On August 26, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan resigned, taking responsibility for the disastrous meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was caused by the March 2011 undersea earthquake and ensuing tsunami. In India, on the other hand, the deliberate contamination of a drinking water tank with radioactive waste in the Kaiga nuclear power plant in Western Ghats in the state of Karnataka has gone unpunished for two whole...
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AP Impact: Right-to-know laws often ignored by Martha Mendoza
CHANDRAWAL, India—Satbir Sharma's wife is dead. His family lives in fear. His father's left leg is shattered, leaving him on crutches for life. Sharma's only hope lies in a new law that gives him the right to know what is happening in the investigation of his wife's death. Most of all, he wants to know what will happen to the village mayor, now in jail on murder charges. He talks quietly, under...
More »RBI asked to name top 100 defaulting industrialists by Anuja & Remya Nair
The commission has now directed RBI to furnish the information by 10 December to the applicant and publish it on its website by the month-end The Central Information Commission (CIC), which enforces the Right to Information Act, has directed the central bank to make public the names of the top 100 industrialists who have defaulted on loans taken from public sector banks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had declined to disclose...
More »Higher judiciary guilty of 7 sins: ex-SC judge pulls no punches by Maneesh Chhibber
From hypocrisy and Secrecy to arrogance, nepotism and plagiarism, all bedevil the higher judiciary, said former Supreme Court Justice Ruma Pal today in one of the most scathing indictments of the higher judiciary by one who has been part of it. With sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court listening, Pal, delivering the fifth V M Tarkunde Memorial Lecture on ‘An Independent Judiciary’, turned the searchlight...
More »The seven deadly sins of judges by Ruma Pal
Judges are fierce in using the word [“independence”] as a sword to take action in contempt against critics. But the word is also used as a shield to cover a multitude of sins, some venial and others not so venial. Any lawyer practising before a court will, I am sure, have a rather long list of these. I have chosen seven. The first is the sin of “brushing under the carpet”,...
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