-The Hindu Kochi: The Kerala High Court will form a Single Bench and a Division Bench to deal exclusively with cases pertaining to atrocities against women, Manjula Chellur, Chief Justice of the High Court, said here on Sunday. She was speaking at a legal workshop organised by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority on focus on care-giving as fundamental to the Juvenile Justice Act. Referring to the gang rape of a young woman...

-The Telegraph Jaipur, Jan. 27: An FIR against social scientist Ashis Nandy for alleged defamatory remarks on Dalits and tribals has brought to the fore a growing trend of “thought terrorism” that treats nuanced opinion as heresy liable to be crushed with a heavy hand. The remarks by Nandy, a widely respected sociologist known for his nuanced positions and reluctance to play to the gallery just to be part of “acceptable voices”,...

-The Hindu The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday conducted an hour-long debate over the persistence of human rights violations against Dalits in India. While acknowledging the efforts at various levels to eradicate caste discrimination, the Parliament however, expressed alarm at the continually large number of reported and unreported atrocities and widespread untouchability practices, such as manual scavenging. On its previous resolutions on the issue (February 2007 and April 2012), the Parliament noted...

-The Hindu Act needs urgent amendments in order to plug loopholes in implementation: Union Minister The Union Government will bring in amendments to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, during the Budget session of Parliament next year. Addressing a National Dalit Adivasi Sammelan at Ramlila Maidan here on Friday, Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Kumari Selja said the Act needed urgent amendments in order to plug loopholes in...

-Outlook One cannot be prosecuted for hurling castiest abuses at a person from scheduled caste or tribe unless it is proved that the incident took place in "full public view," a Delhi court has said. Additional Sessions Judge Rajnish Bhatnagar made the observation, referring to a provision of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and discharging three members of a family of charges under the Act. "From the bare reading...