Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts at protecting and preserving forests. Numerous groups and individuals working...

-The Hindustan Times Mumbai: With the proposed government guidelines on the Right to Education Act nowhere in sight, many city schools have enrolled students under the 25% RTE quota, despite the risk that such admissions could be declared illegal later. The government notification containing guidelines and schedules for the implementation of the RTE Act was to be issued in November 2012. Many schools had delayed the admission schedule waiting for the notification...

-The Indian Express With the CBI making its first arrests in the Ishrat Jahan case, Ujjwala Nayudu and Rahul Tripathi look at past investigations, all of which have punctured holes in the Gujarat Police’s encounter theory When were Ishrat Jahan and three others killed? Was it in a police encounter on June 15, 2004, as the Gujarat Police’s records show, or a day earlier, on the evening of June 14, as subsequent...

-The Times of India An undercover sting investigation across India has shown up startling videos of bank executives of three leading private banks - HDFC, ICICI and Axis - providing ready assistance to a reporter, posing as a minister's Aide, for laundering black money into white through the banking system in clear contravention of banking norms and laws. Shaken by the disclosure, the three banks asserted that they were committed to transparent...

-Outlook Indore: Lokayukta Police today arrested a village panchayat secretary for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from a physically handicapped man in exchange of financial Aid to him under Indira Awas Yojana scheme. Panchayat secretary of Tigariya village, Dilip Patel was arrested in Khandwa district on complaint of Vinod Shankarlal, Lokayukta police sAid. Shankarlal was set to get Rs 45,000 under IAY to construct a house, out of which he had...