Browsed by
Category: Repression

How the SC speaks in contradictory voices / Staying of bail Orders disastrous for human liberty, says SC

How the SC speaks in contradictory voices / Staying of bail Orders disastrous for human liberty, says SC

How the SC speaks in contradictory voices on bail

14/07/2024

Scroll.in / by Vineet Bhalla

Bail has been reduced to a judicial lottery with different judges and benches of the court taking inconsistent stances on similar issues.
…
On July 11, the Supreme Court castigated the Delhi High Court for staying a regular bail order in separate case for over a year when it has itself stayed the order granting bail to Dalit activist Mahesh Raut in the Bhima Koregaon case for more than nine months now.
Read more

Casual and mechanical staying of bail Orders disastrous for human liberty, says SC

13/07/2024

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

In a significant development, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih has said it will lay down parameters on the stay of bail-granting Orders.
…
The Supreme Court itself has been guilty of staying bail Orders without reason. For instance, Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha was granted regular bail by the Bombay High Court Bench on December 19, 2023, after observing that it could not be said, based on the material produced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), that there exist reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against Navlakha was prima facie true to attract Sections 16, 18, 20 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism

A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism

A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism

15/07/2024

The Wire / by Ajay K. Mehra

The proposed legislation will authorise state police and other security agencies to arrest an accused person without warrant and by extension, without letting them know of their offence.
As soon as the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, tabled in the state legislative assembly on July 11 this year, becomes a law, the state government will have another draconian legal instrument to use against protesters, dissenters, critics and opponents. Like other such laws, this one too has strict provisions making an individual’s arrest non-bailable.
Since the need for such a law is being justified on the grounds that the “menace of Naxalism is increasing in urban areas… through Naxal frontal organisations”, dissenters being framed up as ‘urban Naxals’ is imminent.
Read more

Colin Gonsalves writes: Under proposed ‘urban Naxal’ law, I could be arrested for fulfilling my duty

14/07/2024

The Indian Express / by Colin Consalves

Because the judiciary has let us down again and again, the government has become bold enough to draft a law to trap within its web all those who struggle without guns or bombs for a better India
…
We have gone through the experience of the arrest of the Bhima Koregaon lawyers and social workers, none of whom, even after five years of incarceration, could be shown to have engaged in any act of violence intended to overawe the state by warfare. All of them were denied bail by judges, up to the Supreme Court.
Read more

‘Urban Naxal’ bill is bogey to smother opposition before Maharashtra polls, say Congress, CPI(M)

12/07/2024

The Hindu / by Ateeq Shaikh

In a strongly worded statement issued by the CPI (M) State Secretary, Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis has been called a “hitman” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah
… The statement reads, “It is well-known that Devendra Fadnavis, then Chief Minister and Home Minister, acted as a hitman for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in arresting innocent individuals under UAPA on false charges in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Read more

Also read:
▪ What is Maharashtra’s new Bill to curb ‘Naxalism in urban areas’? (The Indian Express / Jul 2024)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)
▪ What makes an Urban Naxal? (MR online / Sep 2018)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space

India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space

India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space

12/07/2024

CIVICUS / by CIVICUS

CIVICUS has submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Committee on the state of civic space in India ahead of its review of the state’s implementation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in July 2024.
…
The submission calls on the UN Human Rights Committee to make a series of recommendations, including:
Immediately and unconditionally release all HRDs, including Khurram Parvez, HRDs detained in the Bhima Koregaon case, student activists Umar Khalid and Gulfisha Fatima, journalists including Irfan Mehraj, academics and others detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms, and review their cases to prevent further harassment.
Read more
Download the India research brief

Also read:
▪ CIVIC FREEDOMS IN INDIA ‘REPRESSED’: GLOBAL MONITOR CIVICUS (The Wire / March 2023)
Read full report „People Power Under Attack 2022“
▪ India | Civicus Monitor Watchlist – Overview Of Recent Restrictions To Civic Freedoms (March 2022)
▪ AUTHORITIES HARASS AND SQUEEZE FUNDING OF NGOS WHILE ACTIVISTS, JOURNALISTS TARGETED IN INDIA (CIVICUS / Feb 2022)

In a case involving fake currency, Supreme Court gets real about the right to speedy trial

In a case involving fake currency, Supreme Court gets real about the right to speedy trial

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

The Supreme Court has provided a timely reminder, as much to itself as to subordinate judiciary and the general public, that presumption of innocence and the right to a speedy trial cannot be counterfeited by ‘national security’.
IN a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held that irrespective of the nature of the crime, an accused is entitled to a speedy trial.
The court has also remarked that “if the prosecuting agency and the court concerned have no wherewithal to protect the fundamental right to a speedy trial, then they should not oppose the bail petitions on the ground that the crime committed is serious.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Trial will take years & years & years:’ SC grants bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha (The Print / May 2024)
▪ Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)
▪ How many years can an undertrial languish in jail without trial? Bombay High Court asks NIA on Bhima-Koregaon Violence (Free Press Journal / Jul 2021)

Release India’s Political Prisoners / Video: 10 Political prisoners of the Modi era

Release India’s Political Prisoners / Video: 10 Political prisoners of the Modi era

Jacobin.com / by Safa Ahmed

Since reaching power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has jailed political critics using bogus terrorism and incitement charges. But an electoral setback for his party offers hope of change in India and a crack in his authoritarian Hindutva order.
… There are those who do make it out of prison. But in one harrowing case, imprisonment under the UAPA became a death sentence. In 2018, violent clashes broke out between Dalits and Hindu militant groups in Bhima Koregaon, a village in Maharashtra state. Instead of arresting any militants, police in the state arrested sixteen eminent activists, academics, and lawyers over the next two years — all of whom were involved in civil rights work supporting marginalized Dalits and tribal Adivasi communities.
Read more

Video: Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

By The Telegraph

en | 4:45 | 2024
From Kashmir to Pune, from the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the Delhi riots case accused to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending.
Watch video

Read more: Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial (The Telegraph / June 2024)

Also Read:
▪ How The Indian Prison System Denies Basic Freedoms, Rights And Dignity To Political Prisoners (The Polis Project / June 2024)
▪ The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners (The Wire / June 2024)
▪ Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
▪ India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)

India: Authorities must immediately repeal repressive new criminal laws

India: Authorities must immediately repeal repressive new criminal laws

Amensty.org / by Amnesty International

As three new criminal laws, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhinayam (BSA), come into effect today replacing three British-era laws in India, Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India said:
“The provisions of the amendments to and overhaul of the criminal laws in India would have debilitating consequences on the effective realization of the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and fair trial.”
Read full statement

Also read/watch:
▪ India: Arrests, Raids Target Critics of Government (Amnesty International / Oct 2023)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)
▪ Fabricating Evidence Against Life and Liberty: Tampering with Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer and its implications for Bhima Koregaon case (Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy / Dec 2022)
▪ Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

21/06/2024

The Wire / by Rajshree Chandra

The argument that we are in the process of decolonizing laws is a bogus one and it reveals our hypocrisies more than anything else.
… Arundhati Roy today is now going to be being tried under many provisions of IPC along with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for a speech she gave in 2010, 14 long years ago.
Fourteen years ago, she was charged with sedition (S. 124 A) based on a complaint that her speech (in Delhi) advocated separation of Kashmir from India and therefore “jeopardised public peace and security”. Fourteen years later, charges have been upgraded, and she is now also charged under the anti-terror law UAPA for reasons that are legally confounding but politically quite apparent.
Read more

SKM condemns prosecution sanction of Arundhati Roy, Showkat Hussain under UAPA

20/06/2024

Deccan Herald / pti

The Delhi LG, earlier last week, gave his sanction to prosecute Roy and Hussain for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in 2010.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday condemned Delhi LG V K Saxena’s approval to prosecute author Arundhati Roy and former Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
… “The slapping of UAPA reflects that the present government, although cut down to size in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, nonetheless wishes to continue with its older line of clamping down on any dissent and branding it as ‘anti-national’,” the organisation added.
The SKM claimed the National Investigation Agency has sent to jail 16 leading intellectuals and activists with “false charges” in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
Read more

Talons intact – Indian democracy is not free from fascism yet

22/06/2024

The Telegraph / by Asim Ali

The electoral setback for the BJP marks an important check on the accelerated process of “fascistization of the regime” as I had noted in my column for The Telegraph last month
The last fortnight has been marked by a widespread sentiment of relief at the failure of the Narendra Modi regime to come back with a full majority. The relief is understandable. The sentiment, which seems out of place, represents the exultation at the triumphant redemption of Indian democracy from the clutches of fascism.
Read more

Also read/watch:
▪ India: Arrests, Raids Target Critics of Government (Amnesty International / Oct 2023)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Arundhati Roy: #Me Too Urban Naxal (Scroll.in / Aug 2018)

▪ Video: PUCL and over hundred organisations present: Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution

Lawyers, the persecuted, their families and others will present how UAPA is being used to persecute activists and silence dissent. The 3 days will see State-wise sharing from AP, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana & UP

► Repeal UAPA – Day Three (en + … | 2h 51min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day Two (en +… | 2h 22min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day One (en + … | 2h 17min | Jan 2021)

Before Arundhati Roy, Writers, Human Rights Activists & Journalists Were Slapped With UAPA

Before Arundhati Roy, Writers, Human Rights Activists & Journalists Were Slapped With UAPA

Outlook / by Outlook Web Desk

The draconian UAPA has drawn criticism from several Supreme Court judges. However, it continues to be used against prominent writers, activists and journalists.
A celebrated Booker Prize-winning author and human rights activist, Arundhati Roy became the latest target of India’s draconian law – Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, after Delhi’s Lieutenant General approved her prosecution on a complaint lodged 14 years ago. The approval comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP-led NDA came to power for the third time. Human rights organisations have accused the government of misusing the law to silence critics.
Since 2014, at least 6,900 UAPA cases have been lodged until 2020, according to NCRB data. 
Read more

Also read:
▪ Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial (Telegraph / June 2024)
▪ Legal experts call for a repeal of UAPA over misuse and rights violations (Frontline / May 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ How Governments Avoid Due Process by Declaring Groups as ‘Front Organisations’ of Banned Entities (The Wire / Sep 2020)

Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

The Telegraph / by Telegraph Web Desk

From Kashmir to Pune, here are some of the most high-profile names in India’s prisons for whom the criminal justice process has been made the punishment
From the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending.
Read more

Also read:
▪ 7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence (Live Law / May 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report

To Think of Modi 3.0 as Less Dangerous Would Be a Misreading

To Think of Modi 3.0 as Less Dangerous Would Be a Misreading

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

While forming the government, Modi may do whatever it takes, but thereafter he will recoil back to his fascist persona with a vengeance.
… Most commentators expect Modi 3.0 to be a tamed affair which may not last a full term. I do not agree. While forming the government, he may do whatever it takes, but thereafter he will recoil back to his fascist persona with a vengeance, like a wounded tigress. He will do more of what he knew and did with added fervour of vendetta. For instance, Muslims and Dalits concertedly voted against the BJP, and he will not leave them unpunished. There will be more incarcerations of dissenters (“urban Naxals”), and more raids on and arrests of political opponents by the central agencies under the guise of punishing corruption. 
Read more

Also read:
▪ Who Does June 4 Belong to? (The Wire / June 2024)