The Government is going to issue a Unique Identification Number (UID) which may be mandatory for opening a bank account, getting passport, driving licence, etc. UID scheme, which is expected to roll out the first number in 12-18 months, however, will not confer anyone any rights, including citizenship, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said. Nilekani, stressing that the UID at present is completely voluntary and the number will become “pervasive a...

Gujarat High Court, in a ruling on a bail plea, termed the 2002 Gujarat genocide as a carnage “unparalleled in modern history” and observed that such crimes undermine the very foundation of rule of law.  While rejecting a bail plea of an accused in the Naroda Patia case, Justice Abhilasha Kumari observed that the massacre cannot be compared to any ordinary case, as its effect on the people cannot be overlooked. “In fact, this is a case of wanton, mass carnage almost unp...

The Gujarat High Court has sought details from the Panchmahal district collectorate regarding compensation towards damage to residential property in Gujarat riots. A division bench headed by the Chief Justice asked the government pleader to call for information after a PIL was filed alleging huge irregularities in identifying and disbursing compensation amount among the affected people in Khanpur block of Panchmahal. The petitioner All India Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Council has claime...

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report on the functioning of Indian police claimed that only people with powerful connections can be confident of getting police assistance in the present system in India. “Decades of partisan policing politically motivated refusal to register complaints, arbitrary detention, and torture and killings sometimes perpetrated by police at the behest of national and state politicians have resulted in an unprecedented level of public distrust and f...

Gauging the fear to the minority over undue interference of government in Madrasa education system, Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangimahali, Naib Imam of Lucknow, said the attempts to introduce Central Madrasa Board as a watch dog of the existing Madrasas all over the country would face a stiff opposition in the country. Speaking at the seminar on issues of minorities in Islamic perspective at Darul Uloom, he said rumours that the Central government was favourably disposed to the proposal of impo...