-PTI The 'rarest of rare case' test is not 'judge centric' but depends on the perception of society and whether it would approve the award of death sentence to those convicted in certain types of crimes, the Supreme Court has held. "Courts award death sentence, because situation demands, due to constitutional compulsion, reflected by the will of the people, and not judge-centric," a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan said. "To award...

-The Hindu Court says appellants deserve no sympathy but modifies death sentence Holding that the age of the accused and the possibility of their reformation were determining factors, the Supreme Court has redefined the ‘rarest of rare’ cases and awarded 30-year imprisonment to two accused who murdered four persons in August 2000. Giving this ruling, a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said, “Age, definitely, is a factor which cannot be...

-The Times of India A day after the Supreme Court questioned the government's wisdom over existing security cover to VIPs, the Centre on Friday said security to protected persons could be scaled down depending upon the threat perception. Even as a committee, comprising senior home ministry and Intelligence Bureau officials, has been working on rationalizing the list of protected persons, minister of state for home affairs R P N Singh said, "If...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Friday accused the government of trying to frustrate the functioning of Courts and quasi-judicial bodies by not providing them any facilities as they found these bodies upsetting their decisions. A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya made this scathing observation as the Union government failed to live up to its repeated commitment to bring in uniformity in service conditions and...

-Outlook While great awareness has been raised about sexual violence against women in India, much less is known about the problem of sexual abuse of children' Summary The rape and murder of a student in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, followed by large public protests, has led to a great deal of soul searching about the problem of sexual violence in India. Politicians, lawyers, women’s rights activists, and an independent government...