Creating a positive reform that does away with an official who constitutes a flawed aspect of Indian democracy will allow the BJP to rightfully claim this as one of its positive legacies, suggests Karan P Shah.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved composition of the 7th Pay Commission, which will revise the salaries of over 50 lakh Central government employees.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) to conduct by September 15 the local body polls in nine new districts carved out of four existing ones.
PT Usha set to get elected as IOA chief, first woman occupant of top job
Seeking to end confusion regarding the use of 'none of the above' option in the Rajya Sabha and state legislative council elections, the Election Commission has come out with a fresh set of instructions to prevent rejection of vote.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to extend the duration of the upcoming monsoon session of the state legislature and fill the post of the legislative assembly speaker urgently, citing the demands raised by a Bharatiya Janata Party delegation.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to proceed with its probe into the authenticity of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's spendings during the 2009 state assembly polls allegedly involving expenses on "paid news".
Singh has questioned the reliability of the EVMs on more than one occasion following the Congress' defeat in the recent assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
'Welfare schemes are not a necessary evil, they are a necessary good.'
The Election Commission on Friday recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.
The Supreme Court has made it clear that random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs will take place in five polling booths per assembly segment. Accordingly, the exercise will be held in 20,600 of the 10.35 lakh polling stations across the country.
'Is the idea of a committed judiciary once again being floated, though surreptitiously, unlike in the past when it was direct?'
'To summarise, PM Modi's failures in the last nine years can be categorised under 'durniti' (bad policies), 'anyay' (injustice) and - perhaps most importantly - 'badniyat' (ill intention)'
Nath has been reprimanded for repeated violations of the model code while campaigning for the bypolls in 28 assembly constituencies in the state.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that a "completely unconstitutional government is being run" in Maharashtra.
'If he has not achieved 'Congress mukt Bharat' even now, the question of his creating a 'DMK mukt Tamil Nadu' does not arise,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Can we force somebody to contest and fight an election when they don't want to contest an election?'
A bench comprising Mr Justices Arijit Pasayat and S H Kapadia made the notices returnable within eight weeks.
The Pakistan government's top law officer told the supreme court on Monday it had no role to play in the disqualification of the Prime Minister, which could be decided only by the National Assembly speaker or the election commission.
The CEC said the commission would not allow any kind of violation that puts a particular political party at an advantage over another.
The poll watchdog also said that as per laws related to elections, after the declaration of results, the only option available to verify the data of votes cast was filing an election petition before the high court concerned.
The notification for the President poll will be issued on June 15, the CEC said, and June 29 will be the last date for the filing of nominations.
The EC communication to the national and state parties added: 'The Commission will take stern actions for any violation under all powers available.'
The Supreme Court in its official communication called it "Truly, a historic day".
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
In a majority verdict, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the criteria of the Election Commission for granting symbols to unrecognized registered political parties. A three-judge bench comprising justices Altamas Kabir, S S Nijjar and Jasti Chelameswar upheld the panel's symbol order by a two to one majority.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani appeared to be on the same page as Narendra Modi, a rarity since the acrimony over naming PM candidate, as he endorsed the Gujarat chief minister's view that there that there should be compulsory voting along with the 'none-of-the-above' option.
Pakistani authorities on Friday announced the schedule for the bye-election to the parliamentary seat that was held by former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani before his disqualification by the supreme court.
Despite the objections raised by Reserve Bank of India and Election Commission, India's politics has been funded anonymously and it is time to end this, asserts Aakar Patel.
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has welcomed the Supreme Court judgment which disqualified Yusuf Raza Gilani as the prime minister of Pakistan. The PTI was one of the petitioners in the case.
Will BJP campaigners start using the term 'Ram Rajya' to refer to the nation under Modi's rule, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has written a letter to the state legislative council's deputy chairperson seeking that Viplove Bajoria be made the Shiv Sena's chief whip in the Upper House, a move apparently aimed at further cornering the faction led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray.
The plea said that the release of the movie may affect free and fair election as mandated in the Constitution.
Alleging that the Chief Election Commissioner's controversial recommendation for removal of his colleague has eroded the credibility of the poll body, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday claimed the CEC himself has violated the independence of the Election Commission.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, alleged that the scheme is a means for channelising unaccounted black money in favour of the ruing party.
Counting of votes began on Sunday for lakhs of panchayat seats in Uttar Pradesh, a process expected to take two days across 829 centres. There were scuffles involving the supporters of candidates in three districts and social distancing to fight the spread of coronavirus went for a toss at several places, reports said.
Pakistani authorities on Wednesday de-notified former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and his 63-member cabinet following his disqualification by the Supreme Court. A notification issued by the Cabinet Division, dated June 19 and released to the media on Wednesday, noted that the apex court had disqualified Gilani as a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) and a notification in this regard had been issued by the Election Commission.
The top court said it would tag the fresh plea and hear it together with pending ones on August 1.
