The Supreme Court of India has ruled that maternity leave is a fundamental right and cannot be denied to a woman based on the number of children she has from previous relationships. The court overturned a Madras High Court decision that had denied maternity leave to a Tamil Nadu government school teacher who had two children from a previous marriage. The Supreme Court emphasized the importance of reproductive rights, including maternity benefits, as part of international human rights law. The court also highlighted the right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which includes the right to health, dignity, and reproductive choice. The decision has significant implications for women's rights and reproductive healthcare in India.
Villpuram district in north Tamil Nadu continued to reel under unprecedented flooding on Monday following extremely heavy rainfall, virtually blocking access to villages and residential colonies as bridges and roads overflowed, inundating huge acreage of standing crops and leaving passengers stranded as rail and road traffic was hit.
The Softbank-backed company has set a price band of Rs 72 to Rs 76 per share for the maiden share sale and is expected to test the appetite for new-age loss-making companies.
The Indian entrepreneurship success story will soon see one more company debuting on the public markets. Ola Electric, the electric vehicle (EV) company, has become the first such firm that has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for its initial public offering (IPO). This is a fresh issue of equity shares of up to Rs 5,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of more than 95 million equity shares at a face value of Rs 10.
The Madras high court on Friday upheld a trial court order convicting over 200 men, including forest and police officials and sentencing them to various prison terms for atrocities committed against tribals including rape, where the victims included a minor girl and a pregnant woman.
'This is the Dravidian model of governance. The government is for people belonging to all faiths'
It was a triangular session, with the judge hearing the case from Nagercoil, petitioner's counsel V Raghavachari at one place and advocate-general R Shanmugasundaram, at another place, in the city.
Tamil Nadu is the celebrated home of the 'social justice' movement in the country, yet caste differences and violence has only been increasing in numbers and becoming more brutal in recent years, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
What happened in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district is not merely anti-Dalit caste hatred, but also the most vicious form of sexual oppression of women. Almost every single home was burnt and looted. I still withhold my tears because of the fear that weeping will rob me of my rightful anger, that emotional catharsis will lead to complacence, says poet Meena Kandasamy in this column exclusive to Rediff.com
Angered by a man committing suicide over his daughter marrying a Dalit boy, a crowd of caste Hindus torched 285 huts in three Dalit colonies in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, but there were no casualties as all the people had fled to neighouring areas, the police said
A Dalit boy, whose marriage to a higher caste girl triggered anti-Dalit violence in three villages of Dharmapuri district in November last, was found dead along a railway track in that town on Thursday, a day after she said she would never go back to him and would stay with her mother.
Six more people died in rain-related incidents in Tamil Nadu, taking the toll from heavy northeast monsoon showers to 80 since its onset two weeks ago.
Dharmapuri is gearing up for the Assembly elections.
A diary maintained by forest brigand Veerappan, which could throw light on a saga of murders, kidnappings and extortion, was seized at the scene of last week's encounter in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu.
A Special Task Force team of the Tamil Nadu police, headed by Jaykumar, shot dead the dacoit and three of his associates in an encounter in Dharmapuri district.
The diesel engine, which was on its way to Dharmapuri from Salem, derailed following the collision, but the driver escaped unhurt, District Superintendent of Police K Periyaiah said.
STF chief K Vijayakumar said: "We are looking for a man, who is supposed to be an abettor."
Chief Minister Stalin seems to have drawn a line between his personal beliefs and those of others in the family, beginning with wife Durga Stalin, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The three-member team of doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, who performed a second autopsy on the body of Dalit youth E Ilavarasan on a directive from the Madras high court, on Monday submitted the report in a sealed cover.
The Madras high court on Friday ordered a second autopsy on the body of Dalit youth E Ilavarasan, by doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
A three-member team of doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday performed the second autopsy on the body of Dalit youth E Ilavarasan, whose death is shrouded in mystery.
Polling to elect representatives to the 140-member Kerala assembly, 232-member Tamil Nadu assembly and the 30-member Puducherry territorial assembly began at 7 am on Monday.
Dharmapuri district Child Welfare Officer J Raja Meenakshi has filed a complaint with the Chennai city police alleging that the minister demanded Rs 20 lakh to transfer her to Chennai.
The revived factionalism in the AIADMK, if not curbed now, has the potential to split the party vertically, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil nadu Chief Minister and All India Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Monday sacked three ministers and six district heads in the backdrop of her party's defeat in three Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagham leader is set to embark on a series of protests covering the Cauvery basin regions of Tamil Nadu beginning Saturday.
On the face of it, the first round has gone to Edappadi K Palaniswami. Not only has he been named chief ministerial candidate, that too by his one-time bete noire Panneerselvam, he also gets one member more in the steering committee than OPS. He can now hope to wean away one or more members of the OPS team in the steering committee just as he had done with other leaders in the latter's camp, post-reunification. That was also OPS's concern, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil Nadu's politics returns to being bi-polar, and that's a good thing, says B Srikumar.
The move to allow women to work the night shift, by amending the Factories Act, has been opposed in Delhi by the Mahila Congress, the Indian National Congress's women's wing, and the All India Trade Union Congress.
How the Tamil Nadu police bungled the brutal gangrape of a differently-abled teenager and the family's fight for justice.
'Having learnt her lesson in popular democracy, Jaya would become more populist than the DMK and more so than the imagery that mentor MGR had created in the Tamil voter's mind, both as an individual and as an elected ruler.'
One year later, Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar travels to Ilavarasan's village, and finds out that cast culture still prevails at its worst in Tamil Nadu
'In Hindu society, marriage is not between a man and a woman, but between their castes; politicians do not ask for human votes, but for caste votes....' 'Have you heard of such nonsense anywhere else in the world? And we claim we are civilised!' 'One or two or a few people becoming President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Speaker etc from the downtrodden do not mean that the untouchables are uplifted and caste-based slavery is over.'
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