-PTI There is the limited scope of contempt petition and the NGO can file a separate petition seeking directions for effective functioning, it said. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday refused to pass any direction with regard to "effective functioning" of anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal and disposed of a contempt plea filed by an NGO which had sought the appointment of the country's first anti-graft authority. There is the limited scope of contempt petition...

  A high maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) indicates low status of women in the society apart from poor functioning of the health services delivery system. Recently released data by the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin indicates that for the country as a whole the MMRatio has steadily declined from 398.0 in 1997-98 to 122.0 in 2015-17, which is a fall by -69.3 percent. Table-1 shows that India's MMRatio was 398.0 in 1997-98,...

-Scroll.in A poorly-functioning justice system costs India 9% of its GDP each year, according to one estimate. A new report paints a grim picture of the state of India’s justice system. Called the India Justice Report 2019, it ranks states by their performance in four aspects: police, the state judiciary, prisons and legal aid. The report is an initiative of Tata Trusts, a philanthropic organisation, undertaken in partnership with several civil society organisations...

-IANS Uttar Pradesh and Bihar shared the last and second last spot among the 18 large and mid-sized states in the report. New Delhi: Maharashtra topped the list of India's first-ever ranking of states on justice delivery among the 18 large and mid-sized states. Maharashtra is followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while among the small states Goa topped the list followed by Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, according to the India Justice Report...

-The Indian Express What is needed is ‘ease of policing’, better training and infrastructure Common Cause’s recent survey on the Status of Policing in India is said to have affirmed that the black sheep in the police force find nothing wrong with beating up criminals to extract a confession. It is still, however, too judgemental to suggest that torture is endemic to Indian policing, as Maja Daruwala does (‘Exorcising third-degree’, IE,...