-The Telegraph Don’t casually curb rights, govt told The Supreme Court on Friday frowned on the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir governments for claiming statutory immunity from revealing the reasons for the restrictions imposed in the region, quoting legal philosopher Lone L. Fuller to say “there can be no greater legal monstrosity than a secret statute”. “A democracy, which is sworn to transparency and accountability, necessarily mandates the production of orders as...

-The Indian Express It is unclear why the government initially assured the RBI that RBI "alone" will issue electoral bonds as it could not do so under Section 31(3) of RBI Act. On Tuesday, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha raised by DMK’s Tiruchi Siva about what the Reserve Bank’s “indirect” approval to the issuance of electoral bonds meant, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “RBI, being a stakeholder, was involved in...

-The Indian Express The RTI documents also show that over the 12 phases, just four cities accounted for 83 per cent of all electoral bonds by value. Electoral bonds with denomination of Rs 1 crore accounted for more than 91 per cent of the Rs 5,896 crore raised in the first eleven of the total twelve phases over which bonds were sold by select branches of the State Bank of India.   ...

-Orissapost.com Cuttack: In a bid to ensure transparency in paddy procurement, the state government is mulling introduction of iris recognition for farmers while selling the harvest at paddy procurement centres. According to sources, all paddy procurement centres (mandis) will be provided with iris scanners by the beginning of this kharif procurement season. “Farmers will be enrolled for the iris-scanning wherein the central server will store pictures of their unique iris. A farmer visiting...

-The Indian Express The scheduled hearing will decide the legality of several cases of land acquisition that took place across the country before 2009. The matter also raises significant questions on judicial discipline, and how judgments of the court are applied while deciding subsequent cases on similar issues. On Tuesday, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will begin hearing a case to clarify the interpretation of the law on...