-The Economic Times   The government's flagship rural employment programme may soon get a dedicated legal setup that would enable state governments to fast-track conviction of erring officials and panchayat heads implementing the scheme. The rural development ministry, which implements the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) through state departments and panchayats, is going to approach the Supreme Court to facilitate setting up of NREGA mobile Courts in every district....

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday gave a thumbs-up to the independent social audit mechanism adopted by the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government for the NREGS. He brushed aside reservations expressed by a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), the apex monitoring agency for the rural job guarantee scheme, while endorsing Gujarat’s model. “Let there be multiplicity of mechanisms. They need to be independent and transparent. It can be...

-Express News Service   A special riots court awarded life sentences to 31 people, mostly landed Patels of Sardarpura village in this district, for killing 33 Muslims who were employed as their farm labourers and were their neighbours, to avenge the Godhra train burning of February 27, 2002. Of the dead, 17 were women and 11 children. Principal District Judge S C Srivastava convicted them for murder, rioting and promoting enmity between different...

—PTI Dismissive of the news broadcast industry's self-regulatory mechanism, Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju has said if TV channels do not want to come under the PCI they should choose another body like the Lokpal. “Self-regulation is no regulation and news organisations are private bodies whose activities have a large influence on the public and they also must be answerable to the public,” he said. On Sunday, Justice Katju wrote...

-The Hindu   The Supreme Court has expressed serious concern over fake encounters by the police and said “tolerance of police atrocities would amount to acceptance of systemic subversion and erosion of the rule of law”. Upholding the life sentence awarded to four Punjab Police officers who were responsible for kidnap and killing of a human rights activist, a Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan said: “Police atrocities are always violative...