# Supreme Court

• None of the current lot of 27 Supreme Court judges was born when the oldest civil and Criminal cases, still at the stage of adjudication by trial courts, were instituted by the police and citizens within three years of India becoming a republic.
• Justice Dinesh Maheshwari is the oldest among the present Supreme Court judges who was born on May 15 , 1958.
• The oldest criminal case under section 65E of the Maharashtra prohibition act, 1949, was registered by Raigad police on May 18, 1953.

# Collegium

• Inequitable representation of backward and minority communities in higher judiciaries is evident from the fact that 79% of all high court judges appointed in the past five years (2018 to 2022) is from upper castes, According to a presentation made recently by the Union law ministry before a parliamentary panel.
• The law ministry has informed the parliamentary standing Committee on law and justice that despite three decades of the existence of the collegium system of appointing judges, social diversity in higher judiciary, as originally devised by the Supreme Court, is missing.
• While majority of those appointed to the country’s 25 high courts continues to be from upper castes , other backward castes, which make up for more than the 35% of population has representation of only 11%.
• The alleged discrimination is noticeable with minorities comprising only 2.6% of the total 537 judges appointed in high courts since 2018.
• Similar is the story with schedule castes and Schedule tribes with their representation being 2.8% and 1.3% respectively.

# Wetlands

• The increasingly rapid pace at which wetlands in the country are disappearing has set alarm bells ringing in the conservation circles.
• Nearly two of every five wetlands in India have lost their natural existence in the last 30 years while 40% of water bodies have lost quality for survival of the aquatic animals.
• This report has been released by wetlands international, a not for profit global organization based in the Netherlands.

# Domestic violence

• Violence within the confinrs of the home continues to be a serious concern with the national commission for women registering over 6900 complaints in 2022.
• These cases accounted for around 23% of the 30900 plus complaints registered by NCW across different categories of crimes against women.