By a recent government order foreign national intending to attend workshop seminars has to seek clearance from the home ministry. This order is an assault on the autonomy of Indian universities,...
Civil Liberties
Information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan's order banning Pakistan TV is palpably absurd, illiterate and unconstitutional.
Though India has not ratified the protocols relating to humanitarian law applicable to armed conflicts, in a recent judgment, the Supreme Court held that the courts are under an obligation to give...
There is no doubt that Mumbai and some other cities, particularly large parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are threatened by mafia rule. That is no reason for not subjecting the Maharashtra Control of...
Nothing remotely comparable in research or analysis to the Human Rights Watch's report on the Enron Corporation has been published in India. The report deserves to be reprinted in an Indian edition.
A G Noorani WE have become so accustomed to legislation by the executive in the form of ordinances that, unless the abuse is patent, none questions the basics underlying this unique power...
A G Noorani THE union minister for urban affairs, Ram Jethmalani's move to open the files of his ministry to the public was ill-considered and inept. No individual minister can take such a decision...
Everywhere else the ambit of minorities' rights is being enlarged. In India the Sangh parivar challenges the very concept of minorities. IN the last few years a battle royal has waged between the...
A G Noorani ON June 26,1997 the US Supreme Court gave an important ruling in Janet Reno, attorney general vs ACLU, It repays study for two reasons. The court' s description of the mechanics of...
A G Noorani AMNESTY International's Annual Report for 1998 has, in its section on India a brief para which tells all it thinks of the subject: "In November, the Supreme Court upheld the...
Protocols A G Noorani IN its Final Declaration of September 1, 1993, the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims earnestly urged all states to become parties inter alia to the two...
By itself, the Convention Against Torture, which India has belatedly agreed to sign, does not amount to much. It is imperative that the text of India's instrument of ratification is made public and...
For years successive governments of India have flatly refused to permit UN Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial Executions and on Torture to enter India. What, then, is the worth of professions of...
Custodial Torture A G Noorani Against the background of the growing incidence of torture in custody, the 11 ''requirements to be followed in all cases of arrest or detention " listed by the Supreme...
Draconian Statute Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 A G Noorani THE United Front government is planning major amendments to the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. Second only to TADA, no...
