-PTI Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a Bill which provides for natural life term or even death for repeat offenders of rape and other stringent punishment for various offences like stalking, voyeurism and acid attacks. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill-2013, brought against the backdrop of the country-wide outrage over Delhi gang rape, also makes it clear that the age of consent for sex would be 18 years, which was a sticking point...

-The Times of India Faced with all-around political opposition, the cabinet on Monday retained 18 as age of consent for consensual sex, graded punishment for stalking and voyeurism and deleted "persistent watching" as an offence while clearing a new law to protect women. The changes were agreed to after a meeting on Monday where political leaders raised concerns ranging from genuine apprehensions to frivolous over the possibility of "misuse" of tough laws...

-The Hindu Lacking support for stringent provisions from parties,government comes up with consensus bill Under pressure from the Opposition, the Union Cabinet on Monday approved a diluted version of the bill dealing with sexual crimes against women. The new version will be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. This was just hours after the UPA failed to convince opposition leaders, primarily the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata...

-The Indian Express With the CBI making its first arrests in the Ishrat Jahan case, Ujjwala Nayudu and Rahul Tripathi look at past investigations, all of which have punctured holes in the Gujarat Police’s encounter theory When were Ishrat Jahan and three others killed? Was it in a police encounter on June 15, 2004, as the Gujarat Police’s records show, or a day earlier, on the evening of June 14, as subsequent...

-The Hindu SP, BSP unhappy with some provisions A Bill providing for tougher punishment for crimes against women, including rape, acid attack, stalking and voyeurism, was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday, after a Group of Ministers, constituted to prescribe safeguards, completed its examination of the draft law in a record two days. On March 18, The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, will be discussed at an all-party meeting before it goes...