-Frontline The Janlokpal Bill passed by the Delhi Assembly on December 3 fails to meet the goals of the 2011 anti-corruption movement and is a pale shadow of the 2014 Bill. IT took the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which came to power in Delhi with a massive mandate in the Assembly elections held in February, 10 months to seek to fulfil one of its key election promises: the passage of...

-The Hindu Jaipur: It’s been over a year since minimum qualifications for contesting local body polls were made mandatory in Rajasthan. Though the law did give a chance to the educated youth to replace seasoned local leaders, it has also barred a major section of the rural population from contesting the polls. In December 2014, Rajasthan promulgated the ordinance, which became the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2015 on April 1...

-The Hindu A complex picture emerges from the analysis of a year of Mumbai sessions court rulings on sexual assault: false cases foisted by parents, wide variation in the sentences, societal prejudices and vulnerabilities at play, and a tendency for investigating high-profile cases with greater rigour Over half of all sexual assault cases decided by Mumbai’s sessions courts in 2015 involved either parents filing cases against young couples who had eloped, or...

-The Indian Express The juvenile justice bill, to be debated by the Rajya Sabha today, confuses revenge with justice Our Parliament is on the verge of committing a heinous crime against its youngest citizens as it discusses the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 in the Rajya Sabha today. If it passes this bill, it would be placing a sword of Damocles over every Indian born after 1997, including...

-The Hindu The manner in which crucial laws are being amended will end up eroding rights that have deep consequences on the lives of our children and us as citizens of a thriving democracy. All because the state hasn’t been able to deliver what it was mandated to do. The last few months have seen an alarming trend of crucial laws being amended, or sought to be amended, in a manner that...