Browsed by
Tag: Sudha Bharadwaj

Cognizance Of Chargesheet Vitiated As Pune Judge Wasn’t Special Judge Under NIA Act? / 8 Accused Seek Bail

Cognizance Of Chargesheet Vitiated As Pune Judge Wasn’t Special Judge Under NIA Act? / 8 Accused Seek Bail

By LawBeat (July 15):
BombayHighCourt bench led by Justice SS Shinde to hear Lawyer-Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, accused in the #BhimaKoregaon – #ElgaParishad case seeking default bail contending that the trial judge was not authorised to take cognisance of the 2019 charge sheet against her.


Produce papers showing Pune judge was competent to pass orders, HC tells Maharashtra

08/07/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

In a petition seeking default bail, activist Sudha Bharadwaj said that Sessions Judge KD Vadane was an additional judge and not a designated special judge.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to produce documents to show that the judge who granted an extension to the Pune Police to file the chargesheet in the Bhima Koregaon violence case and took cognisance of it was authorised to do so, PTI reported.
… The court posted the matter for next hearing on July 15.
Read more


Cognizance Of Bhima Koregaon Chargesheet Vitiated As Pune Judge Wasn’t Special Judge Under NIA Act? Bombay High Court To Examine

08/07/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court on Monday said that the Court’s records were consistent with lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj’s RTI replies, according to which Additional Sessions Judge (Pune) Kishore Vadane was not appointed as a Special Judge under the NIA Act in 2018/2019.
“Record is the same as you had annexed under RTI,” Justice SS Shinde heading the division bench said at the beginning of the hearing.
The court also asked the State if it had anything additional to show that the judge was assigned the case back then.
Read more


Judge who extended chargesheet deadline not special judge under NIA Act, reveals Sudha Bharadwaj’s lawyer

06/07/2021

The Free Press Journal / by Staff Reporter

Trade unionist, human rights lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj through her advocate Yug Chaudhry claimed that the special judge, who extended the time to file chargesheet into the Bhima Koregaon violence case, and also took cognisance of the chargesheet, was not a special judge under the National Investigation Agency Act.
Read more


Sudha Bharadwaj’s Bail Plea: Bombay High Court To Verify If Pune Sessions Judge Was Competent To Take Cognizance Of Chargesheet

06/07/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court said it would verify with the Registry if Additional Sessions Judge Kishor Vadane was a Special Judge under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act in 2018/2019 and if he was authorised to take cognisance of the Pune police’s charge sheet against the accused in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar – Parishad Case.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar heard Bharadwaj’s plea seeking bail in default Under Sections 439, 482 and section 167(2)(a)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Code read with section 43 D(2)of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. She has challenged two orders of Judge KD Vadane.
Read more


8 accused in Bhima Koregaon seek bail as judge who rejected bail was not authorised

06/07/2021

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Eight accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday seeking bail on the ground that the special judge at Pune who rejected their default bail was not authorised to do so. Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira filed the petition through advocate R. Sathyanarayanan.
Read more


Also read: Bombay High Court Seeks Reply On Sudha Bharadwaj’s Plea For Default Bail In Bhima Koregaon Case (Live Law, June 2021)

Keeping Quiet is Not an Option: Nayantara Sahgal on „Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism“

Keeping Quiet is Not an Option: Nayantara Sahgal on „Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism“

Feminist Dissent / by Nayantara Sahgal

From a speech given on January 24, 2021

Keeping quiet is not an option. We must speak, write, paint, sing, dance for the freedom to dissent, and for our human rights.

Let me take a moment to explain why I am especially glad and proud to be releasing this book about Sudha Bharadwaj. I grew up to the sights and sounds of revolution. My family fought for freedom under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership and my father died of his 4th imprisonment during British rule. The only mantra I learned was ‘Ishvar Allah tere nam, sabko sammati de Bhagvan’ (one of Gandhi’s favourite devotional hymns about the oneness of god). And the slogan of that long hard struggle for freedom was Inquilab Zindabad (long live the revolution).
Read more


Also read:
● Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism (PUCL, Jan 2021)
Access PDF copy of the book here

Rally for jailed Indian scholars held in Surrey, Canada

Rally for jailed Indian scholars held in Surrey, Canada


Surrey, June 27

Countercurrents.org / by Countercurrents

Close to the birthday of George Orwell and the 46th anniversary of Emergency in the world’s so called largest democracy, activists came together in Surrey on Sunday, June 27, to raise their voices against the incarceration of thinkers by the Indian authorities.
Organized by Radical Desi publications, the rally was held right outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center. The participants carried placards with pictures of jailed scholars who are being detained under trumped up charges for merely questioning the power and standing up for the poor and marginalized.
Read more

On Sudha Bharadwaj’s bail plea, Bombay HC asks NIA, Maharashtra to respond by July 2

On Sudha Bharadwaj’s bail plea, Bombay HC asks NIA, Maharashtra to respond by July 2

Bombay High Court Seeks Reply On Sudha Bharadwaj’s Plea For Default Bail In Bhima Koregaon Case

22/06/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay high Court on Tuesday directed the National Investigating Agency and State to file their replies in lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj’s plea seeking default bail on the grounds that the Pune judge was not authorized to take cognizance of the charge sheet filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against her, in 2019.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar passed the order on Bharadwaj’s plea under Sections 439 and 167 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Advocate Sandesh Patil for the NIA sought time to reply to the contentions following which the respondents have been asked to filed their replies by July 2 and the matter is posted for hearing on July 3.
Read more


On activist Sudha Bharadwaj’s bail plea, Bombay HC asks NIA, Maharashtra to respond by July 2

22/06/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Bharadwaj argued that the judge who allowed Pune Police more time to file the chargesheet against her was not a special judge and hence cannot take cognisance.
The activist had moved the High Court for default bail on June 11. Bharadwaj sought bail on the grounds that the Pune Police did not file a chargesheet against her within 90 days, as required under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The inquiry in the case was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency.
Read more


Sudha Bharadwaj Moves Bombay High Court Seeking Default Bail

11/06/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

Lawyer-Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case, has approached the Bombay High Court seeking default bail contending that the trial judge was not authorised to take cognisance of the 2019 charge sheet against her.
Her application under section 167 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code cites RTI replies to demonstrate that the court of Additional Sessions Judge Kishor Vadane in Pune was not authorised to take cognisance of the 1,800-page supplementary charge sheet filed by the Pune Police in February 21, 2019.
Read more

BK16 Solidarity in Zurich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cambridge, Dundee and Online (pics)

BK16 Solidarity in Zurich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cambridge, Dundee and Online (pics)

#FreeBK16 #FreeThemAll @ June 12

Zurich, Switzerland: Solifonds in collaboration with the Frauenrechts Gruppe of Amnesty Zurich Chapter, held a demonstration to protest for the release of the 16 human rights activists in India. They also wrote a solidarity message for the prisoners signed by the people who participated at the activities.



Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany: IndienKoGruppe: Solidarity from Berlin and Frankfurt. Defending the Defenders of Indian Constitutional Values and Human Rights.
Freedom shall prevail, defend the defenders!



Cambridge, UK


Dundee, Scotland: Amnesty Dundee – The BK 16 are a group of human rights defenders who have been imprisoned indefinitely by the Indian Government for standing up for human rights.


Amnesty Kenya: #BK16 solidarity from Nairobi, Kenya. Our members, staff and Board stand with the 16 Human Rights Defenders incarcerated in India #FreeBK16 #FreeThemAll unconditionally now


Amnesty International UK South Asia Action, Minehead group: Today, 12 June 2021, is an Action Day across Europe to raise awareness of the BK16 Below are the AI Minehead group asking you to #FreeBK16 and #FreeThemAll

Three years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated

Three years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated

The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod

Recalling his bruising experiences with an unjust criminal justice system as part of the legal team of the activists arrested in the questionable Bhima Koregaon violence case three years ago, Nihalsing B Rathod, in this second of a three-part series, recollects how basic tenets of criminal law were violated by the Pune Police in arresting Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Fereira, and Vernon Gonsalves at various points, and extending their detention, as well as that of Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Mahesh Raut. All this while, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde exhausted all legal options to evade arrest, as the judiciary looked on, condoning the deprivation of the activists’ liberty and denying their bail applications, sometimes making gestures that filled the activists’ legal team with hope but ultimately continuing the farce that is the Bhima-Koregaon travesty.
Read more


Also read part one: Bhima Koregaon: Marking three years since the first arrest (June 7, 2021)

Video: IN PRISON FOR DREAMING OF EQUALITY?

Video: IN PRISON FOR DREAMING OF EQUALITY?


hindi + en | 1h56min | 2021

By United Against Hate / PUCL

Speakers: Kavita Srivastava, Nivedita Menon, Kavita Krishnan, Meera Sanghamitra, Sabika Naqvi, Lara Jesani; Moderated by Banojyotsna Lahiri.

The Month of May marks one year of arrest of equal citizenship activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita and 1000 days of wrongful incarceration of Human Rights lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj. All three are fearless voices of dissent, dreamers of a equitable and just tomorrow.
Join this session honouring all the brave and unapologetic women who refuse to be silenced despite the continuous intimidation by this fascist regime and resist the institutionalized discrimination against women.
Watch @ PUCL FB page

Webinar on the Bhima Koregaon Case with Adv. Mihir Desai and Adv. Yug Chaudhry on May 30

Webinar on the Bhima Koregaon Case with Adv. Mihir Desai and Adv. Yug Chaudhry on May 30

Lawctopus.com / by Sonali Chugh

May 30
6:30-8:00PM (IST)

Lawctopus and Academike (Lawctopus’ Law Journal) are organising a talk on Bhima Koregaon with Senior Advocate and activist Mihir Desai and Yeats Scholar and Senior Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry on the Bhima Koregaon case. Both of them represent several accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. In this session, we intend to unfold the many layers of the Bhima Koregaon case. We hope to analyse the many trials of Sudha Bharadwaj, Hany Babu, Anand Teltumbde and Stan Swamy.
Read more / Register for the webinar

Crushing Dissent During India’s Lockdown

Crushing Dissent During India’s Lockdown

Towards Freedom / by Rishabh Jain

“The very thought of him having to plead to jail authorities regarding a basic service like clean water to wash his swelled eye still gives me anxiety attacks,” says Jenny Rowena, wife of Hany Babu.
Babu, a 55-year-old Delhi University professor, is among many political prisoners who have been detained after having been charged under a draconian Indian law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Read more


Also read/watch: Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution. Three Day consultation by PUCL in January 2021

Chronology of harassment against human rights defender Sudha Bharadwaj

Chronology of harassment against human rights defender Sudha Bharadwaj

CIVICUS / by CIVICUS

Today marks exactly 1000 days since human rights lawyer & activist Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested & detained on fabricated charges.
Sudha Bharadwaj, aged 59, is a human rights lawyer and activist who has spent her life defending Indigenous people in India and protecting workers’ rights. She has been in pre-trial detention since August 2018, when she was arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on trumped up accusations of having links with Maoist terrorist organisations, based on evidence believed to be fabricated.
Read more


Also read: The Sudha Bharadwaj the Govt Doesn’t Want You To Know (article14, Jan 2021)