-Outlook A Delhi court today framed charges against Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been on fast for about 12 years demanding repeal of controversial AFSPA, for allegedly attempting to commit suicide during her 'fast until death' here in 2006. Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Akash Jain framed charges against 40-year-old Chanu under section 309 (attempting to commit suicide) of the IPC after she refused to plead guilty, saying that her's was a non-violent protest. Putting...

-The Times of India Two months after questioning the rationale behind commuting Death sentences of five rape-murder convicts to life imprisonment during then President Pratibha Patil's tenure, a Parliamentary committee has now suggested that the mercy petitions should not be by and large considered for such criminals. Though the Committee is not in favour of completely knocking out the provision of mercy plea for convicts like those on death row, it wants...

-The Hindu On February 11, the Supreme Court issued notice to the government, seeking its response on making intelligence agencies accountable to Parliament. This question is pertinent and in some ways captures the sentiments expressed by many and best vocalised by two leaders in recent times. Vice-President Hamid Ansari had said in his 2010 speech on this subject “....responsibility to the legislature, and eventually to the electorate, is an essential element...

-The Hindu Kottayam: The former judge of the Supreme Court, K.T. Thomas, who headed the three-member Bench that pronounced the final judgment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has called for its review as, he said, it would be unconstitutional to implement the ruling now. On May 11, 1999 the Bench of Mr. Justice Thomas, Justice Sayeed Shah Mohammed Quadri and Justice D.P. Wadhwa pronounced the judgment in the appeal by the...

-The Hindu In carrying out Afzal Guru’s Death sentence, the government deliberately ignored the view of the Supreme Court and courts across the world that hanging a person after holding him in custody for years is inhuman The execution of Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013 was an inhumane act by the Government of India. Afzal Guru was hanged seven years after the Supreme Court’s pronouncement of the Death sentence on him...