-IBN   An RTI query has revealed major irregularities in the appointment of clerical staff in a district court in Gujarat, with most of them being relatives of judges. Four years after 80 vacancies for stenographers, clerks and peons were filled up, questions are being raised over the transparency in which these appointments were made. Response to an application filed by RTI activist Janki Prasad Shah revealed that 32 of the total...

-The Telegraph   Calcutta High Court today scrapped a 14-year-old tribunal that had been hearing all land and tenancy disputes involving the state government, saying the judiciary’s minority status in the set-up ran contrary to the Constitution. Today’s order means that the nearly 1 lakh cases pending with the tribunal will be shifted to the high court. The former Left Front government had enacted the West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, 1997,...

The Supreme Court has underlined the need for giving proper equipment, adequate protection and safety gears to sewer workers who enter manholes for clearing blocks. Expressing anguish over the manner in which they were treated by the employers, a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said: “Given the option, no one would like to enter the manhole of a sewerage system for cleaning purposes, but there are people who...

-The Hindu   Judiciary has stepped in only because of executive inaction Rejecting the criticism of judicial activism, the Supreme Court has said the judiciary has stepped in to give directions only because of executive inaction what with laws enacted by Parliament and the State legislatures in the last 63 years for the poor not being implemented properly. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly pointed out that laws enacted for...

In government schools in the villages, teachers rarely turn up. They collect their monthly salaries and pay a part of it to Basic Shiksha Adhikari for marking false attendance. Medicines are diverted to the black market before they reach government hospitals. Poor people are turned away when they go to hospitals. There is endless corruption in the work done by various panchayats. Rations meant for people living in extreme poverty...