-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Union environment ministry has issued an order keeping in abeyance the controversial August, 2007 notification, which allows import of genetically modified (GM) processed food items into India without its prior permission, till March 31, 2014. Though the ministry has continuously been keeping the notification in abeyance since February 2008, this time it has opted for a shorter period - usually it used to be a...

-The Indian Express There is nothing on record to prove that the Muzaffarnagar riots were sparked off by a Hindu girl being molested by a Muslim boy, or a romantic relationship between two such individuals, but there is little doubt that the rhetoric of protecting "our women", our bahu-beti, from Muslim young men, fanned the swirling flames of violence. The bogey of "love jihad", which the imagination of the Hindu right...

-The Hindu The ordinance seeking to amend the Representation of the People Act interferes with the exercise of judicial power Bill LXII of 2013, namely, The Representation of the People (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 is pending before Parliament. I examine here whether the Bill, when passed as an Act or its provisions promulgated as an Ordinance, will be unconstitutional or not. Declared principle The constitutional principle applicable in a situation analogous to...

-The Hindu Equating juveniles with adult criminals is neither scientifically correct nor normatively defensible The August 31 verdict of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in the Delhi gang rape case, handing down a bare three-year custodial sentence to the juvenile member, has generated a fresh round of debate on the legality and desirability of juvenile justice itself: why should juveniles above 16 indulging in violent crimes not be treated as adult criminals?...

-The Hindu     While denying voting rights to undertrials contradicts the principle that a person is innocent until proved guilty, disenfranchising convicts will aggravate their alienation from society The Supreme Court's decision last month in Chief Election Commissioner v. Jan Chaukidar has attracted significant attention for its perceived potential to address the criminalisation of politics. Justices A.K Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya ruled that since one of the conditions to be a candidate under...