-The Economic Times   The row over opening up of the retail sector escalated on Monday with Congress' Kerala unit backing the rollback demand of 12 Opposition-controlled state governments and UPA allies DMK and Trinamool Congress.  The fissures within the ruling alliance and the potential of the issue to bring disparate Opposition groups together saw Congress president Sonia Gandhi intervening to cut political losses for her party. Sonia, who held consultations with Prime...

—PTI Differences in the Congress over allowing FDI in retail surfaced on Sunday with Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ramesh Chennithala writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the move and asking the party government in the State not to implement it. Party equations The Congress in Kerala has been opposing FDI in retail fearing that the Opposition Left will capitalise on it by weaning away small and marginal retail shop owners from...

-The Hindu   Every award of a lok adalat, including an order recording a settlement between the parties in a ‘cheque bouncing case' under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, is deemed a civil court decree, and as such it is executable by a civil court, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and J. Chelameswar said: “Section 21 of the Legal Services Authorities Act does not...

Reservation for Muslims in jobs and education — feverishly anticipated over the past two years and expected to be announced ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections — might turn out to be a headache the Congress unthinkingly bought itself. As Muslim groups have been arguing, the route under the United Progressive Alliance government's consideration — a 6 per cent Muslim sub-quota within the 27 per cent OBC quota — would...

-The Hindu None of the reasons given by the Tamil Nadu government for imposing a ban on the film Dam 999 holds water. The right to freedom of speech and expression, as enshrined in the Constitution and upheld time and again by the Supreme Court of India, is too dear to be sacrificed at the altar of political contingency. Everything the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, Debendranath Sarangi, stated about the film...