Remember the Oisha MP Tathagata Satpathy? He was the same person who won the internet some time ago when he took part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit.com. He showed us then that he was a pretty cool guy who knew his Pink Floyd references. He also talked about the legal status of…
20 Killed in Andhra Encounter: Did the Police Use Too Much Force? Police in Andhra Pradesh shot dead 20 people who they say are smugglers, but the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has now sent them a notice which says the incident involved a serious violation of human rights and self defence can’t be justified.…
India’s top security and intelligence agencies consistently refuse to give out any information about the Right to Information requests they receive, and those that do, reject the bulk of queries they receive, new data shows. Twenty-five of India’s top security agencies are exempt from most of the requirements of the RTI Act, but are required…
Days after it struck down the much-abused Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, the Supreme Court Tuesday sought the government’s stand on de-criminalising defamation on the ground that the penal provisions unreasonably constrict the freedom of speech. “Defamation is an offence under the Indian Penal Code, but we need to delve on whether it…
Punjab government Chief secretary on Monday held a video conferencing session with all the Deputy Commissioners to review the progress of implementation of various eGovernance projects in the state. Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal issued directions to Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to complete all the pending eGovernance projects in time-bound manner so that essential public services could…
Two Judge Bench of the Supreme Court [Dipak Mishra and P.K.Pant.JJ] Today issued notice to Centre in a batch of PILs including the one filed by Subramanian Swamy to de-criminalize the Defamation [S.499/500 of Indian Penal code. Swamy’s plea was based on the following main contentions; “(a) The provisions contained in Sections 499 and 500 IPC,…
Shreya Singhal, who was among the first to ask India’s courts to toss out a law criminalizing “grossly offensive” content online, said she thought hate speech and defamation should still be considered crimes. India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, saying its ban on statements that could cause…
It is creditable that SC has attempted to balance intermediary liability with freedom of expression in Shreya Singhal case, but new procedural safeguards are required. The jubilation with which the Shreya Singhal case has been greeted is justified on several counts, most of them to do with free speech jurisprudence and the criminalisation of speech…
On Monday the Regional Passport Office in the city issued the 20,00,000th passport under the Passport Seva Project (PSP). The project was an ambitious e-governance initiative as a part of National e-governance plan. It was initiated at the Lalbagh Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in May 2010. According to an official estimation, the RPO Karnataka issued…
Punjab government Chief secretary today held a video conferencing session with all the Deputy Commissioners to review the progress of implementation of various e-governance projects in the state. Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal issued directions to Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to complete all the pending e-governance projects in time-bound manner so that essential public services could be…