-The Hindu “What is important is whether the police are serious about Crimes against women” “Increasing the enormity of punishment in cases involving Crimes against women will not solve the issue of rising Crime against women,” Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said here on Monday, adding that there was no scientific basis to it.  “What is important is whether the police are serious about such Crimes, how quickly the matter is tried in a...

-The Indian Express I had just boarded a flight when someone from a television channel called me on the mobile to ask for my reaction to the hanging of Afzal Guru. I did not know till then that he had been strung up to die. I instinctively replied that I felt saddened. It is a comment that is likely to haunt me, for many well-wishers have asked me why I did...

-The Hindu Gandhi’s country must set an example by abolishing capital punishment, says Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer The President has dismissed the mercy petitions of four of Veerappan’s associates who had been sentenced to death. They should not hang. I appeal to the authorities to remove the death sentence from the statute book. Every state execution amounts to nothing but murder. The people of India must rise against such grave Crimes by the...

-The Times of India President Pranab Mukherjee, having rejected the mercy petitions of seven death row convicts in less than seven months of assuming office, may appear to have a hard line on capital punishment but experts say he does not have much discretion in the matter. While the statute grants clemency powers to the President through Article 72, constitutional experts say the power to grant pardon is not personal but...

-The Times of India India may be reporting one death penalty every third day but it also commutes one capital punishment to life imprisonment every day - thanks to Delhi which leads the chart by making course correction in old cases. The national Capital, which reported 71 death penalties during 2001-11, saw 2,462 commutations in that 11-year period - accounting for more than 50% of the total commutations (4,321) in the...