No practice has been violated in seeking sanction for grant of a daily allowance by the Union government to the spouse of Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, Supreme Court Secretary-General (SG) said on Friday. The statement came in response to a reply furnished by the Law Ministry to RTI activist Subash Chandra Agrawal that the SG recently requested revised sanction allowing a daily allowance to the CJI’s spouse for...

Substantial questions of law are involved  The issues of applicability of the Right to Information Act to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be finally decided by the Supreme Court as substantial questions of law and general importance were involved, Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati said on Friday. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Vahanvati, who appeared on behalf of the Secretary-General of the Supreme Court, said: “Various people have publicly...

The Centre has imposed temporary restrictions on new development projects in industrial clusters that score more than 70 points on the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The restrictions on projects from critically polluted industrial clusters will be applicable for eight months during which time the Central Pollution Control Board along with the respective State Pollution Control Boards will finalise a time-bound action...

A study finds ambiguities in the law to protect women against domestic violence and lack of knowledge of the Act among relief providers. ON October 26, 2006, Parliament enacted the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, not only to recognise the hitherto unrecognised and latent forms of violence against women in domestic relationships (in and outside marriage), but also to provide a civil remedy to ameliorate the conditions of...

A new fund managed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) today announced over $9 million in grants to support initiatives in 26 countries to empower women, ranging from boosting their political participation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to assisting those denied inheritance and property rights in Afghanistan. The Fund for Gender Equality is a $68 million multilateral initiative, currently funded by the Governments of Spain and Norway, designed...