-The Hindu Business Line     The Comptroller and Auditor General's suggestion that the CBI be given constitutional status similar to that of his own office is not without Merit. Every now and then, the issue of freeing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Government's clutches takes on a fresh urgency. The latter's response has been to wait till the fuss died down and eventually do nothing. There are no special reasons...

-The Hindu   Last week's jail sentence for two prominent Shiv Sainiks is historic as it upholds the first such conviction against a member of that party Sent to jail for two months and fined Rs.5,000. Twenty years after their crime, this was the sentence handed down last week by a sessions court to two Shiv Sena leaders. This was for their provocative speeches during the Mumbai riots following the demolition of the...

-The Times of India While disapproving law minister Ashwani Kumar's interference with the coal scam investigations, the Supreme Court invoked a 1997 judgment to drive home the message that even the Prime Minister, who has administrative jurisdiction over the CBI, did not have the power to do so. This was one of the highlights of the written order released on Thursday of the three-hour hearing the previous day in which the government...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court's verdict last week quashing the President's rejection of a Mercy petition by Mahendra Nath Das, who was to hang for a gruesome murder, shows a salutary approach to the question of whether a prolonged delay in disposing pleas for clemency should not be a ground for commuting death sentences to life terms. The court took note of the 12-year delay prior to the rejection of Das's...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court Wednesday said it was perturbed by the CBI changing the "heart" of the coal blocks allotment probe status report at the instance of its "masters" and ordered the agency's director to ensure that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and other ministers do not have access to such reports in the future. The keenly-watched hearing lasted three hours and witnessed the CBI incurring the wrath of the court...