The Board of Secondary Education, Assam, will move Gauhati High Court to scrap the State Information Commission’s order that allows students to see their answer scripts under the Right to Information Act. The state information commissioner, B.K. Gohain, issued an order on July 4 last year which said in any public examination, whether conducted by the universities, SEBA, Assam Higher Secondary Education Council or Assam Public Service Commission, the candidates...

A social audit on the working of the ban on child labour in the domestic and hospitality sectors reveals a sorry state of affairs.  LIKE any normal child, Illyas from Varanasi, a 13-year-old, wanted to go to a regular school and become an important man some day. But poverty forced him to start working at an eatery for Rs.200 a day so that he could feed his younger siblings. He,...

May 21 to be observed as ‘protest day' across Orissa  “Naveen Patnaik compromising people's interests for land acquisition” Public meeting to be held at Balitutha to express solidarity with villagers BHUBANESWAR: Several Opposition parties and mass organisations of Orissa on Sunday condemned the police action against villagers opposing the Posco-India's steel project in Jagatsinghpur district. They also warned the Biju Janata Dal government against using police force on innocent people to acquire...

The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian Citizens.  Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence The right against torture, quite...

RAJINDER SACHAR is one of India’s renowned civil rights activists. A former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Sachar has done pioneering work in enabling a legal framework to assist hundreds who stand accused by the police across India for waging war against the State, many of them with little or dubious evidence. Though 87 years old, Sachar continues to work tirelessly with one of India’s key rights groups,...