Despite criticism of the appointment process, and pendency , the Supreme Court appears to enjoy public confidence like no other institution As the Supreme Court of India approaches its final week of hearings for the year, a look back shows it has dominated the national consciousness by ruling on myriad issues. The court was conceived by the framers of the constitution to deal mainly with fundamental questions of law. But India’s top...

U.P.'s GDP grew at 7.28 per cent in the past five years, but the State ranks low in virtually every area of socio-economic development. IF statistics on gross domestic product (GDP) are the only criteria to evaluate the performance of a government, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in Uttar Pradesh will have to be rated as one with highly impressive credentials. For, India's most populous State has recorded a...

-The Times of India   Domestic helps would find it easier to complain against sexual harassment if the recommendations of a parliamentary panel favouring their inclusion in the proposed 'protection of women against sexual harassment in workplace' bill are accepted. Dismissing the government's view that there were "practical difficulties" in implementing the law within the confines of a home, the committee on Thursday said such excuses could not be used as a...

A report of the National People's Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of 'torture' under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.   According to the tribunal, headed by Justice A P Shah, communal forces used religious conversions as an issue for political mobilisation...

The Mamata Banerjee government has sought the Supreme Court’s permission to withdraw its Left predecessor’s appeal against a Calcutta High Court order that had described the March 2007 police firing in Nandigram as “unconstitutional” and “wholly unjustified”. If the apex court allows the state’s latest plea, it will pave the way for cases being filed against any erring policeman, officer or government official. The “unconstitutional” tag too will stand, as will the...