-The Hindu The All India Democratic Women's Association has expressed unhappiness over the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and the amendments made to it, as reintroduced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, that make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce, giving women the right to marital assets, including the marital home. However, there is no provision for strengthening maintenance laws. In its letter, the AIDWA has appealed to Rajya Sabha...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court's ruling on the requirement of previous sanction to prosecute soldiers accused of committing crimes may have clarified matters as far as the legal provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act are concerned but for the families of the five innocent men who were killed in a fake encounter at Pathribal, Jammu and Kashmir, in March 2000, it is still not clear whether or not they...

The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...

-PTI The security of the country will not be compromised by issue of Aadhaar cards for the people, as this does not confer right of citizenship to anyone including illegal migrants, Rajya Sabha was informed today. "Aadhaar does not confer citizenship nor does it by itself confer right of citizenship for illegal migrants, which will be determined by the relevant statutory and implementing authorities. "Hence, compromise of national security due to enrolments under...

Action plan proposed to improve rural connectivity for fighting extremism Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said development and security were integral to each other, like strands in a single fabric. He was speaking in the context of the proposed Sarju Area Development Action Plan (SADAP), which is similar to the Saranda Action Plan (SAP) that was started six months ago in the Chibasa district of Jharkhand to combat the extremist...