Student of Pune-based MIT School of Government (MITSOG), Harshvardhan Reddy, who hails from Karni village in Mahabubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, has kept the Right to Information (RTI) flag flying high by filing over 300 RTI applications along with over 200 first appeals within a short span of two years. The first RTI application, Reddy said, was filed by him against the rural superintendent of police (SP) for delaying his passport...

-The Times of India   The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it would introduce a Bill in Monsoon session of Parliament to amend the 19-year-old Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act to ensure rehabilitation of those engaged in such dehumanizing labour. A bench, comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar, wanted additional solicitor general Harin Raval to tell...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today issued notices to all states and Union territories asking them to explain unsafe and unhygienic sterilisation drives in violation of an earlier order for safe procedures. The move came on a PIL by a health rights activist who alleged inhuman sterilisations continued in rural areas in “reckless disregard” of the lives of poor women, especially in Bihar. In one case, 53 women were sterilised in two hours...

-The United Nations While commending India's generally high level of commitment to human rights, a United Nations expert today urged the Government to continue to fight impunity for extrajudicial executions, and communal and traditional killings. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, said he recognized the size, complexity, security concerns and diversity of India – however, he remains concerned that the challenges with respect to the protection...

Sunday marked the completion of two years since the landmark Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act came into force. Although Tamil Nadu initially took time to come out with its draft rules before it notified them in November 2011, the School Education Department, over the last couple of months, has taken up a number of initiatives to raise awareness of the RTE Act. One such attempt was setting up...