-The Hindu   This, however, would not apply when the accused is given life sentence The higher judiciary can impose 20, 25 or 30 years' sentence in a murder case while commuting the death penalty of the accused to life imprisonment in cases which do not fall into the ‘rarest of rare' category. It can also limit the remission power of the State government, a Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and M.Y. Eqbal,...

-The Hindu   "Stopping rape" isn't possible unless we change the way we tackle and think about ordinary violence Some images stay branded on your mind. The brutality visited on three young girls, before their bodies were found in a well; the pain of a five-year-old whose rapist used candles and an oil bottle to violate her further; the anger of the Dalit rape survivor in Uttar Pradesh who was told by a...

-The Hindu Death-row convict, Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, whose writ petition against the rejection of his mercy petition on the ground of inordinate and unexplained delay was dismissed by the Supreme Court on April 12, perhaps, has reason for hope with a former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice M.B. Shah, reiterating his case for commuting his death sentence. Justice Shah was the dissenting Judge who found Bhullar innocent, while two...

-The Hindu   The Supreme Court's reasoning in the Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar case reveals an unfortunate determination to sanction judicial execution because it involved a terrorist offence. If there is one principle that emerges from the judgment of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya, it is that prolonged delay in disposal of a mercy petition, until now considered a possible constitutional limitation on carrying out an execution, will not be...

-The Hindu Differing with his brother judges, Justice M.B. Shah had actually voted to acquit Bhullar His plea for mercy on the grounds of delay may have been rejected by the Supreme Court last week but there is one more argument his lawyers can make in their final push to save Devender Pal Singh Bhullar from the gallows: the two judges who confirmed the death sentence in a 2:1 split verdict...