-The Indian Express   The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the CBI to conduct free and fair investigation on the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gaurantee Act (MGNREGA) in 100 villages spanning across six districts of Orissa. Not limiting itself to Orissa, the three-member bench led by Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia also directed all states and the Centre to file reports showing compliance to the MNREGA operational...

The Supreme Court hopes the intractable land disputes of Singur and Nandigram will get resolved after the Bengal elections. “Wait until the elections,” Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik said today, giving a July hearing date on a slew of petitions demanding the land acquired for the Tata Motors plant in Singur be returned to farmers. “We may not have the problem then (after the elections),” Justice Raveendran, the senior judge on...

Anna Hazare and the civil society won a crucial first battle in the war against corruption. There is a possibility that the Lokpal Bill could be passed by Parliament by August 15. However, that is by no means assured: a number of politicians, a part of section of political establishment and a section of bureaucracy will try to derail the Bill or dilute it so much that it is rendered...

The CBI has admitted that it received two complaints against former CJI K G Balakrishnan but refused to give details under RTI. CBI's Chennai bureau dismissed one complaint citing "vague and unverifiable" allegations and forwarded the second complaint to the New Delhi office for further probe. CBI refused to give details about the complaints in response to an RTI query saying that the information related to a third person. Balakrishnan is...

The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on the issue of alleged misappropriation of funds by officials and functionaries administering the MGNREGS. The order of the Apex Court came in response to reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) alleging large scale misappropriation of funds by the officials and functionaries of the implementing agencies. During the hearing,...