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Right to Information (RTI)

27 November 2013

CLATAn NLU Delhi student has objected to the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) committee’s recent notice stating that all records of the CLAT 2013 will be destroyed by 30 November 2013.

03 September 2013

The Supreme Court today admitted that it made a mistake of law in September 2012 when it had directed that only sitting or retired High Court Chief Justices or an apex court judge could head the central and State information commissions, and recalled its 13 September 2012 judgment to that effect, reported the Hindu.

A bench of justices AK Patnaik and AK Sikri allowed the union government’s review against judgment in Namit Sharma v Union of India that was passed by a bench of justices Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar.

The bench however held that the Central Information Commission (CIC) should try referring matters involving a substantial question of law to information commissioners who have got some knowledge of law, and that in CIC appointments preference should be given to people of eminence belonging to the fields of science, technology, media and others, reported the DNA.

22 August 2013

File RTI online: Gov launches online portal for filing Right to Information (RTI) requests with 82 ministries at www.rtionline.gov.in [Firstpost]

Delhi gang-rape closings: The closing arguments in the so-called Delhi gang-rape trial will be heard today. WSJ summarises case so far.

Wikileaker sentenced: US soldier Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years prison by military tribunal for leaking top secret government documents to Wikileaks [The Guardian] The whistleblowing site later released a statement hailing the “minimum sentence” a “tactical victory” while adding that his defence team would appeal to for “due process violations during the trial” [Wikileaks]

DU, NUS alum scores BPSC: Lawyer Ritika Singh returns from corporate job in Singapore scores 16th in BPSC exam, returns to Bihar as tax officer [TOI]

Editor’s guild slams common journalist exam as ‘recipe for total state control’ [Sans serif]

10 July 2013

Copied?

NLSIU Bangalore side-stepped Right to Information (RTI) requests on grades, cheating & faculty.

24 June 2013

Digital courtsThe DoJ project to computerise 14,249 courts is 85 per cent complete, according to an RTI response.

23 May 2013

Justice for Jessica: The Delhi HC has dismissed perjury charges against 17 of the 19 hostile witnesses in the Jessica Lal murder case. The court has ordered suo moto prosecution against Bollywood actor Shayan Munshi and ballistic expert PS Manocha under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [Hindu]

Alam for TDSAT: Former SC judge Aftab Alam will head the presently headless Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), according to CJI Alatamas Kabir’s recommendation with new law minister Kapil Sibal’s nod. Former SC judge Cyriac Joseph was Kabir’s previous recommendation to the post but Sibal was opposed. Joseph may now be a TDSAT member [BS]

Anti-vacation PIL after vacs: Advocate K Shyam has petitioned the Madras HC against its summer vacations; the petition will be heard after the HC’s 1 May to 2 June summer vacations. Shyam asserts that the vacation was useful in the colonial days when the judges could not bear the heat, whereas now judges operate in an air-conditioned environment. Five lakh cases are pending before the Madras HC [Hindu]

Maha SIC on FIRe: The Maharashtra state Chief Information Commission has directed the Director General of Police to publish all first information reports (FIRs), except those decided by an officer of Commissioner level, on its website. The commission holds that uploading FIRs would curb the practice of bribing to obtain a copy of the report and soon denials of FIRs would be a thing of the past in Maharashtra [Money Life]

Sinha pours out: SEBI chairman UK Sinha on dealing with defaulters of the minimum public shareholding directives, slowing down markets to safeguard against algorithmic trading risks, the need for more enforcement powers and the lack of coordination between regulators [BS]

Judicially accepted live-ins: By holding that rape charges cannot be slapped against a man who did not marry a woman after physical intimacy with her, the Supreme Court has paved the way for judicial acceptance of cohabitation between unmarried men and women, writes The Times

Bloggers v Suerage: An Indian university lecturer was jailed in Dubai after he blogged against a Dubai-based private university. He was a senior lecturer at the Dubai university from 2008 to 2012 and had won relief against the university in a Dubai court for improper termination of his contract. After the court’s ruling he had blogged against the institution and moved Karnataka High Court for what he termed was a gross human rights violation [TOI]

Defence secrets out of CAGe: Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan says he intends to challenge the appointment of former defence secretary Shashikant Sharma as the new Comptroller & Auditor General, as illegal and unconstitutional due to conflict of interest from having access to considerable secret defence information [TOI]

Negative list, service tax: The Delhi HC becomes the first high court to examine an issue under the new negative list regime of service tax. The court examined whether a foreman in a business chit fund can be taxed under this regime, and observed that ‘transaction in money’ per se is not a ‘service’ [BMR Advisors/Money Control]

Fitness test: Union law minister Kapil Sibal proposes to amend the Indian Penal Code to include a provision penalising sports-related offences, after the IPL spot fixing scandal. However, sports is a state subject in the Constitution of India. The law ministry is therefore seeking the attorney general’s opinion on its domain [TOI]

P&H AAG resigns: Punjab & Haryana’s additional advocate general Manish Bansal resigns after facing criticism over holding company director posts alongside his government post [TOI]

17 April 2013

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed its September 2012 order that made it compulsory to appoint retired judges to central and state information commissions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005.

05 April 2013

ILI governatored: Delhi HC’s justice Gita Mittal, senior advocate Rakesh Munjal, CNLU Patna vice chancellor Prof Lakshmikanth and others elected to ILI governing council [ILI]

Right to AG info: RTI Activist SC Aggarwal appeals in Delhi HC against CIC decision holding attorney general’s office not “public authority” under the RTI Act. Senior advocate and additional solicitor general (ASG) Sidharth Luthra to reply for Vahanvati; next hearing 18 August [TOI]

Airtel 3G reamed: Reliance Communications wins embargo in Delhi HC on Bharti Airtel providing 3G roaming services in pockets for which it does not have the spectrum licence. A division bench overrules justice Rajiv Shakdher’s earlier order [IE]

Drugs are for losers: US drug maker Merck Sharp & Dohme could not obtain an interim injunction in the Delhi HC against Indian pharma co Glenmark on making and selling anti-diabetes meds [NDTV]

Azeri Ashwani: Indian law minister Ashwani Kumar signs Legal and Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters Treaty with Azerbaijan. Citizens of both countries can now (theoretically) obtain legal assistance in the other without any discrimination [PIB]

20 March 2013

NGT-RTI-page-1National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) 2012-13 budget: Rs 6 crore.

11 March 2013

Right to Information (RTI) requests can now be submitted online to the Department of Personal and Training (DoPT), after the National Informatics Centre built web portal rtionline.gov.in to submit RTI Act 2005 queries.

Facilities of the portal, currently in its first phase, include first appeals also and will eventually be extended to address queries to central public authorities of ministries and departments located only at Delhi initially.

Payment can be made through the State Bank of India or associated banks’ internet banking accounts or debit cards. [RTI Online/FAQ]

18 February 2013

BCI-RTI-11-1-2013-1-redactIn 2011 there were 1.3 million lawyers in India, revealed a right to information (RTI) response by the Bar Council of India (BCI) to Delhi-based advocate Kush Kalra, with an average annual growth rate between 2007 and 2011 of around 4 per cent.

13 December 2012

The attorney general of India (AG) is not bound to answer Right to Information (RTI) queries, according to the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) latest order.

A full bench of the CIC comprising of chief information commissioner Satyanand Mishra, and information commissioners ML Sharma and Annpurna Dixit ruled in a second appeal filed by three RTI applicants, that the AG is neither a ‘body’ nor an ‘institution of self-government’. He is just an advisor to the government and his advice is not binding on the government.

The AG had submitted before the CIC that his office was different from that of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, or the Election commissioners as thee posts were bodies.[Indian Express/ET]

06 February 2012

Looking deeper Legally India has today filed right to information (RTI) requests with India’s seven oldest national law schools, seeking full financial accounts, council meeting minutes and other information.

31 January 2012

image Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor Veer Singh has been accused of “favouritism, abuse of authority, gross academic indiscipline and financial irregularities”, by Supreme Court and High Court judges in a report unearthed by state auditors, a copy of which Legally India has unsuccessfully tried to obtain for more than two weeks.

06 January 2012

The Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled that the government’s internal legal opinions should be made public under Right to Information (RTI) requests, which could result in Swan Telecom facing investigation by the ministry of corporate affairs in the 2G spectrum scandal, reported Mint today.

20 June 2011

Rights through InformationAs the government has constituted a new taskforce to enforce implementation of access to the Right to Information, research by Infocracy India suggests that most law schools are not complying with the law.

31 March 2011

Infocracy India, an initiative to increase RTI activism amongst Indian law students, is launching a project to make RTI drafting an obligatory part of the Class 10 school syllabus and to investigate whether minimum wage is paid to campus labourers.