Union Law and Justice Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Sunday hinted that the Centre was working out a proposal to amend the Right to Information (rti) Act relating to the judiciary. However, he made it clear to journalists here that the proposal was independent of the Delhi High Court verdict on January 12 this year. In its judgment against the Supreme Court, the High Court had held that the office of...

Satish Shetty's murder raises some critical issues. Before everyone forgets him, can we learn some lessons and put such systems in place so that such murders do not take place in future? Before Shetty, Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath and many others died fighting corruption. It raises two issues — timely and effective investigation into allegations of corruption and security of those who raise their voices. Do we have an effective and...

Activists realise it takes a fight to translate democracy from thin paper to thick action In the winter of 1997, advocate Ashok Agarwal filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing the nearly 400 per cent hike in school fees. This was the year the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented and the salaries of teachers shot up. Parents trying to cope with the overall price rise were suddenly hit by...

‘Certain areas of judiciary cannot be made public and it is not necessary’ Institutional decisions by CJI should be kept out Certain areas of the functioning of the judiciary, including the process of selection of judges, should be kept out of the purview of Right to Information (rti) Act in the interest of the independence of the judiciary, said Justice Rajendra Babu, the former Chief Justice of India and the former Chairman...

The Election Commission has admitted that it misplaced two complaints drawing the panel’s attention to the use of child labour in elections and Dalits being denied entry in some Rajasthan booths. Acting on one of the complaints by advocate Radhakant Tripathy, the commission had issued an order on May 1, 2009, to all state chief secretaries and chief electoral officers to desist from employing child labour in the election process. However,...