-The Hindu Supreme Court verdict on the Act could increase the vulnerability of victims of atrocities, says ex-official GUNTUR (Andhra Pradesh): The Central government must bring an ordinance to remove the conditions imposed in the recent Supreme Court judgment in the implementation of the Prevention of Atrocities (SC, ST) Act, 1989 and remove all general observations made about it, said P.S. Krishnan, former Union Secretary, Ministry of Welfare, and member, National Monitoring...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh government over news reports about two minor girls being kept in jail for three-and-a-half months for alleged cow slaughter. The commission took suo motu cognisance of "a media report" that in a case of alleged cow slaughter, the police sent the two minor girls, aged about 12 and 16 years, to jail in...

-The Hindu ‘Information Commissioners are not being appointed’ Hyderabad: Releasing her RTI Story Power to The People in the city, activist Aruna Roy, who led the movement for getting the legislation in place, said citizens were moving towards a more challenging and non-transparent environment. “This government has consolidated opaqueness. It has systematically weakened the RTI Act by granting exemptions to CBI and other agencies on security grounds. Electoral bonds are a case in...

-The Hindu Committees should be consituted within two months, High Court Chief Justices told. The Supreme Court on Friday asked Chief Justices of High Courts across the country to set up anti-sexual harassment at workplace committees in High Courts and district courts within two months A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, said the committees should be constituted in accordance with the mandate of The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace...

  One of the salient features of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2005) is that there are provisions in it to ensure transparency and accountability. Section 17(2) of the MGNREGA says that the gram sabha shall conduct regular social audits of all the projects under the scheme taken up within the gram panchayat (GP). In addition to that, Section 17(3) of the MGNREGA states that the GP shall make...