Current Affairs Quiz 4 September 2026

Q: A launch vehicle carrying a satellite intended for geosynchronous operation normally places it first in a geosynchronous transfer orbit. What is the principal reason for this two-step approach?

Correct answer: The launch vehicle delivers the satellite to an elliptical transfer path, and the satellite circularises the orbit using its own onboard propulsion. FACT: A geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical orbit whose apogee lies near the target altitude of about 36,000 km. The launch vehicle delivers the spacecraft there, and the spacecraft then fires its own propulsion over successive manoeuvres to raise perigee and circularise. ANALYSIS: This is why a launch being declared successful and a satellite becoming operational are separated by days or weeks, a distinction that candidates routinely collapse.

Q: The SHANTI Act, whose draft Rules were open for public consultation until 4 September 2026, replaced which of the following?

Correct answer: The Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. FACT: The SHANTI Act, passed in December 2025, replaced both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 with a single framework. ANALYSIS: The two statutes were the separate obstacles to private and foreign participation, the first reserving atomic energy to government entities and the second creating supplier recourse. Consolidating them was the only way to address both at once.

Q: India's three-stage nuclear power programme is designed so that the second stage principally uses:

Correct answer: Plutonium bred in the first stage, in fast breeder reactors. FACT: Stage one uses natural uranium in pressurised heavy water reactors; stage two uses the plutonium bred from that stage in fast breeder reactors; stage three uses thorium. ANALYSIS: The sequence exists because India has modest uranium reserves and very large thorium reserves, so the programme is a route to using thorium, with stages one and two generating the fissile inventory that stage three requires.

Q: Which of the following correctly describes the status of the National Payments Corporation of India, which required UPI applications to mask mobile numbers from 4 September 2026?

Correct answer: A not-for-profit umbrella organisation for retail payments, whose systems the Reserve Bank of India regulates under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. FACT: NPCI is a not-for-profit company incorporated in 2008 at the initiative of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks' Association. It operates payment systems; it does not regulate them. Regulation and supervision of payment systems vest in the RBI under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. ANALYSIS: An NPCI circular binds participants through the scheme rules they have accepted, which is contractual authority, not statutory rule-making power.

Q: In climate policy, the term "overshoot" as used in the UNEP report released on 2 September 2026 refers to:

Correct answer: A temperature path that exceeds a threshold, peaks, and subsequently declines below it. FACT: Overshoot describes a trajectory that rises above a threshold, peaks, and then returns below it, typically through large-scale carbon dioxide removal later in the century. ANALYSIS: The report's significance is its finding that several consequences of overshoot are irreversible even if temperature returns, which makes the peak temperature itself a policy target distinct from the end-of-century temperature.

Q: Under the Ramsar Convention, the Montreux Record is:

Correct answer: A register of Ramsar sites where ecological character has changed, is changing, or is likely to change. FACT: The Montreux Record is a register of Ramsar sites where ecological character has changed, is changing or is likely to change as a result of technological development, pollution or other human interference. ANALYSIS: It is a warning list, not a list of the most important sites, and it is voluntary in the sense that a site is placed on it at the request of the party concerned.

Q: Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 as amended, the area around a protected monument is regulated as follows:

Correct answer: A prohibited area of 100 metres from the protected limits, and a regulated area extending a further 200 metres. FACT: The prohibited area extends 100 metres from the protected limits, within which construction other than repair and renovation of existing structures is barred; the regulated area extends a further 200 metres, within which construction requires permission. ANALYSIS: This regime, and the National Monuments Authority that administers permissions within it, were introduced by the Amendment and Validation Act of 2010, not by the 1958 Act itself.

Q: Which of the following is a payments bank such as India Post Payments Bank permitted to do?

Correct answer: Distribute mutual fund, insurance and pension products as an agent. FACT: A payments bank may accept demand deposits up to a prescribed limit, issue ATM and debit cards, and distribute third-party products such as mutual funds, insurance and pension as an agent. It may not lend, issue credit cards, or accept time deposits or NRI deposits. ANALYSIS: The category was designed for reach and transactions rather than credit, which is why its success is measured in accounts and payment volumes rather than in a loan book.

Q: The transfer of a judge from one High Court to another, as recommended for one judge in the Collegium resolutions dated 31 August 2026, is provided for by:

Correct answer: Article 222. FACT: Article 222 empowers the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, to transfer a judge from one High Court to another. Article 217 governs the appointment of High Court judges, Article 224 additional and acting judges, and Article 124 appointments to the Supreme Court. ANALYSIS: The Collegium recommends and the President appoints by warrant, so a recommendation and an appointment are separate stages, connected by the Memorandum of Procedure.

Q: Under the Customs Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements Rules, 2020, the obligation to exercise due diligence regarding a claim of preferential tariff treatment falls primarily on:

Correct answer: The importer claiming the preferential rate of duty. FACT: CAROTAR, 2020 places the due-diligence burden on the importer, who must possess sufficient information to satisfy that the goods meet the origin criteria and must furnish it when required. ANALYSIS: This shifted the risk of a defective origin claim from the certifying authority abroad to the domestic importer, and it is a principal reason preferential claims became more onerous for small firms.

Question 1 of 12

A launch vehicle carrying a satellite intended for geosynchronous operation normally places it first in a geosynchronous transfer orbit. What is the principal reason for this two-step approach?

FACT: A geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical orbit whose apogee lies near the target altitude of about 36,000 km. The launch vehicle delivers the spacecraft there, and the spacecraft then fires its own propulsion over successive manoeuvres to raise perigee and circularise.
ANALYSIS: This is why a launch being declared successful and a satellite becoming operational are separated by days or weeks, a distinction that candidates routinely collapse.

📝 Concept Note

GSLV-F17, the 19th flight of the GSLV family, lifted off from the Second Launch Pad at Sriharikota at 2.55 a.m. on 4 September 2026 carrying EOS-05, also designated GISAT-1A, at 2,367 kg. ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan confirmed that the satellite was injected into the intended sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit about 18 minutes after lift-off and that solar panels had deployed.
EOS-05 is India’s first Earth observation satellite in the EOS series designed to operate from geosynchronous orbit, meteorological imagers having flown in geostationary orbit since the INSAT series, and it replaces GISAT-1 or EOS-03, lost when GSLV-F10 failed in August 2021 after leakage through the Vent and Relief Valve caused low liquid hydrogen tank pressure and a Fuel Booster Turbo Pump malfunction. India’s vehicle families run SSLV, PSLV, GSLV and LVM3, with the cryogenic upper stage the technology India developed indigenously after being denied it.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 space technology and indigenisation; GS3 disaster management through Earth observation.
✍️ Mains Keywords	resolution-versus-revisit trade-off, temporal persistence, geosynchronous transfer orbit, cryogenic upper stage.
⚠️ Common Mistake	treating geosynchronous and geostationary as synonyms; a geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit that is also circular and equatorial.
📌 Exam Tip	UPSC has repeatedly tested orbit types and their applications rather than mission names.
🎤 Interview	** Is a geostationary imager an upgrade on a low Earth orbit imager, or a different instrument for a different problem?

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Question 2 of 12

The SHANTI Act, whose draft Rules were open for public consultation until 4 September 2026, replaced which of the following?

FACT: The SHANTI Act, passed in December 2025, replaced both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 with a single framework. ANALYSIS: The two statutes were the separate obstacles to private and foreign participation, the first reserving atomic energy to government entities and the second creating supplier recourse.
Consolidating them was the only way to address both at once.

📝 Concept Note

SHANTI stands for Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India. The draft SHANTI Rules, 2026 issued by the Department of Atomic Energy and the draft SHANTI Regulations, 2026 issued by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board were open for comment until 8 p.m. on 4 September 2026.
The Rules provide a single composite licence covering construction, ownership, operation and decommissioning. The AERB, constituted in 1983 by executive order, receives full statutory status, which addresses a criticism of forty years standing that the regulator reported into the same structure that owns the reactors.
The 2010 Act’s supplier recourse provision was an Indian departure from international practice, which channels liability to the operator, and it is why the 2008 civil nuclear agreement produced little construction.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 energy and nuclear technology; GS2 statutory and regulatory bodies and effects of developed-country policies on India.
✍️ Mains Keywords	supplier recourse, operator liability channelling, composite licence, regulatory independence.
⚠️ Common Mistake	believing SHANTI repealed only the liability law; it repealed the 1962 Act as well.
📌 Exam Tip	Remember the AERB existed since 1983; what changed is statutory status, not creation.
🎤 Interview	** Can a regulator be independent when the government owns the reactors it regulates?

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Question 3 of 12

India’s three-stage nuclear power programme is designed so that the second stage principally uses:

Question 4 of 12

Which of the following correctly describes the status of the National Payments Corporation of India, which required UPI applications to mask mobile numbers from 4 September 2026?

FACT: NPCI is a not-for-profit company incorporated in 2008 at the initiative of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks’ Association. It operates payment systems; it does not regulate them.
Regulation and supervision of payment systems vest in the RBI under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. ANALYSIS: An NPCI circular binds participants through the scheme rules they have accepted, which is contractual authority, not statutory rule-making power.

📝 Concept Note

From 4 September 2026, UPI applications and banks may display only the last four digits of a registered mobile number, and must not display it at all for QR code payments; apps must also offer identities not tied to a mobile number, with a username as default. UPI recorded 24.51 billion transactions worth 29.82 lakh crore rupees in August 2026, its highest monthly volume, against 23.66 billion worth 29.88 lakh crore in July, with daily averages of about 791 million transactions and 96,205 crore rupees.
NPCI’s systems include UPI, RuPay, IMPS, NACH, AePS, BHIM and National Electronic Toll Collection. The change arrives well before the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 impose substantive obligations from 13 May 2027.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 digital payments and financial inclusion; GS2 privacy as a fundamental right and regulatory bodies.
✍️ Mains Keywords	data minimisation, informational privacy, scheme rules versus statutory regulation, data fiduciary.
⚠️ Common Mistake	calling NPCI the regulator of UPI; the regulator is the RBI under the 2007 Act.
📌 Exam Tip	Note that rising UPI volume with flat value indicates displacement of cash in low-value payments.
🎤 Interview	** Should a private not-for-profit set privacy standards for 24 billion monthly transactions?

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Question 5 of 12

In climate policy, the term "overshoot" as used in the UNEP report released on 2 September 2026 refers to:

FACT: Overshoot describes a trajectory that rises above a threshold, peaks, and then returns below it, typically through large-scale carbon dioxide removal later in the century. ANALYSIS: The report’s significance is its finding that several consequences of overshoot are irreversible even if temperature returns, which makes the peak temperature itself a policy target distinct from the end-of-century temperature.

📝 Concept Note

The UNEP report Limiting Overshoot, released on 2 September 2026, found no plausible scientific pathway keeps warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The best case peaks at about 1.8 degrees; current policies give a median of about 2.6 degrees by 2100 within a range of 1.9 to 3.6 degrees.
Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees with limited exceedance would require emissions 55 per cent below 2019 levels by 2035, a figure from the Emissions Gap Report 2025 that assumes action began in 2020. Irreversible systems include ice sheets, sea level, coral reefs, species loss and permafrost.
UNEP was established in 1972 after the Stockholm Conference and is headquartered at Nairobi. The Paris Agreement’s Article 2 sets a goal of well below 2 degrees while pursuing efforts toward 1.5 degrees.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 climate change and international agreements; GS2 international institutions and their mandates.
✍️ Mains Keywords	overshoot, carbon dioxide removal, irreversibility, CBDR-RC, historical responsibility.
⚠️ Common Mistake	confusing overshoot with the emissions gap; the gap is about pledges, overshoot is about the temperature path.
📌 Exam Tip	The Paris goal is well below 2 degrees while pursuing 1.5, not 1.5 alone.
🎤 Interview	** If 1.5 degrees is already lost, what purpose does retaining the target serve?

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Question 6 of 12

Under the Ramsar Convention, the Montreux Record is:

FACT: The Montreux Record is a register of Ramsar sites where ecological character has changed, is changing or is likely to change as a result of technological development, pollution or other human interference. ANALYSIS: It is a warning list, not a list of the most important sites, and it is voluntary in the sense that a site is placed on it at the request of the party concerned.

📝 Concept Note

India signed a Joint Declaration of Intent with Germany on the conservation and wise use of wetlands of international importance at the 4th Indo-German Environment Forum, which opened in New Delhi on 2 September 2026 under the theme Together For More Resilience, signed by Bhupender Yadav and Carsten Schneider. India has 101 Ramsar sites; the 101st, Glaw Lake in Arunachal Pradesh, was designated in August 2026 and is the State’s first, lying within the Kamlang Tiger Reserve.
The 100th was Jai Prakash Narayan (Surha Tal) Bird Sanctuary, Ballia, on 5 June 2026. India’s two Montreux Record sites are Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan and Loktak Lake, Manipur; Chilika Lake was removed in 2002 after restoration.
The Convention was adopted on 2 February 1971 at Ramsar, Iran, and India acceded in 1982.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 conservation and biodiversity; GS2 bilateral instruments and international conventions.
✍️ Mains Keywords	wise use, ecological character, Montreux Record, ecosystem services, community participation.
⚠️ Common Mistake	assuming Ramsar designation confers domestic legal protection; protection under the Wetlands Rules, 2017 follows notification, and most Indian wetlands are unnotified.
📌 Exam Tip	Chilika’s removal from the Record in 2002 is the standard example of successful restoration.
🎤 Interview	** India has 101 Ramsar sites and continuing wetland loss. What does that tell you about designation as an instrument?

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Question 7 of 12

Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 as amended, the area around a protected monument is regulated as follows:

FACT: The prohibited area extends 100 metres from the protected limits, within which construction other than repair and renovation of existing structures is barred; the regulated area extends a further 200 metres, within which construction requires permission. ANALYSIS: This regime, and the National Monuments Authority that administers permissions within it, were introduced by the Amendment and Validation Act of 2010, not by the 1958 Act itself.

📝 Concept Note

The Archaeological Survey of India declared Gollala Gudi at Palampet, Mulugu district, Telangana, a Monument of National Importance through notification S.O. 4802(E) in the Gazette of India (Extraordinary). The temple is a trikutalaya, with a mandapa facing east and three garbhagrihas, distinguished by rows of carved hamsas with jali work on the entablature and doorways.
It lies south-west of the Kakatiya Rudreshwara or Ramappa Temple, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, built in 1213 CE and attributed to Recharla Rudra, a general of Ganapati Deva, and known for floating bricks and a sandbox foundation. Article 49 is the Directive Principle on protecting monuments and Article 51A(f) the corresponding Fundamental Duty.
The ASI was founded in 1861 under Alexander Cunningham and functions under the Ministry of Culture.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS1 Indian culture and architecture; GS2 Union and State jurisdiction over monuments under the Seventh Schedule.
✍️ Mains Keywords	trikutalaya, jali, prohibited and regulated area, spoliation, heritage bye-laws.
⚠️ Common Mistake	treating the National Monuments Authority as a creation of the 1958 Act; it came with the 2010 amendment.
📌 Exam Tip	Monuments declared of national importance sit in the Union List, so declaration shifts a site from State to Union jurisdiction.
🎤 Interview	** Does declaring more monuments help when the ASI cannot maintain those it already protects?

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Question 8 of 12

Which of the following is a payments bank such as India Post Payments Bank permitted to do?

FACT: A payments bank may accept demand deposits up to a prescribed limit, issue ATM and debit cards, and distribute third-party products such as mutual funds, insurance and pension as an agent. It may not lend, issue credit cards, or accept time deposits or NRI deposits.
ANALYSIS: The category was designed for reach and transactions rather than credit, which is why its success is measured in accounts and payment volumes rather than in a loan book.

📝 Concept Note

India Post Payments Bank marked its ninth Foundation Day on 1 September 2026, launching the DakPay Sound Box for merchants, a Digital Insurance Technology Platform and a Digital Mutual Fund Platform. As on 31 March 2026 it had 13.25 crore customers, 77 per cent of them in rural areas and 49 per cent women.
IPPB functions under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, with 100 per cent Government of India equity. The deposit limit for payments banks was raised from 1 lakh to 2 lakh rupees per individual customer in 2021.
The category followed the recommendations of the Nachiket Mor Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low Income Households.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 financial inclusion and banking structure; GS2 government interventions for inclusive delivery.
✍️ Mains Keywords	financial inclusion, last-mile delivery, differentiated banking licence, agency distribution.
⚠️ Common Mistake	confusing payments banks with small finance banks; the small finance bank lends, the payments bank does not.
📌 Exam Tip	Remember the 2 lakh rupee deposit ceiling and the Nachiket Mor Committee link.
🎤 Interview	** Why was a bank that cannot lend considered a financial inclusion instrument at all?

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Question 9 of 12

The transfer of a judge from one High Court to another, as recommended for one judge in the Collegium resolutions dated 31 August 2026, is provided for by:

FACT: Article 222 empowers the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, to transfer a judge from one High Court to another. Article 217 governs the appointment of High Court judges, Article 224 additional and acting judges, and Article 124 appointments to the Supreme Court.
ANALYSIS: The Collegium recommends and the President appoints by warrant, so a recommendation and an appointment are separate stages, connected by the Memorandum of Procedure.

📝 Concept Note

The Collegium recommended Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra of the Orissa High Court as Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court, against a vacancy arising on the incumbent’s retirement on 4 September 2026; Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal of the Chhattisgarh High Court for transfer to Rajasthan and elevation as its Chief Justice; Justice Alpesh Yeshvant Kogje of the Gujarat High Court as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court; and Justice Dr Pushpendra Singh Bhati of the Rajasthan High Court as Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. Three of these came from the Collegium meeting of 31 August 2026; the Chhattisgarh recommendation was resolved at a meeting of 6 August 2026 and published only on 31 August, and the Agrawal transfer was recorded in a separate resolution.
The Collegium is a creation of judicial interpretation: the Second Judges Case (1993) established it and the Third Judges Case (1998), an advisory opinion under Article 143, fixed its composition. For a High Court Chief Justice it is the CJI and the two senior-most Supreme Court judges, but for the transfer of a High Court judge under Article 222 it is the CJI and the four senior-most judges.
The NJAC was struck down in the Fourth Judges Case (2015).

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS2 judiciary, separation of powers, appointment and transfer of judges.
✍️ Mains Keywords	collegium, Memorandum of Procedure, judicial independence, basic structure.
⚠️ Common Mistake	using the five-judge collegium for High Court Chief Justice appointments; that formation applies to Supreme Court appointments and to Article 222 transfers.
📌 Exam Tip	The Collegium appears nowhere in the constitutional text; it comes from the Judges Cases.
🎤 Interview	** The Memorandum of Procedure has been unsettled for years. Whose failure is that?

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Question 10 of 12

Under the Customs Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements Rules, 2020, the obligation to exercise due diligence regarding a claim of preferential tariff treatment falls primarily on:

FACT: CAROTAR, 2020 places the due-diligence burden on the importer, who must possess sufficient information to satisfy that the goods meet the origin criteria and must furnish it when required. ANALYSIS: This shifted the risk of a defective origin claim from the certifying authority abroad to the domestic importer, and it is a principal reason preferential claims became more onerous for small firms.

📝 Concept Note

Union Minister Piyush Goyal called for a nationwide FTA Utilisation Drive at the National Workshop on “Leveraging FTAs: An Outreach Programme” in New Delhi on 3 September 2026, aiming to reach exporters in all 780 districts, targeting MSMEs, first-time exporters, traders, startups and women entrepreneurs. A trade agreement confers a right rather than an automatic benefit: the exporter must prove that goods originate in the partner country under the agreement’s Rules of Origin, using a Certificate of Origin.
Common origin criteria are a minimum value addition threshold and a change in tariff heading. The gap between concessions available and concessions actually claimed is the utilisation rate, and it is persistently low for Indian MSME exporters.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 external sector, trade agreements and MSME competitiveness; GS2 effect of policies of other countries on India.
✍️ Mains Keywords	rules of origin, utilisation rate, trade deflection, value addition criterion.
⚠️ Common Mistake	assuming an FTA lowers tariffs automatically; the preference must be claimed and proved.
📌 Exam Tip	CAROTAR is frequently tested through the question of who bears the due-diligence burden.
🎤 Interview	** India signs trade agreements its exporters underuse. Is that a negotiation failure or a facilitation failure?

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Question 11 of 12

An "agentic" artificial intelligence system, of the kind addressed by the skilling programmes launched on 3 September 2026, is best distinguished from a conventional model by the fact that it:

FACT: An agentic system is characterised by autonomy over the sequence of steps: given a goal, it plans, invokes tools or other systems, observes results and revises. A conventional model returns an output in response to a prompt.
ANALYSIS: The governance question changes accordingly, from whether an output is accurate to who is accountable for an action taken without a human in the loop.

📝 Concept Note

The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Intel India launched the NIELIT-Intel India Agentic AI Skilling Initiative on 3 September 2026 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, alongside a National Leadership Dialogue titled “Preparing the Future Workforce for the Agentic AI Era”. Two programmes were introduced under it, “Agentic AI for Everyone” and “Engineering Agentic AI Systems”.
NIELIT is a registered society under MeitY delivering electronics and IT skilling and certification across the country. The IndiaAI Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 with an outlay of 10,371.92 crore rupees over five years.
Its seven pillars are compute capacity, an innovation centre, a datasets platform, application development, future skills, startup financing and safe and trusted AI, and the skilling launch maps to the future skills pillar. The governance significance of agentic systems is that they compress the distance between a decision and an action.
Where a conventional model produces text that a human then acts on, an agentic system acts directly, so the safeguards that matter shift from output review to permissions, logging, reversibility and a defined point of human authorisation. India has so far regulated AI through advisories and sectoral regulators rather than a dedicated statute, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 supplies the nearest binding obligations where personal data is processed.
The unresolved question is liability allocation between the deploying entity, the model developer and the user when an autonomous system causes harm while pursuing a lawful instruction.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 awareness in the field of IT and emerging technology; GS2 government policy on skilling and e-governance.
✍️ Mains Keywords	agentic autonomy, human in the loop, accountability gap, algorithmic governance.
⚠️ Common Mistake	defining agentic AI by model capability rather than by autonomy over steps.
📌 Exam Tip	Pair the IndiaAI Mission outlay and pillars with any AI governance question.
🎤 Interview	** If an autonomous system causes harm while pursuing a lawful goal, who is liable?

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Question 12 of 12

Which decision established that the Supreme Court’s power under Article 142 supplements existing law and cannot be used to supplant it?

FACT: In Supreme Court Bar Association v Union of India (1998) the Court held that Article 142 supplements existing law and cannot supplant it, and cannot be used to build a jurisdiction the Court does not otherwise possess. ANALYSIS: Read with Prem Chand Garg (1963), which barred orders inconsistent with fundamental rights or substantive statutory provisions, these decisions fix the outer limit of a power that is otherwise phrased without limit.

📝 Concept Note

The Supreme Court, in a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, invoked Article 142 on 1 September 2026 to quash every FIR registered anywhere in India against students who protested the NEET (UG) 2026 paper leak in the 20 to 25 July 2026 window, barred fresh registration for that window, and preserved a single Delhi Police FIR concerning 2,873 persons at Jantar Mantar said to carry serious antecedents. The Union government had sought the closure.
The institutional objection is that Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, corresponding to Section 482 of the CrPC, assigns quashing to the High Courts on the facts of each case. Union Carbide (1991) held the Article 142 jurisdiction is not constrained by ordinary statutory limitations when doing complete justice.

🎯 Concept Kit — tap to expand

🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS2 judiciary, separation of powers, comparison of Supreme Court and High Court powers.
✍️ Mains Keywords	complete justice, inherent powers, equitable jurisdiction, institutional competence.
⚠️ Common Mistake	treating Article 142 as an unlimited power; the jurisprudence closed that reading decades ago.
📌 Exam Tip	Learn the trio of Prem Chand Garg, Union Carbide and Supreme Court Bar Association as the limit-setting line.
🎤 Interview	** If relief is deserved but the ordinary remedy is too slow, should the Court grant it directly or fix the remedy?

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🔗 Cross-Paper Links	GS3 science and technology, energy security and indigenisation.
✍️ Mains Keywords	three-stage programme, fast breeder, fissile inventory, thorium cycle, energy security.
⚠️ Common Mistake	placing thorium in stage two; thorium belongs to stage three, and stage two is plutonium in fast breeders.
📌 Exam Tip	Pair the stage with its reactor type and its fuel; UPSC has tested this mapping directly.
🎤 Interview	** After sixty years, is the thorium stage a realistic plan or an aspiration that justifies the first two stages?

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