The Supreme Court has ruled that a person cannot be convicted for merely demanding dowry unless the demand is followed by mental or physical torture resulting in the death of the victim. A Bench of Justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik said in a judgement that the prosecution has to establish convincing evidence that the accused had subjected the victim to torture soon before her death in connection...

From being one of the safest states for women in 2000, Bengal has sunk to being one of the most dangerous. According to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Bengal has climbed to the third spot on the list of crimes against women in 2008, after Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In 2000, Bengal was 22nd, bureau officials said. Of 1,95,856 reported incidents of crime against women— both...

Recently, Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai wrote to the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, expressing concern at alleged atrocities committed on tribals. While top officials of the Forest Department have rejected the “allegations” as baseless and ill-informed, a recent case in the Barwani district justifies Mr. Pillai's concerns. When Valsingh Sastia, an Adivasi, decided to repair the roof of his house before the monsoon, he had little idea that it would land him...

What is the marriageable age for a girl in India? Well, there is no straight answer to this question, thanks to legal loopholes. Now, in a bid to dispel doubts, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has asked the government to consider bringing uniformity in the 'marriageable age' and 'age of consent' for girls. The need arises because of the disparity in laws and contradictory court judgments. Both the Hindu...

A leading Dutch environment agency reported on Monday that the seminal 2007 UN scientific report on climate change is too generalized and has even more errors than discovered so far -- including one contributed by the agency itself. But the review by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency claimed the errors had no effect on the fundamental conclusion by UN panel of scientists: that global warming caused by humans already is...