-The Telegraph Calcutta: Calcutta High Court on Thursday stalled the panchayat election process and asked the state election commission to explain by Monday what it had done about the complaints of prospective Opposition candidates being prevented from filing nomination. "Till the court passes any further order on this issue, the state election commission is directed to stall the election process," Justice Subrata Talukdar said in an interim order on a BJP petition. This...

-Hindustan Times Despite a rare, legal victory, Dalits of Mirchpur are back on the streets — to fight for the SC/ST Act that helped them win a case seven years ago. Mirchpur, Hisar (Haryana): Gulab Singh, 80, is frail and bent with age. He hobbles around with a wooden stick at the makeshift camp he lives in, outside Haryana’s Hisar city. But on April 2, defying his body and age, he marched...

-Livemint.com Plant varieties and seeds cannot be patented under Indian law by companies like Monsanto, and any royalties on GM crops will be decided by the agriculture ministry, says Delhi high court New Delhi: Plant varieties and seeds cannot be patented under Indian law by companies like Monsanto Inc., and any royalties on genetically modified (GM) technology will be decided by a specialized agency of the agriculture ministry, the Delhi high court...

-The Times of India GURGAON: The Haryana government has kicked off a row by circulating an admission form in government and private schools across the state that seeks to know if the student suffers from genetic disorders or whether the parents are engaged in any “unclean occupation”. The form with 100 sub-heads given to students across the state, including Gurgaon, also seeks Aadhaar and PAN numbers, religion, caste, income and bank account...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union environment ministry has released new draft rules to replace proposals from last year that would have banned the sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets and had stunned the livestock industry and prompted the Centre to rethink the move. The ministry on April 5 notified draft rules to supersede its May 2017 draft rules that would have required sellers and purchasers to declare that cattle...