-The Times of India   The Supreme Court on Wednesday took exception to the delay in getting information relating to pending mercy pleas by condemned prisoners before the President and the governors and asked the Centre and states concerned to provide details about such pendency within three days. Expressing anguish over the casual approach of the governments, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhyay said this was the final...

At least 30 hardcore criminals and mafia dons are contesting this year's assembly elections from Jails, which is high even by Uttar Pradesh's standards. What's different, however, is that this time merely two people with criminal records are contesting as mainstream party candidates; the rest are nominees of fringe outfits.  Top among the dons are Prem Prakash Singh aka Munna Bajrangi from Madiyahon (Jaunpur) on an Apna Dal ticket; he is...

Behave well, step out of jail. Select inmates of Tihar jail can now work outside the high-security walls of Asia’s biggest prison, provided, of course, they have not violated jail manuals and their conduct has been good. The inmates will have to come back to their cells at night. The move to allow well-behaved prisoners to work outside the jail complex follows a recent nod from the Delhi government to a rehabilitation plan...

-The Indian Express   After a Delhi trial court summoned the executives of 21 companies, including Google and Facebook, the Delhi high court responded to their petitions by warning them to take down “objectionable” material, or risk being “blocked” altogether. In Justice Suresh Kait’s words: “You must have a stringent check. Otherwise, like China, we may pass orders banning all such websites.” The government, which was asked to indicate if it agreed...

Greedy lawyers and lack of awareness condemn women undertrials twice over Kanimozhis All?     Total number of male and female convicts in India: 1,23,941; Number of undertrials: 2,50,204     Number of female prisoners: 15,406; Female undertrials: 10,687     Female prisoners compromise 4.1 per cent of the prison population     469 women convicts with their 556 children and 1,196 undertrials with their 1,314 children are in prisons across the country     Official capacity of prisons in...