-The Times of India The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to the Attorney General on a plea that the office of the law officer be declared a "public authority" under the RTI Act as the appointment is according to the Constitution. Justice G S Sistani gave six weeks to the AG to reply while hearing an appeal filed by Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Chandra Aggarwal against a decision of the...

-Tehelka A public issue is not truly public unless Markandey Katju has passed judgement. Rahul Kotiyal and Ajachi Chakrabarti stand downwind "Journalists" writes Markandey Katju, with little sense of irony, "comment on everything under the sun." He goes on to say that when the shoe is on the other foot, when someone comments on journalism, it is misconstrued as an attack on press freedom. That when he announces he is appointing a...

-The Hindu Activists oppose diversion of forest land citing continuing non-compliance of several requisites The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is reconsidering its clearance for the controversial Kalu Dam in Thane district. About 999.328 hectares of forest land in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats region is up for diversion for the drinking water project for Mumbai and Thane. Work on the project had been...

-The Times of India This flies in the face of the spate of growing abuses against children. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) - mandated to monitor child rights' violations and armed with quasi-judicial powers - has received only 51 complaints of sexual and physical abuse of children from across the country in the last five years. Even more shocking is that it has filed FIRs in only...

-The Hindu Under Section 8 (1) (a), information can be denied on grounds of national security Bangalore: It is hard to imagine that any information preserved in the Karnataka State Archives on the Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur could potentially threaten national security or incite a breach of the law. However, a reply given by the Directorate, Karnataka State Archives, to a Right to Information (RTI) query suggests that it does. In his RTI application...