The Lokpal Bill is in danger of skidding off the rails. As it is introduced in Parliament, eminent activist Aruna Roy tells Shoma Chaudhury why we should not rush into it. THE LOKPAL BILL is now being debated in Parliament, almost 40 years after the idea was first mooted. Unfortunately, parented on one side by decades of wilful government inertia and, on the other, by the panicked hustle of ‘Team...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on petitions seeking uniformity in the criteria for OBC admissions to central universities, including the Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru universities. Last week a Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik had referred the matter to Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia for posting it before another Bench. However, the CJI asked the same Bench to continue with the hearing. The issue is whether students...

-The Times of India   Team Anna on Thursday began burning copies of the government's version of the Lokpal Bill that was tabled in Parliament today. Team Anna said the symbolic protest would continue till August 16 when Gandhian Anna Hazare will go on fast to protest the exclusion of several recommendations made by civil society members on the bill. The proposed legislation introduced in the Lok Sabha doesn't cover the Prime Minister...

-The Indian Express   The Allahabad High Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, UP government, Greater Noida and Noida authorities and the Yamuna Expressway Development Industrial Authority (YEIDA) on a petition demanding a CBI probe into land acquisitions in Noida and Greater Noida from 2005 to 2010. Asking them to file counter-affidavits in two weeks, the court said it would examine the maintainability of the petition on the next date...

-The Telegraph   The Union cabinet today approved the Lokpal bill after overruling Manmohan Singh, who again advocated bringing the Prime Minister within the corruption ombudsman’s ambit. The higher judiciary, conduct of MPs inside Parliament, and the lower bureaucracy too have been kept out of the Lokpal’s jurisdiction. Anna Hazare, whose civil society group had insisted on all these sections and the Prime Minister being included, termed the draft a “cruel joke” and...