Why in News?

• The Supreme Court of India delivered a split verdict on the constitutional validity of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act).
• The provision, introduced through the 2018 Amendment, mandates prior approval/sanction before initiating enquiry or investigation against public servants for decisions taken in the discharge of official duties.
• The challenge was filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), arguing that the provision shields corruption and undermines accountability.
• Given the divergence of views, the matter has been referred to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for the constitution of a larger Bench.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• What is Section 17A of the PC Act?
• Divergent Judicial Opinions
• Key Constitutional and Governance Issues Involved
• Challenges Highlighted and Way Ahead
• Conclusion

What is Section 17A of the PC Act?

• It requires prior approval from the competent authority before conducting any inquiry or investigation against a public servant for actions taken in official capacity.
• Objective (as per government):
  • Protect honest officers
  • Prevent frivolous, vexatious complaints
  • Avoid policy paralysis

Divergent Judicial Opinions:

• Justice B.V. Nagarathna: (Section 17A is illegal, unequal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional)
  • Violates Article 14 (Right to Equality): Protection effectively extends only to higher civil servants involved in decision-making. Classification based on “nature of duties” has no rational nexus with the object of the Act.
  • Arbitrary and against Rule of Law: Forecloses even a preliminary enquiry without prior approval. Prevents discovery of truth and shields wrongdoing.
  • Contrary to the object of the PC Act: Anti-corruption law aims to detect and punish corruption, not delay or prevent investigation. Provision “protects the corrupt rather than the honest”.
  • Policy paralysis argument rejected: Instead of protecting honest officers, Section 17A may embolden mala fide decision-making. Honest officials do not require such statutory protection.
• Justice K.V. Viswanathan: (Section 17A is constitutionally valid [with safeguards])
  • Possibility of misuse cannot be equated to unconstitutionality: Striking down the provision would be like “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”.
  • Need to prevent policy paralysis: Fear of instant FIRs and coercive investigations may lead to “Play-it-safe syndrome”, administrative inertia.
  • Fine balance required: Between protecting officials from mala fide prosecution, and ensuring probity in public life.
  • Danger of immediate investigations: Without prior screening, even frivolous complaints could trigger FIRs and arrests. Such a regime would be regressive.
  • Independent screening mechanism suggested:
    • Approval should depend on recommendations of an independent authority such as Lokpal (at Centre), Lokayukta (in States).
    • Lokpal has authority to inquire even against the Prime Minister.
    • Independent inquiry into facts should precede sanction.

Key Constitutional and Governance Issues Involved:

• Article 14 – Equality Before Law: Whether selective protection to higher officials amounts to hostile discrimination.
• Rule of Law: Does requiring prior approval subordinate investigation to executive discretion?
• Separation of Powers: Extent of executive control over criminal investigation.
• Accountability vs administrative autonomy: Tension between effective governance, and anti-corruption enforcement.

Challenges Highlighted and Way Ahead:

• Shielding corruption: Delay or denial of approval may stall investigations indefinitely. Prevent indefinite delays in granting or refusing sanction.
• Executive interference: Sanctioning authority may be influenced by political or bureaucratic considerations. Statutory role for Lokpal/Lokayukta in sanction decisions. Preliminary scrutiny to assess genuineness of complaint.
• Unequal protection: Lower-level officials face immediate scrutiny, higher officials enjoy insulation. Authoritative ruling to resolve constitutional conflict.
• Erosion of public trust: Perception that anti-corruption law favours the powerful. Parliament may revisit Section 17A to align it with constitutional principles, anti-corruption objectives.

Conclusion:

• The split verdict on Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act reflects a deeper constitutional dilemma—how to protect honest decision-making without weakening the fight against corruption.
• While one view sees the provision as a shield for the corrupt, the other considers it a necessary safeguard against governance paralysis, subject to independent oversight.
• The final word now rests with a larger Bench of the Supreme Court, whose decision will significantly shape the future of anti-corruption jurisprudence, administrative accountability, and rule of law in India.

Context

• The civic unrest that unfolded in Iran in late 2025 has played out amid intense media polarisation and competing geopolitical narratives.
• While the crisis is often filtered through simplified binaries of regime repression versus foreign-instigated dissent, a more granular analysis reveals that the underlying drivers are deeply structural, socio-economic and political.
• Given Iran’s strategic weight in West Asia, its proximity to India’s extended neighbourhood, and the cascading effects on global markets and regional security, the episode warrants careful examination.

Economic Origins of the Unrest

• The immediate catalyst for the protests was the collapse of the Iranian rial and deteriorating economic conditions.
• The unrest began on December 28, 2025, when Tehran’s merchant class, the Bazaaris, launched a shutdown protesting a currency regime that made basic imports unviable.
• Although the official exchange rate stood at 42,000 rials per U.S. dollar, the market rate had plunged to 1.45 million, a 35-fold gap and a staggering 20,000-fold decline since 1979.
• The rial’s 45% depreciation in 2025 alone eroded profit margins on staples such as rice and oil, sparking broader socio-economic anger.
• What began as an economic grievance rapidly escalated into a cross-class protest movement involving unemployed youth and low-wage workers.

The Regime’s Four-Stage Playbook

• Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran’s leadership has developed a distinctive playbook for containing mass unrest, honed during crises in 2009, 2019 and 2022. The pattern consists of:
  • Initial repression via stern police action and information control.
  • Dual messaging, combining conspiracy rhetoric with conciliatory gestures.
  • Attrition tactics, including social media shutdowns, pro-government rallies, and organisational fragmentation of protesters.
  • Post-crisis retaliation, including arrests, show trials and executions.
• By early 2026, the unrest appeared to have entered the third stage.
• The government announced token economic relief, a monthly cash transfer of 10 million rials (approximately $7), and deployed symbolism through funerals of security personnel and mass rallies denouncing foreign interference.
• Crucially, the Pasdaran (IRGC) and conventional military remained loyal, the oil sector was uninterrupted, and no coherent alternative leadership emerged among the protesters.

Structural Vulnerabilities Exposed

• Breakdown of the Bazaar-Clergy Nexus
  • Historically, the Bazaaris were a decisive political force, their withdrawal of support contributed directly to the fall of the Shah in 1979.
  • Their erstwhile symbiosis with the clerical elite was built on preferential access to imports and arbitrage between fixed and market exchange rates.
  • However, U.S. sanctions, internal corruption and competition from IRGC-linked businesses have eroded this alliance.
  • Whether the IRGC, now central to regime survival, will cede lucrative economic space to appease merchants remains uncertain.
• Socio-Political Disconnect Between State and Society
  • Two-thirds of Iranians are post-Revolution citizens with aspirations shaped more by the consumerist Gulf than by revolutionary austerity.
  • They witness systemic corruption among elites, lack of economic opportunity, and social restrictions affecting women, minorities and the secular middle class.
  • The election of a technocratic moderate in 2024 briefly raised hopes, yet regional instability and entrenched clerical power blunted reform.
• Foreign Pressures and the Externalisation of Conflict
  • U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly encouraged protesters and threatened punitive action.
  • Yet direct intervention remains fraught. Iran’s political culture valorises resistance and martyrdom, enabling national consolidation against foreign aggression, as seen during Iraq’s 1980 invasion.
  • Moreover, despite losses in the June 2025 clash with Israel and the U.S., Iran retains capacities for asymmetric retaliation, particularly across the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.

Consequences for India

• Gulf Stability
  • Any escalation in Iran could destabilise the Gulf, jeopardising Indian energy security, remittances from its 9-million-strong diaspora, and bilateral trade.
• Strategic Geography
  • Iran provides India with access to Afghanistan and Central Asia via the Chabahar port, an alternative to Pakistan’s geostrategic chokehold.
• Domestic Social Linkages
  • India hosts the world’s second-largest Shia population after Iran; developments in Tehran resonate among Indian Shias and influence regional sectarian dynamics.
• Economic Opportunity
  • Post-sanctions reconstruction of Iran could offer major commercial openings for India in infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and healthcare, particularly given Tehran’s indigenous industrial ambitions.

Conclusion

• The 2025–26 unrest in Iran reflects not merely episodic dissent but accumulated structural contradictions within a sanction-strained petro-religious state facing generational transformation.
• The regime has shown resilience through coercion, elite cohesion and the absence of viable opposition leadership.
• Yet its inability to address underlying economic and socio-political fissures ensures that instability will recur
• For external actors, including India, the crisis underscores the interplay between domestic fragility and regional geopolitics in West Asia.

About National Environmental Standard Laboratory:

• It was established to test and recalibrate instruments used for air pollution monitoring systems and environmental sensors under Indian environmental conditions.
• It provides ensured credible data for the National Clean Air Programme.
• Location: CSIR–National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi
• Features of National Environmental Standard Laboratory:
  • NESL allowed manufacturers, industries, and municipal agencies to validate performance within the country,
  • It provides Industrial emission audits, and smart-city monitoring networks, and provided reference gases, protocols.
• Significance: It is expected to help MSMEs, start-ups, and indigenous manufacturers to demonstrate product quality at lower cost, meet tightening regulatory guidelines on quality and transparency.

Key Facts about Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR):

• CSIR is a cutting edge R&D organisation dealing in diverse fields of science and technology.
• It undertakes research, design & development of scientific & industrial instruments, components and systems.
• It facilitates service, maintenance, testing & calibration of instruments.
• It promotes Human Resource Development in the area of instrumentation.
• It offers technical assistance to industry and provides ecosystem support.
• Headquarter: New Delhi.

About Bannerghatta National Park:

• Location: It is in the hills of the Anekal range, near Bangalore, Karnataka.
• It was declared a National Park in 1974. 
• In 2006, India’s first butterfly enclosure was inaugurated at the park.
• River: The Suvarnamukhi stream, the main source of water for the animals in the park, runs through the centre of the park.
• Vegetation: There are three types of vegetation that can be found: Dry Deciduous Scrub Forests, Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests and Southern Tropical Moist Mixed Forests.
• Flora: Include Narcissus latifolia, Schleichera oleosa, Sandalwood, Neem, Tamarind, Bamboo, Eucalyptus, etc.
• Fauna: Prime habitat for several species, including the endangered Asian Elephant, Indian gaur, Tiger, Sambar deer, Spotted deer,Leopard, Wild dog, Wild pig, Sloth bear, Common mongoose, Pangolin, Slender loris, Black-naped hare, etc.

What is Ecologically Sensitive Zone?

• Eco-Sensitive Zones are created as “shock absorbers” for the protected areas, to minimize the negative impact on the “fragile ecosystems”.
• These zones are notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

About Mustard Crop:

• It is a predominantly self-pollinating crop.
• Common Name: Sarason (Hindi), Rai (Punjabi), Katuku (Tamil), Kaduk (Malayalam), Avalu (Telugu). 
• Crop Season:Rabi season 
• Mustard seeds and its oil is used for culinary purpose. Young leaves are used for vegetable purpose. Its oil cake is used for feeding cattle.
• Climatic Requirements for Mustard crop
  • Soil Requirements: Sandy loam soil is the most ideal textural classification for the cultivation of mustard crop. 
  • Mustard thrives well in dry and chilled environmental conditions.
  • Temperature: It requires temperatures ranging between 10°C to 25°C
  • Rainfall: An annual rainfall between 625 to 1000 mm is suitable for cultivation of mustard crop.
  • It is highly sensitive to frost damage.
• Major Mustard Production States: Rajasthan (largest producing state), Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh.

Key Facts about Orobanche aegyptiaca

• It is a parasitic weed that attaches to mustard roots and siphons off water and nutrients, leading to poor plant growth and reduced seed yields.
• This leads to wilting, yellowing, stunted plant growth and ultimately sharp declines in seed yields. 
• This parasite remains hidden below the soil initially, damage is already extensive by the time it becomes visible.