At least 16 RTI activists have been killed in Maharashtra since 2010. Their fault -- they used RTI to unearth corruption, misuse of public funds and exposed horsetrading of elected representatives among other things. How did the criminal justice system respond to this phenomenon? Veteran journalists, Vinita Deshmukh and Prasanna Kumar Keskar investigated the lives … Continue reading How criminal justice system responded to murder of 13 RTI activists of Maharashtra
Category: Rule of Law
By Antra Bhaskar* Dark lipstick, loud makeup, bold clothes, curvaceous body, standing near a shady area waiting for a client, all these things come to our mind when we think of sex workers in India. However, we fail to realize that majority of sex worker India is clandestine due to unfavorable legal environment and discrimination … Continue reading There is need for separate law for regulation of prostitution in India
By Anirudh Pratap Singh* “When a stranger does it, he doesn't know me, I don't know him. He's not doing it to me as a person, personally. With your husband, it becomes personal. You say, this man knows me. He knows my feelings. He knows me intimately and then to do this to me – … Continue reading Criminalize marital rape in India: Marriage is not a license to rape
Anjali Agarwal* When I searched for the status of marital rape in India, the first link that popped up had content that was both bizarre as well as mind wobbling – ‘It says Section 375 of IPC considers the forced sex in marriages as a crime only when the wife is below age 15’. It … Continue reading To Indian women: ‘think before you marry’ – by section 375 exception 2 of IPC
By Shrey Banka* While the entire nation went into a lockdown on March 25, 2020 in a fight against the novel coronavirus, not many could have foreseen that the lockdown would lead to a “shadow pandemic”. As per a recent report by India’s National Commission for Women (NCW), 587 domestic violence complaints had been lodged … Continue reading Domestic violence in India: Has anything changed?
By Abhishek Tajbije* On June 21, 2005, the Right to Information Act was notified in India's Gazette, and its implementation started on October 12, 2005. As per rti.gov.in, the objectives of the Right to Information Act are to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the government, contain corruption, and make … Continue reading RTI Act far away from its objectives: Multifold, core issues remain unresolved
Part two of the article (click here for part one) by Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) legal experts who have been working with victims of caste atrocities– Gayatri Suman, Shobharam Gilhare, Divya Jaiswal, Hemlata Pradhan, Rajendra Kumar Banjare, and Tendon Kumar Sahu – based on a larger study on the implementation of the the Scheduled Castes and … Continue reading Hathras and anti-atrocities Act: Why will instances of out of court settlement increase