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Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party on Friday clarified that it was providing "pro bono legal assistance" to students who have moved the Patna High Court alleging malpractices in a recent Bihar Public Service Commission exam. Talking to reporters, the party's vice president Y V Giri, who is a senior advocate, also rued that Kishor's fast unto death has "entered its ninth day", hoping that students and the Nitish Kumar government would convince the 47 years old to start taking food. "A strong and healthy Prashant Kishor is required for the future of Bihar. His innovative ideas for pulling Bihar out of chronic backwardness inspired people like me, with no interest in politics, to join Jan Suraaj", Giri said. He added, "Now that the matter has reached the court, some type of relief is likely. The court has agreed to hear the matter on January 15, which is the next working day. I would now urge students, whose cause Prashant Kishor has taken up, to put pressure on him to call off the fas
India ranked 93 out of 180 countries on the corruption perceptions index for 2023 as its overall score remained largely unchanged, according to a Transparency International report. The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. In 2023, India's overall score was 39 while in 2022, it was 40. India's rank in 2022 was 85. "India (39) shows score fluctuations small enough that no firm conclusions can be drawn on any significant change. However, ahead of the elections, India sees further narrowing of civic space, including through the passage of a (telecommunication) bill that could be a 'grave threat' to fundamental rights," the report said. In South Asia, both Pakistan (133) and Sri Lanka (115) grapple with their respective debt burdens and ensuing political instability, it said. "However, the two countries ha
Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud Tuesday said top judges of several countries agree that the right to legal aid has to begin "at the earliest," even before arrest of an accused. He said judges need to educate not just students but the masses also about it. The CJI was speaking at the valedictory session of the two-day 'Regional Conference on Access to Legal Aid: Strengthening Access to Justice in the Global South' organised by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) here. The conference was attended by President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal. Besides them, more than 200 delegates including Chief Justices of Bangladesh, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, the Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and the ministers of justice from Kazakhstan, Nepal, Palau, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Zambia took part in the meeting. "The right to legal aid, all Chief Justices have concluded, has to be
Twenty-seven Indian fishermen, arrested for allegedly poaching in Sri Lanka's territorial waters, were provided material and legal assistance, the Indian mission in Jaffna said on Monday. Last week, the Sri Lankan Navy held two Indian trawlers with 15 Indian fishermen aboard while three Indian trawlers with 12 fishermen aboard were apprehended near the Delft and Kachchativu Islands, local officials here said. "Consular officials of @CGJaffna provided material & legal assistance to Fifteen Indian fishermen detained today in Jaffna District. Consular officials sought the welfare of fishermen & facilitated phone calls to their family in India," the Consulate General of India in Jaffna said in a post on X on Monday. On Sunday, the Consular officials provided material and legal assistance to 12 fishermen detained in Jaffna district, the Indian mission said. In a separate post, the mission said that the Consular officials sought the welfare of fishermen and facilitated phone calls ..