After taking the historic step of putting details of their assets and liabilities on the Supreme Court’s official website, some of the judges had to scurry for cover in the face of looming threat from cyber criminals and had to change their bank account numbers. Speaking at a national consultative meeting on launching of cyber law enforcement programme on Sunday, Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said, "We had put on...

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...

A survey of the Supreme Court’s docket finds a court overwhelmed by petitions from those with money and resources.  THE Indian Supreme Court has a reputation for being a “people’s court” or, as one judge put it, a “last resort for the oppressed and bewildered”. The Constitution gives all Indians the right to petition directly the Supreme Court if their fundamental rights are violated and the right to appeal to...

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...