-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Stung by the recent spate of judgments ushering in a series of electoral reforms, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that judiciary should keep off a plea to bar persons, against whom charges have been framed in serious offences, from contesting polls as the issue fell squarely within the domain of legislature and government's policy arena. "The issue agitated through this petition are policy...

-The Indian Express Even as the Samajwadi government in Uttar Pradesh draws flak for delaying the arrest of politicians who allegedly fomented trouble ahead of the Muzaffarnagar riots, the Association of Democratic Research has found that 11 MPs and 26 MLAs across the country have been accused of attempting to whip up religious sentiments or wilfully damaging places of worship. The figures were collated after analysing affidavits submitted by candidates at...

-Kafila.org This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the CENTRE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander; former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan; Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University; National Integration Council member John Dayal; senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa. Introduction and Overview The first impression of the Muzaffarnagar countryside, now green...

-The Hindu     The Land Act leaves plenty of room for States and the Centre to bypass it and acquire land under other laws that do not provide adequate compensation and rehabilitation The amended version of the Land Acquisition Act has been passed, but it does not entirely settle the issues of dubious takeover of land and failure to pay fair compensation. Although renamed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land...

-Outlook Transparency promotes democracy, more the reason for political parties to come under RTI Act's purview There was great public outrage when legislators in Mumbai beat up an assistant police inspector because he stopped an MLA's car for speeding on the Bandra-Worli sealink. The sentiment was: What arrogance! How can lawmakers have so little respect for the laws they themselves made? How­ever, the amendment in Parliament aimed at removing political parties...