-The Indian Express The coal ministry is likely to tell the Supreme Court that allocations made through the screening committee route were "unimpeachable and unquestionable". A day after the Supreme Court rapped the government saying all coal blocks allocated during 2006-09 can be summarily de-allocated if breach of procedures in the defined allocation process is established, coal ministry officials are sure they can defend the policy. They aim to include the comments of...

-The Times of India Every month, the Delhi government spends Rs 20 crore of taxpayers' money to provide security to 436 persons, who do not hold any constitutional post and 29 of whom face criminal case, the Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday. The annual tab comes to Rs 240 crore. As against this, the government spends just a little over Rs 3 crore a month to protect the President and Rashtrapati...

-The Hindu By hanging Afzal Guru secretly so that he could not approach the courts, and ignoring the pending case that could have affected his sentence, the Home Minister acted illegally On March 6, 2013, in response to an RTI request, the President’s Secretariat made available documents pertaining to Ajmal Kasab’s mercy petition. People from across the country and the globe had written to the President asking that he use his clemency...

-The Business Standard States often misuse emergency powers to muzzle protests from owners A new land acquisition law was on the anvil for years. The latest avatar of the Bill, not yet laid on the table of Parliament, is still being re-looked and reworked with nearly 160 changes proposed. Issues are many, like the "public purpose" fig leaf, the consent clause, sharing the compensation payment, resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced people...

-The Times of India PM Manmohan Singh described Italy's provocative decision to not send back the two marines accused of killing Kerala fishermen as unacceptable, and the government lodged a "strong protest" with the Italian ambassador and asked for the duo's return. With government coming under attack from the opposition for alleged collusion with Italy, Singh was said to have told a group of Left MPs from Kerala that what Italy did...