-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today ticked off police in three northern states for claiming no khap (caste) panchayats existed, observing that restricting girls from carrying mobile phones or wearing clothes of their choice violated the law. The apex court directed the khap panchayats of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to file their response on the legal validity of their functioning as “parallel courts”. “If a woman can’t wear proper dress, if girls...

-Economic and Political Weekly The vigorous public discourse following the recent brutal gang rape and mutilation of the 23-year-old in Delhi is a positive sign but hopefully the demand for quick solutions will not ignore the complexities involved in dealing with all forms of violence against women. There are also other connected issues that require urgent attention including the description of a rape as a "state worse than death", making out...

-Pratirodh Bureau With the mercury plummeting, thousands of homeless people continue to bear the harsh winter in the absence of sufficient night shelters in Jaipur city.   A survey released by the People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), which voluntarily monitors the condition of night shelters, claims that 40% of these shelters have improper bedding facility. Also, many poor are still spending night in the open due to sufficient shelters.   Here is the survey...

-Outlook Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court today directed the Centre to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against it for not implementing an order to provide natural gas to the city at the rates on par with Mumbai and Delhi under administered price mechanism (APM). "To date no special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging our order dated July 25, 2012.... We direct (Centre) to file an...

-The Times of India The Nirbhaya case may have prompted the judiciary to put hearings related to crimes against women on the fast track, but anRTI reply has laid bare just how challenging the problem of pendency is in the Delhi high court. A litigant who filed a civil suit in 1972 is still waiting for its outcome; two criminal appeals filed in 1976 are pending ; bail pleas are waiting...