-PTI Setting a precedent by completing the trial within 10 days after filing of the charge sheet, a fast track court here in Madhya Pradesh on Monday sentenced a young man to 14-year rigorous imprisonment for raping a one-and-a-half-year-old girl in 2012. The court also imposed a fine of Rs.5,000 on the 21-year-old convict, who raped the minor on November 22 in Bhadlikheda village after abducting her from outside her house. The sentence...

-The Indian Express Ahmedabad: Coming down heavily on the police and prosecutors for their "casualness" in handling of rape cases, the Gujarat High Court has said they should be held accountable if they "fail the victims in securing justice". "It is high time the investigating officer as well as the prosecutor concerned are held accountable, and appropriate actions taken against them after affording them opportunity of being heard and explain the circumstances...

-Economic and Political Weekly A cost-benefi t analysis by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy of the benefits from Aadhaar integration with seven schemes throws up huge benefi ts that are based almost entirely on unrealistic assumptions. Further, the report does not take into account alternative technologies that could achieve the same or similar savings, possibly at lower cost. Reetika Khera (reetika.khera@gmail.com) is at the Institute of Economic Growth on...

-The Hindu Although it has left some crucial questions unanswered, the Verma Committee report is a big step forward in the struggle for women’s rights The UPA government has perhaps got more than what it bargained for from the committee it set up, headed by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice J.S. Verma, in the wake of the public outrage following the horrific Delhi gang rape. The government had...

-The Hindu Police can record complaint of such woman at her residence Considering the difficulties encountered by physically challenged women at each stage of the criminal-legal process, right from filing an FIR to testifying in court during trial, the Justice J.S. Verma Committee has recommended that they be exempted from coming to the police station and making repeated visits to courts for testimony. In its report, the committee said that when a physically...