-The Hindu   Supersession only in exceptional circumstances, not for extraneous considerations The Supreme Court on Thursday decried the tendency of State governments superseding elected cooperative societies for political or extraneous reasons. "Supersession of an elected managing committee/board is an exception and [can] be resorted to only in exceptional circumstances," said a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra. Sending a warning to the States, the Bench imposed Rs. 1 lakh in costs...

-Down to Earth The country's 76 million poor have been denied the right to claim subsidised foodgrain under public distribution system The government has denied 76 million people in the country eligible to access public distribution system (PDS) the benefits of the food security system. For the past 20 years, the government has not cared to refresh its data and has been distributing foodgrain according to the population figure of 1991. Worse, the...

-The Hindustan Times "My permission is not required nor my opinion is sought in matters relating to tribals. My voice goes unheard," tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo told HT, referring to what he called limited powers of his ministry in tribal welfare. The tribal affairs ministry was set up in 1999 for an integrated socio-economic development of the tribals, who account for 10.4 crore of the population. In an embarrassment for...

-Frontline Corruption tends to be greater in periods when there is a state-engineered redistribution of wealth in favour of a few at the explicit or implicit expense of the many. Liberalisation is one such period. IT cannot be verified and may not be true. But, the view that the record of graft and corruption during the two-term, nine-year rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is the worst in India's post-Independence...

-PTI A daughter-in-law should be treated as a family member and not as a maid, and she cannot be "thrown out of her matrimonial home at any time", the Supreme Court has said. The court was expressing concern over instances of brides being tortured in the country. The apex court made the observations while sentencing a man to five years imprisonment for torturing his wife and abetting her suicide. The court said a...