Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts at protecting and preserving forests. Numerous groups and individuals working...

-The Indian Express Thirty-four years after the death of 20-year-old Kanchanbala from 100 per cent burn injuries, and 27 years after her case led to changes in the dowry law, the Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of her husband for abetment to suicide. In a verdict on the eve of Women's Day earlier this month, the court linked it to his demand for a scooter made two days before Kanchanbala's...

-The Indian Express With the CBI making its first arrests in the Ishrat Jahan case, Ujjwala Nayudu and Rahul Tripathi look at past investigations, all of which have punctured holes in the Gujarat Police’s encounter theory When were Ishrat Jahan and three others killed? Was it in a police encounter on June 15, 2004, as the Gujarat Police’s records show, or a day earlier, on the evening of June 14, as subsequent...

-The Hindustan Times The Centre and the CBI faced off before the Supreme Court over the coal scam on Tuesday, with the investigating agency pointing out flaws in the coal block allocation process. To ensure there is no political interference, the court asked the investigating agency not to share its probe report with the government. This is the first time the Central Bureau of Investigation has pointed out irregularities in coal block...

-The Times of India About 19 years ago, Supreme Court first scrutinized pollution in the Yamuna. Innumerable orders later, Yamuna is dirtier than ever with a mind-numbing Rs 6,500 crore spent to clean the river and the latest plan — interceptor sewers — going nowhere. On Monday, when SC reviews Yamuna's pollution, it could be back to the drawing board. Six years after Delhi Jal Board proposed interceptor sewers to treat sewage...