-The Business Standard   The Union government on Thursday approached the Supreme Court with a presidential reference on various issues relating to its recent judgment in the 2G spectrum scam. The apex court, meanwhile, would take up the government's review petition tomorrow. The presidential reference, under Article 143 of the Constitution, and the review petition raise similar issues. The main concern of the government is the perceived interference of the Judiciary in the...

A designated Special Investigation Team (SIT) court on Thursday pronounced the quantum of sentence in the Ode massacre case in which 23 people were found guilty of killing 23 Muslims in the Ode town of central Gujarat during the 2002 riots. Judge Poonam Singh punished 18 persons, guilty of murder, with life imprisonment and five others, guilty of attempt to murder, with seven-year jail term. The charges of conspiracy, rioting, arson,...

Former law minister and anti-Emergency crusader Shanti Bhushan on Tuesday pleaded with a Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench not to go ahead with the framing of reporting guidelines and said fetters on press freedom would impede democracy.  Bhushan cited the infamous ADM Jabalpur case judgement rendered by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which had by 4:1 majority upheld suspension of right to life during the Emergency, and said it...

Don't embark on a futile exercise, Shanti Bhushan tells Supreme Court Constitution Bench   The Press Council of India (PCI) on Tuesday suggested that the Supreme Court frame guidelines for the media as these would be in the interest of not only administration of justice and rights of the litigant public but also the media themselves. “The media, both print and electronic, have been playing an important role in shaping and sustaining Indian...

-The Telegraph Former law minister Shanti Bhushan today urged the Supreme Court to dissolve a five-judge Constitution bench set up to lay down dos and don’ts for media reporting on sub judice cases, saying it was “detrimental to the rights of the press and would destroy democracy”. Bhushan cited an earlier example in which a former Chief Justice of India (CJI) had dissolved a bench after he found no support. He was referring...