Hindustan Times / By HT Correspondent
Retired Supreme Court judge and one of the organisers of Elgaar Parishad, Justice BG Kolse Patil speaks to HT regarding the arrests of civil rights activists.
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NewsClick / By Sumedha Pal
It was noted that women who were involved in the struggles to protect the land, water and forests and those resisting the anti-people policies unleashed by the governments were the worst affected in the prisons.
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The Leaflet / By Raja Dandamudi
When governments, both central and state, are not tolerating genuine criticism of governmental actions, and the courts are not doing much to protect the freedom of expression, a recent judgment by the Kerala High Court introduces a fresh breeze in an otherwise tense environment, where the voices of only some kinds of majorities are being entertained, while voices of minorities are being suppressed. Also, the judgment goes a long away in furthering the labour rights of employees, to express their opinion, even if it amounts to criticism of their employer or superiors.
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The Citizen / by Ribhu Ranjan
Retired Justice Kolse Patil, one of the conveners of the Elgar Parishad had been a lawyer as well as a public prosecutor before he became a High Court judge. He retired at the age of 47, and for the past three decades he has been associated with various social movements, particularly for the marginalized sections of the society and trying to fight the communal forces.
The Citizen (TC) interviewed Justice Patil in the light of Bhima-Koregaon violence that happened exactly a year ago.
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Sanhati-india / by People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
PUDR welcomes the release on bail of four workers of Reliance Energy/ Infrastructure Ltd. (REIL) and trade union activists implicated under numerous sections of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged Maoist links. The workers were released on 26 December 2018 on default bail after the 17 December order of the Bombay High Court setting aside the extension of time granted to ATS Mumbai to file the chargesheet in April 2018. Months before 6 June and 28 August, when 10 rights activists were arrested under UAPA on fabricated connections to the Bhima Koregaon violence, workers at RIEL were the first to be targeted for alleged ‘Maoist’ links at Elgaar Parishad.
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FreeSpeechCollective / By the FreeSpeechCollective
The range of curbs on free speech, with unreasonable and often illegal clampdowns from various quarters – the State, both at the Centre and respective state governments; non-state actors and vigilante groups; corporations and industrialists, provides a glimpse of the challenges ahead as India heads into a national election that promises to be one of the most fiercely contested amid an increasingly polarised polity.
Table of Contents
I Killings of journalists
II Attacks
III Detention and Arrests
IV Threats
V Censorship
VI Online Media: Arrests, Shutdowns and Regulation
VII Defamation suits
VIII Contempt of court
IX Sedition
X Privacy and Surveillance
XI Government Control, Policy and Regulation XII Judicial orders
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The Leaflet / By N Venugopal
Prison walls cannot stop imagination and expression, however much they try to curb freedom of expression. Varavara Rao, the renowned poet and public intellectual, is again behind bars, this time round as an under-trial prisoner in Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison in the infamous Bhima-Koregaon or Urban Naxal case. In his public life spanning about 60 years, the 78-year-old poet spent more than seven years in various prisons in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, beginning with his first arrest in 1973.
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Sanhati India / By Persecuted Prisoners’ Solidarity Committee
We are going through one of the most repressive times in post-Independent India where the fundamental rights of expression and the right to form any organization or association that can question government policies or fight for rights of the people have been criminalized. The government, armed with acts like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), is coming down heavily on all those standing up for the rights of economically and socially marginalized sections of people.
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Groundxero / By Padmaja Shaw
The courts, by not intervening in the abuse of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, are becoming the legal instruments in the hands of the state to perpetuate unlawful activities. If civil liberties lawyers are targets of such laws, who will fight for the rights of the marginalised that the Chief Justice referred to?
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The Leaflet / By B Sivaraman
The NDA government in the Centre and the Maharashtra government are trampling upon the entire gamut of rights and not only human rights as understood in the conventional manner. Labour rights, women’s rights and Adivasi rights all are turning into human rights issues because of repression.
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