-PTI The Supreme Court today referred to the European Commission of Human Rights' observation on sexual assault by relatives that "a rapist remains a rapist regardless of his relationship with the victim", while criminalising sexual intercourse with a wife below 18 years. A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta, however, made it clear that it was not dealing with the question of marital rape of women above the age...

-PTI Provision can't be used to deny information related to corruption charges, other violations The CBI cannot claim absolute exemption from disclosing information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations held by it under the RTI Act, the Delhi High Court has held. The CBI has been denying information citing Section 24 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which says that its provisions will not apply on intelligence and security...

-Frontline.in The death of nearly 60 children in Gorakhpur because of the unavailability of oxygen can be directly attributed to the larger issue of drastic reduction in budgetary allocations for and the gross neglect of the public health system. THE death of almost 60 children, including infants, in the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur within a span of 48 hours raises several issues relating to the state...

-The Financial Express Flood-affected cotton farmers in Gujarat are now worried about pink bollworm attacks on the cotton crop. According to the farmers, almost the entire Saurashtra region of the state has been stricken by the insect, while north Gujarat has been partially affected. Gujarat is the largest cotton-producing state in India. According to the data of Gujarat’s agriculture department, cotton sowing has been done on over 2.63 million hectares as on...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre made a forceful attempt on Wednesday for dilution of the Supreme Court's earlier judgment making registration of FIRs mandatory for encounter deaths during counter-insurgency operations by armed forces, even in disturbed areas under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In an order on July 8, 2016, the SC had negated the protection against prosecution available to armed forces personnel under AFSPA. "If the...