Cover Story

The report of the statutory body’s chairperson to the Department of Health and Family Welfare recommends that rape victims should be given priority and attended to by gynaecologists without delay. The recommendations also aim at curbing delays in conducting medical examination of sexual assault victims at government hospitals.

Indian workers on H1B visas caught a modest bit of help recently from a federal district court in Washington DC.

Instructions by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to Karnataka Milk Federation to label curd as “Dahi” are being seen as an attempt to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states.

The centre is planning to liberalise construction activity close to protected monuments so that the land can be used for developmental and infrastructure-related work. Will this open a Hornet’s Nest?

The Supreme court recently said in a review judgment said that “courts should not indulge in furthering the notion that only a male child furthers family lineage or is able to assist the parents in old age. Such remarks involuntarily further patriarchal value judgments that courts should avoid regardless of the context"

The Himachal Pradesh government’s move to impose water cess on hydropower plants has created a furore. Hydropower plants have gone to court, while Punjab and Uttarakhand have declared the move illegal.

Rajasthan has become the first state to pass the Right to Health Bill, which gives every resident of the state the right to avail free Out Patient Department services and In Patient Department services at all public health facilities in the state.

The Delhi High Court recently expressed concern over conversion of public places of worship into private tenements after which rights are sought to be claimed over the property by priests, pandits, imams, caretakers and their families in an illegal and unauthorised manner.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has disqualified Rahul Gandhi from the House after a district court in Surat found the senior Congress leader guilty in a criminal defamation suit and slapped a two-year jail term on him.

Telangana has filed a plea in the Supreme Court alleging inaction by the governor regarding assent to several bills. Considering the general disillusionment with governors’ exercise of discretion, an out-of-the-box solution is needed.