-The Economic Times "We have no power." That's the message from India's most powerful - ministers in the central government's Cabinet - when asked to list the discretionary authority each enjoyed. Only one ministry concedes that it has some discretionary powers, which it is eager to shed.  Prodded by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, a group of ministers (GoM) has the job of finding the discretionary powers enjoyed by each ministry and prune...

The Law Commission recommends making Section 498A, IPC, compoundable, and women's groups say that would affect women's interests. A REPORT of the Law Commission of India on “Compounding of (IPC) Offences” suggesting that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which prescribes punishment for a husband or his relatives for subjecting a woman to cruelty, be made compoundable with the permission of the court, is fraught with several implications. The report...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The Law Commission’s bill on combating honour crimes falls short of what is required. Honour crimes – the illegal decrees by caste/clan/community panchayats to annul or prohibit marriages, social boycotts and even murder of couples – have finally drawn the attention of the State. A consultation paper released by the Law Commission contains a draft bill – The ­Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly (Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial...

The Sangh Parivar is systematically following its “Indianisation reforms” in schools run by its affiliates. THE attempts of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)-led Sangh Parivar at “saffronising” education attracted widespread attention between 1998 and 2004 when the Hindutva combine's political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), held the reins of power at the Centre. During that period, especially between 1998 and 2002, the BJP's Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi...

-The Telegraph Non-performing babus can lose their jobs after 15 years — instead of 30 now — following a change in rules by the Centre. All officers of the All India Services, which include the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Foreign Service and the Indian Revenue Service among others, will be covered by the rules notified last week by the department of personnel and training after consultation with the states. Under...