-The Hindustan Times Investigating agencies may soon be required to seek the Centre's permission to question even senior retired officials in a Corruption case, a move that is likely to pit it against the Supreme Court. No Corruption investigation or inquiry can be opened against a senior serving government official - of the rank of joint secretary and above - without the government's nod, which often slows down the probe and also...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unlike recent Parliament sessions when a large part of the sittings were complete washouts, the just-ended monsoon session saw passage of 10 legislations including UPA's flagship bills - food security and land acquisition. An official statement from parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath listed details of bills passed by both the Houses and legislations that were cleared separately by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Nath had said...

-The Indian Express Holding back the RTI amendment is not the best way to address public concerns about party finance. There has been great civil society uproar over the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which aims to extricate political parties from mandatory public disclosures, and nullify the Central Information Commission's recent order. While passing the amendment would have been all too easy, given the broad political consensus, a last-minute turnaround in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The rules of the game have changed for the political class, with the Supreme Court asking the government on Friday to enforce its order for immediate disqualification of sitting MPs, MLAs and MLCs convicted for an offence attracting a sentence of two years. "Sitting Members of Parliament and state legislators are no longer protected by clause 4 of Section 8 of the Representation of People Act,"...

-Outlook For the first time, a central government employee, who exposes Corruption in his department, will be able to get protection against any threat to his life. According to an amended resolution notified by the government, a nodal officer has been designated in each central ministry to look into complaints of Corruption received from whistleblowers--a term given to people who expose Corruption in government departments. "The Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) of the Ministries...