Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday said it was a matter of concern that the police, prosecutors and judges were ignoring the guidelines issued by the Centre on handling of cases of crime against women. Responding to supplementaries during the question hour in the Lok Sabha, he said there were strict guidelines on how a case (crime against women) should be investigated and prosecuted. “I agree that the guidelines are...

On International Anti-Corruption Day (9 December), the United Nations has warned that corruption kills development, and is one of the biggest impediments to reaching the Millennium Development Goals. "When public money is stolen for private gain, it means fewer resources to build schools, hospitals, roads and water treatment facilities. When foreign aid is diverted into private bank accounts, major infrastructure projects come to a halt," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He warned...

The declaration of assets by Supreme Court judges recently is a belated step in the right direction. By challenging the direction of the Central Information Commission in the high court, and then appealing against its decision, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) gave an impression that instead of being a paladin of impartiality and transparency, he was more interested in protecting his peers. This voluntary move appears to have been...

The world’s biggest industrial disaster took place in Bhopal on December 3, 1984 taking a toll of 20,000 lives and affecting 5.69 lakh people. The twentyfifth anniversary of that massive mishap at the Union Carbide plant in the city is being observed across the country today. That disaster is a crying shame for all our citizens. Why? For three reasons. First, the real culprit behind the mishap, the Union Carbide management,...

The increase in the number of civil cases in a country is its social mascot, as it symbolises the abundance of law abiding civilised citizens accepting the authority of the judiciary to get their grievances redressed. Otherwise, they would have turned to self-retaliation or employed roughnecks, a usual practice in America and Britain enkindled by their criminal heritage, to enforce justice in their own way; hence all civil litigants may...