The Supreme Court today refused to go into a batch of PILs challenging constitutional validity of the notification on composition of a committee to draft the Jan Lokpal bill, saying the petitions were "premature". A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia posted the matter for hearing in July. The bench said, "The petitions are premature and can't be taken as the Lokpal Bill was yet to be passed." "It is still...

“We will not let the anti-corruption movement die or allow it to be put on the back burner,” say rallyists Supporters of Anna Hazare took out a march here on Sunday extending their support to civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee. Armed with banners, placards, posters and flags, the supporters, after assembling at Jantar Mantar, started their march towards India Gate where a programme of songs and street...

A group of over 80 eminent personalities, including the former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board Chairman, A. Gopalakrishnan, has expressed shock at the Centre's announcement on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia that it would go ahead with the Jaitapur nuclear power plant. Terming it “sheer insensitivity” on the part of the government, the citizens' group said the decision meant disregarding the “overwhelming” opposition to the project by 40,000...

Do you know that the highest number of corruption cases are registered in Maharashtra (4566) and the lowest in West Bengal (only 9) between 2000 and 2009? Do you also want to know how much property has been recovered from the corrupt in different states of India in the past ten years? But how does one systematically track corruption? How to get details of the number of cases going on...

Anna Hazare and the civil society won a crucial first battle in the war against corruption. There is a possibility that the Lokpal Bill could be passed by Parliament by August 15. However, that is by no means assured: a number of politicians, a part of section of political establishment and a section of bureaucracy will try to derail the Bill or dilute it so much that it is rendered...