‘Independence of judiciary and right to free speech are of great value' A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will decide the conflict between the right of citizens to obtain information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the right to immunity enjoyed by the judiciary not to disclose information pertaining to appointment of judges. A Bench comprising Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar on Friday referred to the...

It is quite likely that a few weeks from now someone will be knocking at your doors and asking for your fingerprints. If you agree, your fingerprints will enter a national database, along with personal characteristics (age, sex, occupation, and so on) that have already been collected from you, unless you were missed in the “Census household listing” earlier this year. The purpose of this exercise is to build the National...

The institution of Auditor General, established in 1860, became Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) with the commencement of the Constitution. On the occasion of the initiation of year-long celebrations to mark 150 years of the institution, may one, as a former member of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, put forward a few suggestions (numbered for convenience) aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the institution? 1. It is a...

A lot has been said and written about the visit of Barack Obama, the President of USA to India. The corporate media was in the usual over-enthusiastic drive to bring to its readers and viewers all minute details about his visit from where he stayed and what he ate to how many warships, planes and cars accompanied him and how a whopping $200 million was spent per day for the...

The Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games has got yet another blow vis-à-vis the corruption charges and various probes that it is facing owing to the alleged corruption in the Games and related affairs. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued summons to the OC asking it to submit all documents related to alleged discrepancies in the ticketing, Queen's Baton Relay and the conduct of the Games. The transparency watchdog...