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The Bombay High Court has held that a Hindu married to a non-Hindu in accordance with Hindu rituals cannot seek divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act. Accordingly, a bench headed by Justice V.K. Tahilramani upheld a family court order which rejected a petition filed by Niranjani Roshan Rao, a Hindu, seeking divorce from husband Roshan Pinto on the ground that he was a Christian at the time of marriage and was professing the same religion till today. As the family court rejected her petition, she moved the High Court, which, on December 24, rejected her appeal and upheld the lower court order. ‘Perfectly legal order’ “We are of the view that an order passed by the learned judge of the Family Court is perfectly legal and calls for no interference in exercise of appellate jurisdiction,” said the bench while dismissing the appeal.

: The State government is mulling the formulation of a Comprehensive Insurance Policy for disaster-affected people, a first of its kind initiative in the country. A detailed proposal for this has been submitted by the Institute of Land and Disaster Management (ILDM). At a meeting of stakeholders, including representatives of the departments concerned and insurance companies, here on Saturday, a few more key recommendations to streamline the policy were put forward. “The policy is being proposed with a view to taking disaster mitigation efforts beyond the

Security will be provided if there is threat perception, says Kejriwal Within hours of taking charge, the Aam Aadmi Party government on Saturday decided that red beacon would not be used by ministers and officials, and no security would be given to any officer or minister as a matter of routine, unless there is threat perception. The decision was taken at the first Cabinet meeting, presided by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. It was attended by his colleagues Manish Sisodia, Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Rakhi Birla, Girish Soni and Satyendra Jain, and Chief Secretary D.M. Spolia.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore to rope in experts for restructuring operations, monitoring mechanisms and redefining performance appraisal system benchmarks. The move is aimed at introducing healthy corporate practices to enhance the agency’s efficiency. Under the agreement, the experts would revisit the system of performance appraisal which is presently done on the basis of the outcome of cases being handled or supervised by officers at various levels.

As end-user demand for steel in India continues to fall, CRISIL Research estimates domestic steel demand to grow at a subdued rate of 2-4 per cent in 2013-14. Due to execution delays owing to environment clearances, many construction and infrastructure projects have not taken off as expected. Slowing economic growth has also put the brakes on consumption-driven sectors such as automobiles and consumer durables. While near-term demand is expected to remain muted, long-term prospects are forecast to be steady. CRISIL Research expects steel demand in India to pick up from 2014-15 with an expected pick-up in demand in key end-user sectors such as construction, infrastructure and automobiles. However, growth in demand will be lower compared with the robust growth rate of the last decade. CRISIL Research estimates domestic steel demand growth at 6-7 per cent CAGR between 2013-14 and 2017-18 compared with around 9 per cent CAGR over the last decade.

The year also marked the grant of nearly three times bilateral traffic rights to Abu Dhabi by the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry Even as the year is drawing to a close, 2013 has been a year of surprises and excitement for an otherwise struggling Indian civil aviation sector. From a sense of gloom, the sentiment quickly changed to jubilation when foreign airlines lined up to throw a lifeline to troubled domestic carriers or applied for fresh applications to start new airline ventures with strong domestic partners. Since 2006, India has not seen the launch of a major airline. Rather, three airlines - Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan (Kingfisher Red) and Paramount Airways - have shut shop, in the meantime. The last major airline that was launched in India was IndiGo in 2006, which has now grown into be the largest domestic carrier by market share. Major highlights

The government aims to raise aboutRs. 11,000 crore India's planned mobile phone spectrum auction will start on February 3, the Government said on Saturday, delaying the bidding by 10 days from the original schedule. The telecommunications ministry will auction airwaves in the 900 and 1800 megahertz frequency bands in the auction, which is crucial for leading carriers Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Group Plc's local unit to renew their permits in some key cities.

This memorandum dated 20 Dec 2013 issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests clarifies that there is no ban on agriculture and plantations activities along the Western Ghats.. See also Report of the high level working group on Western Ghats (Kasturirangan Western Ghats Report) - Download Report of the Western Ghats ecology expert panel 2011 (Madhav Gadgil Western Ghats Report) -

Veerappa Moily, the Union environment minister eases environmental clearance norms and exempts select industries & mining projects from either providing environmental impact assessment reports or holding public hearings when they are approved by the state government. The EIA Notification, 2006 mandates prior Environmental Clearance (EG) for new projects or activities including expansion, or