Legal Current Affairs for 19 November 2025

Introduced in 1985 by the 52nd Amendment, it lays out grounds and procedures for disqualifying legislators who
voluntarily give up membership of their original political party,
vote against party directives in the legislature,
join any political party after the expiry of six months from first sitting, in case of a nominated members,
Join any party after election, in case of independent members.
Exception: Allows a party to merge into another party provided that at least two-thirds of its legislators are in favour of the merger.
Curbs political defections under the influence of money and intimidation.
Promotes stability in governments by discouraging “floor-crossing” (‘Aaya Ram Gaya Ram’ trend) that erodes voter mandates and weakens democracy.

Constituted by the President under Article 280 (1) of the Constitution.
Chairman: Arvind Panagariya (former vice-chairman of NITI Aayog)
Terms of Reference:
Distribution between the Union and States of the net proceeds of taxes and allocation between the States of such proceeds.
Principles for governing the grants-in-aid and revenues of the state under Article 275 of the Constitution.
Measures needed to augment the Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and Municipalities based on state finance commission recommendation.

Overview: It is the first universal legally binding framework for the collection, sharing and use of electronic evidence for all serious offences.
It criminalize cyber-dependent crimes and also offences related to online fraud, online child sexual abuse, non-consensual dissemination of intimate images etc.
Convention was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 24 December 2024.
Secretariat: UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Joint mission between the United States’ NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the European Space Agency.
Purpose: It is an ocean-tracking satellite with six onboard science instruments that will measure the rising sea levels and its impacts on Earth.
Expected Benefits:
Help scientists understand sea-level rise – crucial information for shaping climate policy and protecting coastal lives.
Improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, including storm and flood predictions.

Launched jointly by India and Sweden and supported by the World Economic Forum at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019.
Aim: It was the first global high-level initiative aimed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from high-emitting industries by 2050.
LeadIT drives just and equitable industry transition by fostering public-private partnerships, mobilising resources and supporting knowledge-sharing.
LeadIT 2.0 (2024-2026) was adopted at the annual LeadIT Summit at COP28.
Members: 18 member countries and 27 companies.

About: The DPDP Act, passed in August 2023, sets out India’s framework for protecting digital personal data.
It explains the duties of organisations handling such data and follows the SARAL (Simple, Accessible, Rational and Actionable) approach so that the rules remain simple, clear and easy to follow.
The DPDP framework also aligns with the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 by balancing privacy rights with the public’s right to information.
Core Principles: The law rests on seven core principles. These include consent and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, security safeguards and accountability.
These principles guide every stage of data processing. They also ensure that personal data is used only for lawful and specific purposes.
Data Protection Board of India: The Act sets up the Data Protection Board as an independent body to oversee compliance, investigate breaches and ensure corrective steps.
It helps protect individual rights and strengthens trust in India’s digital environment.

About: A cryptocurrency is a digital currency secured by cryptography and operates in a decentralized system without government control. Examples include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Working of Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on a blockchain, a public digital ledger maintained by a global network of computers that verify and add each transaction.
Users need a digital wallet that stores public and private keys used to send, receive, and verify transactions.
Legal Status of Cryptocurrency in India: Cryptocurrency in India is unregulated but not banned.
The government does not recognize it as legal tender and aims to restrict its use for illegal activities or as a payment method.

About: NSC Scheme was launched by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance to encourage a culture of long-term savings among individuals.
Tenure and Interest: The scheme has a 5-year maturity period and offers an attractive interest rate of 7.7%, compounded annually.
Eligibility: Any resident Indian can invest under the NSC scheme. Guardians are eligible to apply on behalf of minors (minimum age 10 years) or individuals of unsound mind.
Deposits: Investors can deposit a minimum of Rs 1,000, with subsequent deposits in multiples of Rs 100. There is no maximum limit for deposits, and an individual can open multiple accounts under the scheme.
Additional Benefits: Investors can secure loans by pledging NSC certificates with banks, and the absence of a maximum deposit limit makes it ideal for substantial, long-term savings.

The payment aggregator licence is issued under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act.
PayU now supports online, offline and cross-border transactions.
Cross-border payments include both inward and outward remittances.
India’s digital payments ecosystem is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.