-The Times of India PANAJI: In a recent significant judgment, the Supreme Court has held that the state's panchayats have the right to challenge government authority decisions before the high court, as the grassroots-level bodies represent the will of the people. The apex court verdict thus overruled the high court of Bombay at Goa's judgment which had declined relief to the Calangute panchayat. The panchayat had questioned before the high court an order...

-The Hindu The debate over the cartoons used in NCERT textbooks as aids to learning have thrown up a range of issues. The discussion has crystallised around a set of oppositions: motivated political correctness of our elected representatives vs. the necessity of preemptory parliamentary intervention on educational material appropriate for schools; institutional autonomy vs. political responsibility of a state presiding over a diverse and fraught society; the hubris of ‘experts’ vs....

-The Times of India India is all set to weed out and check the ever mushrooming clinics involved in renting a womb or carrying out Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).  The Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, prepared by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), will make it mandatory for all clinics involved in treating infertility through procedures like artificial insemination with husband's semen (AIH) or in-vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF) to get registered...

-The Hindu ‘Law declared insofar as spectrum cannot be extended to other natural resources’   The far-reaching nature of implementing the 2G judgment insofar as it was extended to auctioning of all natural resources (other than spectrum) would have a huge impact on Foreign Direct Investment and other investments in this country, argued Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Justifying the Presidential Reference and the need for an advisory opinion...

-The Times of India Outgoing information commissioner (IC) Shailesh Gandhi has blamed the Delhi high court for frustrating the purpose of the RTI Act by staying several CIC orders. In a 56-page reply filed in the HC in response to a petition against him filed by a CIC official, Gandhi has dismissed charges of bias and questioned the court's practice of granting ex-parte stays on CIC verdicts. "It appears Delhi high court...