India has slipped two places on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index to 129th place, while Iceland retained its top position in the rankings published on Wednesday.

Within South Asia, India was ranked fifth after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while Pakistan was ranked last.

Globally, Sudan was ranked last on the index of 146 countries, while Pakistan slipped three places to 145th.

India figured among the economies with the lowest levels of economic parity, alongside Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Morocco. All of them registered less than 30 per cent gender parity in estimated earned income.

However, India showed the best gender parity in terms of enrolment in secondary education, while it scored well on political empowerment of women at 65th rank globally.

With regard to parity in the number of years with female/male heads of state for the last 50 years, India was ranked 10th.

With a population of over 140 crore, India has closed 64.1 per cent of its gender gap in 2024 and the decline of two places from 127th last year, mainly happened due to small declines in ‘Educational Attainment’ and ‘Political Empowerment,’ parameters, while ‘Economic Participation’ and ‘Opportunity’ scores slightly improved.

The WEF said India’s economic parity score has trended upwards for the past four years.

In the Political Empowerment subindex, India scored within the top-10 on the head-of-state indicator, but its scores for women’s representation at the federal level, in ministerial positions (6.9 per cent) and in Parliament (17.2 per cent), remain relatively low, it added.

The WEF said the world has closed 68.5 per cent of the gender gap, but at the current pace it will take another 134 years — equivalent to five generations — to achieve full gender parity.

Since last year, the gender gap has closed by 0.1 percentage points.

“Despite some bright spots, the slow and incremental gains highlighted in this year’s Global Gender Gap Report underscore the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieving gender parity, particularly in economic and political spheres,” WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said.

“We cannot wait until 2158 for parity. The time for decisive action is now,” she added.

Iceland was followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden in the top five.

The UK was ranked 14th, while the USA was at 43rd place.

Jaipur: Posters appeared in a locality of Jaipur on Wednesday saying houses should not be sold to “non-Hindus”.

The poster, appearing in the Shivaji Nagar in Bhatta Basti area, also appeals to the ‘Sanatani’ people to stop the “migration” of Hindus.

Some locals told a TV channel that they have pasted the posters willingly on their own homes to appeal to people in their locality to not sell their houses to non-Hindus.

When contacted, the SHO of Bhatta Basti police station area, Kailash, confirmed the development. He said people have pasted the posters on their own houses and their has been no complaint so far over this.

The posters in the name of ‘Sarv Hindu Samaj’ read in Hindi, “Sanataniyon se appeal, palayan ko roken. Sabhi Sanatan bhaiyon behnon se nivedan hai ki apna makaan gair-Hinduon ko na bechen (An appeal to Sanatanis to stop migration. A request to all Sanatani brothers and sisters to not sell their house to non-Hindus).”

The local residents alleged that some people buying houses in the area were creating problems for others.

“Due to this situation, we decided to past posters outside our houses appealing people to not sell their houses to non-Hindu. Property brokers frequently come to us, asking whether we are interested in selling our house.

“Many houses have been sold to outside people and the atmosphere in our locality has got disturbed,” a local resident told the TV channel.

The SHO said the police have not received any complaint over the matter.

“Selling and purchasing property is an individual matter. No such matter has come to light in which there was any dispute,” the SHO said.

Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot alleged Wednesday that if BJP keeps the Lok Sabha Speaker post, its alliance partners TDP and JD(U) should be prepared to witness horse-trading of their MPs.

If the BJP does not have the intention to do anything undemocratic in the future, it should give the Speaker’s post to one of its allies, the Congress leader said.

Following the principle of coalition, during the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government from 1998 to 2004, the Speaker was from the TDP and the Shiv Sena and in the UPA government from 2004 to 2009, the Speaker was from the CPI(M) and the Lok Sabha was managed well, he said.

“Not just TDP and JD(U), but the people of the entire country are eagerly watching the election to the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker. If BJP does not have the intention to do anything undemocratic in the future, it should give the Speaker’s post to one of its allies,” Gehlot said in Hindi on ‘X’.

“TDP and JD(U) should not forget the conspiracies hatched by the BJP to topple governments in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. In many of these states, the government fell and parties split due to the role played by the Speaker,” he added.

This is the second mercy plea rejected by the President after assuming office on July 25, 2022.

The Supreme Court had dismissed a review petition by Arif on November 3, 2022, affirming the death penalty awarded to him in the case.

However, a death row convict can still knock on the doors of the top court seeking commutation of his sentence on the ground of prolonged delay under Article 32 of the Constitution, feel experts.

The mercy petition from Arif, received on May 15, was turned down on May 27, the officials said, quoting the President’s secretariat order of May 29.

The Supreme Court, while upholding the death sentence, noted that there were no mitigating circumstances in Arif’s favour and emphasised that the attack on the Red Fort posed a direct threat to country’s unity, integrity, and sovereignty.\

The attack, which took place on December 22, 2000, saw intruders opening fire at the 7 Rajputana Rifles unit stationed within the Red Fort premises, resulting in the deaths of three Army personnel.

Arif, a Pakistani national and a member of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was arrested by Delhi Police four days after the attack.

“Appellant-accused Mohd. Arif alias Ashfaq was a Pakistani national and had entered the Indian territory illegally,” the top court’s order of 2022 had said.

Arif was found guilty of conspiring with other militants to carry out the attack, with the trial court sentencing him to death in October 2005. The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the decision in subsequent appeals.

The trial court had said that the conspiracy to attack the Red Fort was hatched at the house of two conspirators in Srinagar, where Arif had illegally entered in 1999 along with three other LeT militants.

The three militants — Abu Shaad, Abu Bilal and Abu Haider — who had also entered the monument, were killed in separate encounters.

Despite multiple legal challenges, including review and curative petitions, Arif’s plea for mercy was rejected, highlighting the severity of the crime and the threat it posed to national security.

The Delhi High Court had confirmed the trial court’s decision in September 2007. Arif then approached the Supreme Court challenging the high court’s verdict. The top court had in August 2011 also sided with the order of awarding the death sentence awarded to him.

Later, his review petition came up before a two-judge bench of the apex court which dismissed it in August 2012. A curative petition was also rejected in January 2014.

Thereafter, Arif had filed a petition submitting that review petitions in matters arising out of award of death sentence be heard by a bench of three judges and in open court.

A constitution bench of the apex court had in its September 2014 judgement concluded that in all cases in which death sentence was awarded by the high court, such matters be listed before a bench of three judges.

Before the September 2014 verdict, the review and curative petitions of death row convicts were not heard in open courts but were decided in chamber proceedings by circulation.

In January 2016, a constitution bench had directed that Arif shall be entitled to seek re-opening of the dismissal of the review petitions for an open court hearing within one month.

The apex court had rejected the review petition in its verdict delivered on November 3, 2022.

This decision comes after President Murmu rejected another mercy petition last year in a separate case, demonstrating a firm stance on cases of heinous crimes.

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has quashed a kidnapping case against a man registered on the complaint of his wife’s uncle after the couple eloped and said the judicial magistrate was wrong in sending the adult petitioner back to her parental home even when she had expressed fear for her life there.

“No one can restrain an adult from going anywhere that he or she likes, staying with a person of his/her choice, or solemnising marriage according to his/ her will or wish as this is a right which flows from Article 21 of the Constitution, which provides protection of life and personal liberty,” the court observed.

The woman aged about 21 years had married the man according to Muslim rites in April 2024, regarding which the Telangana state waqf board issued a marriage certificate.

The woman’s uncle lodged an FIR against her husband under section 363 (kidnapping) of IPC. Thereafter, the police not only arrested her husband but also took the woman into custody and handed her over to her uncle.

When the police produced the woman before the Magistrate to get her statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC, she categorically said that she had married the man of her own choice and that her husband had been implicated in the case falsely.

Subsequently, the couple jointly challenged the FIR before the high court.

A bench comprising justices JJ Munir and Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal said the judicial magistrate had sent the woman to her uncle’s home despite her statement under section 164 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC), wherein she had expressed fear for her life if sent to her uncle/parent’s home.

The court said that the judicial magistrate, before whom the first petitioner lady claimed that she feared for her life because her uncle had threatened to do her death, was duty bound to get an FIR registered against the uncle, besides taking adequate measures to secure the safety and life of the first petitioner.

Emphasising that the honour killing in such matters is not an unknown phenomenon”, the court added that the Superintendent of Police, Siddharth Nagar and the Station House Officer, police station-Bansi, Siddharth Nagar district were equally answerable for not taking action against the woman’s uncle by registering an appropriate FIR and safeguarding the woman’s life and security.

While making the above observations, the court quashed the FIR against the husband.

In the decision dated June 7, the court also directed the officers concerned to ensure that her uncle or any other family member does not harm her in any manner.