-The Indian Express Less than a year after it ratified the legal status of the Right To Education (RTE) Act, the Supreme Court has held it "appropriate" for a Constitution Bench to test yet again the constitutional validity of the social welfare legislation enacted with Constitutional amendments. A Bench, led by Justice K S Radhakrishnan, last week ordered for placing a petition moved by a bunch of Karnataka-based institutions before the Chief...

-The Hindu The Election Commission has given yet another significant opinion - it has rejected a petition seeking disqualification of 11 nominated members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council under Article 191 (1) (e) of the Constitution. "In our Constitution, ‘qualifications' and ‘disqualifications' are two different concepts and ‘lack of qualification' will not tantamount to ‘disqualification," it said. The Commission - Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and Election Commissioners H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi...

-The Times of India The government has provided a back-door entry for contractors and the food industry to corner the lucrative ICDS food supply budget through the National Food Security Bill - a move that had seen controversy earlier too but could now become part of the law if passed by Parliament. In a footnote to one of the three schedules of the bill, the government has provided that children between 6...

-The Hindu Under Section 8 (1) (a), information can be denied on grounds of national security Bangalore: It is hard to imagine that any information preserved in the Karnataka State Archives on the Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur could potentially threaten national security or incite a breach of the law. However, a reply given by the Directorate, Karnataka State Archives, to a Right to Information (RTI) query suggests that it does. In his RTI application...

-The Times of India VRINDAVAN: They sang and danced, laughed and shed tears. They threw flowers at each other and played with gulal. The widows of Vrindavan celebrated Holi with a riot of colours on Sunday, defying tradition that bids them to stay away from festivities of all kind. These widows of the holy town - tragic icons of institutionalized oppression against women - have been observing Holi for decades. But it...