Delivering the Setalvad Memorial Lecture, on April 16, Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia cautioned the judiciary against exceeding their judicial functions. His remarks are particularly relevant to the increasing tendency of Judges of superior courts to issue directions to government, to correct and monitor government’s functions, and to even make policy decisions which are in the domain of government — as if there was no separation of functions between...

PANAJI: Bombay High Court on Monday asked the union government to file an affidavit as to whether top constitutional offices such as the President, Chief Justices and Governors fall within the ambit of Right to Information Act. The Goa bench of Bombay High Court asked Additional Solicitor General, Vivek Tankha, who represented the Union, to state the legal position regarding the President of India, Chief Justices and Governors; while state...

In a season when every self-styled warrior against corruption is trying to look for a new weapon to fight it, my guest today is Satyananda Mishra, Chief Information Commissioner—someone who has in his control the strongest of those weapons, the RTI. Actually when it all began, nobody thought it would be so effective. In a period of five-and-a-half years, it has touched the hearts and minds of people. The number of...

Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption has a curious side-effect. It has turned the spotlight on India's lack of pre-legislative transparency. We may accept or dismiss team Anna's Jan Lokpal draft but his movement — and the subsequent build-up of hope and betrayal — has unwittingly exposed the systemic opaqueness in which our laws are conceived, written, debated and passed. The Lokpal Bill 2011 is one among 67-odd bills listed as...

New Delhi : The government finds it “highly objectionable” that the Supreme Court included the Director, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), in a Special Investigation Team set up to investigate black money cases. “What is of serious concern and highly objectionable is the inclusion of the Director, Research and Analysis Wing, in the SIT,” said the government in an application filed in the Supreme Court seeking the recall and modification of...