Increase reservation to 68 per cent, Mallikarjun Kharge urges Centre
Hubballi (Karnataka), May 1 (PTI): Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday demanded that the Centre remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations and increase it to 68 per cent.
Kharge also accused the union government of not being keen on conducting the caste census initially and agreeing after the pressure built by the Congress party.
“I demand that the Centre remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations and increase it to 67 to 68 per cent,” he said addressing a public meeting in Hubballi.
The Congress held the event under the title, “Save Constitution, Save the Country”. The event is also against the price rise.
The party has alleged that the Centre was responsible for the hike in prices of essential commodities.
According to Kharge, the reservation should be increased to 68 per cent in line with the reservation provided by the Tamil Nadu government.
He charged that the Centre was coming on way to increase reservation to 67 to 68 per cent.
The Congress president alleged that the Centre was initially not keen on conducting the caste census.
“The Centre never wanted to even conduct census but we don’t know how good sense prevailed upon them,” he quipped.
He also sought to know why the census did not take place in 2021.
Had it happened then, we would have come to know the condition of the citizens, their per capita income, their salaries, number of jobs created and the number of people who came out of poverty, Kharge noted.
The Congress chief further said, “Now that the BJP-led Centre has decided to conduct it, our hunch is that the central government is not doing the exercise wholeheartedly.”
Kharge set a deadline of three months to conclude the enumeration work.
“You have to do it in three months, then only we will conclude that you are interested in conducting the census. If you fail to do so then we will believe that you are not keen on it,” he said.
He also underlined that he and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had built pressure on the Centre to get it done.
Kharge, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, reiterated his demand for a special Parliament session on the Pahalgam terror strike.
“Explain to us what and why it happened in Pahalgam. Was it due to intelligence and security lapse by the central forces, local police or the Border Security Forces?” he asked.
Noting that terrorists shot dead 26 innocent people, Kharge said the Centre should explain the details of the incident.
He reiterated the demand for an all-party meeting.
Kharge flayed Union Minister Piyush Goyal for his statement that Pahalgam-like incidents would continue to disturb until 140 crore Indians do not regard patriotism as their paramount ‘Dharma’.
“A Union Minister says 140 crore people of the country lack patriotism. If they had patriotism, no one would have troubled us. This is absurd. You mean to say all 140 crore people are anti-nationals? Are you all sitting here are anti-nationals and only BJP people are patriots?” Kharge alleged.
“These people were ready to see the country to the British. They were working for the British but it was only Congressmen who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the country. It was we who went to jail,” he added.
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High courts upheld only 8 per cent of death sentences; SC confirms none in recent years: Report
New Delhi (PTI): Highlighting that a high acquittal rate of death row convicts by the Supreme Court and high courts demonstrates a pattern of "erroneous or unjustified convictions", a study of 10 years of death penalty data has revealed that the top court did not confirm any death sentences in recent years.
The study by Square Circle Clinic, a criminal laws advocacy group with the NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, found that an overwhelming majority of death sentences imposed by trial courts did not withstand scrutiny at higher judicial levels. Acquittals far outnumbered confirmations at both the high courts and Supreme Court levels.
According to the report, the trial courts across India awarded 1,310 death sentences in 822 cases between 2016 and 2025. High courts considered 842 of these sentences in confirmation proceedings but upheld only 70 or 8.31 per cent.
In contrast, 258 death sentences (30.64 per cent) resulted in acquittals. The study noted that the acquittal rate at the high court level was nearly four times the confirmation rate.
Data showed that of the 70 death sentences confirmed by high courts, the Supreme Court decided 38 and did not uphold a single one. The apex court has confirmed no death sentences between 2023 and 2025.
"Wrongful or erroneous or unjustified convictions, then, are not random or freak accidents in the Indian criminal justice system. The data indicates they are a persistent and serious systemic concern," the report said.
Over the last decade, high courts adjudicated 1,085 death sentences in 647 cases, confirming only 106 (9.77 per cent). During this period, 326 persons in 191 cases, were acquitted.
The report attributed low confirmation rates to the appellate judiciary’s concerns regarding failures in due process. "This coincides with increased Supreme Court scrutiny of safeguards at the sentencing stage," the report said.
Of the 153 death sentences decided by the apex court over the last decade, the accused were acquitted in 38 cases. In 2025 alone, high courts overturned death sentences into acquittals in 22 out of 85 cases (over 25 per cent). The same year, Supreme Court acquitted accused persons in more than half of the death penalty cases it decided (10 out of 19), the report said.
The study highlighted that 364 persons who were ultimately acquitted "should not even have been convicted and unjustifiably suffered the trauma of death row". It added that such failures extend beyond adjudication and reflect serious lapses in investigation and prosecution.
The question of remedies for wrongful convictions remains pending before the Supreme Court. In September 2025, three persons acquitted by the apex court filed writ petitions seeking compensation from the state and argued that their wrongful convictions violated their fundamental right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
"In 2022, the Supreme Court crystallised a sentencing process in Manoj v. State of Madhya Pradesh , and mandated all courts to follow those guidelines before imposing or confirming a death sentence," the report read.
In 2025, the apex court held in Vasanta Sampat Dupare v. Union of India that death penalty sentencing hearings form part of the right to a fair trial and stressed that capital punishment can be imposed only after a constitutionally compliant sentencing process.
"However, even at the high courts whether the process mandated under Manoj is being complied with is in doubt,” the report said.
