-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Press Council of India has sought a clarification from the Union government over a gag order the home ministry issued last month to restrict media access to senior officials. In a letter sent yesterday to the information and broadcasting ministry, the council, the statutory body to regulate the print media in the country, sought an explanation on why a "section of the central government had asked senior...

-Hindustan Times The cabinet is to take up a law ministry proposal that aims to dispose of in three years cases involving the Centre and also minimise litigation by the government, the country’s biggest litigant. The new litigation policy — the draft of which has been seen by HT — wants the government to be a facilitator of justice and not a blocker by being a “compulsive litigant”. “We want to transform...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government's announcement that it would maintain a publicly available database of sex offenders is being portrayed as a significant step in addressing the threat posed by criminals whose crimes largely go unreported and hence encourage them to repeat the offence. It also addresses the general perception that such criminals tend to repeat their act and hence need to be monitored. A look at laws in other...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Just four of the 26 persons executed in India since 1991 belonged to the Muslim community, and yet a perception has been created by some media channels in the aftermath of the hanging of Yakub Memon that members of the minority community are being targeted, said government sources. An internal report by the I&B ministry has taken exception to the "tenor of discussion'' in the four...

-The Hindu Startling facts emerge from census; Maharashtra tops the list The practice of manual scavenging, officially banned since decades in India, continues with impunity in several States. The latest Socio-Economic Caste Census data released on July 3 reveals that 1, 80, 657 households are engaged in this degrading work for a livelihood. Maharashtra, with 63,713, tops the list with the largest number of manual scavenger households, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,...