8 April 2026

• Polity: The West Bengal electorate contracted 12 per cent after the SIR exercise; 27.16 lakh voters remained excluded. The Supreme Court locked Phase 1 rolls on 6 April.
• Judiciary: The nine-judge Constitution Bench began examining the Essential Religious Practices doctrine in the Sabarimala review.
• Nuclear: The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam achieved first criticality, completing Stage 2 of India's three-stage nuclear programme milestone.
• Ceasefire: Pakistan brokered a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, announced just before Trump's 8 April deadline. The strait remained contested.

GS area: Polity (judiciary, fundamental rights, religion)

The Supreme Court's nine-judge Constitution Bench began hearing the reference arising from the Sabarimala judgment, which will redefine the Essential Religious Practices doctrine across all faiths.

• Sabarimala (2018): A five-judge bench ruled 4:1 that the practice of excluding women aged 10 to 50 from the Sabarimala shrine violated Articles 14, 15, 17 and 25. The minority held the exclusion was an essential religious practice protected by Article 26.
• Article 25: Guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health.
• Article 26: Gives religious denominations the right to manage their own religious affairs and to administer property.
• Article 17: Abolishes untouchability. The majority in 2018 analogised menstrual exclusion to untouchability-like treatment.
• Essential Religious Practices (ERP) doctrine: First articulated in Shirur Mutt (1954). The doctrine asks whether a particular practice is essential to the religion without which the religion itself would be fundamentally altered. Only practices that qualify as ERP fall within Article 26 protection.
• The nine-judge scope: The reference now covers Sabarimala, Dargah Khwaja Saheb (entry rules) and Durgah Committee cases. The bench's ruling will govern how courts assess ERP claims across Hinduism, Islam and other faiths.
• Justice Nagarathna's position: She stated that "social ills cannot be branded as essential religious practices." This framing would narrow the ERP doctrine's protection significantly.

Static linkage: Fundamental rights, judiciary, religious freedom.

GS area: Science and Technology (nuclear energy)

The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, achieved first criticality, meaning a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

• PFBR specifications: 500 MW electrical capacity. Sodium-cooled, pool-type reactor. Designed by IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research) and built by BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited), both under the Department of Atomic Energy.
• Stage 2 of three-stage programme: The PFBR uses plutonium extracted from Stage 1 reactors as fuel. It breeds more fuel than it consumes by converting depleted uranium into plutonium. When Stage 2 produces enough plutonium, Stage 3 (thorium-based) becomes viable.
• Sodium coolant significance: Liquid sodium removes heat very efficiently but reacts violently with water and air. The engineering challenges of sodium-cooled reactors delayed the PFBR by over 16 years. Original sanctioned cost was about Rs 3,492 crore; actual cost was about Rs 8,181 crore.
• AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board): Must certify the reactor through all testing phases before commercial electricity generation begins. Full electricity production was expected months after criticality.
• India's thorium reserves: About 25 per cent of the world total, making India the second-largest holder. The Stage 3 programme is what makes India's nuclear future uniquely self-sustaining.

Static linkage: India's nuclear programme, energy security, science and technology.

GS area: Polity (constitutional amendments, gender)

The government floated a proposal to expand the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats using 2011 Census data, adding 273 new seats all reserved for women, as a way to implement women's reservation without rotating existing seats.

• 106th Amendment (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023): Provides for one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Linked to delimitation.
• Article 82: Requires readjustment of seats after each census. This is the constitutional basis for delimitation.
• North-South tension: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would gain the most seats under population-proportional expansion. The five southern states combined would see their share fall from about 24 per cent to about 21 per cent despite having successfully controlled population.
• The proposed workaround: By using 2011 Census data (not waiting for 2027) and adding only new seats for women, the government attempted to avoid rotating reservations across existing constituencies.
• Current women's representation globally: Rwanda 61 per cent, Iceland 47.6 per cent, Sweden 46.4 per cent. India's 13.6 per cent is below the global average of 26.9 per cent.
• OBC women gap: The 2023 Act has no sub-quota for OBC women. The Geeta Mukherjee Committee in 1996 had recommended one. This remains unresolved.

Static linkage: Constitutional amendments, gender representation, federalism.

GS area: Polity (elections)

The West Bengal electorate fell from 7.66 crore to 6.75 crore voters after the Special Intensive Revision, the largest electoral-roll reduction in any state's pre-election exercise in recent decades.

• 91 lakh deletions total: Of these, 27.16 lakh remained excluded after adjudication. The appellate tribunals restored some but not all.
• District concentration: Murshidabad (4.55 lakh), North 24 Parganas (3.25 lakh), Malda (2.39 lakh). All Muslim-majority districts. The pattern fuelled the opposition's disenfranchisement allegation.
• "Logical discrepancy" category: The ECI used a category not found in the Registration of Electors Rules 1960 to justify deletions without individual notice. Former Lok Sabha Secretary-General P.D.T. Achary argued this invented category had no legal basis.
• Article 325: No person shall be ineligible for inclusion in the electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex. The pattern of deletions in Muslim-majority areas raised Article 325 concerns.
• T.N. Seshan doctrine (1990s): The former CEC had held that "address" for electoral roll purposes included any place of habitual residence, even if the person was poor or a migrant. The SIR's strict address documentation requirement effectively abandoned this inclusive interpretation.

Static linkage: Electoral law, Representation of the People Act, adult franchise.

GS area: Society, Polity

The Supreme Court's interim stay on UGC regulations defining caste discrimination in higher education raised the formal versus substantive equality debate.

• The regulations: Defined caste discrimination as discrimination specifically against SC, ST and OBC students. Critics argued a "caste-neutral" definition should include all students.
• Formal equality (Article 14): Requires identical treatment for all. Caste-neutral rules satisfy formal equality.
• Substantive equality: Recognises that treating unequals equally perpetuates inequality. Article 15(4) allows the state to make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, which the UGC regulations drew on.
• Article 15(4): Inserted by the First Amendment 1951. Permits special provisions for advancement of backward classes including SC and ST. This is the constitutional basis for OBC and SC/ST-specific protective regulations.
• Abeda Salim Tadvi case: A pending Supreme Court matter on caste-based discrimination leading to student suicides in medical colleges. This case triggered the UGC regulations.

Static linkage: Fundamental rights, social justice, higher education.

• Iran-US ceasefire (8 April): Pakistan brokered a two-week ceasefire announced by Trump just before his stated deadline. The ceasefire did not address the three core disputes: Iran's nuclear programme, Hormuz control or sanctions. Oil prices fell on the news but did not return to pre-conflict levels.
• NCERT textbook committee reconstituted: Three members removed after the SC's intervention. Former CEC M.C. Pant retained as chairperson. Princeton mathematician Manjul Bhargava added as co-chairperson.