-Frontline PESA, which is seen as an enabling law for tribal self-governance, is violated brazenly by both the Union government and State governments in the name of development. SINCE October 2012, the Ministry of Rural Development of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has apparently been engaged in an exercise to evolve a "National Land Reforms Policy". Over these months, the Ministry wrote to various State governments, highlighting the importance of...

-The Hindustan Times A civil society group on Friday demanded key changes in the bill to protect whistleblowers, including widening its scope to bring all categories of public servants and private sector employees under its purview. The National Campaign for People's Right to Information, after day-long consultations with the families of some of the whistleblowers, asked the government to make the definition of victimisation clear in the bill. The Whistleblowers Protection Bill was...

-PTI Sustainable development is an integral part of fundamental rights conferred on citizens by the Constitution and cannot be allowed to be hampered by environmental degradation, the Supreme Court has said. "Inter-generational equity and sustainable development have come to be firmly embedded in our constitutional jurisprudence as an integral part of the fundamental rights conferred by Article 21(Right to Life) of the Constitution. In enforcing such rights of a large number...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: If you get a phone call from your long-time banker asking you to resubmit your name and address proofs, don't be surprised or irritated. It is the fallout of the Reserve Bank going beyond the cobrapost.com expose on unethical practices of banks, forcing them to go back to the drawing boards to weed out bogus and wrong documentation that allowed many people to open accounts and launder...

-The Times of India The Cabinet on Thursday will consider a proposal for creating the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), scrapping the current system of appointing judges through the collegiums system of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The proposal provides for a six-member JAC headed by the Chief Justice of India with the law minister and the Opposition leader and two jurists as other members. The proposal, which replaces the present system of...