-The Hindu “What is important is whether the police are serious about crimes against women” “Increasing the enormity of Punishment in cases involving crimes against women will not solve the issue of rising crime against women,” Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said here on Monday, adding that there was no scientific basis to it.  “What is important is whether the police are serious about such crimes, how quickly the matter is tried in a...

-The Hindu In carrying out Afzal Guru’s death sentence, the government deliberately ignored the view of the Supreme Court and courts across the world that hanging a person after holding him in custody for years is inhuman The execution of Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013 was an inhumane act by the Government of India. Afzal Guru was hanged seven years after the Supreme Court’s pronouncement of the death sentence on him...

-The Times of India President Pranab Mukherjee, having rejected the mercy petitions of seven death row convicts in less than seven months of assuming office, may appear to have a hard line on capital Punishment but experts say he does not have much discretion in the matter. While the statute grants clemency powers to the President through Article 72, constitutional experts say the power to grant pardon is not personal but...

-The Hindu Gandhi’s country must set an example by abolishing capital Punishment, says Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer The President has dismissed the mercy petitions of four of Veerappan’s associates who had been sentenced to death. They should not hang. I appeal to the authorities to remove the death sentence from the statute book. Every state execution amounts to nothing but murder. The people of India must rise against such grave crimes by the...

-The Telegraph The world lauds us as the largest democracy. Yet, how much of a democracy are we and where must we improve? Elections and their consequences: We have regular elections. They are supervised with increasing effectiveness as far as booth capturing, bogus voters and violence are concerned. The influence of money has not waned; if anything, it has increased. It is not as it used to be, for paying voters only....