Due Process

Committee referrals for scrutiny have fallen from 71 percent in the 15th Lok Sabha to 21 percent in the 18th, and bills like the Transgender Persons Amendment and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Amendment show what passing laws without debate does to legislative intent.

The Constitution of India is extraordinarily resilient as a living, social document not because it lives in courtrooms, but because of the common citizen's deep and abiding engagement with it.

The panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge R. Subhash Reddy, will examine allegations ranging from the use of pellet guns and lathi charges to surveillance and violence against female protesters, alongside counter-allegations of property damage and injuries to police personnel.

The ex-Bangladesh PM’s return following a death sentence imposed in absentia brings renewed attention to the International Crimes Tribunal’s troubled record on fair trial guarantees, retrospective criminalization and capital punishment, while raising difficult questions for India over extradition.

A new report by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights reveals that records pertaining to arrests and killing by security forces in the Maoist crackdown in Chhattisgarh raise questions on the true magnitude of arbitrary arrests and encounter killings.

The latest data tracker by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative found that when it came to torture and ill treatment, arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killing and forced disappearance, India performed tangibly worse than its South Asian neighbours.

In a case arising from a death in a State-run mental health facility, a bench led by Justice Manish Pitale has laid down that compensation for custodial deaths must follow a logical, statutory formula and that the State’s existing policy of paying a fixed sum is woefully inadequate.

As the NHRC’s credibility builds on a considerably shaky ground in the past few years, Justice Atul Sreedharan’s criticism of the Commission for selectively dabbling in matters beyond its scope is far from new.