The Supreme Court today asked central vigilance commissioner P.J. Thomas to explain why his appointment as head of the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog shouldn’t be scrapped even as the embattled bureaucrat hung on to his post. The notices to Thomas and the central government were a first from the court, which had so far only questioned Thomas’s appointment as CVC for his alleged involvement in a palm oil import case. The vigilance...

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill providing for a mechanism to deal with complaints against judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday by Law Minister Veerappa Moily even as Opposition MPs were demanding a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam. The Bill sets judicial standards and makes judges accountable for their lapses and mandates judges of the High Courts and the...

Friday’s Supreme Court rap to “uncle judges” who favour lawyers related to them has opened a Pandora’s box, with state-level lawyers’ bodies claiming to be flooded with phone calls from citizens and moving to mount pressure on the courts. Several state bar councils plan to meet or write to chief justices and the Centre, armed with resolutions urging judges to seek transfer if they have relatives practising law in their courts....

‘Independence of judiciary and right to free speech are of great value' A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will decide the conflict between the right of citizens to obtain information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the right to immunity enjoyed by the judiciary not to disclose information pertaining to appointment of judges. A Bench comprising Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar on Friday referred to the...

After 16 days of intensive Statewide campaigning and 47 days of dharna, thousands of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Rajasthan scored a significant victory. Led by the Suchana Evum Rozgar Ka Abhiyan, they entered into an agreement with the State government under which they would be entitled to the prevailing minimum wage for their day's work. Describing this outcome as “historic,” social activist...