-The Hindu Jaipur: It is the Chandpole cremation ground in the heart of Jaipur city. Groups of people have come to perform the last rites of their loved ones. The mood is sombre. But the exercise, one will observe, is rather mechanical. Each family seems to know under which shed they have to perform the last rites. If they don't, they are directed to the right one by the workers at the...

-The Business Standard Forest Rights Act being reinterpreted to avoid amendment Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is discussing possible ways to do away with the mandatory requirement of securing consent from tribal gram sabhas (village councils) before cutting down their forests for industrial purposes. The deliberations, on among various ministries, are for zeroing in on such a way that the requirement is removed without...

-The Indian Express The bench sought to know whether there were any guidelines by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the subject matter. Can a parallel process of trial by media be permitted when it can trample upon fundamental rights of an accused and interfere with free and fair decision-making? Concerned over trial by media, which is often supplied with crucial facts on evidence by investigating agencies and prosecuting officers, the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A constitution bench has ruled that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are entitled to affirmative action in promotions, quashing a 1997 government memo that withdrew the benefit. Friday's verdict by the five-judge Supreme Court bench does not necessarily mean that the Centre and state governments - to which the judgment applies equally - are bound to offer benefits in promotion to all Dalit and tribal employees from...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that separate toilets for boys and girls as well as drinking water facility were integral to right to education and ordered that all schools, including those run by minority community, must make provision for them. A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice V Gopala Gowda said the May 6 judgment of the 5-judge constitution bench, which had exempted the...