Joint drafting panel on Lokpal Bill holds second meeting; public consultations after agreement on basic principles In the second round of discussions in the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill here on Monday, members of civil society invoked the United Nations Convention on Corruption to stress that the underlying principle of the anti-corruption law should be to have an independent body that covers the highest executive and the judiciary. The...

Prickly issues like the inclusion of the PMO or the judiciary within the ambit of the jan lokpal bill were left out in favour of a broader discussion on the proposed legislation by the joint drafting committee on Monday. These and other controversial issues could come up in the May 7 meeting. The joint drafting committee met for the first time after a slew of corruption charges had rocked civil society members...

The Supreme Court today refused to go into a batch of PILs challenging constitutional validity of the notification on composition of a committee to draft the jan lokpal bill, saying the petitions were "premature". A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia posted the matter for hearing in July. The bench said, "The petitions are premature and can't be taken as the Lokpal Bill was yet to be passed." "It is still...

“We will not let the anti-corruption movement die or allow it to be put on the back burner,” say rallyists Supporters of Anna Hazare took out a march here on Sunday extending their support to civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee. Armed with banners, placards, posters and flags, the supporters, after assembling at Jantar Mantar, started their march towards India Gate where a programme of songs and street...

Do you know that the highest number of corruption cases are registered in Maharashtra (4566) and the lowest in West Bengal (only 9) between 2000 and 2009? Do you also want to know how much property has been recovered from the corrupt in different states of India in the past ten years? But how does one systematically track corruption? How to get details of the number of cases going on...