, which commented that she wanted to “destabilise” the state government.
• Following the rejection of her bail plea there, she moved the HC which in turn issued a notice to the SIT, asking it to respond to Setalvad’s bail application. The long gap in her hearing however prompted her to approach the SC.

The Kerala High Court has observed that matrimonial relationships appear to have been influenced by consumer culture of “use and throw”, which is evident from rise in live-in relationships in the state and the prevailing trend to opt for divorce on flimsy or selfish grounds.

• The case: The HC dismissed a divorce plea of a man who abandoned his wife and three daughters after nine years of marriage subsequent to an alleged affair with another woman and said “courts cannot come to the aid of an erring person to legalise his activities, which are per se illegal”.
• Law & religion: “Law and religion consider marriage as an institution by itself and parties to the marriage are not permitted to walk away from that relationship unilaterally, unless and until they satisfy the legal requirements to dissolve their marriage through a court of law or in accordance with the personal law which governs them," the high court said.
• ‘Consumer culture’: The younger generation apparently views marriage as an evil to be avoided for enjoying a free life without any liabilities or obligations. “They would expand the word 'WIFE' as 'Worry Invited For Ever' substituting the old concept of “Wise Investment For Ever”
• Mere quarrels, ordinary wear and tear of matrimonial relationships or casual outburst of some emotional feelings cannot be treated as cruelties warranting a divorce, the HC said. More details here

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will provide Sri Lanka with a $2.9-billion loan over four years under a preliminary agreement to help the bankrupt island nation tide over its worst economic crisis and protect the livelihoods of the people.

Tough negotiations

• The Sri Lankan authorities and the IMF team have reached an agreement to support “economic adjustment and reform policies with a new 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF)”, the global lender said in a statement.

How will it help?

• The new EFF arrangement will support Sri Lanka's programme to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while safeguarding financial stability, reducing corruption vulnerabilities and unlocking the country's growth potential, according to the IMF.

Strict conditions

• The agreement is subject to the approval by IMF management and the Executive Board. Besides, Sri Lanka's official creditors have to assure debt relief and the government has to demonstrate efforts to reach a collaborative agreement with private creditors.
• All Sri Lankan creditors, including China, have to agree to restructure their existing loans to the island nation before the IMF starts disbursing the $2.9 billion loan.

A mammoth crisis

• The country's economy is expected to contract by 8.7 per cent in 2022 and inflation recently exceeded 60 per cent. The impact has been disproportionately borne by the poor and vulnerable, the IMF noted.
• In mid-April, Sri Lanka declared its international debt default due to the forex crisis. The country owes $51 billion in foreign debt, of which $28 billion must be paid by 2027.

Reports of sexual assaults across the US military have jumped by 13 per cent last year as bases began to move out of pandemic restrictions and public venues reopened. The Pentagon has long struggled with sexual assaults and a reporting structure that required complaints to be filed through the military’s chain of command.

A sharp rise

• The increase is largely fuelled by a nearly 26 per cent jump in reports involving Army soldiers. It's the largest increase for that service since 2013, when such reports went up by 51 per cent.
• The rise in Navy reports was about nine per cent, the Air Force was a bit more than two per cent and the Marine Corps was less than two per cent, according to a Pentagon report released on Thursday.

Confidential survey

• Additionally, close to 36,000 service members said in a confidential survey that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact — a dramatic increase over the roughly 20,000 who said that in a similar 2018 survey, US defence and military officials said.
• The Pentagon releases a report every year on the number of sexual assaults reported by or about troops. But because sexual assault is a highly underreported crime, the department began to do an confidential survey every two years to get a clearer picture of the problem.

Prevention mechanism

• While the military has made inroads in making it easier and safer for service members to come forward, it has had far less success reducing the assaults, which have increased nearly every year since 2006.

Twitter. The microblogging platform announced that it had started testing its edit button from Thursday, which will initially allow subscribers of its paid service — Twitter Blue — to edit their tweets a few times for 30 minutes after they have posted their tweet. The company's logo is named Larry after basketball legend Larry Bird. It was once headed by Dick Costolo, a former improvisational comedian and was the target of a takeover by Elon Musk.