By Vikram Kilpady Regulators introduced a sudden ban on July 1 that prevented refuelling of old vehicles at petrol pumps, hoping to reduce transport emissions. Authorities impounded around 80 vehicles on the first day, but the number quickly plunged to single digits as enforcement proved unreliable. Faulty Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, sensor malfunctions, incomplete…
By Sujit Bhar In an extraordinary and deeply worrying development, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai has initiated suo motu proceedings to examine a dangerous trend—investigative agencies, particularly the Enforcement Directorate (ED), summoning senior advocates for questioning in relation to the legal advice they offer to their clients facing criminal prosecution. This act of overreach…
By Sanjay Raman Sinha The Supreme Court, under growing scrutiny following the cash scandal involving Justice Yashwant Varma and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s warnings about judicial integrity, has moved decisively to restore its credibility. Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai acknowledged that corruption erodes public trust and emphasized that the Court’s legitimacy depends on…
By Neeraj Mishra Early morning on a rain-fed Friday last week, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team descended on the Shri Rawatpura Sarkar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SRIMSR), located on the outskirts of Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh. Unlike the usual orchestrated welcomes at the spiritual empire of the turbaned Shri Ravi Shankar…
By Kumkum Chadha Till Rajiv Gandhi was alive, the word Amethi spelt magic in north India. There were standing instructions: no one from Amethi should be stopped at the gates of 10, Janpath—then Rajiv Gandhi’s home. Ditto at the prime minister’s house on Race Course Road, now rechristened Lok Kalyan Marg. Being from Amethi—the prime…
By Dilip Bobb There are no lengths to which governments—state and centre—will not go to redefine the meaning of “fake news”. And more often than not, the provocation is viewed through a deeply political lens. The latest—and arguably most chilling—example is the Karnataka Misinformation and Fake News (Prohibition) Bill, 2025, introduced as a draft on…
The Supreme Court on Monday held that a telephonic conversation recorded secretly without the knowledge of the spouse was admissible as evidence in matrimonial proceedings. The Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma set aside a Punjab & Haryana High Court verdict, which held that recording a wife’s telephonic conversation without her…
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition filed by a former member of the banned organisation Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), challenging the latest extension of five-year ban on the group. On January 29, 2024, the Central government issued a notification to extend the five-year ban on SIMI, marking the ninth consecutive…
By Binny Yadav On July 1, a long-awaited ban on refuelling End-of-Life (EOL) vehicles in the capital came into effect—only to be paused within three days. In those 72 hours, the city was given a fleeting glimpse of what strict vehicular regulation might look like. But just as quickly, that window was slammed shut by…
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for overreaching the Supreme Court’s directions in the matter related to the alleged use of adulterated ghee for preparing laddoos offered as prasadam at Tirumala Tirupati Temple. The single-judge Bench of Justice Harinath N reprimanded the CBI Director for nominating an…