Columns

Cara Tejpal, Tarun’s young daughter has stood by her father during the entire trial and now holds his hand even tighter as critics attack the outcome of that trial. I reproduce, in full, a letter she wrote last week to Siddharth Varadarajan, along with the latter’s response, to acquaint the reader with the judgment and what the judge actually wrote.

The death of 70 people and another 16 missing from an ONGC barge raises the question of whether the oil exploration giant really follows international best practices in terms of safety guidelines in the offshore industry.

The International Olympic Committee is more intent on protecting its bottomline and itself from the multiple litigations it could face if the Games were postponed further or cancelled. It has little interest in “safeguarding the health of the athletes” or of anybody else, for that matter.

SEBI has suggested amendments in ICDR to streamline the role and accountability of promoters and bring Indian law in line with international standards.

The council of ministers of the government of West Bengal, in its first meeting on May 17, 2021, took the decision to set up a legislative council. In its manifesto, the Trinamool Congress had promised the formation of the council.

The state government’s decision to set up an upper house is a strategic move made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to augment her unfulfilled political and business interests.

The centre has left states to buy vaccines in the open market. This is not co-operative federalism at all. Instead, India should practise the principle of subsidiarity so that fast action is taken at the local level.

The Kenya High Court extending the basic structure doctrine is people-centred rather than State-friendly. It prescribes a constitutional disciple and responsibility on the executive and legislature, even in a system providing referendum for ultimate constitutional change

Provisions in the Act can be used to provide for compulsory licensing. This will allow the centre, without the permission of the patentee, to use a vaccine for a national emergency at affordable prices.

Modi’s belated recognition of the spread of the scourge into rural India which until now had appeared to escape the surges of the epidemic was a better late than never phenomenon. But will it lead to the Herculean cleansing of the Augean Stables that is needed to set the country on a course of relentless nation-building under the guidance of good governance?