-The Times of India BANGALORE: Competitive parenting has reached a new level, with parents taking the RTI route to lay their hands on the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (Class 10th) answer scripts of their kid's classmates. The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board, which conducts the exam for over eight lakh students every year, is in a fix. Following a spike in such applications, it has written to the Karnataka government seeking...
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State, private property and the Supreme Court -Namita Wahi
-Frontline Reinstatement of the fundamental right to property in the Constitution will on its own do little to protect the interests of poor peasants and traditional communities. The Indian Constitution adopted in 1950 guaranteed a set of fundamental rights that cannot be abridged by Central or State laws. One of these fundamental rights was the right to property enshrined in Articles 19(1)(f) and 31. Article 19(1)(f) guaranteed to all citizens the right...
More »Supreme Court refuses to exempt minority aided schools from RTE
-The Economic Times The Supreme Court has refused to exempt minority aided schools from the purview of the Right to Education Act, asking them to reserve at least 25% of their seats from Class I onwards for children from weaker and disadvantaged sections living in the neighbourhood as mandated by the Act. The order, passed by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia, also said these institutions should...
More »Court ruling puts some State Information panels in limbo
-The Hindu Hearings suspended in Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan A quick survey of the fallout of the Supreme Court order directing that State Information Commissions “henceforth” work on benches of two members each — one of them a ‘judicial member’ and the other an ‘expert member’ — has shown that work in some SICs hearing appeals under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has ground to a halt. Other SICs found no barrier to...
More »An excessive remedy
-The Hindu The Supreme Court order on the appointment of Information Commissioners has had an unsettling effect on the working of the Right to Information Act, an elegant seven-year old law that has immeasurably empowered the average citizen. What was designed as an easy-to-use legal tool for the poor and weak may now be at risk of getting tangled in a web of complexity. The Court has, inter alia, ruled that...
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