The Parliament passed the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 in August 2021. Which of the following is an objective behind passing it?
- (a)To prohibit strikes, lockouts and layoffs in units engaged in essential defence
- (b)To appoint more women in defence services
- (c)To encourage more FDI in defence services
- (d)To implement one rank one pension
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 empowers the government to prohibit strikes, lock-outs and lay-offs in units engaged in essential defence services. That is the objective the law states for itself.
It replaced an ordinance issued in June 2021 and was passed in August 2021, against the background of protests by ordnance factory employees over the corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board. Option (a) restates the Act's own purpose.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)To appoint more women in defence services — The induction of women into the armed forces has moved through Supreme Court rulings and service-level decisions, not through a law on industrial action.
- (c)To encourage more FDI in defence services — FDI ceilings in defence manufacturing are set by the FDI policy and its press notes, not by an essential-services statute.
- (d)To implement one rank one pension — One Rank One Pension is a pension policy for ex-servicemen, decided separately, and has nothing to do with keeping production running.
Concept
An essential service law does one thing: it keeps a service running by making industrial action in it illegal.
The Essential Defence Services Act, 2021 applies that idea to establishments that produce defence equipment, service or repair it, or run defence installations. Once such a service is notified, strikes, lock-outs and lay-offs in it may be prohibited, and taking part in an illegal strike is punishable.
It belongs to the same family as the Essential Services Maintenance Act, which governments invoke for services such as health and transport.
The trigger was industrial. Employees of the Ordnance Factory Board opposed its conversion into government-owned corporate entities, and the law was brought so that production of defence stores could not be interrupted while that restructuring went through.
The OFB was reorganised into seven defence public sector undertakings in October 2021.
Key facts
- The Essential Defence Services Act, 2021 lets the government prohibit strikes, lock-outs and lay-offs in notified essential defence services.
- Parliament passed it in August 2021, replacing an ordinance promulgated in June 2021.
- The Ordnance Factory Board was reorganised into seven defence public sector undertakings in October 2021.
Study next
Common traps
- Seeing defence in the title and reaching for a personnel or procurement answer such as OROP or FDI.
- Assuming any recent defence-sector law must be about modernisation or recruitment.
Recent-legislation items here pair an Act with its purpose or with the law it replaced, and run that pairing in either direction.
The Marine Aids to Navigation Bill, 2021 and the Lighthouse Act, 1927 it repealed are also asked 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q16, and the Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q23.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.