-The Indian Express   The Madras High Court today issued a notice to the Union government on a PIL seeking to declare a recent notification exempting Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the purview of Right to Information Act as ultra vires or 'beyond the powers' of the Constitution. A Bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam directed Additional Solicitor General M Ravindran, who took the notice...

-The Times of India   Sometimes, nonsense verse captures it. The film character Anthony Gonsalves, inspired by George Bernard Shaw, sang, "The whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere - because you are a sophisticated rhetorician, intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity." Few words apply better to the current lokpal Bill stand-off. For this to break, the rhetoric must stop with ground being...

Congress expected to endorse government's stand on excluding PM from ambit of Bill Some party leaders prefer to include PM, given the strong public sentiment against corruption Government's original draft included Prime Minister Ahead of an all-party meeting on July 3 to debate the controversial lokpal Bill, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's apex body, will meet on Friday to discuss what is euphemistically being described as the “the current political situation.”...

Questions the logic behind the exclusion of the Prime Minister from the purview of the lokpal Accusing the Govt. of betraying civil society and not being serious about fighting corruption Social activist Anna Hazare has said civil society's aim is to vest autonomy in the lokpal, much on the lines of the Election Commission, the Supreme Court and the RTI (Central Information Commission). Control of bureaucracy He, however, favoured keeping the bureaucracy out of...

-The Hindu   The Left parties on Thursday took on the Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev-led civil society representatives for their comments that sought to undermine parliamentary democracy. “Absolutely outrageous comments by some of the civil society leaders are being heard.... questioning the right of the MLAs and MPs to represent the vast millions of Indians. This is nothing else but showing contempt for our parliamentary democracy and also seeking to undermine...