-Deccan Herald An NGO on Monday approached the Supreme Court against the Union government’s decision to appoint Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as acting director of the CBI. New Delhi: ‘Common Cause’, the NGO through advocate Prashant Bhushan contended that the government in “deliberate dereliction” did not convene meeting of the Collegium comprising the prime minister as chairperson and Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India as members to select...

-PTI Shanti Bhushan appeared for the the petitioner NGO Common Cause that has challenged the Rules for setting up the Lokpal Search Committee. The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its disappointment over the Centre for not appointing Lokpal despite Parliament enacting a law in this regard in January 2014. While the Centre said that the amendment bill is pending in Parliament to include the leader of largest opposition party, a bench headed...

-The Indian Express It doesn’t have sufficient power and independence, and seems unworkable. The absence of an adequately independent and empowered body to investigate and prosecute allegations of corruption, especially relating to the rich and the powerful, has been a longstanding concern in India. The Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) relative independence has proved ineffective as it has few resources at its disposal while the CBI, which is relatively empowered, lacks independence —...

-The Indian Express Modi government has damaged the rights-based legislative framework without spelling out what will replace it. No  one in the last two decades has come to power with greater euphoria than the Narendra Modi sarkar. It has taken less than a year for that euphoria to recede and change to disappointment. There are sufficient reasons for this change. The celebrations of the first year in office of  this government are in sharp...

-FirstPost.com Former Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Shailesh Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the Centre for allegedly rendering the Right to Information (RTI) Act "dysfunctional" by taking retrogressive steps. In an open letter written to a section of the media, Gandhi said, "the present Prime Minister has taken preemptive action by not appointing a Chief Information Commissioner at all to render it dysfunctional." Gandhi, a noted RTI activist from Mumbai, was appointed to...