The Supreme Court today refused to direct the Nanavati Commission to summon and question Narendra Modi about his alleged role in the 2002 riots, saying that doing so would amount to “judicial overreach”. The court’s decision followed an embarrassing gaffe it had made in the case a week ago, and would come as a relief to the Gujarat chief minister. Ironically enough, the two-judge bench had sought to issue notices on the...

-The Telegraph The Centre today told the Supreme Court that no prosecution could be launched against armed forces fighting “counter-insurgency” and sought four months to decide whether to grant sanction to prosecute officers over a 12-year-old alleged fake encounter in Kashmir. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, invoked in “disturbed areas”, specifically mandates prior sanction before any prosecution can begin, the government told the court while replying to a notice on the...

The CBI is set to chargesheet policemen and government officials for the Nandigram firing once it receives the Bengal government’s sanction for prosecution. “We are preparing the chargesheet,” said a senior CBI official, claiming the agency had an airtight case. He did not reveal the identities of those who would be chargesheeted. “Next week, we will write to the Mamata Banerjee government seeking sanction for prosecution against the policemen, police officers and...

The Centre on Monday revised the wage rate under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and has decided to amend the Act to remove the existing disparity in minimum wage, even as the matter is scheduled to come up before the Supreme Court on April 9. The revision in the wage rate indexed to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPIAL) will come into effect on April 1...

-Economic and Political Weekly The compulsory licence for Nexavar is only the beginning of a new battle over drug prices. The grant of a compulsory licence (CL) to Natco Pharma, a relatively small Indian pharmaceutical company, to manufacture and sell the cancer drug sorafenib (Nexavar) has been rightly hailed as a major step forward for public health and the wider availability of life saving medicines.   The German pharmaceutical company Bayer holds the patent...