The Editors Guild of India on Thursday opposed in the Supreme Court the idea of temporary restraint on reporting of court proceedings saying enforcing these guidelines would lead to “infringement” of the right to free speech. Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia that any move to empower courts even to temporarily clamp down on reporting to protect the interests of the parties...

The Judiciary is the third branch of government. As with the Executive and Legislature, the public has a right to see and know and understand the functioning of this branch. That is why India, like every other democracy, has embraced the concept of open court proceedings and trials, except in those situations where, for security or other compelling reasons, in camera hearings are required. In the Mirajkar case ( Naresh Shridhar...

-DNA The Karnataka government will introduce an ordinance to make it mandatory for MBBS undergraduates and Postgraduates to serve one year in rural areas, immediately after successful completion of the course. In the legislative assembly, chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda accepted the suggestion of Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil (Congress), who highlighted the issue of shortage of doctors in Mudhol community health centre in Sedam taluk and the number of vacant Posts. Gowda said the...

By the sheer loudness of their protests, NGOs, journalists and intellectuals have bamboozled the prime minister into withdrawing the latest Planning Commission report. The report had shown accelerated poverty reduction, a perfectly plausible outcome in view of accelerated growth since 2003-04. But the critics are not happy that India is succeeding in combating destitution. They therefore tirelessly invent myths to muddy the discourse. If we are to avoid costly policy...

-The Indian Express   Striking a defiant note, Arvind Kejriwal today replied to the privilege notices served on him for "insulting" Parliament, saying how can he respect the institution which has MPs with "criminal background". The Team Anna member alleged that all the parties are responsible for bringing Parliament to disrepute as 162 MPs with criminal background have managed to get into it. "There was a Parliament in which Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned (from...