-TheWire.in Data from the National Health and Family Survey records marital rape even as Indian law has yet to criminalise it. New Delhi: “Physically forced her to have sexual intercourse with him even when she did not want to.” This is a category of spousal violence which the Indian government records data for. And according to the latest National Health and Family Survey (NFHS-4) for 2015-16, 5.4% women have experienced marital rape, under...

-The Indian Express Low crime rate numbers often don’t mean citizens are safer, and ‘rape capital’ and ‘crime capital’ could both be unfair assessments. In reports such as the one published by the National Crime Records Bureau last week, the quality of data is important, as is its placement in the right context. New Delhi: “It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed all the states and Union territories to set up special centres to record the statements of blind, deaf or mute witnesses so that people accused of crimes cannot get away citing improper examination of such witnesses. The bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit passed the recent order while reversing the acquittal of a Maharashtra resident who had raped a 14-year-old deaf...

-PTI The Supreme Court today referred to the European Commission of Human Rights' observation on sexual assault by relatives that "a rapist remains a rapist regardless of his relationship with the victim", while criminalising sexual intercourse with a wife below 18 years. A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta, however, made it clear that it was not dealing with the question of marital rape of women above the age...

-The Indian Express Delhi High Court judgment in the Mahmood Farooqui case obfuscates the basic principle of consent. The December 16, 2012, gangrape in New Delhi, and the widespread public agonising and legal reform that followed it, helped redefine ideas of gender justice in progressive ways. Following the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, criminalised voyeurism and stalking. These changes in the law have been accompanied...