-The Hindu Business Line In Sirsa, Haryana’s westernmost district, the fight to end female foeticide includes tip-offs, thrilling chases and decoys “Chhori hai ! Kal marna tha , aaj mar gayi” (It’s a girl! She’ll have to die tomorrow, she died today). Deputy civil surgeon Viresh Bhushan’s face twists into a grimace as he recalls the incident at Sirsa’s Civil Hospital four years ago. A grandmother in her fifties had strangled to...

-The Hindu The human rights of prisoners in death row are grossly violated, shows Death Penalty India Report “I left my sleeping child at home because the police called me to sign documents. I never got home after that,” said Akira. She is among the 136 prisoners on death row who claimed to have not been informed of the reason for their arrest, a constitutional right. To prepare the Death Penalty India Report,...

-The Hindu Rather than criminalising bribegivers, the objective of combating coercive corruption would be achieved if the government puts in place a grievance redress mechanism The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the key legislation which defines what constitutes corruption and prescribes penalties for corruption-related offences, is set to be amended by Parliament. The proposed Bill, now before a select committee of the Rajya Sabha, includes several contentious amendments that are likely to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Out of every 100 death sentences that trial courts pronounce, less than five are upheld by higher courts. About 30% of the remaining prisoners are acquitted, and the sentence is commuted for the rest. What happens to all the people trapped in the maws of criminal justice system, condemned to death? No ministry or agency has a record of how many people India has executed since...

-IANS New Delhi: The government's "inability" to implement the Food Security Act among the 'Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups' in India has resulted in a drop in their population, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) head Rameshwar Oraon has said. The former union minister of state for tribal affairs, who took over as chairperson of NCST in 2013, has also questioned the existence of many such PVGT communities if the government does not...