-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Thursday said it had directed appointment of retired judges as heads of information commissions at the Centre and state level to ensure their independence as many were headed by persons who "have been in the good books of government". "You will find the chief information commissioners, both at the Centre and state level, are persons who have been in the good books of the...

-The Telegraph Srinagar: If appetite for capital punishment has been whetted in the country, Padshah Begum’s experience today should serve as a timely note of caution. The 60-year-old lady in Srinagar received word this afternoon that Delhi High Court has taken her son off death row because “serious lapses” marked the police investigation into a blast in the capital in 1996. She is no stranger to such news: two years ago, her eldest...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today dared the Centre to enact a law to prohibit retired judges or bureaucrats from taking up post-retirement positions in commissions or other government undertakings. A bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar threw down the gauntlet when additional solicitor-general A.S. Chandiok suggested “there should be no post-retirement employment”. The law officer also asked the court to review its September 12 judgment that only sitting or retired...

-The Hindu By not publicly disclosing the reasons for rejecting Ajmal Kasab’s mercy petition, Pranab Mukherjee missed an excellent opportunity to contribute to the rule of law President Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to reject the mercy petition submitted by the lone convict in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, is an instance of how public perceptions about a convict’s guilt can camouflage the government’s duty to explain the decision. The...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the Centre’s plea to review its verdict on amending the RTI Act to ensure that only serving and retired judges of the apex court and chief justices of high Courts could head the central and state information commissions. A Bench of Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar decided to hear the review petition in the open court. Asserting that the court...