-PTI The 'rarest of rare case' test is not 'judge centric' but depends on the perception of society and whether it would approve the award of death sentence to those convicted in certain types of crimes, the Supreme Court has held. "Courts award death sentence, because situation demands, due to constitutional compulsion, reflected by the will of the people, and not judge-centric," a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan said. "To award...

-The Indian Express The victim in the Suryanelli rape case tells her story—a nightmare that lasted 40 days and the trauma that stayed with her every day for the past 17 years She is the ‘Suryanelli girl’. “But that’s not my name.” It’s not. It’s the name of the village in Kerala’s Idukki district where she lived a 16-year-old’s life—happy, innocent, smiling easily. She doesn’t smile easily anymore, but then, a lot...

-The Hindustan Times Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai’s comments on Thursday at the Harvard Kennedy School (US)— saying his office was advised by the ‘highest in the land’ not to ‘exceed our mandate’ and get into auditing policy formulation — sparked off a war of words between the government and the opposition. Pointing out that constitutional authorities should circumscribe by “Lakshman Rekha propriety”, I&B minister Manish Tewari on Friday said...

-The Hindu Thousands of acres of uncultivable forested hills in Haryana, Gurgaon and Faridabad face the same prospect Gurgaon: Two decades ago when Sunil’s parents sold off 25 acres of their family’s share of land in the Mangar forests of Faridabad, they and other villagers thought the buyers were fools to buy it up because they were assured that they could continue to use it for grazing cattle and firewood. Today, 25-year-old...

-The Hindustan Times It is a small step that can add up to a big change. A government department has started putting online important policy files relating to the right to information law, beginning with documents that provide an insight into selection of central information comMISsioners. “We have received approval to upload all important files on the site — persmin.nic.in — once the final decision has been taken and the matter is...