Rights Issues

‘People of J&K must be allowed to express their protest’ A group of activists who visited the Kashmir Valley have demanded that all means of communication — landline telephones, mobile phones and Internet — be restored with immediate effect. The group comprising economist Jean Drèze, Kavita Krishnan of the CPI(ML), …

Judge gives them the benefit of doubt Two years after Haryana dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was allegedly lynched by a mob of cow vigilantes on the Jaipur-Delhi National Highway, a sessions court in Alwar on Wednesday acquitted all six persons accused of beating him to death, while giving them the …

Assam Public Works, the NGO whose petition made the Supreme Court start the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2013, has resented the rejection of its plea for 100% re-verification of documents of the applicants. The court on Tuesday declined to reopen the process to conduct …

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, heading the Constitution Bench hearing the Ayodhya appeals, said on Tuesday that the Supreme Court is not in a hurry. Lawyers need not feel constrained and can argue to their heart’s content. The top judge said lawyers on both sides could raise their arguments …

Re-verification would have caused a lot of misery, says AAMSU Various organisations in Assam welcomed the Supreme Court’s order extending the deadline for publishing the final NRC to August 31 and turning down the request of the Centre and Assam government to conduct 20% sample re-verification of listed names in …

No ‘sample re-verification’ though as Supreme Court turns down pleas of Centre and Assam The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the deadline for the publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam from July 31 to August 31. A Special Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan …

Collector takes action to undo wrong A 15-year-old HIV-positive boy, allegedly denied admission to the Government Higher Secondary School at Kolakanatham in Perambalur district, was on Monday enrolled in another school after senior officials intervened. Though the authorities had offered to admit the boy to the school at Kolakanatham, his …

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer asked to submit report today The Delhi Commission for Women on Monday issued a notice to the Election Commission over a Punjab district poll panel allegedly putting the photograph of a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case on a hoarding. An …

A number of Rohingya refugee families remain stranded on a zero point of the border along Tripura, as the Indian Border Security Force and Border Guards Bangladesh failed to resolve the issue. The two forces held a flag meeting after the former prevented their entry into India through the Rahimpur …

Plan is a part of the government to foster ‘smart madrasas’ The Uttar Pradesh government’s announcement on introducing NCC and scout training in madrasas has evoked a mixed response from religious leaders and other stakeholders. Earlier this week, Minister of Minority Welfare Baldev Singh Aulakh announced that the government was …

Is there anything called human rights, asks Facebook post People facing possible statelessness are not the only ones feeling the National Register of Citizens (NRC) heat. The stress of the updating exercise appears to have taken a toll on the Assam government officials. On July 18, a State government employee …

Vetting of papers nears completion in Assam Minority organisations in Assam apprehend a large-scale exclusion from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be published on July 31. They have attributed it to the alleged pressure on officers handling the vetting process to be strict in accepting certain documents …

Centre, Assam had wanted July 31 deadline extended The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the plea made jointly by the Centre and Assam to indefinitely extend the deadline for the publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) from July 31 to conduct a “sample reverification” to quell the …

Says govt. will identify infiltrators Answering a question on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Home Minister Amit Shah told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that his government will ensure that all the illegal immigrants are identified and deported. Mr. Shah was replying in the Rajya Sabha to a supplementary …

Bill likely to be tabled in ongoing session The Congress government in Rajasthan has decided to bring a law to curb mob lynching and honour killing. A Bill on the subject is likely to be introduced in the ongoing budget session of the State Assembly. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot made …

Seek 20% recount in border districts, extension of July 31 deadline for final list The Centre and the State of Assam on Tuesday made an urgent mention before the Chief Justice of India for an extension of the deadline for final publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for …

Stand in spite of SC scrapping Sec. 377 India on Friday abstained at the vote for extending the mandate of an important UN official who reports on violence and discrimination against sexual minorities. India’s abstention at the resolution for term-renewal of the independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity …

It allegedly portrays the Assamese as xenophobic A group of people accused of portraying the Assamese as xenophobic through poetry, in a dialect associated with Bengal-origin Muslims, has asserted that controversy was being manufactured at a time when the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was being updated in Assam. On …

SC to hear petition challenging quota The Supreme Court on Friday will hear a group of social workers, academics and representatives of the Muslim community who have appealed against a Bombay High Court decision upholding a “one-person or one-community” Maharashtra legislation providing reservation to the Maratha community in education and …

More than 900 people from over 50 villages of Madhya Pradesh staged a dharna outside the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) office in Indore on Thursday, fearing flooding of their villages if the Sardar Sarovar Dam was filled to its brim in September as per the schedule set in a meeting …