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Human Rights Padyatra Demands Release of Sudha Bhardwaj and her Co-Accused (pics)

Human Rights Padyatra Demands Release of Sudha Bhardwaj and her Co-Accused (pics)

Click to enlarge pics

By PUCL-CG and CMM-MKS

People’s Union for Civil Liberties-Chhattisgarh & Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha-Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti had given the call to march in solidarity with Sudha Bharadwaj and other human rights activists on International Human Rights Day.
The yatra was planned from Bhilai Power House to the Chief Minister’s residence in Raipur to deliver a memorandum, demanding the release of Sudha Bharadwaj and her co-accused. But the padyatra was stopped by the police near Khursipar in Bhilai, violating the fundamental right of the citizens to protest peacefully.
They demanded:
Release Sudha Bharadwaj!
Release all Human Rights Activists!
Stop Human Rights Violations in Chhattisgarh!

The Memory Keepers Of India’s Imprisoned Intellectuals

The Memory Keepers Of India’s Imprisoned Intellectuals

Bloomberg Quint / by Priya Ramani

Varavara Rao is writing poems again. This news, from his nephew N Venugopal is shared with joy. After months of teetering precariously between life and death in Mumbai’s Taloja jail, delirious, bedridden, with an unchanged catheter, and no trained attendants, the Bombay High Court, on Nov. 18, ordered immediate medical attention for Rao, one of the country’s most prolific public intellectuals. The court also okayed family visits.
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Law is No Longer About Justice But is Reimagined as a Tool of Terror and Harassment

Law is No Longer About Justice But is Reimagined as a Tool of Terror and Harassment

The Leaflet / by Shiv Visvanathan

Each citizen, as Havel once said about totalitarianism, must become iconic of protest from body language to symbolism. When indifference and prejudice becomes a monstrosity of legal indifference, civil society must reinvent democracy as a new politics of caring, says Shiv Visvanathan.
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Video: Why is UAPA a draconian law?

Video: Why is UAPA a draconian law?


en | 13:04min | 2020

Newslaundry / by Newslaundry Team

You may lately have come across stories of activists and journalists being charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, or UAPA. The UAPA is an anti-terrorism law which has been used against activists associated with the Bhima-Koregaon movement, the citizenship law protesters, and even a journalist on his way to cover the Hathras rape and murder…
Meghnad S takes you through the history of the UAPA, its evolution from an anti-secession legislation to being an anti-terrorism law, and how it has been misused by successive governments.
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Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

By SOLIFONDS

Parliamentarians and trade unionists establish solidarity committee for arrested human rights activists, lawyers, intellectuals and cultural workers in India

Press Release Nov 30, 2020
Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists have formed a solidarity committee for political prisoners in India. With this they protest against the criminalization of human rights activists and government critics in India and demand their release. They also call on the Indian government to ensure that they are released, that irregularities in the proceedings against the arrested persons are investigated and that rights of the prisoners are fully guaranteed. The committee was initiated by the Solidarity organization SOLIFONDS, which has been in contact with the well-known arrested lawyer and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj for years. …

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Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

Tweets by American Bar Association – ABA Justice Defenders Program

#India: During the #16DaysOfActivism, we remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj. We urge authorities to secure her immediate release in the absence of clear evidence of criminal conduct. @NIA_India #FreeSudha #FreeBhimaKoregaon #16days #OrangeTheWorld
The @chr_aba report found that Ms. Bharadwaj has been subject to numerous fair trial violations, including prejudicial public statements by the police and lack of independent public witnesses. @UN_SPExperts @UNIndepJudges

Also read: The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon (Oct 2019)


CIVICUS: This #16Days we continue the call for #India to free #WHRD Sudha Bharadwaj, an activist and human rights lawyer who has spent over 2 years in detention.

Musical Event: Here to Stay – Ideas Cannot be Arrested

Musical Event: Here to Stay – Ideas Cannot be Arrested

mid-day / by Shunashir Sen

A musical event this weekend will highlight the plight of political activists locked behind bars
Justice delayed is justice denied. That’s the maxim that some people have brought up in connection to political activists who have been imprisoned without their bail pleas being heard, some for years on end. The country’s criminal justice system is in the spotlight at a time when people are voicing their concern about the pending cases of activists Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and hundreds of others like them who have been spending their nights in jail cells.
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India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties / Protect our Republic, my lords

India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties / Protect our Republic, my lords

Arnab Goswami & India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties

16/11/2020

Article 14 / by Zaid Wahidi

On 11 November 2020, the Supreme Court granted bail to television show-host Arnab Goswami, who had been in judicial custody for seven days on an abetment to suicide charge related to a 2018 case. The merits aside, the manner in which the judicial machinery functioned to protect Goswami’s liberty was extraordinary… However, when the Supreme Court’s own approach to cases concerning personal liberty is tested on the touchstone of these observations, the reality could not be more of a contrast…
Sudha Bharadwaj: Imprisoned For 811 Days
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Protect our Republic, my lords

16/11/2020

The Hindu / by Sriram Panchu

The judiciary’s quick intervention in the Arnab Goswami case turns the spotlight on other serious cases that languish.
The facts are brief. Mr. Arnab Goswami of Republic TV, a media group perceived to be supportive of the ruling party, was arrested by the Mumbai Police on November 4, 2020 on a charge of abetting the suicide of Anvay Naik … The High Court heard his case for five hours on a holiday, and said exactly this on November 9…
There is however the disturbing contrast between the breakneck speed of the Supreme Court in this case with other cases which involve large scale and serious violations of fundamental freedoms.
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Five cases on personal liberty decided by Justice DY Chandrachud

15/11/2020

Bar & Bench / by Murali Krishnan

Supreme Court Bench headed by JusticeDY Chandrachud, on November 11 granted bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami in an abetment to suicide case against him…
Below are a few cases in which Justice Chandrachud was confronted with issue of personal liberty/ bail.
Bhima -Koregaon arrests
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What About Personal Liberty Of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, VV Rao & Stan Swamy?

What About Personal Liberty Of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, VV Rao & Stan Swamy?

SC Protects Arnab’s Personal Liberty, Why Not Sudha Bharadwaj’s?

15/11/2020

Kashimir Pen / by Web Desk

Leading human rights and constitutional lawyer Karuna Nundy applauded the Supreme Court for acting out its self-professed role as ‘sentinel on the qui vive’ and protecting personal liberty when ordering Arnab Goswami’s release on interim bail – but had some tough questions about the consistency of the court’s approach.
She noted that even though the Republic editor-in-chief had not only damaged people’s reputations by calling them terrorists and anti-nationals, and actually influenced the taking of state action against them – from Umar Khalid to the Bhima Koregaon accused – it was still a good thing that his case was heard on a priority basis by the apex court.
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Video: SC Protects Arnab’s Personal Liberty, But What About Sudha Bharadwaj’s?

13/11/2020


en | 7:32min | 2020

The Quint / by The Quint

Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy explains why there are concerns over the consistency with which the apex court will apply its order granting Arnab Goswami interim bail, with Sudha Bharadwaj’s case a prime example.
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Video: What About Liberty Of Anand Teltumbde, Varavara Rao, Stan Swamy, Asks Kapil Sibal

12/11/2020


en | 11:23min | 2020

NDTV / by NDTV

The Supreme Court’s order on Wednesday in the Arnab Goswami case has major implications beyond just this one instance. Justice Chandrachud observed, “Forget Arnab Goswami for a moment, we are a Constitutional court…. If we as a Constitutional Court do not lay down law and protect liberty, then who will?” He went on to add, “If we don’t interfere in this case today, we will walk on path of destruction. You may differ in ideology but Constitutional courts will have to protect such freedoms…” The remarks come at a time when thousands languish in jails in want of bail. These include the old and the infirm, like 81-year-old Varavara Rao accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case and Father Stan Swamy who suffers from Parkinson’s.
After the Supreme Court’s observations that ‘constitutional courts have to protect freedoms’, will this set a precedent in other pending cases as well? We speak to senior advocate and Congress MP Kapil Sibal who was in Supreme Court in connection with this case.
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