Monthly News Recap For Legal Competitive Exams – December 2022

Are you preparing for legal competitive exams

Most legal competitive exams require awareness of current affairs in the legal field and beyond.

To help your preparation journey, Team YLCC has prepared an overview of all the important developments that have taken place in December 2022. Happy Reading!

International

1. India supports UAE’s proposal to include digitization in the International Maritime Organization strategic plan.
2. India takes over the presidency of UNSC in the final month of its two-year 2021-22 term.
3. India assumed the chairmanship of Wassenaar agreement (WA) on January 1, 2023.
4. Recently, Japan’s space agency JAXA successfully used steam to propel Equuleus Spacecraft toward the moon.
5. G7 nations, EU, Australia reached a consensus on a 60$ price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil.
6. India’s position jumped to 48th place from 102nd spot in Aviation safety ranking.
7. World AIDS Day is observed on 1st December every year all over the world to spread awareness about the disease.
8. European researchers have raised concerns of yet another pandemic after resurrecting a 48,500-year-old ‘Zombie Virus’ from a frozen lake in Russia.
9. Merriam-Webster has chosen “Gaslighting” as its Word of the Year.
10.  Semeru volcano erupted in Indonesia’s Eastern Java Island.
11. PM addresses opening ceremony of International Year of Millets at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.
12. Facebook parent Meta will partner with Bharti Airtel to expand 2Africa Pearls to India.
13. Razorpay becomes India’s First Payment Gateway to support credit cards on Unified Payments Interface (UPI). 
14. First G 20 Finance track meeting will be held in Bengaluru.
15. Indian and Chinese Troops Clash in Arunachal Pradesh.
16. Taliban seeks Indian investment and resumption of projects.
17. Iran Disbands Morality Police.
18. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bangladesh, demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and the eventual dissolution of Parliament thereby calling for fresh elections in the country.
19. The 15th Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF).
20. Bomb cyclone hits the United States and Canada.
21. In many of the world’s top economies, including the United States, there are fears of recession as the new year approaches.
22. Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” was sworn in as Nepal’s new Prime Minister.
23. S Korea reported its first case of infection and death from Naegleria fowleri or “brain-eating amoeba”.
24. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reached out to PM Modi seeking India’s help with his ‘peace formula’.
25. Taliban ban women from working for NGOs.
26. India- Australia Economic and Cooperation Trade Agreement (ECTA) comes into force.

National

1. According to the Registrar General of India, Maternal Mortality Rate improved from 130 in 2014-16 to 97 in 2018-20.
2. UGC forms a panel to work on textbooks in Indian languages.
3. Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was introduced in Rajya Sabha.
4. RBI has signed Currency Swap Agreement (CSA) with Maldives Monetary Authority under SAARC Currency Swap Framework.
5. Private member’s bill on Uniform Civil Code was introduced in Rajya Sabha. 
6. Private member introduced the National Judicial Commission (NJC) Bill, 2022, in Rajya Sabha. 
7. Private member bill seeks PM-led panel for selecting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
8. Women can now choose to become marine commandos only if they meet eligibility criteria as described by the Indian Navy.
9. Aam Aadmi Party became the 9th National Party of India after the result of Gujarat elections where it gained almost 13% of the vote share.
10. The Government of India has recently decided to introduce a Family Pehchan Patra (FPP) for residents of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
11. Rajya Sabha welcomed its new Chairman, Jagdeep Dhankhar.
12. Lok Sabha passed the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019. 
13. Lok Sabha has passed a Bill to give tribal status to the Betta-Kuruba community.
14. Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs won Platinum Icon in Digital India Awards 2022. 
15. Union Health Ministry has directed all states and UTs to ramp up genome sequencing as sudden surge in COVID cases in countries like Japan, USA, China etc. pose a threat of another wave of COVID pandemic.
16. 3 more sites from India added to UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites.
17. CAG detects anomalies in Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation process.
18. NTPC and Tecnimont (Italy based company) signed MoU to jointly explore green methanol production facility at a NTPC in India.
19. ECI has initiated the delimitation process for assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Assam, as per Section 8A of Representation of People Act (RPA), 1950.
20. Hyderabad-based Bharath Biotech stated that its nasally administered vaccine, iNCOVACC, will be available for public use from January 2023.
21.  Reportedly, an expert panel set up by the Uttarakhand government found that ground subsidence has induced structural defects in Joshimath.
22. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recommended a ban on the sale of loose cigarettes. 
23. Jammu and Kashmir administration has notified “J&K Land Grant Rules 2022” which has ended the owners right to hold on to properties on lease in the Union Territory (U.T.) and plans to outsource these properties afresh online.
24. The President amended the regulations governing eSports and requested that the Sports Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology include “eSports in multi-sport events.”
25. The e-services at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were affected by a suspected ransomware attack.

Legal

1. SC mooted the idea in line with Project Tiger, while hearing a plea seeking to protect GIB from overhead power lines projects in Rajasthan and Gujrat.
2. Delimitation Commission empowered to redraw J&K constituencies: Centre to Court.
3. The Delhi HC recently passed an interim order to prevent the unlawful use of celebrities’ name, image, and voice, thus highlighting the issue of personality rights.
4. SC has recently appointed a female all-woman bench for the third time in its history. The first time the Supreme Court had an all-woman bench was in 2013, and the second occasion came in 2018.
5. SC will organise its first hackathon to identify innovative ideas and explore practical propositions for bringing in efficiency in the existing process from ‘filing to listing’ of judicial matters.
6. It’s a woman’s choice to give birth: Delhi HC allows a woman to terminate her 33- week pregnancy. 
7. A Constitution bench is hearing petitions challenging Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act of 2017 and its Rules that allow Jallikattu despite the 2014 ban by the Supreme court (Animal Welfare Board of India vs Union of India and others)
8. SC questions delay in Centre’s response to plea seeking National Heritage Status for Ram Setu. 
9. Parliament must examine age of consent issue under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act: CJI
10. SC asked the government to respond to a plea filed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to raise the minimum age of marriage for Muslim women to be on par with persons belonging to other faiths.
11. The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Consortium of National Law Universities to ensure that no disabled student is denied access to appear for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) (Arnab Roy vs Consortium of National Law Universities).
12. SC ruled that a Public Servant can be held guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act based on circumstantial evidence in the absence of direct evidence (Neeraj Dutta vs NCT Delhi).
13. A same-sex couple has approached the SC seeking legal recognition of their US-registered marriage, under the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969.
14. The Delhi High Court on Monday held that posts on Facebook by a person can not be treated as determinative of his location at a given point of time. (Vinod Kumar vs IPAB)
15. Bollywood actress Nora Fatehi has filed a defamation case against Jacqueline Fernandez for assertions made against her in relation to the ₹200 crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar (Nora Fatehi v Jacquline Fernandez).
16. SC slammed the Central government for not paying an amount ordered to be paid by an Arbitral Tribunal and said that efforts to make India an International Arbitration hub must be led by the government itself. (DAMEPL v. DMRC Ltd).
17. Delhi HC passed a John Doe order restraining various rogue websites from illegally reproducing content from the show ‘Unstoppable’ (Arha Media and Broadcasting Pvt Ltd vs www.vcinema.com & Ors.).

YLCC would like to thank Udita Miyan for her valuable insights in this article.