A government panel has recommended an income-linked cap on marriage expenses as part of amendments to curb dowry harassment. “Introduction of ceilings in terms of percentage of income on gifts and marriage expenditure needs to be considered. A limit should also be put on marriage expenditure in terms of food,” the high-powered Planning Commission panel on women empowerment has said. The panel, made up of senior officials of the women and child...

-The Times of India Days after Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia said that irrelevant RTI queries were impeding the working of judges in courts, Central Information Commission said the remarks would have a significant negative impact on RTI. Information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, in a letter to the CJI, said that his comments could "dampen the RTI journey of India". Gandhi admitted that RTI was being used in a trivial...

The government is planning to tighten the rules for issuing and renewing driving licences to make the process “fudge proof” after a study showed drivers’ fault accounted for most road accidents in the country. A committee of state transport commissioners and officials from the National Informatics Centre recently came up with suggestions on possible amendments to the rules. The panel, headed by Andhra Pradesh transport commissioner Hiralal Samariya, has submitted its report...

Nothing illustrates the threat that the FIR raj poses to personal liberty more starkly than the arbitrary manner in which two complaints in the cartoon case were pursued. One complaint was filed against Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra by a Trinamul supporter, accusing him of emailing “obscene” content about the chief minister. The second was lodged by Mahapatra, accusing four persons with Trinamul links of assaulting him. The strikingly divergent police response...

The Union environment and forests ministry (MoEF) has taken a position countering the Union government's department of personnel and training (DoPT) and stuck to its demand for a CBI inquiry in the forestry scam cases in Haryana. In a letter written to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the environment ministry has reiterated its view that severe violations of forests and wildlife laws were committed in the three cases - digging a...