-The Hindu In keeping with global practices, Supreme Court judges should retire at 70 On August 18, 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking at the 150th year celebrations of the Bombay High Court, said the government was in favour of raising the age of retirement of High Court judges. Presently, Supreme Court judges retire at 65 and High Court judges at 62. The Prime Minister was referring to the Constitution (114th Amendment)...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court has said it wants to end judicial monitoring of social welfare schemes, saying the task should be left to experts and courts “can’t be setting economic policy”. The court had earlier taken umbrage at the government for fixing the poverty line at a measly Rs 32 per day per person in urban areas and suggested free distribution of foodgrain, causing consternation in the government which felt that...

-The Indian Express Firebrand leader who rose swiftly till downfall She rose swiftly through the ranks, having made her mark as a firebrand leader who had saffron politics as part of her legacy. Mayaben Surendrabhai Kodnani, convicted of murder, conspiracy and spreading communal hatred, is the daughter of a staunch RSS worker who had suffered the pains of Partition, moving from Tharparkar in Sind province to Deesa in Gujarat. Kodnani, the first sitting...

-PTI Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia on Saturday said judges should not govern the country or evolve policies, and they should apply the enforceability test on some verdicts like making sleep a fundamental right. Doing some frank introspection on the Judiciary’s functioning, he wondered what would happen if the executive refused to comply with its directives that might not be enforceable. “Right to life, we have said, includes environmental protection, right to...

-The Indian Express In a reference to the row over the allocation of coal blocks, Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia today questioned whether the Centre should have the power to “override” policies framed by state governments. Making it clear that he was not commenting on the merits of the case, Justice Kapadia said scams needed to be analysed through the constitutional principles of federalism and centre-state relations. In this context,...