Current Affairs Question - 27 July 2020

Explanation :

• Also known as Mithila painting due to its origins in the Mithila region of India and Nepal, Madhubani is a traditional Indian folk art made on canvas, cloth or cow dung washed hand paper.
• This painting is done with a variety of tools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks and using natural dyes and pigments.
• The paintings were traditionally done on freshly plastered mud walls and floors of huts, but now they are also done on cloth, handmade paper and canvas.
• Madhubani paintings are made from the paste of powdered rice.

Style

• Madhubani art has five distinctive styles: Bharni, Kachni, Tantrik, Godna and Kohbar. In the 1960s Bharni, Kachni and Tantrik styles were mainly done by Brahman and Kayasth women.

Color

• The colors are derived mostly from plants.

Themes

• The themes of these paintings are chiefly nature and mythological events.It revolves around Hindu deities like Krishna, Shiva, Lakshmi, Durga, Rama, and Saraswati.
• The nature-related themes revolve around the Sun, the Moon, and sacred plants such as basil. There are some paintings with themes based on court scenes and social events.
• If any unfilled space is left after painting the central theme, it is filled up with the motifs of animals, birds, flowers or geometric patterns.

Explanation :

• Plea bargaining refers to a person charged with a criminal offence negotiating with the prosecution for a lesser punishment than what is provided in law by pleading guilty to a less serious offence.
• It primarily involves pre-trial negotiations between the accused and the prosecutor. It may involve bargaining on the charge or in the quantum of sentence.
• The Justice Malimath Committee2000) on reforms of the criminal justice system endorsed the various recommendations of the Law Commission with regard to plea bargaining.
• It was introduced in 2006 as part of a set of amendments to the CrPC as Chapter XXI-A, containing Sections 265A to 265L.

Circumstances in which it is allowed

• Cases for which the practice is allowed are limited.
• Only someone who has been charge-sheeted for an offence that does not attract the death sentence, life sentence or a prison term above seven years can make use of the scheme under Chapter XXI-A.
• It is also applicable to private complaints of which a criminal court has taken cognizance.
• Other categories of cases that cannot be disposed of through plea bargaining are those that involve offences affecting the “socio-economic conditions” of the country or committed against a woman or a child below 14.

Benefits

• Prolonged incarceration of undertrials without any progress and overcrowding of prisons were also other factors that may be cited in support of reducing pendency of cases and decongesting prisons.
• Moreover, it may help offenders make a fresh start in life.