It is a little known fact that in roughly a fifth of our country’s land area, a different legal system operates. In some of these places, if you are caught with certain items, it is up to you to prove that you are innocent of a crime — and whether you go to jail depends on whether a government official kept proper records years earlier. If you are using some...

A state Congress leaders' delegation that called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of siphoning off funds meant for beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. The delegation of Congress MLAs, MPs and others, headed by Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil and state party president Arjun Modhwadia, also told the prime minister that the state government had failed to implement various schemes announced...

Why are the erstwhile RTI campaigners so alarmed five years after it became law? Why so many dharnas, rallies, conventions and hunger-strikes all over again? Part of the reason is that the silent revolution that the RTI has spawned needs to be defended from surreptitious alterations and manipulations, and partly because the RTI activists are being threatened, harassed and assaulted by the corrupt and the powerful, often with the connivance...

With the United Progressive Alliance government clearly unhappy with the drafts of two laws on food security and communal violence being framed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, the NAC has referred them to lawyer Indira Jaisingh. “Indira Jaisingh is examining the two drafts from the legal angle, not for content,” an NAC source told TheHindu, adding the expectation was the bills would be ready in a month. If the NAC's...

After hanging fire for several years, the Ashok Gehlot government has begun processes for framing by-laws to implement the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act in the state. In a recent interaction, officials informed representatives of Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyan and Rajasthan Adivasi Adhikar Manch that the state government after framing preliminary rules of the by-laws for the Act on March 14, a meeting was held among departments...