-Outlook Mumbai: Observing that the government has the power to transfer officials in special cases before completion of the tenure posting, the Bombay High Court has upheld the transfer of a senior police inspector following allegations of biased investigations. A division bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar was hearing a petition filed by senior police inspector Sanjeev Kokil, challenging his transfer from the MRA Marg police station in south Mumbai to...

-The Economic Times The RTI Act is undoubtedly a historic landmark and has energised sections of our population like nothing else before. But despite its careful crafting and a well-defined machinery to back it, getting those bits of information, which vested interests within the government wish to hide, are an extremely arduous task. Therefore, I was not surprised when my RTI, seeking simple information regarding the number of foreign trips undertaken...

-DNA "Frivolous and vexatious” — these were the words that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used while addressing this year’s edition of the annual Right To Information (RTI) convention. His choice of words raises several disturbing questions. The PM conveniently ignored the fact that there is no legal definition of what constitutes “frivolous and vexatious” and there is unlikely to be one in the future. Will one person’s understanding of “frivolous” be...

-The Hindu Nelamanagala Taluk/Allasandra village: They were confined against their wishes and without wages The last sight Khagapati Kumbhar (39) expected on Wednesday afternoon was a convoy of white government vehicles speeding towards the brick factory where he worked. Mr. Kumbhar and 13 other migrant labourers from his village in the backward Bolangir district of Odisha had been confined against their wishes and without wages in the factory since June. The convoy screeched to...

-The Hindu Proposed NIB would be illegal, she says Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan has expressed “very serious concern” at the setting up of a National Investment Board to fast-track clearances of major infrastructure projects, saying the “concept is unacceptable,” documents exclusively obtained by The Hindu reveal. In a five-page letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 9, Ms. Natarajan said the proposal would upturn established procedures...