-The Hindu Single judge’s order set aside; setback to Mamata government In a setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday struck down the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, terming it “unconstitutional and void.” The law was enacted by the Trinamool Congress-led government to return a portion of the land acquired for the Tata Motors’ small car factory at Singur to “unwilling farmers”...

-The Hindu Reservation on the basis of religion has always raised serious constitutional concerns and a recent ruling of the Andhra Pradesh High Court (which the Supreme Court refused to stay) declaring the sub-quota for minorities unconstitutional only illustrates this constitutional tension. This is not the first time that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has declared reservation for religious minorities constitutionally invalid. In 2005, a five-judge-bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court...

-The Hindu “The aim of education is social development, and not profit-making. ‘Education shops' must either not be allowed to function or must not have profit as their motive,” said Anil Sadgopal, presidium member, All India Forum for Right to Education (AIF-RTE). Announcing that the State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS) along with the AIF-RTE will be organising a two-day all-India conference for ‘Abolishing commercialisation of education and building a...

John Vidal, who was in Rio for the '92 Earth summit, looks back at that momentous event, and how the 2012 version compares Helicopters thundered up and down the chic Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Tanks guarded the bridges and tunnels. The favelas were in lockdown, schools closed and supermarkets stood empty. Unexpectedly, George H W Bush, the 41st US president, flush with success at the collapse of communism, had arrived in...

-The Hindustan Times Though the high courts in the country are supposed to deliver justice in Right To Information (RTI) cases, they are the very institutions that  make implementation of the law difficult, a study by a government institute has found. The study conducted by the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, which evaluates the efficacy of the transparency law, finds that many high courts have prescribed rules for RTI in violation...