-The Times of India The government is redrafting the anti-rape law following serious concerns raised by Cabinet members that the proposed legislation was loosely-worded and open to misuse, and did not account for new social realities of a growing women workforce and inadequacies of law enforcing agencies. The criminal law amendment bill was urgently referred to a group of ministers after objections were raised at Tuesday morning's Cabinet meeting over the formulation...

-The Indian Express   The chickens have come home to roost for the UPA government and Krishna Tirath’s women and child development ministry. Tirath has to defend the bar of 18 years for consensual sex set by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 that her ministry anchored barely a few months back. And it is the collective responsibility of the UPA government to overcome her resistance and ensure that...

-The Telegraph Differences over proposed changes to the law dealing with rape prompted the government to refer an amendment bill to a group of ministers today but the deadlock could not be resolved after the first round of discussions. The empowered group of ministers, headed by P. Chidambaram, is scheduled to meet again tomorrow and place its views before the cabinet on Thursday. The government is then expected to call an all-party...

-The Times of India The Union Cabinet is set to clear a bill seeking to replace the post-Nirbhaya case ordinance dealing with crime against women which will reduce the age for consensual sex to 16 and reinstate "rape" as an offence specifically committed against women. The government has resolved differences on the two contentious aspects of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, bowing to the demands of women's groups who protested against...

-The Hindu Whether it is suicide or homicide, the death of Ram Singh — the main accused in the Delhi rape case of December 2012 — inside Tihar Jail is a damning indictment of the functioning of the prison authorities. There were warning signals, early on. Ram Singh and the other accused were put on special watch, or suicide watch, after they stopped interacting with other inmates. But despite the checks...