-The Telegraph The Supreme Court has disbanded its 17-year-old green sentinel. The court has wound up its green bench that sat every Friday since 1995 to deal with matters of forests and wildlife and had recently banned iron ore mining in Bellary, Karnataka, one among a host of far-reaching orders related to the environment. No reasons were given for disbanding the bench, a move legal experts said was inexplicable. The bench has, however, not...

-The Hindu Auction alone cannot be insisted upon for disposal of all types of natural resources, Attorney General (AG) G.E. Vahanvati asserted in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Such an approach mandated in the 2G judgment, apart from being impractical in certain situations, can be counter-productive and can impact planned and coordinated growth and economy of the country, the AG told a five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court today slapped fines of Rs 10,000 each on the state chief secretary and another official for failing to ensure a timely government affidavit, a nagging problem that plagues the judiciary and against which the court has spoken out earlier. While hearing a public interest litigation filed by Md Ashique Ahmed on reorganisation of scheduled areas, a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice Jaya...

-The Hindu Veteran socialist Mrinal Gore, known for her dauntless activism on the issues of price rise, water rights and women’s empowerment, passed away following cardiac arrest at Vasai, Thane district on Tuesday. She was 84. “For the past 10 days she was at my house,” said daughter Anjali Vartak. “She had suffered a bronchitis attack and was on ventilator. She was feeling weak. She had fever too. Today [on Tuesday] she was...

-The Telegraph Jharkhand High Court today ruled out return of land acquired by the state government in Nagri way back in 1957-58, even as it reproached public representatives for “blowing the issue out of proportion and misguiding the poor and illiterate”. The court also asked the government to translate all earlier court orders into Hindi and regional languages for circulation among the villagers so that they understood the issue better. “Land acquired cannot...