Central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has put forth a compelling argument for placing public-private partnerships (PPPs) under the ambit of the Right to information (RTI) Act in an order passed earlier this week. Though the order pertains to a specific case in Delhi, it will have far reaching implications for the rest of the country. The Central Information Commission (CIC) recognizes PPPs as public bodies that must provide information under the...

After the brutal murder of Azad, is there any hope for well-meaning routine calls for “dialogue” and “peace talks”? What can the "civil society" do as a serious, real intervention? It is reported that the decades-old talks with Naga insurgent groups has made some progress recently (See “Differences ‘narrowed’,” Times of India, July 19, 2011). One reason why talks have a chance in these cases is that separatism comes in...

A court judgment delivered earlier this year holds important lessons for those engaged in investigating and fighting terrorism. Questioning the methods of terror investigation is always a challenge because it is so easily seen as defending the enemies of the nation. The exercise is monumentally difficult after a benumbing bomb attack — especially if it has been judged to be the work of a home-grown Islamist organisation. The raging anger at this...

-Express News Service   The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the invocation of emergency clause by the Mayawati government to acquire private land for the construction of a district jail without hearing objections raised by the aggrieved land owners. “The series of events shows lethargy and lackadaisical attitude of the state government,” a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu observed against the manner in which the state government...

-The Indian Express   The Punjab and Haryana High Court pulled up the Haryana government on Monday in connection with the acquisition of land for development of Sectors 58-63 in Gurgaon, which includes the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Ullahawas village. The case is slated to come up for hearing again tomorrow. Last week, the Haryana government had submitted that it would reconsider the acquisition of over 850 acres of land in Gurgaon,...