In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Monday held that watching and downloading child pornography are offences under the POCSO Act and the information technology law.
'With all outlets of public expression virtually choked for the last five years, suppressed anger and frustration is looking for an opening via the ballot box.' 'There is no escape from the inevitability of the 'Engineer Rashid' factor surfacing in a big enough way to upset everyone's applecart,' alerts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
There is a need to think about the collegium system so that appointments in higher judiciary can be accelerated," Rijiju said.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it wanted to "tighten up" the self-regulatory mechanism of monitoring TV news channels and granted four more weeks to News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) to come up with fresh guidelines.
A group of noted former civil servants on Wednesday sought withdrawal of the Supreme Court's "gratuitous observations" against social activist Teesta Sitalvad and others while upholding the SIT's clean chit to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal riots in the state.
The central government's ambitious Project Cheetah is facing a major problem, with the animals translocated from South Africa developing a "winter cover", a thick coat of fur, in anticipation of African winter, the Supreme Court was told on Monday.
Major trade unions, except the BMS, will go on an all-India strike on February 24 against the SC's order on banning strikes by government employees.
Samariya, the first Dalit to have been appointed to the post, was working as information commissioner in the transparency panel Central Information Commission (CIC). A 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Telangana cadre, Samariya retired after serving as the labour and employment secretary in the Government of India. He was sworn in as the information commissioner on November 7, 2020.
The current question is about the BJP-ruled Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like its predecessors, not arguing the Union of India's case effectively and continuously, whenever the matter came up in the past, if its case still was that Rajiv's killing was an 'act of terror', asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear in March a plea seeking direction to the government to release Rohingya refugees who have been 'illegally and arbitrarily' detained in jails and detention centres across the country.
In the letter, the lieutenant governor said that in the past one week, a "gloomy face of governance" emerged in Delhi where "organised, structured and specialised administrative machinery" is yet again facing the "brunt" of "highhandedness" of the political executive.
'These new laws give complete (impunity) to the police.' 'Whatever little accountability the police had, all that is gone now.' 'There is no accountability mechanism against the police for abusing or misusing in the new laws.'
In a significant win for the Adani group, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer the probe into allegations of stock price manipulation by the Indian corporate giant to a special investigation team or the CBI, saying market regulator SEBI was conducting a "comprehensive investigation" and its conduct "inspires confidence".
In the Union Budget for Financial Year 2023-24 (FY24), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had held forth on the need for better governance and investor protection in the banking sector. She had proposed certain amendments to the Reserve Bank of India Act (RBI Act), 1934; the Banking Regulation Act (BR Act), 1949; and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970.
A driver who accidentally hits a person and subsequently informs the police or takes the victim to the nearest hospital will not be prosecuted under the stringent provisions of the recently enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), a senior government functionary said on Tuesday.
By changing the nation's name from India to Bharat, would this landmass overnight lose the emotional and cultural linkage that had been built over generations, centuries and millennia, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The home minister, however, said the government will make an exception in case someone from a family comes forward and informs the authorities that his or her close relative has joined a terror outfit.
The only occasion when the BJP had 100 seats in the Upper House was in 2022.
The L-G will take decisions on police, officers of all-India services such as the IAS and the IPS, and giving sanction for prosecution in various cases.
The senior most among the five judges, whose names were officially announced by the Centre on Saturday, is Justice Mithal whose parent cadre is the Allahabad high court.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday pronounced a split verdict on the Centre's plea for recall of its October 9 order granting permission to a married woman, a mother of two, to terminate her 26-week pregnancy, with one judge voicing her disinclination to allow abortion and the other asserting that the woman's decision "must be respected".
In a major cabinet reshuffle, Arjun Ram Meghwal has replaced Kiren Rijiju as the Union law and justice minister, a communique from the President's Secretariat said on Thursday.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he is not completely opposed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group, but a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective.
Additional solicitor general KM Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, told a bench of Justices SK Kaul and A Amanullah that responses were still awaited from Rajasthan and Telanagana.
"When the matter reaches the SC collegium, there is a fully perfect situation, whether the name be accepted or not to be accepted. It's not as if it is a whimsical exercise taken by someone. It's a fool proof arrangement," he said.
It also ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his 'misdemeanour', after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.
It said AMU is not and cannot be a university of any particular religion or religious denomination as any university which has been declared an institution of national importance cannot be a minority institution.
The minister said the Constitution of India is a 'religious document' for everyone, especially the government, and 'anything which is alien to the Constitution merely because of the decision taken by the courts or some judges, how do you expect that the decision will be backed by the country'.
More than 120 eminent citizens, including retired high court judges and former bureaucrats, have written to President Droupadi Murmu opposing what they called "highly objectionable attempts" to legalise same-sex marriages.
Kiren Rijiju's exit from the coveted law ministry came in the midst of his frequent criticism of the judiciary, particularly on the system of appointment of judges to high courts and the Supreme Court.
Restoration of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir's statehood as well as implementation of the autonomy resolution passed by the erstwhile assembly in 2000 are among the National Conference's 12 guarantees announced in its manifesto for the upcoming polls.
The Delhi government on Friday moved the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance on control of services, saying it is an 'unconstitutional exercise of executive fiat' that attempts to 'override' the top court and the basic structure of the Constitution.
Healthcare services remained affected at state-run hospitals in West Bengal as junior doctors continued their cease-work protest.
The Supreme Court on Friday held as bad in law its 2011 verdicts that ruled that mere membership of a banned organisation will not make a person criminal unless he resorts to violence or incites people to violence.
'Both Hindus and Muslims should work together to construct both the masjid and mandir.'
It took note of the fact that India is due to host the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup from October 11.
In a jolt to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the notification setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to identify fake news about the Union government.
While the Aam Aadmi Party is contesting on four seats, the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining three seats.
'The cases have not reduced because the prosecution has found some other way to stop people from using their right to free speech.'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution which bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances