-PTI New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the responses of the government and the Election Commission on a plea seeking to restrain convicted politicians from running and holding posts in political parties. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud agreed to examine the validity and contours of Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Registration of associations and bodies as political...

-Scroll.in At the heart of the problem is a discrepancy between two laws on rights for Adivasis to the bamboo growing on their traditional forestlands. Across the world, taxonomists have classified bamboo as a grass. But under Indian law, it was treated as a tree. This definition has long given state forest departments monopolistic control over the valuable natural resource. On November 23, the central government loosened this grip by amending the...

-TheWire.in A new report has recommended extending the scheme to all women, aged and infirm undertrials, claiming that it has many social and economic benefits for both the state and the inmates. A study on open prisons and parole practices in Rajasthan suggests that the “successful system,” operational in the state since 1955, be emulated across the country. The study, initiated by the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority (RSLSA) and Rajasthan high court...

-IANS UDAIPUR: Farming has rarely been a viable proposition in Rajasthan's dry and hilly Udaipur region. A new way has now been found to provide sustainable sustenance for the area's tribals by enabling them to sell -- for a staggering Rs 189 crore ($29 million) in the last two years -- minor forest produce (MFP) that is abundant in the area and has remained unutilised for almost nine decades. According to officials,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Law Commission has recommended to the Centre compensation to victims of custodial torture and deterrent punishment that may include life imprisonment of the perpetrators. The recommendations assume significance against the backdrop of frequent allegations that police resort to third-degree torture to extract confessions and statements from the accused. The commission's report, authored by its chairperson Justice (retd) B.S. Chauhan, was submitted to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad...