-The Hindu The commission, which has won acclaim for conducting elections with fairness and integrity, is now in danger of seeing a huge gutting of its powers to do so The Union Government has told the Supreme Court that, in its view, the Election Commission of India has no power to disqualify a candidate on grounds of “correctness or otherwise” of his/her election accounts. A counter-affidavit filed by the Union Law Ministry...

-PTI In a peculiar case, the Central Information Commission could not punish some CBI officials for a delayed response on an RTI application seeking information on Commonwealth Games related corruption cases as the persons concerned were "no longer in service". During a hearing of a complaint filed by Delhi advocate Vivek Garg, Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said no penalty was imposed on the officials with CBI's Anti Corruption Branch (ACB),...

-The Hindu Lacking support for stringent provisions from parties,government comes up with consensus bill Under pressure from the Opposition, the Union Cabinet on Monday approved a diluted version of the bill dealing with sexual crimes against women. The new version will be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. This was just hours after the UPA failed to convince opposition leaders, primarily the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata...

-The Hindu Bangalore: In an open letter to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner, Amnesty International India has demanded that the BBMP ensure that those affected by its forced eviction of around 1,200 families from the Economically Weaker Section Quarters in Ejipura are immediately provided with essential medical services, drinking water, access to sanitation and basic housing, “in line with international human rights standards”. Amnesty International said that it is particularly worried...

-IANS Kolkata: A youth was quizzed by police on Sunday after he asked a minister why Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not visit a slum in West Bengal where 700 shanties were destroyed in fire on Saturday. The incident happened during Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim's visit to Sholo Bigha slum in the Maheshtala Santoshpur area of South 24-Parganas where a blaze had rendered 1,500 people homeless on Saturday morning. Pratap Naskar, who...