-Outlook The Supreme Court has said its Constitution bench's landmark judgement of 1980 on criterion for imposing death penalty needs a "fresh look" as there has been "no uniformity" in following its principles on what constitutes "the rarest of rare" cases. "This court has not endorsed the approach of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in Bachan Singh (case). However, this approach has been adopted in several decisions. This needs a fresh look. In...

-The Hindu By not publicly disclosing the reasons for rejecting Ajmal Kasab’s mercy petition, Pranab Mukherjee missed an excellent opportunity to contribute to the rule of law President Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to reject the mercy petition submitted by the lone convict in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, is an instance of how public perceptions about a convict’s guilt can camouflage the government’s duty to explain the decision. The...

-The United Nations The United Nations agency tasked with advancing gender equality today announced a new initiative that will spotlight countries’ commitments to end violence against women and girls, seeking bold action and leadership to galvanize efforts to end the pandemic. “We all must do better to protect women and prevent this pervasive human rights violation,” said the Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equity and the Empowerment of Women...

-PTI The hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab in a Pune jail comes a day after India opposed a UN General Assembly draft resolution which sought abolition of the death penalty, with New Delhi arguing that capital punishment in India is exercised in case of a crime so heinous that it "shocks" the conscience of society. Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, had along with 9 other Pakistani gunmen killed over 160 people...

-IANS LUCKNOW: A city lawyer and social activist on Sunday lodged a first information report (FIR) against popular social networking site Facebook, after his profile was blocked. The report was filed at the 'cyber crime cell' of the Lucknow police by Prince Lenin, a resident of Hussainganj here. In his complaint, Lenin alleged that although he had long been a user of Facebook, his profile was recently blocked by the site without so...