-The Hindu Gopal Subramanium, former Solicitor-General of India, a member of the Justice J.S. Verma-led Committee that was constituted last month in the aftermath of the gang rape and murder of a young student in the national capital, to recommend amendments to laws relating to offences against women, speaks to Sandeep Joshi on how it went about its tasks, the rationale behind some of its key recommendations and its expectations of...

-DNA 1. The equality of women, being integral to the Constitution, its denial is a sacrilege and a constitutional violation. Sustained constitutional violations mean that governance is not in accordance with the Constitution. A fortiori, all limbs of the State - the executive, the legislature as well as the judiciary -must respect women’s rights and must treat them in a non-discriminatory manner. 2. As a primary recommendation, all marriages in India (irrespective...

-The Hindu The government must allow the online filing of first information reports in rape cases as that alone will ensure mandatory and automatic registration of complaints On January 18, 2013, Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar announced that Zero First Information Reports (FIRs) may be registered on the basis of a woman’s statement at any police station irrespective of jurisdiction. This means women can file an FIR at any police station and...

-The Hindu IAF copter fired at as landing point was not sanitised; chopper and injured wireless operator abandoned There has hardly been a faux pas in anti-Naxal operations in recent months as discomfiting to the forces as Friday night’s tactless act in the Chintagufa area in south Chhattisgarh. Security officials unanimously agreed that there was a ‘serious lack of coordination’ among police, paramilitary and Indian Air Force personnel. On Friday afternoon, during a...

-The Hindu When a senior Delhi Police officer was recently asked to disclose the reasons for so many rape victims turning hostile, he silently pointed towards a bundle of papers lying on the side table delivered to him through dak. These were court documents pertaining to rape cases that had been recently disposed of and in almost all of them the judge had remarked that the prosecutrix had turned hostile and the...