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
MARCH 9, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: MAN GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDER, RAPE OF WOMAN AND DAUGHTER IN GUJARAT
A court in Gujarat on 7 March 2022 sentenced a man to death for raping and murdering a woman and her 11-year-old daughter in 2018, a case that had triggered national outrage. His accomplice was given life imprisonment on the charge of murder.
MARCH 2, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: MAN FROM PUNE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KIDNAPPING, RAPING AND KILLING TWO-YEAR-OLD
The Pune court on 28 February 2022 pronounced the death penalty to a 38-year-old man in a case related to sexual assault and murder of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl.
- FEBRUARY 27, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: BOMBAY HIGH COURT SETS ASIDE DEATH PENALTY IN RAPE AND MURDER CASE; ACQUITS ACCUSED OF MURDER, UPHOLDS RAPE CHARGE
The Bombay High Court on 23 February 2022 quashed the death sentence of a man convicted of killing and raping a girl on the ground that the accusation of murder could not be proven.
FEBRUARY 20, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: 38 PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER 2008 BOMBINGS
A court in India on 18 February 2022 sentenced 38 people to death and ordered life in prison for 11 others over a series of bomb blasts in 2008 that killed dozens in the western city of Ahmedabad.
FEBRUARY 14, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPE, MURDER OF FOUR-YEAR-OLD
A POCSO court in Rajasthan has awarded death sentence to a man for raping and killing a four-year-old girl, police officials said in Jaipur on 11 February 2022.
FEBRUARY 1, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: 488 CONVICTS ON DEATH ROW AT THE END OF 2021
There are about 488 convicts on death row across India at the end of December 2021, the highest since 2004.
- JANUARY 27, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: BIHAR POSCO COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR RAPE OF SIX-YEAR-OLD
A special court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on 26 January 2022 sentenced a 48-year-old man to death for the rape of a six-year-old girl in Bihar’s Araria.
JANUARY 23, 2022IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: TWO SISTERS ON DEATH ROW SPARED THE NOOSE BY BOMBAY HC
Observing that state machinery showed “laxity and indifference” in deciding their mercy plea, the Bombay High Court, in Maharashtra state,n on 18 January 2022 commuted the death sentences awarded to sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit to life imprisonme