-Down to Earth The country's 76 million poor have been denied the right to claim subsidised foodgrain under public distribution system The government has denied 76 million people in the country eligible to access public distribution system (PDS) the benefits of the food security system. For the past 20 years, the government has not cared to refresh its data and has been distributing foodgrain according to the population figure of 1991. Worse, the...

-IANS BJP leader Varun Gandhi, who was acquitted of all charges of making hate speeches before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, "brazenly subverted the entire judicial process to get his name cleared," according to an expose by news magazineTehelka. The magazine on Wednesday said its "investigation proves that not only did Varun make the venomous speeches he is accused of, he has compounded the original wrong by brazenly subverting the entire judicial...

-PTI A daughter-in-law should be treated as a family member and not as a maid, and she cannot be "thrown out of her matrimonial home at any time", the Supreme Court has said. The court was expressing concern over instances of brides being tortured in the country. The apex court made the observations while sentencing a man to five years imprisonment for torturing his wife and abetting her suicide. The court said a...

-Live Mint The GoM findings, draft will be submitted to the Supreme Court before 10 July Taking a cue from last week's adverse comments by the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to draft a law that will eventually seek to insulate the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from political influence. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, law minister Kapil Sibal and minister of...

-The Hindu The Communist Party of India (Marxist) described death penalty as "inhuman" and said death penalty should be abolished in the country as it is "arbitrarily implemented" and advocated imprisonment till death in rarest of the rare cases. A decision on the party's position was taken at a two-day Central Committee meeting of the CPI(M) that concluded here on Sunday. Talking to reporters here on Monday, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said...