-The Hindu Petition says plant should be governed by principle of ‘absolute liability, polluter pays’ A fresh writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, contending that the Kudankulam nuclear power plant could not be commissioned without resolving the issue of Russia’s liability in case of an accident. The public interest litigation petition sought a declaration that the plant, in Tirunelveli district, would be governed by the law of the land, as...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court order on the appointment of Information Commissioners has had an unsettling effect on the working of the Right to Information Act, an elegant seven-year old law that has immeasurably empowered the average citizen. What was designed as an easy-to-use legal tool for the poor and weak may now be at risk of getting tangled in a web of complexity. The Court has, inter alia, ruled that...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: In a victory to generic drugmakers, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) of Chennai has dismissed German pharma major Bayer's plea, seeking a stay on the Compulsory Licence issued to Hyderabad-based drugmaker Natco. The Compulsory Licence (CL) issued by the Controller of Patents in March this year allowed Natco to make and sell a generic version of Nexavar - used for treating liver and kidney cancer - at...

-The Hindu Continued self-education is indispensable to honing the skills of lawyers in emerging areas of practice and to their social relevance in a changing world The Indian legal profession has grown over a short period of less than 50 years to become the world’s largest and most influential in the governance of the country. At the same time, it reflects the diversity of Indian society, its caste structure, inequalities and urbanised...

Between 2009 and February 2011, at least 14 people were charged with sedition in India London: The typical citizen could be forgiven for fearing that the world’s largest democracy is hurtling towards George Orwell’s 1984 rather than 2013. In late August the government’s department of telecommunications, citing the “communal tensions” around Assam, blocked more than 300 individual web addresses, including the Twitter profile pages of some journalists. It also ordered a limit...