Despite criticism of the appointment process, and pendency , the Supreme Court appears to enjoy public confidence like no other institution As the Supreme Court of India approaches its final week of hearings for the year, a look back shows it has dominated the national consciousness by ruling on myriad issues. The court was conceived by the framers of the constitution to deal mainly with fundamental questions of law. But India’s top...

Bombay HC had said he enjoyed no such immunity   The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the orders of the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court which held that the Governor of Goa was a public authority and would come within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The High Court had held that the Governor enjoyed no immunity from the RTI Act and that the Public Information Officer at the...

-The Hindustan Times   With great power comes great freedom. Which, in turn, calls for being responsible. The act to do things freely is one of the fundamental joys of being part of a liberal democracy. With powerful technological platforms and social networking sites such as Facebook, even repressed societies get to savour unfettered expression. But there is a flip side to such a freedom. And this involves the need to respect the...

A report of the National People's Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of 'torture' under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.   According to the tribunal, headed by Justice A P Shah, communal forces used religious conversions as an issue for political mobilisation...

The Goa government has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of Bombay High Court's Goa bench bringing governor's report to the Centre about the political situation in a state under the ambit of Right to Information Act, a decision that created major legal discomfort in the corridors of power. The appeal by Goa government, which has also sought a stay on the November 14 HC verdict, is listed for mentioning...