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The SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is Significant – Various Statements

The SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is Significant – Various Statements

Gonsalves and Ferreira bail judgment: A step in the right direction but where will we go from here?

05/08/2023

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

The recent Supreme Court judgment granting bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira after five years of incarceration without trial reiterates several established principles of law for the protection of individual liberty and overturns the infirmities in Zahoor Ahmad Watali and Arup Bhuyan (2023), but will it have a ripple effect on the cases of the more than four lakh undertails incarcerated in Indian prisons?
… the bail judgment holds that the letters recovered from the other co-accused persons, witness statements, or the mere possession of literature propagating violence or promoting the overthrow of democratically elected government, does not prove that the two accused were involved in terrorist acts within the definition of the UAPA.
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Why the SC Judgment Granting Bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira Is So Significant

30/07/2023

The Wire / by Mihir Desai

The judgment has substantial implications not just for the others still in jail in the Elgar Parishad case but also for the bail jurisprudence in UAPA cases.
The restrictive bail provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act have been widely used to deny personal liberty to activists, students, journalists and others.
… It is in this context that the July 28 bail judgment of the Supreme Court in Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira’s case needs to be seen. Undoubtedly for the two of them, who have been in jail for nearly five years, it has immense significance. But what should not be lost sight of is that the judgment also has substantial implications not just for the others still in jail in the Elgar Parishad case but also for the bail jurisprudence in UAPA cases.
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Not Thwarted by Watali: Why Bail for Vernon Gonsalves & Arun Ferreira Matters

01/08/2023

The Quint / by Mekahala Saran

The Supreme Court judgment flatly refuses to accept the prosecution’s submissions without its own analysis.
In the days that followed Father Stan Swamy’s demise in 2021, the Bombay High Court is believed to have noted that he was “a wonderful person”. The eighty-four year old, a UAPA accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, was awaiting bail at the time of his death.
… So, when his co-accused Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were finally granted bail, with the apex court shredding the prosecution’s case for their continued incarceration, Fr Stan Swamy’s friend Fr Joseph Xavier told The Quint that Fr Swamy would have been “very happy and proud to hear of this”, had he been alive.
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On merits: On the Bhima Koregaon violence case

31/07/2023

The Hindu / Editorial

Following the Supreme Court bail order, the Bhima Koregaon case needs a re-look.
The Supreme Court order granting bail to activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira demonstrates how even under a stringent anti-terrorism law, denial of bail need not be the norm, and a preliminary assessment can lay bare the weaknesses of a police case. It is difficult for someone arrested under serious provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to get bail.
… This is the first time in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, in which activists and lawyers were arrested in 2018 on the charge of being part of a Maoist conspiracy, a court has recorded a finding that the accusations may not be true.
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Indian Church leaders welcome grant of bail to activists

31/08/2023

UCA News / by Michael Gonsalves

Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves with Father Stan Swamy and others were accused of plotting to overthrow government
Church leaders and rights activists have hailed the bail granted by India’s top court to co-accused of the late Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, booked under a terror-related law.
India’s Supreme Court granting bail to lawyer Arun Ferreira and trade unionist Vernon Gonsalves “is indeed a significant move,” Father Nicholas Barla, secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Commission for Tribal Affairs, told UCA News.
It will boost the morale of the other “activists working for the rights of tribal people, forest-dwellers, and Dalits (former untouchables),” he said.
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What Next after the Vernon Gonsalves Judgment

30/07/2023

The Proof of Guilt / by by Abhinav Sekhri

A Division Bench of the Supreme Court has allowed appeals filed by Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira [Reported as Vernon v. State of Maharashtra, Crl. Appeal No. 639 / 2023 (Decided on 28.07.2023) (“Vernon”)] which challenged the dismissal of their bail applications by the Bombay High Court, and has directed that they must be released on bail. The judgment comes almost five years after their arrests, and has been welcomed as a ray of light in what is possibly one of the darkest corners of present Indian jurisprudence — grant of bail in cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (“UAPA”). I need not elaborate the reasons for this praise for Vernon here, all of which is merited, as these have been comprehensively discussed on the ICLP Blog. Instead, I wish to flag the challenges ahead that must be resolved to make sure that the judgment in Vernon is not reduced to a forgotten relic by the sands of time.
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Recovering the Basics: The Supreme Court’s Bail Order in Vernon Gonsalves’ Case

29/07/2023

Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy / by Gautam Bhatia

Over the last decade, the bail provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act [“UAPA”] have been one of the most significant sites of constitutional struggles for personal liberty and State impunity (see  and ). A number of convergent factors (as discussed by Abhinav Sekhri in ) are responsible for this: the UAPA’s broadly-worded provisions (e.g. “membership” of terrorist gangs) lowers the threshold for initial arrest and custody, and the pace of the trial process means that years will pass before a final determination of guilt or innocence. In that context, bail is the only remedy that stands between an individual and a decade in jail without trial.
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‘Brings Hope, But…’ Bhima Koregaon Families React to Gonsalves, Ferreira Bail

29/07/2023

The Quint / by Fatima Khan & Mekhala Saran

The Supreme Court has granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Even as the Supreme Court granted bail on Friday, 28 July, to two accused in the Elgar Parishad case, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, the families of the other accused in the same case said that the verdict inspired some hope “but should not be celebrated too much.” Moreover, some even questioned the “insensitive bail conditions.”
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Also read:
Why the Bombay High Court granted regular bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde: An explainer (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)
A Professor’s Supreme Court Bail Hearing Is A Bellwether Case For Govt’s Use of India’s Anti-Terror Law (article14 / Nov 2022)

Criminalisation of passive membership under the UAPA

Criminalisation of passive membership under the UAPA

The Leaflet / by Mihir Desai

The running motif of the recent Supreme Court judgment on the UAPA (and POTA and TADA) is that under the guise of sovereignty and integrity of the nation, the Parliament can do anything and pass any law. The judgment is likely to lead to more arrests and denial of bail, and further stigmatise dissidents and their work. It virtually sanctions a police State.

Additionally, the First Schedule to the UAPA, which lists banned terrorist organisations, mentions in many entries that their ‘frontal organisations’ are also banned. These frontal organisations are not notified anywhere and suddenly make their first appearance only in chargesheets. For instance, in the Bhima Koregaon cases, the chargesheets filed by national investigation agencies implicate persons on the basis of their membership of frontal organisations such as the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights and the Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers, among others. These organisations were never notified as unlawful or banned. But by the present judgment, mere membership of these organisations will render all members liable to prosecution and punishment.
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Also read:
UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022)
NIA Opposes Stan Swamy’s Bail; Calls PUCL, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan ‘Maoist Fronts’ (The Wire / Jan 2021)
2 years, 3 charge sheets & 16 arrests — Why Bhima Koregaon accused are still in jail (The Print / Oct 2020)

Maharashtra: Top Cop Accuses Decades-Old Cultural, Rights Orgs of Working as ‘Naxal Fronts’

Maharashtra: Top Cop Accuses Decades-Old Cultural, Rights Orgs of Working as ‘Naxal Fronts’

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

At the recent police conference attended by PM Modi, Gadchiroli DIGP Sandip B. Patil claimed in a paper that 15 cultural and rights organisations are actually “active frontal organisations of Naxals.” Behind this claim is little evidence.
In 2017, the artiste couple Shital Sathe and Sachin Mali publicly announced their decision to split from the cultural outfit, Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) after 15 years of association.
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Also read:
UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022)
Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
The Security Playbook Used To Erode Democracy In Modi’s India & How The Tide Might Turn (article 14 / March 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)

Granted Bail on ‘Merits’, Bombay HC Order on Anand Teltumbde Is Significant

Granted Bail on ‘Merits’, Bombay HC Order on Anand Teltumbde Is Significant

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

While Sudha Bharadwaj secured a ‘default bail’, Varavara Rao is out on medical bail. The order in Teltumbde’s case is significant, because for the first time in the case, a court has dealt with the merits of the allegations levelled.
Observing that there is “no proof or any material” to show that 73-year-old civil liberties activist and academic Anand Teltumbde had made international visits sponsored by the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation, the Bombay high court on Friday, November 18, granted him bail.
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MRSD: Release Activist Vernon Gonsalves on immediate Medical bail

MRSD: Release Activist Vernon Gonsalves on immediate Medical bail

By Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy

PRESS STATEMENT
Statement by Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy – a campaign of 40+ civil society groups

MRSD is distressed to learn about the health situation of 65 year old activist, poet, and writer Vernon Gonsalves, incarcerated since 2018 in the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case. Gonsalves started developing several symptoms, such as fever, cough, dizziness, and nausea starting on August 30, as per the affidavit filed by his lawyers in Court. However, his health condition was met with neglect and it was only after pleading several times that he was finally taken to the state-run JJ hospital on September 6. Instead of continuing his treatment there, he was taken back to jail the same day. Upon hearing about this from other co-accused, Gonsalves’ lawyers and family members moved the NIA court seeking temporary bail on medical conditions. During the hearing, the lawyers told the Court that apart from Dengue, he may also be suffering from Pneumonia.

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Gadling in jail. Reason? As lawyer-activist he has been ‘unpleasant’ to India’s topcops

Gadling in jail. Reason? As lawyer-activist he has been ‘unpleasant’ to India’s topcops

Counterview / by Nilkantha Mandal, Sandeep Pandey, Kushagra Kumar

Surendra Gadling, now in jail in the Bhima-Koregoan violence case, is a human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist based in Nagpur. He is known for taking up cases of extra-judicial killings, police excesses and atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis in Gadchiroli and Gondia districts of Maharashtra.
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The cost of voicing dissent: UAPA against G.N. Saibaba, Gautam Navlakha, Father Stan Swamy and others

26/12/2020

Countercurrents / by Kunal Pant

In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor G. N. Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”
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A Daughter’s Life After Her Activist Mother’s Arrest

A Daughter’s Life After Her Activist Mother’s Arrest


Campaign poster, June 2020

Stories Asia / by Tarini Mehta

Koel Sen, the daughter of Prof. Shoma Sen, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, tells their story.
As a kid, I was always around her. She would take me along for much of the women’s rights work she did in the bastis (slums) of Nagpur (city). I would come back from school and she’d be back from work, so after lunch, we would set off for her social work. She was very dedicated to her work in extremely poor and marginalised communities. I’m really close to her and I’ve seen her work up close. She’s naturally a very sharing and giving human being.”
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NIA: Dr Anand Teltumbde directed colleagues to run campaign against his implication

NIA: Dr Anand Teltumbde directed colleagues to run campaign against his implication

Hindustan Times / by Charul Shah

Prior to the Supreme Court (SC) directing academician and activist Dr Anand Teltumbde to approach the Bombay high court (HC) for anticipatory bail in January 2018, he allegedly had asked his colleagues to run a campaign against his implication in the case. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating Teltumbde for his role in the Bhima Koregaon case mentioned Teltumbde’s plans in the charge sheet filed against him earlier this week.
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Sign Global Solidarity Statement for Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

Sign Global Solidarity Statement for Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

By India Civil Watch

Signatories include eminent public figures such as Noam Chomsky, Gayatri Spivak, Sukhadeo Thorat, Cornel West, Angela Davis, Kshama Sawant, Ramachandra Guha, Prakash Ambedkar and Arundhati Roy.
Sign statement here

Statement for Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha:
We, the undersigned (organizations and individuals) protest the impending arrest of Professor Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha and strongly condemn the attempt to malign their status as two of India’s foremost civil rights activists and public intellectuals today.

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Ambedkar Family on Anand Teltumbde: Extremely Concerned For His Life [Read Statement]

Ambedkar Family on Anand Teltumbde: Extremely Concerned For His Life [Read Statement]

Newsclick / by Newsclick

In a statement, the family expressed their solidarity with Dr. Anand Teltumbde, saying he was being hounded through the Elgar Parishad case.
The family of Babasaheb Ambedkar has issued a statement expressing concern regarding the “hounding” of Dr. Anand Teltumbde, saying that they are “extremely concerned for his life, and the suffering of his family if he is arrested and incarcerated like others.”
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