-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked all authorities to stick to the guidelines laid down by a Constitution bench 54 years ago while invoking the sedition law. The five-judge bench had ruled in 1962 that the sedition law could be activated only if "violence and public disorder" had been incited. The directive today came against a backdrop of complaints that sedition cases were being filed indiscriminately to crush dissent and...

-The Hindu Of the 147 cases registered in 2015, 63 were from the region; Assam recorded the highest number. Kolkata: The seven States of the northeast account for about 42 per cent of the total ‘offences against State’ registered in the country in 2015 according to the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NRCB). Across the country, 147 cases were registered in 2015 of which 63 are from the seven northeast...

Access to land and its resources is important since it determines the extent of poverty and deprivation one faces. Historically tribal populations and other traditional forest dwellers did not enjoy any legal entitlement such as ownership rights or user rights of the forest lands where they had been living since ages, both communally and individually. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) is, thus, seen as a progressive legislation that attempted to...

-Newslaundry.com A new study shows how both state and central governments flouted SC orders in drought hit states Thirty three crore people were affected in 10 states by the drought in 2015-16. However, despite Supreme Court orders to provide subsidised food grain and continue mid day meal scheme during summer holidays, the centre and the state governments failed to do so. The court’s order had come on May 13, during the Swaraj...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Government transport in Haryana, Karnataka and Telangana, industrial areas in the National Capital region, hotels in Himachal Pradesh and banks and insurance offices across India may not function on Friday as central trade unions will hit the streets for a general strike. Last year, the trade union’s strike saw an estimated 15 crore workers take the day off. “This year we expect the figures to be higher,” said...