The new Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju, wants to make it an instrument of mediation in addition to adjudication.   THE appointment of Justice Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court, as Chairman of the Press Council of India is about the best thing that has happened to that body in a long while. It is no exaggeration to say that the PCI commands little prestige...

-The Hindu   The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a serious view of the Kerala High Court sending Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.V. Jayarajan leader to jail for contempt without giving him an opportunity to file an appeal, and ordered his release on bail forthwith. Mr. Jayarajan, who was found guilty of criminal contempt by the High Court for criticising the judiciary, was sentenced to six months' simple imprisonment and a...

-The Telegraph   The Supreme Court today directed the government to provide information about all mercy petitions pending before the President and governors. An apex court bench passed the ruling while hearing the plea of Punjab militant Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar. Bhullar wants his death sentence to be commuted to life term because of inordinate delay in deciding on his mercy plea. The bench, headed by Justice G.S. Singhvi, observed that it could not confine...

‘There is no such thing as self-regulation, every institution is accountable to the people.' We publish here an edited excerpt from a clarification issued by Press Council chairman Markandey Katju. The full text of his clarification can be read at www.thehindu.com. ‘No doubt, the media should provide some entertainment also to the people. But if 90 per cent of their coverage is devoted to entertainment, and only 10 per cent...

-The Indian Express   The Supreme Court has now indicated its willingness to examine recent examples of bail being denied to high-profile politicians and businesspersons, in contradiction of our higher courts’ established injunction that “bail is the rule and jail is the exception”. The matter came up in a hearing on Ashok Kumar Sinha, an associate of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who has been in interim custody for two years...