-The Telegraph   Digvijay Singh today once again called the Centre’s counter-Maoist policy to question, saying there was no need to ask for a review of the Supreme Court order that said the Salwa Judum vigilante force was unconstitutional and tribal youths appointed as special police officers should be disarmed. “I think there is no need for a review petition,” the Congress leader said when asked why the government was seeking a...

-The Telegraph   The finance and law ministries have locked horns over who will lead the battle against black money. A meeting of a finance ministry probe team under the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has been put off indefinitely following a Supreme Court order to set up a special investigative team (SIT), headed by former apex court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy, to probe illicit funds. While the panel...

-The Telegraph   The Supreme Court has criticised those who raise “the bogey of judicial activism or overreach” every time the courts try to enforce welfare laws. A two-judge bench said the courts do not exceed their jurisdiction by hearing public interest litigations filed by NGOs and social activists on behalf of the poor and illiterate. Rather, by doing so, the courts fulfil a mandate laid down in the Constitution’s chapter on...

-The Telegraph   Calcutta High Court today scrapped a 14-year-old tribunal that had been hearing all land and tenancy disputes involving the state government, saying the judiciary’s minority status in the set-up ran contrary to the Constitution. Today’s order means that the nearly 1 lakh cases pending with the tribunal will be shifted to the high court. The former Left Front government had enacted the West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, 1997,...

-The Hindu   Judiciary has stepped in only because of executive inaction Rejecting the criticism of judicial activism, the Supreme Court has said the judiciary has stepped in to give directions only because of executive inaction what with laws enacted by Parliament and the State legislatures in the last 63 years for the poor not being implemented properly. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly pointed out that laws enacted for...