-The Hindu In many cases, witnesses turned hostile, or police statements didn't match victim statements The judge who convicted four men for the gang rape and murder of a Delhi girl had handed down only two other rape convictions in the last five years, court data shows. However, this record seems to raise more questions about the investigation process than the legal process. Supreme Court advocate K. V. Dhananjay with a team of...

-The Indian Express On Friday afternoon, Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna will sentence the four men he found guilty in the December 16 gangrape case, bringing to an end a fast-track trial closely followed across the country. Of the 23 rape cases Khanna heard this year at the Saket court, this is only the third to result in conviction. In 20 cases, the accused were let off, mainly because the evidence...

-The Hindu     Young offenders above a certain age who commit violent crimes should be prosecuted as adults On August 31, 2013, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) ordered that the boy who raped Nirbhaya, brutalised her with an iron rod, pulled out her intestines and then cleaned up the bus and made tea would go virtually free by sentencing him to only 28 months in a remand home as eight months of the...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: Assam has become the second state in the country after Goa to notify setting up of special courts to fast-track cases relating to child rights and sexual offences. Assam social welfare department deputy secretary Kavyashree Mahanta told The Telegraph today that the state legal affairs department had already issued a notification for setting up the special courts in all district and sessions judge courts. "These courts will exclusively...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court's timidity in dealing with the law on prior sanction for prosecuting public servants has offered protection to the murderous and the corrupt While the encounter murders in Pathribal and their cover up are yet another blot on India's record in Kashmir, the legal issues they raise on accountability to the law affect the entire country. They touch the very core of the rule of law that is...