A study finds ambiguities in the law to protect women against domestic violence and lack of knowledge of the Act among relief providers. ON October 26, 2006, Parliament enacted the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, not only to recognise the hitherto unrecognised and latent forms of violence against women in domestic relationships (in and outside marriage), but also to provide a civil remedy to ameliorate the conditions of...

Government sat on grain stocks while food prices shot up   In july 2008, when inflation rose to a 10-year high of 11 per cent and industry was hit by a range of factors, including economic recession, the Union government responded immediately. There were day-on-day monetary interventions. Since July 2009, inflation, as calculated by the prices poor consumers pay for their daily needs, has hovered around 11 per cent, again a 10-year...

India’s apex minority education watchdog has been reduced to an agency with a head but no body because of hectic lobbying over appointments after incumbent members either quit or completed their terms. The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, started five years back, is functioning at a third of its strength mandated under the law, crippling its ability to decide on key policy matters. Under pressure from sections within the...

Are income-tax returns filed by individual citizens open to public scrutiny under the Right to Information? Yes, says the Central Information Commission. In a controversial December 14 ruling with far-reaching implications, the CIC held that individual assessees could not invoke privacy concerns to prevent an unrelated “third party” from inspecting returns filed with the Income-Tax Department. Sources in the Commission said the ruling must be seen as a trendsetter that could...

After politicians and judges of Supreme Court, now the assets of babus have been prised open to public scrutiny. In a landmark order, the Central Information Commission has said that disclosure of information such as assets of a public servant, routinely collected by the public authority, should be made available to the public under the Right to Information Act. Passing the order in a case involving an officer with the...