-The Hindu   Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights puts it simply: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or Punishment.” The death penalty is the ultimate cruel Punishment. Abolitionists tend to advance two main reasons why it must go: it does not deter crime; and, as justice systems around the world are flawed, there is more than a possibility that someone...

The Supreme Court's threat to award death penalty for fake encounters will make little difference to the impunity enjoyed by security forces. For, its own stay order in another case comes in the way of any murder case being booked against killers in uniform. The stay order, passed two years ago by a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan, has rolled back an attempt made...

-Rediff.com   Police personnel involved in fake encounter killings should be awarded death sentence and hanged, the Supreme Court has said. A bench of justices Markandeya Katju and C K Prasad said that police personnel as custodians of law are expected to protect people and not eliminate them as contract killers. "Fake encounter killings by cops are nothing but cold-blooded brutal murder, which should be treated as the rarest of rare offence...

-The Times of India   The Supreme Court on Monday said those responsible for fake encounters should be given the death sentence and hanged in what marks a significant toughening of stand against extra-judicial killings by trigger happy cops. "Fake encounter killings by cops are nothing but cold-blooded brutal murder which should be treated as the rarest of rare offence and police personnel responsible for it should be awarded death sentence. They...

A court judgment delivered earlier this year holds important lessons for those engaged in investigating and fighting terrorism. Questioning the methods of terror investigation is always a challenge because it is so easily seen as defending the enemies of the nation. The exercise is monumentally difficult after a benumbing bomb attack — especially if it has been judged to be the work of a home-grown Islamist organisation. The raging anger at this...