An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...

-The Times of India   The court orders directing Times Now to deposit Rs 100 crore as a precondition for appeal in a defamation case involving Justice P B Sawant appears to have become a rallying point for the media, both electronic and print. On Friday, three top media organizations joined two journalist bodies, Editors' Guild of India and Foundation of Media Professionals, to stress that such orders pose a threat to the...

-The Indian Express   The Supreme Court has now indicated its willingness to examine recent examples of bail being denied to high-profile politicians and businesspersons, in contradiction of our Higher Courts’ established injunction that “bail is the rule and jail is the exception”. The matter came up in a hearing on Ashok Kumar Sinha, an associate of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who has been in interim custody for two years...

-The Hindu   Greater the power to punish for contempt, higher the responsibility Fair reporting of court proceedings and fair comments on the legal issues do not amount to contempt, the Supreme Court has ruled. “The power to punish for contempt is inherent in courts of record and described as a necessary incident to every court of justice. The power is an alienable attribute of court and inheres in every court of record. This...

From hypocrisy and secrecy to arrogance, nepotism and plagiarism, all bedevil the higher judiciary, said former Supreme Court Justice Ruma Pal today in one of the most scathing indictments of the higher judiciary by one who has been part of it. With sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court listening, Pal, delivering the fifth V M Tarkunde Memorial Lecture on ‘An Independent Judiciary’, turned the searchlight...