-The Hindu The Bill to amend the 2013 land acquisition Act is neither pro-farmer nor pro-poor Next week the economic agenda of the Narendra Modi government will face its biggest test in Parliament. The controversial Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 (LARR) that has been introduced in Lok Sabha is due for consideration of the house on March 9. While the government seems...

-The Hindu The proposed amendment bill to the Land Act has amendments that are an exercise of state power without reason, with the basis for these changes on assertions of a vague agenda of development. What is equally disturbing is that at least some of the changes that these amendments propose, if passed, would also be patently unconstitutional In his celebrated treatise on constitutional law, H.M. Seervai began a discussion on the...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The government decided to bar the telecast of a documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin on the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape, with home minister Rajnath Singh telling Parliament he was "stunned and deeply hurt" when he heard about the controversial interview of one of the convicts. Rejecting a request from India not to telecast the documentary, the BBC aired it in the early hours of Thursday (Indian time). But,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that land acquisition proceedings are deemed to have lapsed if the government fails to compensate landowners or take possession of acquired land within two years. The court said if the government was keen on retaining the acquired land, it must re-initiate acquisition proceedings as provided under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. A bench of...

-Business Standard Environment ministry readies draft, which allows industry to fell trees in traditional forest areas without consent of gram sabhas After a lot of back and forth, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is ready with a notification to dilute tribal rights that would make it possible for most industries to chop down traditional forests without the consent of gram sabhas - a precondition that exists at the moment. After the Prime...