-The Indian Express While crimes against Dalits are increasing, the state has time and again let them down, with little action against the perpetrators. Atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are a regular feature of the caste-based Indian society and distressingly, of late, they have begun increasing. What is ironical is that only recently, the country commemorated the 125th birth anniversary of B .R. Ambedkar, the icon of the...

-Press Note from Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms co-organized an important panel discussion on appointments to the Higher and Subordinate Judiciary, on the 31st of August 2016 at the India International Centre, Delhi. Diverse stakeholders, including senior advocates, journalists, academics and activists formed part of the Panel. There...

-Frontline Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that the free or regional trade agreements that are being negotiated, which seek to strengthen current patent regimes, are a potential threat to the developing world’s access to life-saving drugs, which it sources mostly from India. WHEN NELSON MANDELA’S GOVERNMENT passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act in 1997 to make medicines more accessible to the poor, 39 big pharmaceutical companies filed law suits in...

-Livemint.com NGO Common Cause said in a petition that governments and law enforcement agencies had abused sedition laws to gag dissent, suppress freedom of speech and expression and to muzzle critical voices New Delhi: Common Cause, a non-governmental organization, on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court, alleging misuse and misapplication of sedition laws by successive governments, leading to routine persecution of students, journalists and intellectuals engaged in social activism. Common Cause said in...

-PTI A Bill which seeks to decriminalise suicide and provide better healthcare for people with mental illness was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013, says that any person who attempts suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have mental illness and shall not be liable to punishment under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. Now, a person who attempts suicide is charged under the...