Some of the recent cases in the higher courts bring into sharp focus the dilemmas on the death penalty. ON October 10, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad stayed the execution of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving assailant in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack, by admitting his appeal against the death sentence awarded to him by the Bombay High Court. The Bench wondered whether Kasab deserved...

The National Mission to improve the delivery of justice is at work. In October 2009, on the basis of a Vision Document adopted at a judicial conference in New Delhi, the Government of India approved in principle a National Mission to reduce pendency and delays in the judicial system and enhance accountability through structural changes, higher performance standards and capacity-building. Many past attempts to achieve the goals did not yield results...

Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi sold off his business in 2003 to do something relevant. The Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai alumnus soon became a prolific user of the Right To Information Act and filed more than 800 RTI applications. He was appointed the Information Commissioner at the Central Information Commission, New Delhi, in 2008. In this freewheeling interview with rediff.com's Priyanka, Gandhi says that appellants must understand that law describes 'information' as something...

-The Times of India   The government plans to bring forward legislation to implement key transparency measures in procurement, exploitation of natural resources and electoral reform in the winter session of Parliament. A meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on corruption on Tuesday evening decided to move forward on anti-graft measures that it has been considering for some time now. The Vinod Dhall and Ashok Chawla committee recommendations on procurement and natural...

-The Times of India   Central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi on Sunday faulted the process of selection of information commissioners. "My selection is a flawed process. The process of selection of information commissioner is faulty," Gandhi told reporters here. Stating that the biggest threat to right to information was from the central and state commissions, Gandhi said prolonged pendency of cases with the commissions and faulty selection process of commissioners would defeat the...