-The Hindu Admits lawyer’s letter seeking court-monitored probe as PIL petition Amid mounting pressure on the Uttar Pradesh police to solve the Unnao gang-rape case and custodial death of the minor victim’s father, the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the matter. Acting on a request by senior advocate Gopal S. Chaturvedi for a court-monitored probe, the HC admitted his letter as a Public Interest Litigation plea. The matter...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has said it is examining the "desirability of filing a review petition" against last week's Supreme Court order diluting the SC-ST Act, ending days of dithering amid mounting pressure from allies and Dalit BJP parliamentarians. "I have instructed my ministry to examine the desirability of filing a review in this case. Appropriate actions are being taken," Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a news...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court directs that public servants can only be arrested with the written permission of their appointing authority. The anti-atrocities law, which protects Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from casteist slurs and discrimination, has become an instrument to “blackmail” innocent citizens and public servants, the Supreme Court observed in a judgment on Tuesday. Issuing a slew of guidelines to protect public servants and private employees from arbitrary arrests under the...

-Down to Earth Farmers in Gujarat prepare for a bleak future and protests as Narmada water disappears from canals after Assembly elections It's February 11. The sun is yet to shine over Morbi district in Gujarat’s arid Saurashtra region. Thousands of diesel pumps suddenly start blaring across a branch canal of the Narmada, passing through Khirai village. Hundreds of farmers have congregated along the canal to draw as much water as possible...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: The answer of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to an RTI (Right to Information) query has revealed a shocker: Gujarat recorded 55 custodial deaths in 2017. Ahmedabad city topped the chart with 15 deaths in custody — two in police custody and 13 at the Sabarmati central jail. The RTI application — filed by a human rights activist from Mehsana, Kaushik Parmar — also revealed that...