-The Indian Express The Supreme Court held on Monday that only a newspaper’s editor whose name is published on its pages can be held responsible for civil or Criminal Cases lodged against it over offending news items. Referring to the provisions of the Press and Registration of Books Act and taking a cue from its previous verdict, the court ruled that the Act puts prima facie liability only on the editor of...

-The Times of India The Union Cabinet is set to clear a bill seeking to replace the post-Nirbhaya case ordinance dealing with crime against women which will reduce the age for consensual sex to 16 and reinstate "rape" as an offence specifically committed against women. The government has resolved differences on the two contentious aspects of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, bowing to the demands of women's groups who protested against...

-The Hindustan Times Enacted in 1958 to deal with the Naga uprising in the then composite state of Assam, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) was reviewed by the Justice BP Jeevan Reddy Committee in 2005, which recommended that it be scrapped.   The Reddy report remains untabled in Parliament, despite the recent outcry, triggered by the Justice Verma Committee’s view that the Act needs to be reviewed (in the light...

-The Hindu Bench attributes low female child ratio to lack of implementation of Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act Eliminating female foetus after pre-natal diagnostic tests has pushed the female child ratio down nationwide, the Supreme Court has observed. A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra blamed the practice on lack of implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition on Sex-Selection) Act. Both judges gave different, but concurring, judgments. Justice Radhakrishnan said:...

-Live Mint Evasion of duty of over Rs.50 lakh to be made non-bailable offence; arrest provisions under service tax proposed The government may find itself in hot water on budget proposals that make duty evasion beyond a certain threshold a non-bailable offence, allow arrest on suspected withholding of service tax, and provide tax authorities powers to recover dues from a defaulter’s bankers.   Although finance minister P. Chidambaram in his budget presentation on 28...