-The Hindu   Respondents given four weeks to respond to mother's plea Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Assam government, the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA), and the managing committee and Principal of Kristo Jyoti School in Bokakhat, upper Assam, asking them to show cause in four weeks as to why a petition, which challenged an order of the school authorities - debarring a four-year-old nursery student,...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court ripped apart the myth of CBI's autonomy on Tuesday by exposing that it was under the thumb of the government of the day. The apex court tore into the government for seeking to vet the CBI's status report to the SC on the Coalgate scam and subvert it. The court didn't mince words while saying that the government's attempt to change the investigation status report...

-The Hindu     ‘We have nothing against Fathima, but cannot make a special case for her' Guwahati: The mother of a four-year-old Muslim girl has moved the Gauhati High Court after the authorities of a Catholic Mission-run school, Kristo Jyoti School, near Bokakhat in upper Assam's Golaghat district refused to allow her daughter Fathima Beevi to wear a ‘hijab' (headscarf) along with the school uniform. The school's authorities have given the girl's parents 15...

-Economic and Political Weekly The government’s response to the protests led by the youth against the gang rape incident in New Delhi, in the form of an ordinance has not met the aspirations of the many protestors and the woman rights’ organisations. It can in fact be accused of being vindictive, having ignored the thoroughgoing recommendations of the government appointed justice Verma committee's report. Albeena Shakil (albeenashakil@gmail.com) is a women rights’ activist...

-The Hindu With the exception of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, hardly anyone of consequence has supported Pragaash, the Valley’s first all-girl rock band, the members of which have gone into hiding after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit. Three fresh Facebook pages have come up with nearly 1,000 supportive posts in the past four days but most...