17 OCTOBER 2015: Nirbhay test fails

Ø Declaring that the judiciary cannot risk being caught in a “web of indebtedness” towards the government, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and the 99th Constitutional Amendment which sought to give politicians and civil society a final say in the appointment of judges to the highest courts. The Bench in a majority of 4:1 rejected the NJAC Act and the Constitutional Amendment as “unconstitutional and void.” It held that the collegium system, as it existed before the NJAC, would again become “operative.”

Ø Nirbhay, the subsonic cruise missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), failed again on Friday when it lost control after about 12 minutes of flight and fell into the Bay of Bengal. The flight was to have lasted an hour, covering a range of about 800 km. However, after 700 seconds of flight when Nirbhay had crossed the first way-point and negotiating the second way-point, it developed a snag. It lost control and fell into the sea. A similar deviation when the missile was heading towards its second waypoint during its debut flight on March 12, 2013 led to the destruct-mechanism aboard it destroying the missile. Nirbhay had to be destroyed then because it went beyond its safety corridor and was flying over land. The second flight on October 17, 2014 was a big success. Now this flight, the missile’s third, also failed.

Ø Speaking to the media team accompanying him, while returning from Israel, Mr. Mukherjee said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefed him about the evolving situation in Israel-Palestine relations. I reiterated India’s principled support to the Palestine cause and called for a negotiated solution resulting in a sovereign, independent, viable and united state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel as endorsed in the Quartet Roadmap and relevant UNSC [UN Security Council] resolutions. He was referring to a peace plan proposed by the “Quartet on the Middle East” — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. President Mukherjee’s Palestine visit carried strong symbolic value as he was the first head of state who stayed overnight in Ramallah, where the Palestine Authority headquarters is based. During his visit, both countries signed two government-level agreements and exchanged eight memoranda of understanding between educational institutions from India and Israel. Twenty-three years ago we established full diplomatic relationship with Israel. We also maintain our stated principled position on Palestine. That is the job the government is doing for the last two and a half decades.