-Business Standard Claims Bill did not respect rights of people under the Forest Rights Act and gave unbridled control over thousands of crores to forest bureaucracy On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi regretted that the Compensatory Afforestation (CA) Bill could not be passed in the budget session of Parliament. On Saturday, outgoing Rajya Sabha member from Congress Jairam Ramesh hit back at the NDA, saying the reason the bill could not be...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre today urged the Supreme Court to dismiss Congress Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh's petition challenging the Aadhaar law, contending that an act passed by Parliament was immune from judicial challenge. "The fact is that the law has been passed as a money bill and the Speaker has confirmed it. It is immune from any judicial challenge," attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi told a bench headed by Chief Justice...

-The Hindu Rather than criminalising bribegivers, the objective of combating coercive corruption would be achieved if the government puts in place a grievance redress mechanism The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the key legislation which defines what constitutes corruption and prescribes penalties for corruption-related offences, is set to be amended by Parliament. The proposed Bill, now before a select committee of the Rajya Sabha, includes several contentious Amendments that are likely to...

-The Hindu The object of the amended provisions is to speed up the process of dispensation of justice, liberalise and expedite access to relief for victims of atrocities. Four months after Parliament amended the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 to tighten provisions to ensure speedier justice to SCs and STs, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry notified the Rules to give effect to the changes...

-The Hindu Parliament inserted Section 61 A in the Act concerned to legitimise the use of EVMs Kochi (Kerala): The Electronic voting machines (EVMs), now ubiquitous, had a troubled beginning when the gadgets were first introduced in the country, in some of the polling booths of the Paravur Assembly constituency in Ernakulam district in the 1982 Assembly poll. Locked in the battle then were the late Congress leader A.C. Jose and CPI leader...