-The Telegraph   The Supreme Court has criticised those who raise “the bogey of judicial activism or overreach” every time the courts try to enforce welfare laws. A two-judge bench said the courts do not exceed their jurisdiction by hearing public interest litigations filed by NGOs and social activists on behalf of the poor and illiterate. Rather, by doing so, the courts fulfil a mandate laid down in the Constitution’s chapter on...

The Supreme Court has underlined the need for giving proper equipment, adequate protection and safety gears to sewer workers who enter manholes for clearing blocks. Expressing anguish over the manner in which they were treated by the employers, a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said: “Given the option, no one would like to enter the manhole of a sewerage system for cleaning purposes, but there are people who...

-The Telegraph   Calcutta High Court today scrapped a 14-year-old tribunal that had been hearing all land and tenancy disputes involving the state government, saying the judiciary’s minority status in the set-up ran contrary to the Constitution. Today’s order means that the nearly 1 lakh cases pending with the tribunal will be shifted to the high court. The former Left Front government had enacted the West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, 1997,...

-The United Nations   About a billion people, if they wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes, are facing some pretty off-putting and sometimes gruesome graphics on the package cover, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today, marking the success of its warning campaign. In its third annual report on the global tobacco epidemic, launched today in Montevideo, Uruguay, the agency said more than one billion people in 19 countries...

As we close in on 20 years of Manmohanomics, it's worth remembering one chant the chattering classes uttered, first with pride, later to console themselves. “Whatever you say, we have the most honest man in Dr. Manmohan Singh. And no one can speak a word against him.” It's less heard now — those affections having been transferred to other punters in the honesty sweepstakes. But growing numbers do say this...