-PTI India's human rights record in 2011 got a thumbs down from a leading global rights group for its "failure" to protect vulnerable communities and rapped the government for custodial killings, police abuses, including torture. Human Rights Watch also criticised the Indian government for its inaction in repealing the controversial armed forces act and for remaining silent on the "gravest abuses" in countries like Syria. In its World Report 2012, Human Rights Watch...

-IANS   Custodial killings, police abuse including torture, and failure to implement policies aimed at protecting vulnerable communities marred India's record in 2011, according to the Human Rights Watch World Report. The global report released on Monday pointed out that immunity for abuses committed by security forces also continued, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast, and areas facing Maoist insurgency. However, the report found that killings by the Border Security Force (BSF)...

While Jammu and Kashmir government makes tall claims about the implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, on the contrary its departments are not furnishing the mandatory information to the State Information Commission (SIC), thereby affecting monitoring and reporting of the law. Informed sources told Greater Kashmir that majority of the administrative and field departments of the state are defaulters vis-a-vis submission of the quarterly and annual information to SIC on...

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Army to not “play with the courts” and stop taking recourse to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to stall prosecution in the 2000 Pathribal encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir. The apex court asked the Army to come clean on whether they want to start court martial proceedings of eight officers accused of killing five persons in the encounter or let...

-The Telegraph   The Supreme Court today slammed army authorities for stalling a criminal case initiated by the CBI against five officers involved in an alleged fake encounter in Jammu and Kashmir. “You don’t want to take over the case and initiate court-martial proceedings against them. You don’t allow the criminal justice system to go ahead,” the court said. “The victims cannot be remedy-less.” The court’s observations came after the counsel for the officers,...