-PTI Expressing concern over delay by the Centre and state governments in deciding Mercy pleas of prisoners on death row, the Supreme Court today sought from them the records of all such cases. A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhyay said the home secretaries of all the states would send the records of all cases of Mercy pleas to states within three days to the Centre, which would...

-PTI President Pratibha Patil , seems to be the most Merciful of all presidents during the last three decades. She has commuted death sentences of 23 petitioners to life imprisonment, which is over 90% of the total pardons granted since 1981. On February 9, she accepted the clemency petition of Sushil Murmu, pending since 2004, who was convicted for giving 'bali' (sacrifice) of a nineyear-old-boy in Jharkhand for his own prosperity,...

It’s not just the NCTC — we need to provide a statutory basis and oversight mechanisms for all our intelligence agencies   The protest by eight chief ministers, characterising the Union government’s decision to give powers of search and arrest to the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC ) under Section 43 (a) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 as an assault on federalism, comes in the wake of a “sticky bomb”...

While pressure is mounting on the state government to declare the Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve, there is mounting resentment among tribals living on the forest fringes, against attempts of the forest department to curb access to the jungles to collect forest produce and graze cattle. Forest officials have already directed them to sell their cattle and look for alternative means of livelihood.  Irked by the move, over 10,000...

FarMer suicides are endemic, who knew? Chances are no one’s heard about Azad’s death in Bachlapur village though Lalitpur, where the Congress, the BSP and the SP are in a battle for votes, is only 15 km away. FarMer suicides aren’t an ele­c­t­ion plank and parties prefer trading corruption cha­r­ges. Rahul Gandhi’s much-touted Bundelkhand dev­e­lo­pm­ent authority proposal remains just that. More than 500 committed suic­ide in the Bundelkhand region last...