DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

With the 7th January 2022 Executive Order of the Prime minister banning Drayangs, a new question is if this ban violates Constitutional Rights and laws and its future impact. The paper talked to former Judges and practicing lawyers to get their view on the issue. A lawyer the paper talked …

The Supreme Court has upheld the High Court’s judgment and convicted Khandu Wangmo, to 21 years in connection to a sedition case on 11 January 2022. The High Court pronounced its judgment on 9 November 2021. Khandu Wangmo has been charged on three counts of sedition. She drafted three seditious …

A website called Transform Bhutan with the web address transform.bt has been set up by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Royal Audit Authority, the Royal Civil Service Commission and the Transformation Office. The site or platform features discussion papers on issues confronting Bhutan’s public service to spark debate and thinking on how …

According to the Anti-Corruption Commission’s Annual Report 2020-2021, a total of 451 complaints were received over the 18-month reporting period, from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2021. In a given month, about 25 complaints were received on average, which is 24 percent less than in 2019. “The COVID-19 pandemic, …

On 16 February 2021, the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) detained the Supreme Court Justice Kuenlay Tshering (Elephant Bench or Bench 1) and Pemagatshel Dzongkhag Drangpon Yeshey Dorji, following the earlier detention of the former Royal Body Guard (RBG) Commandant Brigadier Thinley Tobgay, in a criminal conspiracy case. It was initially …

Public memory is often short, but most will recall that Bhutan was mostly without internet from 21 May evening to a big portion of 22 May 2020 when Cyclone Amphan disrupted both Bhutan Telecom and Tashi Cell’s connections via Kolkata. Bhutan’s access to the Internet is routed through the International …

Overwhelming numbers of students have been failing their exams recently much to dismay of many students and parents alike. This has been mainly attributed to ministry of education issuing new assessment criteria in June 2021 which mandated students from class IV to XII to obtain a minimum of 40 percent …

In his rebuttal before the court of law, Penjore submitted that both the Office of Attorney General (OAG) and BNB should be held accountable for the wrong doings. In addition, he also requested Thimphu District Court for a compensation for keeping him under police detention for 16 days. He claims …

The Royal Centre for Disease Control (RCDC) has taken 15 RT-PCR samples for gene sequencing from the COVID-19 positive patients coming back from Kolkata, foreign workers and people coming from abroad. All the samples have tested negative for the Omicron variant. The Head of RCDC, also a TAG member, Dr …

The COVID-19 booster dose is to be given to priority groups, like senior citizens 65 years and older, outbound travelers (18 years and above), health workers, all persons with chronic medical conditions (18 years and above) and  all adults residing in the high-risk areas which are the southern Dzongkhags. The Health …