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UN official dedicates human rights award to Stan Swamy

UN official dedicates human rights award to Stan Swamy

Illustration by #bakeryprasad

Matters India / by Matters India

Dominic F. Dixon, executive director of the United Nations Association for Development and Peace, received the International Human Rights Award at the International Convention for Human Rights 2026 in New Delhi.
The award was presented by the World Human Rights Research Council on Oct. 25 at the NDMC Convention Centre on Sansad Marg.
Accepting the prestigious accolade, Dixon dedicated the award to the memory of Father Stan Swamy, the 84-year-old Jesuit priest and human rights defender who spent his life standing alongside Adivasi communities and the marginalized.
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Also read:
▪ Remembering Stan Swamy: Five Years Since His Custodial Death / The Struggles He Lived For Continue … (Jul 2026)
▪ UN experts, Freedom House, USCIRF call to designate India as “Country of Particular Concern” (Maktoob / Jul 2025)
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS / Dec 2024)
▪ Stan Swamy’s death will always be stain on India’s human rights record, says UN working group (Scroll.in / March 2022)
▪ Pegasus Reports Highlight Need for Better Regulation of Spyware: UN Rights Chief (The Wire / Aug 2021)

▪ I am not a Silent Spectator – Why Truth has become so bitter, Dissent so intolarable, Justice so out of reach – An Autobiographical Fragment, Memory and Reflection

Edition: Aug 2021
Publisher: Indian Social Institute, Bangalore
Language: English
Paperback: 149 pages

‘Why truth has become so bitter, dissent so intolerable, justice so out of reach?’ because truth has become very bitter to those in power and position, dissent, so unpalatable to the ruling elite, justice, so out of reach to the powerless, marginalised, deprived people. Yet, truth must be spoken, right to dissent must be upheld, and justice must reach the doorsteps of the poor. I am not a silent spectator. This booklet is not my autobiography. It is rather a collation of some glimpses/episodes from my life that somehow made a difference for me, and possibly for my confrères, colleagues and the people with whom I have shared my life.

Access a free PDF copy of the book here
▪ Arrest of Fr Stan Swamy: UN makes public letter seeking explanation from Govt of India (Counterview / Jan 2021)

Bhima Koregaon & Elgar Parishad Case: A Timeline of Key Events

Bhima Koregaon & Elgar Parishad Case: A Timeline of Key Events

aitimeline.in / by by Nazish Fatima

Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case timeline: the 2018 violence, 16 UAPA arrests, every bail order and the state inquiry report due by 31 October 2026.
The Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case timeline begins with the 200th anniversary of an 1818 battle: on 31 December 2017 activists held the Elgar Parishad at Pune’s Shaniwar Wada, and on 1 January 2018 violence near the Bhima Koregaon memorial left one man dead. Two separate investigations followed: one into the violence, and an anti-terror conspiracy case alleging that the conclave was backed by Maoists, in which 16 people were arrested. As of 27 October 2026, no one has been convicted, every surviving accused has been granted bail, and the state inquiry commission’s report is due by 31 October. This page keeps the two tracks apart and links each legal step to the report that recorded it.
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Also read:
▪ Incarceration As Politics: A Timeline Of Political Prisoners In Independent India (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ How an unsophisticated malware attack became India’s biggest state-sponsored cybercrime (The Polis Project / March 2025)
▪ Conjuring the BK16 Myth: How the Elgar Parishad case rests on fiction and deception (The Polis Project / March 2025)
▪ Why caste Hindutva, not an Elgar conspiracy, is at the root of the Bhima Koregaon violence (The Polis Project / Feb 2025)

Bombay HC Seeks Credentials Of Congress, PUCL, AITUC In Pleas Challenging Maharashtra Special Public Security Act

Bombay HC Seeks Credentials Of Congress, PUCL, AITUC In Pleas Challenging Maharashtra Special Public Security Act

Drawing by Arun Fereirra

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Indian National Congress, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) to furnish details of their registration, constitution and office-bearers before it proceeds to hear their petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act (MSPSA).
… The State’s affidavit cited various instances particularly, the caste-based riots infamously known as the Bhima-Koregaon Violence which broke out across Maharashtra on January 01, 2018. It stated that the arrest of the ‘central committee’ members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (CPI-M) in Elgar Parishad, brought national focus on ‘Urban Activities’ of ‘Urban Maoists.’
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Maharashtra centre of Maoist urban network’: State defends Special Public Security Act in court (The Indian Express / Oct 2026)
▪ Modi’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ Remark Is an Attempt to Frame the Next Wave of Youth Dissent as Anti-National (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | Aug 2026)
▪ PM Modi calls for ‘dimagi Naxals’ to be ‘found and isolated’ in his Independence Day speech (Scroll.in / Aug 2026)
▪ Insecurity By Law: A Critique of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill in the Context of India’s Banning Regime (PUDR / Jul 2025)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill / Jul 2024)
▪ Maharashtra: Top Cop Accuses Decades-Old Cultural, Rights Orgs of Working as ‘Naxal Fronts’ (The Wire / Feb 2022)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)

Supreme Court To Hear Surendra Gadling’s Bail Plea On November 4

Supreme Court To Hear Surendra Gadling’s Bail Plea On November 4

PUDR campaign. June 2024

Surjagarh Arson Case: Supreme Court To Hear UAPA Accused Surendra Gadling’s Bail Plea On November 4

15/10/2026

Law Beat / by Sukriti Mishra

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal on October 15, 2026 mentioned Surendra Gadling’s bail plea before a Supreme  Court Bench including Justice Vikram Nath, which listed the matter for hearing on November 4
The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed Surendra Gadling’s plea for bail for hearing on November 4, after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal urged the Court to fix a date, telling the Court that Gadling “has been inside for 7 years” and that the matter “is not being heard”.
Gadling’s plea was listed before a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.
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Supreme Court Lists Surendra Gadling’s Bail Plea In Surjagarh Arson Case For November 4

15/10/2026

LawChakra / by LawChakra Desk

Years in custody and a plea that never seemed to reach the head of the cause list: the Supreme Court has now fixed November 4 to hear Surendra Gadling’s bail plea in the 2016 Surjagarh mine arson case, after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned it.
Activist-lawyer Surendra Gadling, who remains in custody in the 2016 Surjagarh mine arson case in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, will have his bail plea heard on November 4, the Supreme Court decided on Thursday, although he has already secured bail in the Bhima Koregaon case [Surendra Pundalik Gadling v. State of Maharashtra].
Read more

Also read:
▪ Supreme Court to hear bail plea of Bhima Koregaon accused Surendra Gadling on October 14 (The Hindu / Sep 2026)
▪ 3rd SC judge recuses himself from hearing lawyer Surendra Gadling’s bail plea (Hindustan Times / Jul 2026)
▪ Eight years in jail without trial: HC grants bail to lawyer Surendra Gadling in Elgar Parishad case (Hindustan Times / May 2026)
▪ 7 yrs in jail, charges framed against Surendra Gadling in Surajgarh arson case. What Bombay HC told SC (The Print / Apr 2026)
▪ Public Meeting at Press Club of India Demands Release of People’s Lawyer Surendra Gadling (The Mooknayak / March 2026)
▪ Surendra Gadling and the justice that must be seen to be denied (Frontline / Feb 2026)
▪ Explained: The 2016 Surjagarh arson case, the Elgaar link, and why the Supreme Court is intervening now (The Indian Express / Jan 2026)
▪ Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)
▪ Encountering Resistance – State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli (PUDR / June 2018)
▪ DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)

Why UAPA demands urgent reform

Why UAPA demands urgent reform

The Hindu / by Gautam Bhatia

UAPA’s vague provisions, stringent bail conditions and inconsistent judicial interpretations have enabled the prolonged imprisonment of activists, scholars and journalists without trial; Prof. G.N. Saibaba’s experience shows the urgent need to reform a legal regime that undermines civil liberties, due process and rule of law
… The anniversary of Professor Saibaba’s death is an occasion to reflect on a legal regime that is designed to — quite literally — imprison dissent and deny justice. Over the years, the UAPA has been used to criminalise political opposition. Following the violence at the Bhima Koregaon commemoration event in 2018, UAPA charges were brought against 16 scholars and activists, all of whom were jailed. Eight years later, the trial has yet to begin, and the court has yet to frame charges against the accused.
Read more

Also read:
▪ The GN Saibaba Case: The Legacy of a Belated Acquittal (The Wire / Oct 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | A Legacy Of Detention: Weaponisation Of PDA, TADA, NSA And UAPA Laws Since Independence (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Justice On Hold: How India’s Trial Courts Are Creating a New Class of Political Prisoners—Those Accused Of ‘Terrorism’ (article 14 / Dec 2025)
▪ G.N. Saibaba’s Lifelong Campaign Was Against the Violence of Silencing (The Wire | by Rona Wilson | Oct 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report

Modi opens war on the people, and the Supreme Court looks on

Modi opens war on the people, and the Supreme Court looks on

Bengaluru Lawyers Protest Delhi Arrests, Demand CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s Removal

13/12/2026

ETV Bharat / by ETV Bharat English Team

They voiced their concerns over alleged voter deletions, police action against dissenters and the independence of constitutional institutions, seeking the intervention of the Supreme Court.
… Advocate and legal activist Narasimhamurthy condemned alleged police atrocity against lawyers, students and journalists. … He also cited the imprisonment of activists, including GN Saibaba and Father Stan Swamy, and detentions in the Bhima Koregaon case as examples of the treatment of dissenting voices.
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Modi opens war on the people, and the Supreme Court looks on

10/10/2026

Frontline / by Anand Teltumbde

The government has used force to stop protests against Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR. The Supreme Court’s delays and refusal of interim relief have allowed the process to continue, prompting criticism that its caution favors the executive.
On October 10, Delhi was sealed before the protest began. Dozens of Metro stations were closed or restricted, trains cancelled, and mobile internet suspended in central Delhi. Jantar Mantar was ringed with barricades, cameras, water cannons, and security forces; buses waited to carry detainees away. …
In the Bhima-Koregaon case, civil-rights activists, lawyers, and scholars were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and held for years without trial. During the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Muslim activists, including Umar Khalid, were prosecuted under the same law. Prolonged detention before trial makes process itself a punishment. It was meant to terrorise people into silence. Women wrestlers who protested alleged sexual abuse by a BJP MP were met with police force rather than an urgent reckoning with their allegations.
Read more

Also read:
▪ PUDR Condemns the Imposition of an ‘Undeclared Emergency’ and the Planned Crackdown on Peaceful Protests in Delhi (PUDR / Oct 2026)
▪ Who Will Police the Indian Police? (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Sep 2026)
▪ In Defence of the Profanity of Protesters (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jul 2026)
▪ Who Answers to Us?: The Jantar Mantar Protests and India’s Missing Idea of Accountability (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jul 2026)

Joint Submission to GANHRI Regarding Review of the Accreditation Status of the NHRC of India

Joint Submission to GANHRI Regarding Review of the Accreditation Status of the NHRC of India

Front Line Defenders / by Front Line Defenders & others

We, the undersigned, are regional and international human rights nongovernmental organizations as well as individuals expressing concerns over the developments at the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRCI).
…
Over the past decade, the NHRCI has not intervened when Indian authorities have targeted students, activists, lawyers, journalists, and critics of the government under the abusive, counterterrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). This includes 16 prominent activists who promoted the rights of persons from India’s most marginalized communities, accusing them of inciting violence that occurred during a Dalit meeting in January 2018 in Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra state. The trial is yet to begin but 15 activists arrested in the case spent years in jail before they were granted bail, while 84-year-old Stan Swamy, a prominent tribal rights activist, died in custody, which a UN expert termed as “a stain on India’s human rights record.” According to reports by the US-based forensic firm Arsenal Consulting, malware was used to surveil and plant evidence on the computers of at least three accused in this case.
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‘A National Hero’: Jailed Activist Umar Khalid Wins International Award For Human Rights Defenders

09/10/2026

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

A special ceremony was held at the Trinity College in Dublin, to honour all the recipients. Khalid was represented by his father, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas.
Activist Umar Khalid who has been jailed since the last six years has won the 2026 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.
“Umar Khalid is the 2026 Asia winner of the Front Line Defenders Award. To those who try to silence his work, he is seen as an “enemy of the state’’ and an “anti-national”, but to others, he is a national hero, a voice of the people, and a human rights defender.
Read more

Also read:
▪ India added to human rights watchlist as repression intensifies in Modi’s third term (CIVICUS / Jul 2026)
▪ Civic freedoms remain at risk with crackdown on protests, internet restrictions and denial of bail to activists (CIVICUS / Jan 2026)
▪ Ongoing detention of activists without bail, criminalisation of dissent and ban on books (CIVICUS / Sep S025)
▪ Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)

▪ India: Authorities must immediately repeal repressive new criminal laws (Amnesty International / Jul 2024)
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS /Jul 2024)
▪ Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)

‘Maharashtra centre of Maoist urban network’: State defends Special Public Security Act in court

‘Maharashtra centre of Maoist urban network’: State defends Special Public Security Act in court

Me Too Urban Naxal campaign. 2022.

‘Maharashtra centre of Maoist urban network’: State defends Special Public Security Act in court

07/10/2026

The Indian Express / by Omkar Gokhale

Defending the law against Congress, CPI and AITUC pleas, the state says other Maoist-hit states already have similar laws that have withstood judicial scrutiny
Maharashtra, “because of its highest urban population has become center of Maoist urban network,” the state government has told the Bombay High Court, defending the Maharashtra Special Public Security (MSPS) Act. … Citing Elgaar Parishad and other cases, the affidavit claimed Maharashtra has the highest number of frontal organisations in the country, 64. It said Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand had banned such groups under similar laws that “withstood judicial scrutiny”, so Maharashtra was empowered to enact one for “local security environments”.
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Maharashtra Has Become ‘Centre’ Of Maoist Urban Network: State Defends Special Public Security Act Before Bombay High Court

07/10/2026

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Maharashtra Government while defending its decision to enact the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act (MSPSA), on Tuesday (October 6) told the Bombay High Court that because of its highest urban population, the State has become a ‘centre’ for Maoist urban network and thus in absence of legal framework to ban such ‘left wing extremist’ organisations, it has come up with this law as done by states like Telangana, Andra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Modi’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ Remark Is an Attempt to Frame the Next Wave of Youth Dissent as Anti-National (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | Aug 2026)
▪ Insecurity By Law: A Critique of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill in the Context of India’s Banning Regime (PUDR / Jul 2025)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill / Jul 2024)
▪ Maharashtra: Top Cop Accuses Decades-Old Cultural, Rights Orgs of Working as ‘Naxal Fronts’ (The Wire / Feb 2022)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

The prisoner as political category

The prisoner as political category

Maktoob / by Mohd Alfaz Ali

To mark Prisoners’ Day honestly is to notice this asymmetry, not just to honor the dead of 1929. It is to ask why a nation can revere its historical political prisoners while refusing that name to those living through an almost identical experience today
On 13th September 1929, Jatin Das died in Lahore Central Jail after sixty-three days without food. He had not committed a violent act. His crime, in the eyes of the colonial state, was conviction, the belief that India should govern itself. His body, wasting through week after week of hunger strike, became the only language of protest still available to a man the state had already decided to silence through confinement rather than trial. His death is why September 13th is observed as Prisoners’ Day.
… Sharjeel Imam has been in Jail without trial since 2020. Umar Khalid’s case has moved at a similar pace. The Bhima Koregaon accused, several of them elderly, some in visibly deteriorating health, have spent years as undertrials on charges that have yet to be substantively tested in court. 
Read more

Also read:
▪ Civil Liberties Groups Seek Release of Political Prisoners (Deccan Chronicle / Aug 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | A Legacy Of Detention: Weaponisation Of PDA, TADA, NSA And UAPA Laws Since Independence (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Incarceration As Politics: A Timeline Of Political Prisoners In Independent India (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Justice On Hold: How India’s Trial Courts Are Creating a New Class of Political Prisoners—Those Accused Of ‘Terrorism’ (article 14 / Dec 2025)
▪ The Grammar of the Power to Arrest and Search under UAPA (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Jul 2025)
▪ Who Is a ‘Political Prisoner’? Rona Wilson Says Caste and Religion Are Key to the Answer (The Wire / Feb 2025)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)

31 UAPA cases, years in jail: Inside Maharashtra’s overburdened Maoist belt court

31 UAPA cases, years in jail: Inside Maharashtra’s overburdened Maoist belt court

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Set up in 2023 to bring trials closer to remote Maoist affected villages, the court now has 31 pending UAPA cases, most more than five years old; witnesses travel for hours through forested areas while accused are often produced from distant jails through videoconferencing
… The need for a dedicated court had also come into focus before the Supreme Court earlier this year during the bail proceedings of lawyer Surendra Gadling, who has represented several UAPA accused and was arrested in the 2018 Elgaar Parishad case. Gadling had told the Supreme Court that his 2016 Surjagarh arson case remained pending without a court or prosecutor in Aheri.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Supreme Court to hear bail plea of Bhima Koregaon accused Surendra Gadling on October 14 (The Hindu / Sep 2026)
▪ 7 yrs in jail, charges framed against Surendra Gadling in Surajgarh arson case. What Bombay HC told SC (The Print / Apr 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | A Legacy Of Detention: Weaponisation Of PDA, TADA, NSA And UAPA Laws Since Independence (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Justice On Hold: How India’s Trial Courts Are Creating a New Class of Political Prisoners—Those Accused Of ‘Terrorism’ (article 14 / Dec 2025)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ Encountering Resistance – State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli (PUDR / June 2018)
▪ DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)