The agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant can be seen as a case of activism gone berserk. The high-octane drama against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has wound down. The seven-month-long agitation led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) at Idinthakarai village in Tirunelveli district, demanding the closure of the ready-to-be commissioned project, ended on March 27 when S.P. Udayakumar, PMANE convener, called off...

Seven months after police fired at villagers on the Pune-Mumbai expressway killing three of them, 48 farmers summoned on Friday for questioning for their alleged in violence during the incident were arrested, produced in court and sent to jail. The farmers, who assumed that they were being called for routine questioning, were taken aback after the arrest. They have been booked under IPCs several sections like attempt to murder, rioting,...

The CBI is set to chargesheet policemen and government officials for the Nandigram firing once it receives the Bengal government’s sanction for prosecution. “We are preparing the chargesheet,” said a senior CBI official, claiming the agency had an airtight case. He did not reveal the identities of those who would be chargesheeted. “Next week, we will write to the Mamata Banerjee government seeking sanction for prosecution against the policemen, police officers and...

There are two serious points of disagreement in the reports of the SIT and the amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran. THE Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate, M.S. Bhatt, on February 15, rejected pleas seeking copies of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team's (SIT) report on the 2002 Gujarat carnage until March 15 on a technicality – that the SIT needs more time to submit its full report along with all documents, evidence and other...

The Law Commission recommends making Section 498A, IPC, compoundable, and women's groups say that would affect women's interests. A REPORT of the Law Commission of India on “Compounding of (IPC) Offences” suggesting that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which prescribes punishment for a husband or his relatives for subjecting a woman to cruelty, be made compoundable with the permission of the court, is fraught with several implications. The report...