The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court order that had refused to quash a criminal case slapped against political commentator Ashish Nandy for an article on the Gujarat riots. It also issued notices to the Gujarat government on an appeal filed by Nandy against the high court order that dismissed his plea for quashing the case registered against. The high court had asked Nandy to defend himself in a lower...

Yet another son-in-law of former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has been accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to his declared income in Kerala’s commercial hub of Kochi. Land registration documents show that advocate M.J. Benny, husband of Balakrishnan’s younger daughter K.B. Rani, bought nearly one acre of land under five different title deeds in fast-growing Marad, near the site of a proposed hi-tech city, for a total Rs 81 lakh...

The former Member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Sudarshan Agarwal, has appealed to NHRC Chairman K.G. Balakrishnan to resign and face an enquiry. Mr. Agarwal, who is also a former Governor of Uttarakhand and Sikkim, in a letter written to Justice Balakrishnan on December 29, 2010, said: “It is with deep pain and anguish — nay, with a deep sense of shock — that I read in the national...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the proceedings in a criminal case registered against political analyst Ashish Nandy for an article published in a national newspaper on the 2002 Gujarat communal riots. A Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyric Joseph stayed the proceedings on an appeal filed by Mr. Nandy against a Delhi High Court order dated September 1, 2010, declining to quash the case registered against him under Sections...

Nearing the four crore mark in providing jobs under MGNREGA , re-launching the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas scheme and reinforcing social audit in programmes on complaints of irregularities were the foremost tasks of the rural development ministry in 2010. While 3.9 crore households were provided employment, the share of women beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act went up to 51 per cent, with...