-The Telegraph Former law minister Shanti Bhushan today urged the Supreme Court to dissolve a five-judge Constitution bench set up to lay down dos and don’ts for media reporting on sub judice cases, saying it was “detrimental to the rights of the press and would destroy democracy”. Bhushan cited an earlier example in which a former Chief Justice of India (CJI) had dissolved a bench after he found no support. He was referring...

Former law minister and anti-Emergency crusader Shanti Bhushan on Tuesday pleaded with a Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench not to go ahead with the framing of reporting guidelines and said fetters on press freedom would impede democracy.  Bhushan cited the infamous ADM Jabalpur case judgement rendered by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which had by 4:1 majority upheld suspension of right to life during the Emergency, and said it...

-The Hindu The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for legal measures to protect the rights of Bengalis from erstwhile East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and a solution through judicial process to the problem of suspected foreigners living illegally in Assam. In a resolution adopted at its 20th party congress that concluded here on Monday, the party urged the government to honour the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's promise of sympathetically considering the...

-CNN-IBN The great Mughal emperor Akbar once asked if there was any man in his court unbound by his wife's command. The huge mass of his courtiers and public was stunned and stood huddled together barring one meek-looking man, who stepped away and stood alone. Akbar was curious and asked how such a submissive fellow was the only one brave enough to defy his wife. "I am not defying my wife,...

Manual scavenging is still widespread and India has a long way to go in getting rid of the scourge, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has said. Over 1 per cent of all households in the country still rely on the practice and neither urban nor rural areas are immune to it, Ramesh said on Tuesday citing recent census data. “The census results are a shocker. Manual scavenging is very much there in...