-The Indian Express Pankaja Munde’s ministry accused of tweaking tender norms to favour big players and industrialists. Mumbai: IN FRESH trouble for the Devendra Fadnavis government, the Supreme Court (SC) has struck down tenders worth Rs 6,300 crore issued in 2016 by the Maharashtra women and child development department for supplying Take Home Ration (THR) as supplementary nutrition at daycare centres or anganwadis in the state. A bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on Thursday approved an ordinance to restore the system of reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs for teaching positions in higher education institutions, with the university or college being considered as one unit instead of treating the department as one. The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Ordinance, 2019 will restore the 200-point roster system for faculty recruitment under which quotas for...

-The Indian Express As activists on both sides argue their case on the SC order on eviction of encroachers whose claims have been rejected under the FRA, an explanation of key issues: from dwindling forest cover to bogus claims. On February 28, the Supreme Court put on hold its February 13 order directing states to evict tribals and other forest-dwellers whose claims over encroached forest land had been rejected under the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Ten members of civil society, including Aruna Roy and Arundhati Roy, have moved the Supreme Court expressing solidarity with activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan who is facing contempt proceedings on attorney general K K Venugopal’s petition accusing him of making “false, malicious, dishonest and reckless” allegations on appointment of CBI’s interim director. The Roy duo, along with Wajahat Habibullah, Harsh Mandher, Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik, I P...

-The Hindu Both human rights and wildlife rights groups have not used the Forest Rights Act as a conservation tool On February 13, the Supreme Court ordered the eviction of more than 10 lakh Adivasis and other forest dwellers from forestland across 17 States. The petitioners, mainly wildlife NGOs, had demanded that State governments evict those forest dwellers whose claims over traditional forestland under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers...