CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS 

‘Criminalising marital rape may become a tool to harass husbands’

• Marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it could become a phenomenon which may destabilise the institution of marriage and an easy tool for harassing the husbands.
• The Centre, in an affidavit filed in response to pleas seeking criminalising marital rape, said the Supreme Court and various High Courts have already observed the growing misuse of Section 498A (harassment caused to a married woman by her husband and in-laws) of IPC.
• The reply, filed before a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar, also sought to include State governments in the matter to know their opinion to avoid any complication at a later stage.
• The government was responding to various petitions seeking declaration of Section 375 (offence of rape) of the IPC as unconstitutional on the ground that it discriminated against married women being sexually assaulted by their husbands.

MBBS fee structure in three months

News:

• The R. Rajendra Babu Fee Regulatory Committee will shortly begin the process of verifying the expenses statements provided by private self-financing medical colleges ahead of fixing a final fee for the MBBS course for the academic year 2017-18.

Beyond News:

• According to Mr. Babu, the committee may not be able to repeal the bank guarantee clause since it originates from the apex court. “On Tuesday I met a delegation of parents and students. They were unanimous in their view that even the Rs. 5 lakh we had fixed as interim fee was excessive. There was no way they could afford a bank guarantee of Rs. 6 lakh.
• If it fixes a fee that is closer to the Rs. 5 lakh it has already notified, the managements would cry foul. If it fixes a fee that is closer to the Rs. 11 lakh figure, the committee would be accused of caving in to the pressure tactics of the managements.
• It would not be an exaggeration to say that the MBBS fee in Kerala in the years to come would have its roots in the decision taken by the Fee Regulatory Committee for the academic year 2017-18.

Rain pounds Mumbai to standstill; no relief in sight

News:

• Heavy rain in Mumbai, which began in the early hours of Tuesday and continued unabated throughout the day, brought the city to a virtual standstill, with lakhs of people stranded across the city as transport systems collapsed.

Beyond News:

• According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the city had recorded 297 mm of rain.The BMC, the Mumbai Police and the Chief Minister’s Office issued advisories urging citizens to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.
• The IMD has predicted more heavy to very heavy rainfall for the city over the next 24 to 48 hours.

Storage in Cauvery basin reservoirs up by 6.5 tm cft