-PTI The anti-rape bill was today deferred after difference of opinions over it within the cabinet. The criminal amendement bill has been referred to Group of Ministers. According to the reports, there was no consensus on voyeurism, stalking, age of consent and the definition of term rape within the cabinet. Punishment for false complaints and evidences reportedly, emerged as sticking points in the cabinet meeting that met on Tuedsay to deliberate over...

-The Times of India The Union Cabinet is set to clear a bill seeking to replace the post-Nirbhaya case ordinance dealing with crime against women which will reduce the age for consensual sex to 16 and reinstate "rape" as an offence specifically committed against women. The government has resolved differences on the two contentious aspects of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, bowing to the demands of women's groups who protested against...

-The Indian Express In the first detailed manual for medical examination of rape victims, the Health Ministry has advised doctors not to use the word rape as it is "not a medical diagnosis but a legal definition". It has also asked them not to identify a victim as "habituated to sexual intercourse" as this amounts to unlawful interference in her privacy and therefore a violation of her human rights. "Rape is not...

-The Indian Express Reacting to the death of the main accused in the gangrape case, the friend of the 23-year-old victim, and the only witness to the brutal assault on the night of December 16, said the "system had failed (him) once again". The friend told Newsline that Ram Singh killed himself "mocking the system, and the administration". "He chose his own death as he pleased in Tihar Jail, which boasts of its...

-The Telegraph Sex offenders in prison often find themselves positioned on the lowest rungs of a hierarchy of inmates, which exposes them to particularly bad treatment from fellow prisoners, psychologists who have studied jail violence have said. They say the phenomenon is believed to be widespread and, in some countries, has prompted law-enforcement authorities to segregate sex offenders from other inmates in prisons where they are viewed as vulnerable to physical attacks. Delhi...