THE MERE suggestion of any amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, sends civil society into a tizzy. Perhaps this level of anxiety is necessary to protect the common man’s most important tool to hold the government accountable. But what if the RTI is dying, not because of government intervention but negligence? The pendency of complaints and appeals in several states is on the rise, while the number of...

The Supreme Court has held that it would not, under normal circumstances, interfere with judgments of acquittal in criminal cases, as these had the obvious trait of freedom having been granted to the citizen. A Bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and Ranjana Desai said: “Unless the judgement in appeal is contrary to evidence, palpably erroneous, or a view which could not have been taken by the court of competent jurisdiction keeping...

Two senior ministers are at loggerheads over filing of an appeal against a court order that compels the Centre to pay minimum wages to the MGNREGA workers. Apart from re-igniting the debate over statutory minimum wages and centrally decided price, the order forces the central government to pay about Rs 4,000 crore to workers under the rural job plan as arrears and R1,000 crore every year. According to sources, in a...

It seems the people's representatives are oblivious to the fact that making phone calls costs money and they have to pay bills like the man on the street. Altogether 405 present and former members of Parliament owe Rs 7.30 crore to public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd for bills not paid for years. Every MP is entitled to two fixed line telephone connections – one in Delhi and other in his...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...