The Centre today told the Supreme Court it was thinking of making child marriages invalid, taking a step forward against a social evil still deep-rooted in several parts of the country. “The practice of recognising child marriages was intended to protect women. The government is thinking of making such marriages void (invalid),” additional solicitor general Indira Jaisingh said. Under the Hindu Marriage Act, child marriages are recognised as valid, keeping in mind...

A formal move to consider the removal of a sitting judge is extremely rare. In 1991, impeachment proceedings began against Justice V Ramaswami, but were later dropped due to lack of support in Parliament. More recently, a judge of the Calcutta high court is facing impeachment. Now, 76 Rajya Sabha MPs - all from the opposition ranks - have put their signature to a petition seeking the removal of Karnataka...

Referring to China in 1947, Nehru declared, “A new star has risen in the eastern horizon,” and some years later predicted, “If you peer into the future, the obvious fourth country in the world is India.” One of the countries he had in mind has disappeared, and he did not imagine that the emergence of India and China on the global stage would lead to mutual friction. The Chinese are...

Since state financial corporations are set up to encourage the establishment of industries by providing loans on liberal terms, the recovery of debts from chronic defaulters is seen by courts from two angles. One is that public money is lent for starting private enterprises and, therefore, the financial institutions should be tough on the debtors. The other approach is that these units benefit the public and, therefore, the endeavour should...

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to interfere with a Gujarat High Court judgment dismissing a petition which challenged land acquisition by the State government for the Tata Motors’ Nano project at Surendranagar. Rejecting the public interest litigation petition filed by the NGO, Rashtriya Kisan Dal represented by H.K. Thaker, Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan asked him: “You don’t want industrialisation of Surendranagar? Gujarat is the second most industrialised State.”...