-The Times of India New Delhi: Moved by the plight of a single mother, women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi has urged external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to amend passport rules that make listing the father's name a mandatory requirement. Priyanka Gupta, a single mother from Delhi, had started a petition on change.org after the passport office reportedly insisted on having her husband's name in her daughter's passport, despite the fact...

It was a Rashomon moment for the readers of the First Common Review Mission report when they heard activists complaining about the pension system of Rajasthan during a recent press conference held in the capital. The First Common Review Mission (CRM) report, which was prepared during the month of May this year by a team of 32 experts had observed that pension related payments under the National Social Assistance Programmes (NSAP)...

-The Indian Express The court ruled that more than 1500 cases of alleged fake encounters in Manipur in the last 20 years "must be investigated." New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday said that indefinite deployment of armed forces in the name of restoring normalcy under AFSPA “would mock at our democratic process”, apart from symbolising a failure of the civil administration and the armed forces. The court also said that “ordinarily our armed...

-TheWire.in Married women are required to submit a marriage certificate or affidavit at the time of passport creation or renewal, though these documents are not demanded of married men. New Delhi: Despite senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj being at the helm in the Ministry of External Affairs, women passport applicants continue to face discrimination and harassment at regional passport offices and seva kendras across the country. Women applying for passports are finding that...

-The Hindu Differences over appointments process has meant 45% of sanctioned judges’ posts are empty Amid the continuing tussle between the government and the judiciary over the contentious clause in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) on appointment of judges, the number of vacancies of High Court judges has grown to 470 out of the sanctioned strength of 1079. In other words over 45 per cent of the positions of High Court judges are...