others

Law Minister Veerappa Moily seems to have ignored the need for efficient judges and quality justice by focusing too much on time-bound disposal of cases and appointment of judges. Moily suggested improvements in the system of selection of judges, but only for filling up Supreme Court and high court vacancies in time. Though he admitted that inefficiency in judiciary "breeds corruption", he k..

No adjournments, freedom from having to visit courts to pay traffic challans and cutting the six-month- long process for appointment of High Court judges to just eight weeks. These form part of the UPA government's bold plan to tackle the mountain of cases pending in courts which have made the judicial process a long and expensive affair. "Zero adjournments" as the eventual objective i..

n a significant ruling, the high court of Bombay at Goa has held that the release by a court of an accused under the Probation of Offenders Act without calling for a report from the probation officer is not justified. Setting aside a children's court order that acquitted one Shaikh Mohammad Rafiq charged with kidnapping and sexually abusing a minor boy on December 21, 2006 at Guirim, jus..

Karnataka High Court judge P D Dinakaran and his wife Dr K M Vinodhini have evaded stamp duty and violated Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority norms by building a five-storeyed office in the city despite getting approval only for four floors plus the stilt, the Forum for Judicial Accountability has alleged. In a representation to the Chief Justice of India, the forum, highlighting the &..

If all goes according to Law Minister Veerappa Moily's plan, it may just happen that the next time your case in court is to be decided, the clock may have well struck 12 midnight. In a vision statement presented to Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, the law ministry has proposed several radical ideas to overhaul the justice delivery system in India, including the appointment of 15,700 new judges ..

The Delhi High Court has pulled up the state-run Punjab National Bank for not publicising its various zero balance account opening schemes to the public and directed it to publicise such offers at the earliest. A division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar rapped the bank and said: "Your chairman is answerable to every customer of the bank. You cannot shun your r..

he Centre is working on a plan for a cashless system whereby the government would bear all medical expenses during the first 48 hours of hospitalization of the victims of road accidents. With India leading the world in fatalities due to road accidents — 1.4 lakh killed in 2007 — this is a welcome move that may help bring down this figure. A senior official of road, transport and highwa..

he Karnataka High Court on Friday agreed with the submission of the State Government that everyone, irrespective of class, was entitled to worship and participate in religious functions in a temple. The court not only endorsed the Government’s stand but also dismissed a petition by the Brahmana Yuvakara Vrunda challenging the decision of the 2007 decision of the then Assistant Commissioner of ..

Ahead of Sunday’s crucial meeting of the Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishanan to decide on Justice P D Dinakaran’s elevation to the Supreme Court, the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice dismissed the Thiruvallur Collector’s report that he had encroached on public land. Talking to TOI exclusively on the sidelines of the ‘National Consultation for Strengthening th..

The Allahabad HC on Saturday dismissed a writ petition filed by a Kanpur resident seeking ‘monitoring’ of the investigation in connection with an FIR lodged against Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh. A division bench of Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Virendra Singh turned down the plea of Shivakant Tripathi, who had registered the FIR against Singh on October 15, observi..

After judges, it is the babus’ turn to take a call on disclosing their assets under the Right to Information Act. A confidential memo in TOI’s possession shows that senior, secretary-level bureaucrats in the government of India plan to meet on November 3 to discuss assets disclosure public employees. The meeting has been convened by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), a mi..

Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan on Saturday underlined the need for the formation of an All-India Judicial Service, on the lines of the Central civil services, for improving quality of subordinate courts. “While the service-conditions for High Court judges have seen a substantial improvement, we still need to dwell on how to attract qualified persons to a career in the higher judiciary..

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and others asking them to explain why they should be allowed to charge the development fee at the Delhi airport. Acting on a petition by a consumer rights group, a Bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran sought reply from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Delhi International Airport Ltd (..

oon, one can expect a more stringent Motor Vehicles Act, state-of-the-art fitness centres to check road worthiness of vehicles in all states and safer road designs to contain the burgeoning number of road deaths in the country. As India ranks first in the world in the number of persons killed in road accidents, superseding even China, the issue of safety on roads seems to be gaining import..

New Delhi: A city court on Saturday deferred its order on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to withdraw Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's name from the Bofors gun deal payoff case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja deferred the order to Nov 6 on whether the CBI's application under section 321 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) should be accepted. The CB..