-CNN-IBN   The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken BSP MLA Ram Prasad Jaiswal into custody in connection with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. Jaiswal was taken into custody after the CBI interrogated him in two separate cases related to financial irregularities in the procurement of information material. Jaiswal was under scrutiny for the supply of construction material and labour to ANM training centres in Lucknow and adjacent districts under the...

The Bar Council of India (BCI) today announced that lawyers throughout the country would stay off court work on January 20 as a mark of protest against the new education super-regulator proposed by the central government. At a media conference here, chairperson Ashok K. Parija said the BCI had asked all state bar councils to register their protest in ways they “thought fit” but added that most had decided to “abstain...

A communications expert who advises the Prime Minister and a Harvard law graduate who helped Rahul Gandhi’s team draft the Lokpal bill differed on the need for an anti-corruption ombudsman, as the now-shelved legislation dominated an NRI meet today. Sam Pitroda and G. Mohan Gopal came up with different perspectives on the bill on the second day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, held every year since 2003 to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s...

-PTI The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Chhattisgarh High Court registry on a PIL alleging manipulation and irregularities in the conduct of a civil judges examination in 2008 to favour candidates related to certain judges, Bureaucrats and politicians. A bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and H.L. Gokhale issued the directive after counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), submitted that no action had been taken on...

From 1,865 in 2006, the backlog of applications at the Central Information Commission has swelled to above 22,700. Activists say the RTI Act will lose its bite in a few years if the present state of affairs continues. In September 2006, an RTI applicant sought a simple list of schemes approved under the Urban Land Ceiling Act. The government department concerned demanded Rs 16 lakh from him. He appealed against...