Within weeks of getting bail from the Supreme Court in connection with charges of sedition, human rights Activist Binayak Sen has been made member of the Planning Commission's Steering Committee on Health, which will advise the panel on the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-2017). Binayak Sen, who was released on bail from the Raipur jail last month, will, based on his experience of having worked as a paediatrician in Chhattisgarh's tribal belt,...

The Supreme Court turned down on Wednesday a government demand to re-open the case into the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and hand harsher sentences to seven men convicted of negligence. The court dismissed CBI's curative petition seeking restoration of stringent charges against Bhopal tragedy accused saying it was filed 14 years after the 1996 judgment, which was only a prima facie view of evidence that had come on record till that...

“An attempt to give intermediaries the right to control content” “These rules give government the ability to gag free speech and block any website it deems fit” “Though there is no dispute on content monitoring, there are grey areas in the rules” Cyber Activists, bloggers and legal experts are crying foul over the new rules and guidelines under the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008, that lay additional focus on content regulation and information...

A local court here has allowed rights Activist Binayak Sen to visit South Korea to receive an award later this month. Additional Sessions Judge B P Verma has allowed Mr. Sen to go to Korea between May 15 and 20 and released his passport, sources in the court said. Mr. Sen had sought permission from the court to visit Korea to receive ‘Gwangju Prize for Human Rights', the country's highest civilian award...

Social Activist Medha Patkar on Monday expressed her support for the farmers' agitation against land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh, saying that the serving of “private purposes in the name of public purpose” was the trigger for the unrest. Indicating that she would join the movement in Noida, Ms. Patkar said the agitating farmers must be called for dialogue that should be decisive. “Till then, there should be a moratorium on the...