National Updates

Supreme Court issues notice to states to implement the SHW Act

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the central government and all state governments to implement the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act, 2013. This was in response to a PIL filed by an NGO highlighting that several state governments had neither constituted Local Committees in each district, nor had they […]

Supreme Court dismisses plea to make sexual assault gender neutral

The Supreme Court refused to admit a Public Interest Litigation filed by a practicing advocate which sought the declaration of all penetrative and non-penetrative sexual assault provisions in the IPC as gender-neutral – both with respect to the victim and the perpetrator. The challenge was based in the premise that these provisions, under which only […]

Petitions challenging constitutionality of IPC provisions on homosexuality and adultery referred to constitutional bench

A three judge bench of the Supreme Court has referred a fresh petition challenging the constitutionality of Sec. 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises same-sex sexual intercourse, to a five judge constitutional bench. The Court noted that its decision in Suresh Kumar Kaushal v. Naz Foundation, which had effectively recriminalized homosexuality in 2014, […]

Supreme Court upholds validity of Hadiya’s marriage

The Supreme Court, in an interim order, has reinstated the marriage of Hadiya, which had been annulled by the High Court of Kerala amidst controversy over her religious conversion to Islam and subsequent marriage. Given that the marriage was annulled in habeas corpus proceedings filed by her father, the Supreme Court cited that such proceedings […]

Bill to combat human trafficking cleared by Cabinet

The Cabinet has cleared the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018. While the latest version of the Bill is not available to the public, the previous drafts available reveal that the intended law will continue to use criminal law as the primary tool for a change, a method oft criticized by experts […]

Niti Aayog report reveals country-wide decline in sex ratio

The Niti Aayog has released a report titled ‘Healthy States, Progressive India,’ which among other things, raises the issue of a country-wide decline in the sex ratio at birth in India. The report notes that the decline is the sharpest in states of Gujarat and Haryana, while a few states of Bihar, Punjab, and Uttar […]

Advisory group approves HPV vaccine

The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization NTAGI has granted approval for the introduction of the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme. The campaign for providing HPV vaccines had suffered a setback in 2012 following controversy around its side-effects in 2012 and a strategic legal intervention before the Supreme Court seeking revocation […]

India opposes move to link gender with trade

India, an influential member of the World Trade Organisation, was amongst the minority that chose not to endorse a declaration seeking women’s economic empowerment in trade, despite nearly three-fourths of the members backing the same. India stated that while it supports gender equality, it could not submit that gender is a trade-related issue. Further, Indian […]