-Press Note from Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms co-organized an important panel discussion on appointments to the Higher and Subordinate Judiciary, on the 31st of August 2016 at the India International Centre, Delhi. Diverse stakeholders, including senior advocates, journalists, academics and activists formed part of the Panel. There...

-The Hindu The findings point to corruption, politics as the adversaries of journalists working in small towns. Reporting in India can be a dangerous business as a report compiled by an independent watchdog, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), has observed. Twenty-seven journalists have died under unnatural circumstances since 1992; increasingly, the victims are from small towns. There have been zero convictions, raising questions about the governments’ intent to allow journalists...

-The Times of India Last week, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court passed an interesting order. It directed the HC registrar (administration) to "instruct" the media not to publish or broadcast names of lawyers while reporting court cases. It felt such publication was an indirect advertisement of their professional capabilities. Probably, it was based on the Bar Council of India rules, which say, "An advocate shall not solicit work...

-The Hindu We would be "forced" to judicially intervene, warns the apex court. New Delhi: In what may be the sharpest warning to the NDA government, the Supreme Court on Friday asked whether the Narendra Modi government is trying to bring the entire judicial institution to a "grinding halt" by sitting on recommendations of the Collegium for appointment and transfer of judges to High Courts across the country. Chief Justice of India T.S.Thakur...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com New Delhi: The 100-day Accountability Yatra across Rajasthan led by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has had an impact. The state government has issued orders to re-verify all one million pensions that had been stopped, including the 688,875 pensions that had been cancelled. From December 2015 to March this year the yatra had travelled to 33 districts in Rajasthan to assess how government schemes were functioning, find out people’s grievances...