India
2026
- GOVERNMENT
- federal parliamentary republic
- CONSTITUTION
- January 26, 1950; amended several times
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- based on English common law; partial review of legislative acts by the judiciary
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- bicameral, Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and People's Assembly (Lok Sabha)
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- Supreme Court, judges appointed by the President and serve until 65 years of age
RELIGIONS
80% Hindu; 11% Muslims; 2% Christians; 2% Sikhs; Buddhist minorities and others
From the country
- AUGUST 31, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: DELHI HC COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT
the New Delhi High Court in India commuted the death sentence of a man who murdered a witness on court premises. Shree Gopal shot dead eunuch Neelam inside the Tis Hazari court premises in 2003.
- AUGUST 28, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HC ADMITS APPEAL OF 2003 BLASTS CONVICT FACING DEATH PENALTY
Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi of the Bombay High Court in India allowed an appeal by death row inmate Ashrat Ansari.
- AUGUST 26, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: TWO MAOISTS SENTENCED TO DEATH
a local court awarded the death sentence to two Maoists in Chatra district, India.
- AUGUST 21, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: COURT ORDERS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO TWO
a court sentenced Naresh Harijan and Ram Harijan to death for a murder in Bihar's Banka district in India
- AUGUST 19, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HANGING OF MAN WHO RAPED, KILLED DAUGHTER STAYED
Justices DK Jain and 19/08 HL Dattu of the Indian Supreme Court stayed the execution of a man convicted of raping and killing his four-year-old daughter on June 28, 2007
- AUGUST 18, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: AWARDING DEATH PENALTY TO BE MADE TOUGHER: SC
the Supreme Court said judges, while awarding death penalty in mechanical consonance with the 1980 ‘Bachan Singh’ judgment, appear to have lost sight of vital ingredients – “the lesser alternative (life imprisonment) is unquestionably foreclosed” and “obj
- AUGUST 15, 2009Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
SAUDI ARABIA: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR BYNDOOR YOUTH
Abdul Majeed, 27, of Navunda, near Byndoor in India, was awarded capital punishment by a Saudi Arabian court for transporting narcotic drugs.
- AUGUST 12, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: ON DEATH ROW SINCE 1991, HE WAITS FOR HANGMAN
Piara Singh, 80, cannot walk or see and his dementia gets worse by the day. Piara, a murder convict sentenced to death in 1996, has been languishing in Amritsar jail since 1991, mostly in solitary confinement, with neither death nor mercy rescuing him fro
- AUGUST 6, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: MAN GIVEN DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLING MINOR NEPHEWS
a bench of the Delhi High Court in India comprising Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Indermeet Kaur upheld...
AUGUST 6, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: THREE SENTENCED TO DEATH
three people, including a woman, were sentenced to death for their involvement in two
- JULY 30, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: COURT AWARDS DEATH SENTENCE TO MAN FOR MURDERING NEIGHBOUR
a court in Allahabad, India, awarded the death sentence to Sanjay, a resident of Uttaraon police station area in the district’s trans- Ganga region, for hacking to death his neighbour Kullu on May 13, 2005.
- JULY 29, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HOOCH: BILL ON DEATH PENALTY CLEARED
following the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy, the Gujarat Assembly passed a Bill proposing stringent punishment, up to death penalty, to deal with the illicit liquor trade.