-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is all set to legally lock horns with the Supreme Court by questioning the court's powers to call for judicial scrutiny the President's exercise of constitutional power to grant pardon or commute sentences of condemned prisoners. "The decision of the President under Article 72 of the Constitution, either accepting or rejecting a petition, is a sovereign act. This sovereign act is performed after the...

-The Telegraph   New Delhi: Two panels examining the education standards of SC/STs and OBCs have urged the Centre to enact a law to implement admission quotas for them at private institutions of study. The panels, set up by a national monitoring committee for education of SC/STs and persons with disabilities, have suggested that private higher study institutions must implement quotas of 15 per cent for SCs, 7.5 per cent for STs and...

-The Hindu There has been no public debate on the level of watch citizens can be put through, and on what the red lines should be while using intrusive mechanisms The tussle between government agencies' need for a better, faster and real-time interception, surveillance and monitoring mechanism through the Central Monitoring System (CMS), on the one hand, and demands by privacy, civil rights and free speech activists, for ensuring higher privacy for...

-The Hindu     Restrictions on cross-media ownership in offing too The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is all set to recommend the creation of an ‘institutional buffer between corporate owners and newspaper management' to the government. TRAI, which is also the regulator for the broadcasting industry, will also suggest ways to restrict cross-media ownership in line with practices in ‘most other established democracies.' TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar told The Hindu his recommendations would...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has rapped the ministry of home affairs after the latter admitted that it did not have data on mercy petitions considered by the President since 1970. The Commission has asked the ministry to disclose the information within four weeks in larger public interest. The order came in response to an application by an under trial lodged in Agra's Central Jail. In...