The Supreme Court will examine the constitutional validity of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, which limits the liability of an operator in the event of a nuclear disaster to Rs. 1,500 crore. A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a writ petition filed jointly by Common Cause; the Centre for Public Interest Litigation;...

Token relief to individual taxpayers will cost the exchequer Rs. 4,500 crore In a “pragmatic and domestic growth-oriented” budgetary exercise aimed at shoring up investor confidence and investment, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday sought to tap indirect taxes, especially service tax, to rake in an additional Rs. 45,940 crore into his kitty. Presenting the budget for 2012-13 in Parliament, Mr. Mukherjee provided a token relief to individual taxpayers that will cost...

-The Indian Express Gay rights activists today submitted in Supreme Court that criminalising homosexual acts is against constitutional values and that the law should not interfere when consenting adults are involved. Naz Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare and rehabilitation of HIV infected people, contended that homosexuals face social ostracism with gay sex being declared as an offence. Appearing before a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya, the...

-The Telegraph The CPM-backed Co-ordination Committee today instructed its members to challenge in the state administrative tribunal (SAT) or the High Court the Bengal government’s decision to showcause those employees who remained absent on the day of the Citu-sponsored general strike on February 28. Ananta Banerjee, the general secretary of the Co-ordination Committee, instructed all district unit chiefs to take the officers who issue the show-cause notices to court. The government has decided...

-PTI The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the central government to respond to a plea for amendment to the Right To Education (RTE) Act to make it recognize homebased studies and alternate schooling too as education, besides the one acquired through formal schooling. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw asked the central government's standing counsel Jatan Singh to file the response...