In opening up the retail trade to foreign equity last week, the Union government demonstrated uncharacteristic courage and conviction. While this policy measure might help dispel doubts about its ability to take decisions, it has raised a political dust-storm more intense and widespread than it had probably bargained for. No doubt, taking a view on the issue of liberalising FDI norms for multi-brand retail had been on the government’s agenda for...

-The Indian Express   The Supreme Court has now indicated its willingness to examine recent examples of bail being denied to high-profile politicians and businesspersons, in contradiction of our higher courts’ established injunction that “bail is the rule and jail is the exception”. The matter came up in a hearing on Ashok Kumar Sinha, an associate of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who has been in interim custody for two years...

-PTI   The Supreme Court has declined to interfere with a Bombay High Court order that asked Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd, owner of the Times Now TV channel, to deposit Rs20 crore in cash along with a bank guarantee of Rs80 crore before its appeal against a Pune trial court ruling awarding Rs100 crore in damages for defaming a former apex court judge PB Sawant could be heard. PB Sawant’s photograph was...

-The Indian Express   The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a PIL seeking a CBI probe into alleged siphoning off of funds given to an NGO Hind Swaraj Trust run by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and issued notices to the Centre and Maharashtra government. A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai sought the governments' response on a petition filed by lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma accusing Hazare of siphoning off of...

-The Indian Express   The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is being increasingly questioned, as reports emerge about the divisions within the agency on calculating the loss to the public exchequer from the 2G licencing process. The CAG shot for drama in its high-profile press conferences, in which eye-catching numbers were trumpeted that became firmly ensconced in our collective memory. The 2G report was brandished triumphantly, like a World Cup trophy,...