Article 14 / by Abhinav Sekhri
Varavara Rao. Sudha Bharadwaj. Devangana Kalita. SafooraZargar. Scores of activists and students, all labelled criminals, all charged under a law whose legal processes ensure that proof of their innocence or guilt is rendered irrelevant.
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Statement of the Constitutional Conduct Group
This statement by our group of former civil servants arises from our deep concern at the assault on the Rule of Law in India and on its citizens’ rights to free speech and dissent, basic elements of any democracy.
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Mr Ravi Kiran Jain – President
Dr V. Suresh – Nat. Gen Secretary
25th June 2020 marks the 45th year of the Declaration of the infamous Emergency Declaration of Indira Gandhi. It is a day remembered as the day in 1975, when the Indian Government waged a war on its own people, suspending the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and turning India into an authoritarian country. …
Maktoobmedia.com / by Mrinal Sharma, Amnesty International India
First published May 6, 2020
The criminal justice system loses credibility when people are detained for no good reason. In India, this happens frequently under many laws, where journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and students are arrested just for being critical of the government.
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Sabrang / by Sabrang India
Sites labelling of people as terrorists, reversal of burden of proof, and prolonged pre-trial detention as inconsistent with international Human Rights and legal standards.
In a special communication dated May 6, four United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs have written to the government of India about their serious concerns with respect to violation of human rights that are made possible by several provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 and amendments made to it in 2019.
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Article 14 / by Abhinav Sekhri
The provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act—that are at the heart of the ongoing Bhima Koregaon cases—are criminally overbroad, excessively vague, and short of a legislative carte blanche to state-sponsored violations of fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution
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The Quint / by Chitranshul Sinha
The mutiny of 1857 led to the transfer of the government of British India from the East India Company to the monarch of England. The events of 1857 also spurred the British into enacting the Indian Penal Code of 1860 which had been lying in draft form for the previous almost three decades. Upon creating a code of offences applicable to the territories of British India, it was imperative for the crown to regulate law enforcement.
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26/01/2020
Mumbai Mirror / by Makarand Gadgil
Experts feel Sharad Pawar’s insistence on SIT probe is aimed at regaining turf in Western Maharashtra.
The Maharashtra government has sought legal opinion on whether to challenge the central government’s decision to hand over the investigation into cases related to Bhima-Koregaon violence and the Elgar Parishad conclave to the NIA.
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The Indian Express / by Deeptiman Tiwary
The data shows that Jammu and Kashmir saw a sharp spike in sedition cases in 2018, with 12 cases compared to just one in 2017. The state was split into two Union Territories last year.
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The Financial Express / by The Financial Express
Cases recorded as offences against the state in the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB’s) latest Crime in India Statistics report (for 2017)—such offences were separately recorded by NCRB only since 2014—saw a jump of 23%, from 6,986 cases registered in 2016 to 9,013 registered in 2016.
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Feminism In India / by Namrata Mishra
On the night of 6th August, while updating myself with what’s happening around in the country, debates around the passing of the contentious UAPA Bill seemed to be ubiquitous. As soon as I read the word UAPA, comes to my mind the arrest of five human rights activists: Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varun Gonsalves, who were arrested last year under this Act without any stark evidence by the police who could not explain the reason for arresting these activists. These human rights defenders were termed as “maoists” and “deshdrohis (anti-national)” by the BJP government.
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