-The Telegraph   Jharkhand High Court today scrapped the appointment of 8,042 government primary schoolteachers, terming the eligibility test conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) in July to screen candidates arbitrary and illegal. The order of the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice P.P. Bhatt means schools will have to wait for teachers longer, as 18,208 posts of teachers (primary and Urdu) have been lying vacant since 2008. A petition was...

-IANS Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Thursday defended Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju for initiating a debate on whether to have a regulatory body and asked self-regulatory bodies in the broadcast sector to expand their membership so that they become more effective. Soni also urged advertisers not to create ads which offended the sensibilities of viewers. Increasing the membership of self-regulatory bodies would ensure the proactive and...

The executive council (EC) of Jawaharlal Nehru University — the highest decision making body of the institution — has approved the principle of reservation in faculty positions at the higher levels, viz professor and associate professor. “The EC ratified the decision to extend reservation to all levels in its meeting on Monday,” a JNU EC member told HT. This is in conformity with the UGC guidelines issued in 2006 extending quotas to...

The new Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju, wants to make it an instrument of mediation in addition to adjudication.   THE appointment of Justice Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court, as Chairman of the Press Council of India is about the best thing that has happened to that body in a long while. It is no exaggeration to say that the PCI commands little prestige...

-The Hindu   Vice President Hamid Ansari has come out in favour of a media regulation framework, agreeing with Press Council Chairman Justice Markandey Katju that self-regulation has failed. “Collective self-regulation has yet to succeed in substantive measure because it is neither universal nor enforceable. Individual self-regulation has also failed due to personal predilection and the prevailing of personal interest over public interest,” said Mr. Ansari. He was speaking on the occasion of National...