Year 2010 could go down in history as a watershed for undertrial prisoners, who for long have been the silent victims of apathy of the police, prosecuting agencies, prison authorities and judiciary. The UPA government is setting a six-month deadline, starting January 26, for the release of 1.25 lakh of the 1.7 lakh undertrials languishing in jail though booked for petty offences and despite having served a major part of...

It is presumed that the industrial development in Bihar is hampered by lack of investments. Is it because of 'unproductive' government policies or an unpredictable law and order situation? And how to increase the flow of investment in the state? In order to find out answers to all such questions and debate these issues, Business Standard Hindi recently organised a roundtable in Patna. The seminar was attended by various small...

Constituted under a special Act and with public money to provide round-the-clock support to women in crisis, all Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) officials were “on vacation” on the New Year weekend, a city court judge found recently. Hearing a case of molestation on Saturday, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) at Karkardooma court Gurdeep Singh made the phone call to the DCW helpline, only to be told, “Sorry sir, no one...

To register a formal complaint with the police about snatched or stolen articles is often as tough as getting the item recovered. That’s an old axiom held by a good majority of Delhiites. And statistics go a long way into formalising it as a theory. Here’s from the police’s own record books: out of approximately 14,000 calls received by the Police Control Room (PCR) for “snatchings” this year, till November...

The increase in the number of civil cases in a country is its social mascot, as it symbolises the abundance of law abiding civilised citizens accepting the authority of the judiciary to get their grievances redressed. Otherwise, they would have turned to self-retaliation or employed roughnecks, a usual practice in America and Britain enkindled by their criminal heritage, to enforce justice in their own way; hence all civil litigants may...