-The Telegraph   The main points agreed upon in the Durban talks: Kyoto protocol extension After the failure of Copenhagen in 2009 to come up with a new, internationally-binding deal and only incremental progress a year later in Cancun, a partial legal vacuum had loomed as drafting a new UN treaty is extremely time-consuming. Sunday’s deal extends Kyoto, whose first phase of emissions cuts run from 2008 to the end of 2012. The second commitment...

The Supreme Court has held that it would not, under normal circumstances, interfere with judgments of acquittal in criminal cases, as these had the obvious trait of freedom having been granted to the citizen. A Bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and Ranjana Desai said: “Unless the judgement in appeal is contrary to evidence, palpably erroneous, or a view which could not have been taken by the court of competent jurisdiction keeping...

Our democracy is creaking, but it works—nominally at least. What it needs is not dilution, but deepening. When “Too Much Democracy” Works     Pressure in Parliament pushes PM Manmohan Singh to secure the resignation of telecom minister A. Raja in the 2G affair     The angst and trials of tribals in the Maoist bastion of Dantewada is sensed in Delhi after the media highlights their plight     People power at the sites of...

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Government to consider the plight of nurses working in hospitals who are victims of the allegedly illegal practice of bond, including the retaining of their original certificates to prevent them from leaving the institutions. A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar, without issuing notice on the petitions highlighting their problems, asked Solicitor-General Rohinton Nariman to...

In 2004, a boy was crushed to death by a vehicle when he was crossing the road in front of a school to fetch water. The school, in the heart of the nation’s capital, did not have drinking water facilities. Seven years later, courtesy the NGO Environmental and Consumer Protection Foundation and the Supreme Court, all Indian states (the last two being Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir) have given...