-TheWire.in The letter by the former Delhi chief justice highlights the dangers of decriminalising the Companies Act, introducing electoral bonds, weakening the RTI Act and not implementing of the Lokpal Act and Whistleblowers Protection Act. New Delhi: In a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former chief justice of Delhi high court and noted rights activist A.P. Shah has lamented that “instead of increasing transparency and accountability and making the deterrents...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Forced to defer introduction of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the face of stiff opposition in Parliament and outside, the Narendra Modi government appears to have brought it into effect without parliamentary approval through an advertisement. On July 26, the department of personnel, public grievances & pensions issued an advertisement for appointment of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC) that said the "salary,...

-The Indian Express An RTI query filed by The Indian Express with the MoEF revealed that the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) was questioned as early as June of 2016 over its jurisdiction to draw up federal guidelines to regulate animal markets. New Delhi: Fifteen months before the controversial cattle trade rules were withdrawn by the Centre, questions were raised internally during the framing stage on whether the central government was...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Countries negotiating a global declaration on tuberculosis are under pressure to give up their rights to use existing provisions in world trade laws to provide affordable second-line and new anti-TB drugs to their populations, an international humanitarian agency said on Friday. Medecins Sans Frontieres said the US was "exerting extreme pressure" on other negotiators by refusing to sign the declaration if it retained text that "recognises the importance...

-The Hindu Constitutions are needed not only to limit wielders of existing power but to empower those traditionally deprived of it The recent judgment by the Supreme Court clarifying the respective jurisdictions of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor and its elected representatives and specifying the limits of their powers once again underlies how fortunate we are to have the Constitution. Why should gratitude be expressed for living under a constitutional democracy? Why do we...