The arrest, which followed a public mob intimidation led by Bajrang Dal activists, is being widely condemned as a blatant case of targeted harassment of religious minorities under the guise of anti-conversion and trafficking laws.

Mob tip-off, not law, triggered arrest

The incident was triggered not by any formal complaint or police investigation, but by a train ticket examiner (TTE) at the station who questioned the group and then contacted local Bajrang Dal members rather than railway authorities. According to Father Sebastian Poomattam, Vicar General of the Raipur Archdiocese, who spoke with The News Minute, the women told the TTE they were travelling to Agra under the care of the nuns, and the nuns had their tickets. But soon, a Bajrang Dal mob gathered and began harassing the group.

The nuns were accompanying the women to secure employment as kitchen helpers in convents in Agra, with salaries between ₹8,000 and ₹10,000, as confirmed by Fr. Poomattam. “They were all over 18 and had consent letters from their parents,” he said, as reported in the The News Minute report.

Despite this, the railway police detained the group. Bajrang Dal activists gathered outside the police station and allegedly pressured authorities into registering an FIR. The women were later sent to a state-run shelter, while the nuns and the young man were remanded to judicial custody until August 8.

Police inaction against Bajrang Dal despite harassment

Sister Asha Paul, from the Congregation of the Holy Family in Delhi, alleged that no Church representative was permitted to meet the arrested nuns. “We believe the young women were coerced into changing their statements. The nuns had all required documents—IDs, consent letters—yet they were treated as criminals,” she said, as reported by The News Minute.

Multiple eyewitness accounts and Christian organisations confirmed that the nuns were publicly humiliated by Bajrang Dal members, led by Jyoti Sharma, even before their arrest, with police officers reportedly standing by. Videos shared by Anti-Christian Tracker Watch on social media show the group being harassed on the platform.

Before their arrest, the Catholic nuns were illegally detained, harassed, and humiliated by Bajrang Dal’s Jyoti Sharma and her team, all in full view of the police, who stood by in silence.

No FIR against Jyoti Sharma yet.

Is this democracy or mobocracy? https://t.co/JdUCnb19NY pic.twitter.com/UnGevvou2q

— Anti Christian Tracker Watch – ACT India (@ACTWatchIndia) July 27, 2025

Despite this, no FIR has been filed against Sharma or other members of the vigilante group.

Systematic targeting of Christians, say Church and civil society

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) condemned the arrests, stating that the women were legal adults, their travel was voluntary, and there was no evidence of conversion. “This is a violation of their constitutional rights. The Church will raise the issue on all appropriate platforms,” CBCI said in a press statement, as reported by The New Indian Express.

The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council’s (KCBC) Social Harmony and Vigilance Commission said the police action was based on “false and baseless allegations” from Bajrang Dal members. According to The New Indian Express, the KCBC warned that the incident fits a broader pattern of intimidation and misuse of anti-conversion laws to target religious workers. “This distressing incident is part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern of increasing hostility towards Christians and missionary personnel across various Indian states. The weaponisation of anti-conversion laws by extremist groups is not only unjust but also poses a serious threat to the constitutional rights of religious minorities in the country. We affirm that Catholic missionaries do not engage in forced conversions,” their official statement noted.

Notably, the United Christian Forum (UCF) had reported that incidents targeting Christians have surged from 127 in 2014 to 834 in 2024—a near sevenfold increase—highlighting what it called “a coordinated campaign of intimidation against minorities.”

Call for action

Congress leaders from Kerala sharply condemned the arrests. AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, highlighting that the present incident is a blatant case of mob intimidation and wrongful imprisonment. When written consent and documentation are ignored, and police act under pressure from fringe elements, it is a breakdown of law.

Attacks on minorities have seen a rampant increase under BJP-ruled States, be it Chhattisgarh, Odisha or MP.

The latest attacks by Bajrang Dal goons on 2 Catholic nuns in Durg, Chhattisgarh point to a tacit support for such hate crimes from the ruling establishment.

I have… pic.twitter.com/zcwSMVUHLJ

— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) July 27, 2025

John Brittas, Member of Parliament from CPI-M, also addressed a letter to the Chhattisgarh CM stating that the arrest of Kerala nuns Sr. Vandana Francis & Sr. Preethi at Durg on baseless trafficking & conversion charges is a disgrace, and a blatant misuse of the law to target minorities.

The arrest of Kerala nuns Sr. Vandana Francis & Sr. Preethi at Durg on baseless trafficking & conversion charges is a disgrace. This is blatant misuse of the law to target minorities. Free the nuns & stop the hate campaign against those serving society! pic.twitter.com/JF0k839AjX

— John Brittas (@JohnBrittas) July 28, 2025

The KCBC has demanded intervention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers, stating: “The Centre must not stay silent. Mob rule cannot override constitutional rights. This is a moment of reckoning for India’s commitment to democracy and religious freedom.”

Related:

United Christian Forum submits memorandum to UP Governor Anandiben Patel; demands repeal of UP anti-conversion law and its recent amendment

United Christian Forum submits detailed memorandum to Minority Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju highlighting targeted violence against Christian Community; demands repeal of anti-conversion laws

Allahabad HC’s recent judgement dubbed “saffron-tinged”, “fuelling fear among Christians,” says United Christian Forum

United Christian Forum: Average two Christians attacked in India every day, 287 incidents reported from UP itself

The post Targeted by Mob, Arrested without Cause: Two Catholic nuns jailed in Chhattisgarh despite consent documents and no evidence of conversion appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The aggression extends to vandalism over trivial matters like food preferences, as seen in Muzaffarnagar, where Dhabas were vandalised and owners assaulted over the presence of onion and garlic. Furthermore, brutal physical assaults have occurred, including a widely condemned incident in Mirzapur where a CRPF jawan was attacked, and civilians and their property were not spared in Meerut and Haridwar.

Supreme Court declines to examine legality of UP Govt’s display of QR code mandate

Moreover, amidst alarming reports of assaults on eatery owners based on their identity, on July 22, 2025, the Supreme Court refused to go into the legality of directives issued by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand authorities requiring eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display QR codes for pilgrims to know owner details, considering the pilgrimage was ending. A bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice NK Singh disposed of the applications challenging this mandate, clarifying that sellers must display their licenses and registration certificates as required by law. The bench stated, “We are told that today is the last day of the Yatra. In any case it is likely to come to an end in the near future. Therefore, at this stage, we would only pass an order that all the respective Hotel owners shall comply with the mandate of displaying the licence and the registration certificate as per the statutory requirements. We make it clear that we are not going into the other issues argued. The application is closed” as Live Law reported

The applications, filed by Professor Apoorvanand and activist Aakar Patel, along with TMC MP Mahua Moitra and NGO Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, sought a stay on these directives, arguing they circumvented a previous Supreme Court order from last year prohibiting forced disclosure of seller identities and promoted religious discrimination. 

Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi contended that these directives were intended for religious profiling, not quality service, and were a “direct assault” on secularism. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for Uttar Pradesh, argued the directions complied with FSSAI regulations, stating some dhabas misrepresented vegetarian food. Justice Sundresh noted that consumers should have the choice to know if a place exclusively serves vegetarian food, especially during a pilgrimage, as reported

Ultimately, the bench declined to delve into contentious issues, deeming the matter infructuous due to the Yatra’s conclusion, advising petitioners to approach the High Court if they wished to challenge it further.

A surge in lawlessness: incidents of hooliganism and violence

As per reports, in the various cities of the UP and Uttarakhand, the Kanwar Yatra has been plagued by a worrying surge in incidents of misconduct. Data from the Mela Police Force Control Room reveals that over 170 Kanwariyas were booked within the first five days alone for serious charges including hooliganism, rioting, blocking highways, obstructing police officials, breach of peace, and wrongful restraint, as Hindustan Times reported.

Targeted harassment of eatery owners and staff

A particularly disturbing trend observed during this year’s yatra is the targeted harassment and vandalism directed at hotel and dhaba owners, often fuelled by communal allegations. In a shocking incident in Muzaffarnagar, members of a saffron outfit, led by Swami Yashveer Maharaj, allegedly attempted to strip eatery staff at ‘Panditji Ka Dhaba’ to verify their religion after scanning a barcode revealed the owner was Muslim, as Deccan Herald reported.

The outfit had deployed hundreds of members to check eateries with Hindu names but Muslim ownership, following a state government directive for eateries to mention owners’ names. This incident, captured in a viral video, led to police booking six individuals, though Swami Yashveer Maharaj vowed statewide agitation if action was taken against his activists, unequivocally stating, “We will, under no circumstances, allow the Muslims to operate eateries along the Yatra route.”

This communal targeting was not isolated. In Haridwar, Kanwar pilgrims verbally abused and harassed a Sikh manager at a Muslim-owned eatery, accusing him of deception for serving tea from a “Muslim stall.” When the manager advocated for religious equality, he was told to “stop using logic.” 

Similarly, in Meerapur, a dhaba was vandalised by Kanwariyas who claimed the Muslim owners had not displayed their identities, further demonstrating a pattern of communal intimidation. 

In Loni, Ghaziabad, on July 10, BJP MLA Nandkishor Gurjar took matters into his own hands, shutting down a meat vendor, citing the Hindu month of Sawan and the Kanwar Yatra, threatening to “take matters into their own hands and break the law” if police didn’t act.

However, the Supreme Court, in July 2024, intervened to prohibit the enforcement of a public notice issued by Muzaffarnagar police, which had directed hotels, dhabas, and shops on the Kanwar Yatra route to display the names of their owners and employees, recognising its discriminatory nature. Vandalism over food preferences and other assaults

Beyond communal angles, Kanwariyas have engaged in vandalism and assault over trivial matters. In Muzaffarnagar on July 7, Kanwar yatris vandalised ‘Tau Hukkewalah Haryanvi Tourist Dhaba’ after alleging that the dal served contained onion and garlic, despite the owner, Pramod Kumar, explaining it was a worker’s mistake. The pilgrims, who had vowed to avoid these ingredients, assaulted staff, damaged furniture, and chased the cook. 

Another similar incident occurred at ‘Balaknath Dhaba,’ where owner Sadhana Pawar tearfully recounted, “I folded my hands but they broke my entire dhaba… They broke my servant’s leg, looted all the money,” simply because a dish accidentally contained onion.

कांवड़ियों का कहर
“मैंने हाथ जोड़े पर उन्होंने मेरा पूरा ढाबा तोड़ दिया”
“मेरे नौकर का पैर तोड़ दिया, पूरा पैसा लूट लिया”
ये बता रही हैं बालकनाथ ढाबे की मालकिन साधना पवार
इनके ढाबे में गलती से कांवड़ियों के खाने में प्याज़ आ गया,पूरा ढाबा ख़त्म
Ground report on our YT channel pic.twitter.com/PYhAHyhoqx

— Saurabh shukla (@Saurabh_Unmute) July 9, 2025

The aggression extended to physical assaults on individuals. In a widely condemned incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, seven Kanwariyas were arrested after brutally punching and kicking a CRPF jawan at the railway station over a dispute regarding train tickets. CCTV footage showed the saffron-clad pilgrims pinning the jawan to the ground in a public display of violence. 

Even innocent civilians and their property have not been spared. In Meerut, three Kanwariyas were injured when a bus grazed them, prompting their fellow pilgrims to vandalise the vehicle, break its window panes, and assault the driver, who subsequently fled. 

A bus driver was attacked by Kanwariyas in Muradnagar Ghaziabad because the bus touched the kanwad in the high traffic area.

Either the UP government should issue lock down orders for general public or stop public transport on the Kanwar route.

Why to put lives in danger? pic.twitter.com/VLJMdatRyi

— Kapil (@kapsology) July 13, 2025

On July 5, 2025, in Manglaur, Haridwar, Kanwar Yatra pilgrims attacked a car carrying a Muslim family, alleging it had hit a Kanwar, and proceeded to assault the driver and passengers while vandalising the vehicle.

Now, authorities, recognising the escalating issues, have attempted to rein in unruly behaviour. The Uttar Pradesh police banned Kanwariyas from carrying sticks, tridents (trishuls), hockey sticks, and similar items across major yatra routes in districts like Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Hapur, and Baghpat. 

Additionally, the use of motorbikes without silencers was prohibited to curb noise pollution and public nuisance. ADG (Meerut Zone) Bhanu Bhaskar affirmed strict enforcement, stating, “The govt has issued clear directives prohibiting it. We are enforcing these strictly, and FIRs are being registered against violators.”

The chief minister’s stance and its implications

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s statements regarding the Kanwar Yatra have been a subject of scrutiny, with critics suggesting they may have inadvertently emboldened some elements. On Sunday, July 20, 2025, the CM alleged that “miscreants” were infiltrating Kanwar groups to defame them on social media, urging “kanwar sanghs” to expose such individuals and keep them away. He stated, “We have to keep in mind that where there is enthusiasm and excitement, where there is faith and devotion, some elements are constantly trying to disturb that enthusiasm and to defame this devotion and faith.” He promised strict action against those captured on CCTV after the yatra concludes, as reported the Indian Express.

Just two days prior, on July 18, 2025, in Varanasi, CM Adityanath had doubled down, alleging the Kanwar Yatra was “deliberately defamed” and its participants labelled as “goons” by elements seeking to “humiliate the heritage of India.” He linked these critics to those who tried to separate tribal communities from India, emphasising, “Today, the Yatra is progressing peacefully and with devotion, yet some label it as unruly. These are the same forces that try to mislead and provoke tribal communities. We must remain alert to such divisive elements” The Hindu reported. 

He even recalled an incident where an arsonist wearing a saffron scarf was shouting “Ya Allah,” attributing such deceptive acts to anti-social elements.

While the Chief Minister condemned the actions of “miscreants” and called for law enforcement to take action, his narrative of external “defamers” and “anti-national elements” potentially provided a shield for unruly behaviour, shifting the blame away from the immediate actions of the Kanwariyas themselves. His public showering of flowers on Kanwariyas in Meerut, alongside other political figures, further projected an image of state endorsement and leniency, which critics argue might have been perceived by some as tacit approval, thus pushing the “courage of anti-elements” to act with impunity, knowing they might be defended as victims of defamation rather than perpetrators of crime.

Tainting the pious purpose 

The increasing reports of violence, aggression, and communal targeting profoundly taint the otherwise pious purpose of the Kanwar Yatra. Mahant Ravindra Puri’s assertion that the yatra is about “compassion” and “penance” stands in stark contrast to the acts of vandalism and assault witnessed. The Supreme Court’s refusal on July 22, 2025, to examine the legality of controversial QR code directives, particularly amidst ongoing reports of targeted assaults on eatery owners based on their identity, further highlights the disconnect between the pilgrimage’s spiritual intent and the real-world incidents. While the Court opted not to delve into the controversial directives, especially given the reported communal targeting, leaves questions about accountability for such violence. 

When a pilgrimage meant to symbolise devotion and sacrifice, following in the footsteps of revered figures like Lord Parshuram and Shravan Kumar, becomes synonymous with road blockades, harassment, and physical violence, its spiritual sanctity is eroded. The incidents not only disrupt public peace and order but also sow seeds of fear and division, fundamentally betraying the yatra’s core values of unity, devotion, and selfless service.

Related

Supreme Court stays directive of state forcing food sellers along Kanwar Yatra to display names, states authorities cannot usurp power without legal foundation

Kanwar Yatra episode: Pasmanda Muslims, ‘wooed’ by BJP, perhaps biggest losers

Two petitions filed in SC challenging UP and Uttarakhand governments’ directive to display name of shop owner and staff for being unconstitutional

The post How deviant acts mar the sacred Kanwar Yatra appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The acquittal came nearly eight years after a special MCOCA court had sentenced five of the accused to death and the others to life imprisonment in 2015. The special, Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Court had sentenced five of the accused to death sentence and the remainder seven to life imprisonment under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), and Explosives Acts.In all, the accused were in jail for 19 years in jail without a break, with one of the 12 accused — Kamal Ahmed Mohammed Vakil Ansari –dying in 2021 to COVID-19 infection while he was lodged in Nagpur prison.

This judgment is not merely a reversal of a trial court verdict—it is a stinging indictment of investigative lapses, prosecutorial failure, and judicial oversight. The High Court held that the prosecution’s case suffered from “serious infirmities,” rendering the conviction unsafe and unjust.

Through the 19 years of incarceration, these men have been denied bail. Even in acute situations like the Covid-19 pandemic or when they lost near relatives, the men were denied any relief from prison. Today, July 21, 2025, the high court has released them on a simple “Personal Recognizance (PR) Bond” which essentially means that they can walk out of jal without having to make any financial payment for their release.

Background of the case 

On July 11, 2006, a series of seven coordinated bomb explosions struck first-class compartments of Mumbai’s suburban trains during peak hours. The scale, precision, and horror of the attacks led to an immediate manhunt. Within months, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) –appointed by the Congress government that was in power at the time– claimed to have cracked the case and arrested 13 men, all of whom were Muslim and belonged to marginalised socio-economic backgrounds. Several cases handled by the ATS around that period under the Congress leadership, including the Malegaon 2006 blast case, have raised serious questions of the communal biases in the police and wrong implication of Muslim youth in terror cases. For instance, in the Malegaon 2006 blast case, the Muslim men were eventually exonerated after the National Investigating Agency (NIA) took over and the new line of investigations showed that the terror blast was the handiwork of accused persons belonging to Hindu community.

The prosecution in the 7/11 train blasts case alleged a cross-border conspiracy involving Pakistan’s ISI, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and operatives of the banned SIMI (Students’ Islamic Movement of India), with support from Indian collaborators. The case proceeded –as mentioned above –under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), along with charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Explosives Act, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA.

Trial, conviction, and sentencing

The trial began in 2007 before a special MCOCA court. Relying heavily on confessions, circumstantial evidence, call data records, and alleged recoveries, the prosecution secured convictions in 2015 for 12 of the accused.

• Five were sentenced to death
• Seven were awarded life imprisonment

One accused, Wahid Shaikh, was acquitted in 2015 after nine years of incarceration.

However, right from the outset, defense lawyers and human rights groups flagged serious concerns:

• Most of the accused had retracted their confessions, alleging torture
• Witness testimonies were inconsistent and contradictory
• Key forensic links to explosives were weak or inconclusive
• Call data location mapping had been misrepresented or was scientifically insufficient
• Parallel investigations pointed to an entirely different group of perpetrators

The High Court’s Findings: A collapse of prosecution integrity

The High Court’s 671-paged judgment systematically dismantled the prosecution’s theory. The following were key findings:

1. Unreliable confessions: The Court held that confessions made under MCOCA, even if admissible, must be scrutinized with heightened caution. It noted that:

• The retractions by the accused were immediate and consistent
• There was credible evidence of custodial torture
• Medical records and affidavits indicated coercion
• Multiple confessions were similar in wording, suggesting scripting

2. Weak circumstantial evidence: The prosecution failed to convincingly link any of the accused to the procurement, assembly, or placement of the bombs. Among the failures:

• No eyewitnesses placed any of the accused at train stations
• Forensic tests on alleged bomb-making sites were inconclusive
• Travel routes and maps allegedly recovered from the accused were publicly available

3. Call data records and location mapping flawed: The ATS relied heavily on mobile phone data to show the accused were in contact and present near blast sites. But the Court found:

• Cell tower locations had been selectively interpreted
• Mapping did not conclusively place the accused at blast locations
• Some mobile numbers were never conclusively linked to the accused

4. Fabricated recoveries and witness inconsistencies

• Several “recovered” items were found to be planted or inadmissibly recovered without independent witnesses.
• Key prosecution witnesses, including police officers and panch witnesses, gave contradictory testimonies.
• One key witness had previously testified in an unrelated Ghatkopar blast case, casting doubt on impartiality

5. Discarded lead of pressure cookers

• Investigators originally flagged statements from shopkeepers about “Kashmiri-looking youths” buying pressure cookers, but dropped these leads during trial, without credible reason. Yet the prosecution later reintroduced the theory—revealing an arbitrary and inconsistent investigative approach

6. Illegal MCOCA sanction

• Per Section 23(1) of MCOCA, a senior official’s (Addl. CP S.K. Jaiswal) sanction was mandatory but not substantively proven—the sanction letter was never produced from the witness box. The High Court struck it down

The Acquitted: A decade lost in the shadow of guilt

The following table details the 12 acquitted men and their sentences:

Role of defence lawyers and long fight for justice

The acquittal owes much to a determined legal team and families that never gave up. At the start of the investigation itself, on September 29, 2006, over two months after the blast, the then police commissioner of Mumbai police, A.N. Roy had claimed that two Kashmiri men had gone to a local market and purchased pressure cookers from two shops. These pressure cookers, Roy had claimed, were used in assembling the highly explosive bombs. The blast came to be known as ‘pressure cooker blast case’. 

As what has increasingly become the norm for reportage of “terror cases”, media reporting since the blasts was almost entirely based on what the police would share in the press conferences. So for months after the ghastly blasts, all the men were accused of a whole range of things, from visiting Pakistan for arms training to storing Research Department Explosives (RDX), ammonium nitrate, nitrite and petroleum hydrocarbon oil in their houses. The pressure cooker theory soon vanished and it found no mention in the chargesheet. Eight years later, at the time of the final submission before the MCOCA court, the special public prosecutor in the case, Raja Thakare, reintroduced the theory. Advocate Ramakrishnan and her associate Rai, who appeared for the accused in the High Court, –in their final submissions– systematically punctured these gaps in the investigation. The police had claimed that two months after the serial bomb blasts, two men had come forward to claim that in May 2006, two ‘Kashmiri-looking youths’ had bought pressure cookers in large quantities. The statements of these two men were recorded. These two men should have been treated as crucial witnesses but the investigating agency decided to simply drop their statements at the time of the trial, terming them as “not credible”. What this meant was that a foundational brick in the prosecution’s ostensible theory was shaky.

“It is impossible to believe the version of witnesses that accused had mentioned pressure cookers in their interrogation in September, because the story of pressure cookers only occurred to ATS after 28.09.2006 after recording statements of shopkeepers that Kashmiri youths had bought pressure cookers en masse. Throughout this period, ATS said that the accused were giving them no lead. In fact, not a single remand application was taken on the ground that they had to identify pressure cookers or the accused had talked about pressure cookers,” the counsel for the accused had argued. The lawyers also raised questions about the application of the draconian MCOCA law in the case. Section 23(1) MCOCA, the lawyers pointed out, requires prior approval of a police officer not below the rank of the Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) before any information about a commission of an offence under MCOCA is recorded. The officer, S.K. Jaiswal, the then deputy Inspector General of Police/Addl. Commissioner of Police, Anti Terrorism Squad, Mumbai, who allegedly had given the required approval, was never examined.

The HC, accepting the argument, noted in its judgement: “Shri. Jaiswal, who granted the prior approval, did not enter into the witness box to prove the contents of the letter of prior approval. Mere identification of signature of Shri. Jaiswal by PW-174 does not prove the contents of prior approval.”

Former Orissa High Court Chief Justice and senior advocate Dr. S. Muralidhar represented two of the accused — Muzammil Ataur Rahman Shaikh and Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Shaikh. A string of lawyers, including arguing counsels Nitya Ramakrishnan, Yug Mohit Chaudhry, S. Nagamuthu and S. Muralidhar, along with Wahab Shaikh, Sharif Shaikh, Payoshi Roy and Stuti Rai, among many others, were also part of the legal team in the High Court on behalf of the accused. They had contended that the prosecution case was flawed and that the trial court erred in convicting the accused. Raja Thackeray was the special public prosecutor appointed in the case. 

In his submissions at the penultimate stage, as reported by LiveLaw, Muralidhar described the investigation as biased and media-driven, stating:

“Innocent people are sent to jail and then years later when they are released from jail there is no possibility for reconstruction of their lives. From last 17 years these accused are in jail. They haven’t stepped out even for a day. The majority of their prime life is gone. In such cases where there is a public outcry, the approach by police is always to first assume guilt and then go from there. Police officers take press conferences in such cases, and the way the media covers the case, it kind of decides the guilt of a person. In many such terror cases, investigating agencies have failed us miserably”.

He urged the court to consider the irreversible damage done — years lost, families stigmatised, and no closure for the victims or accused. Wahid Shaikh, who was acquitted in 2015, led the public campaign ‘Innocence Network’ and became a vocal critic of India’s terror trial processes. He published books, pursued a PhD, and coordinated legal aid for the remaining 12 accuse. 

A legal reckoning and its implications

This case serves as a searing indictment of:

• Investigative tunnel vision: The ATS prematurely closed the investigation around a preferred narrative and failed to pursue alternative leads.
• Judicial deference to state narratives: The trial court accepted questionable confessions and unreliable evidence without applying proper legal standards.
• Delays in appellate review: The eight-year delay in hearing the appeals effectively meant the accused had served most of their sentence even before acquittal.

The Bombay High Court’s verdict does more than acquit—it restores a sliver of institutional faith, while also raising deep concerns about how India investigates and prosecutes terror. For the acquitted, however, it may be too late. Years lost in prison, families destroyed, and reputations ruined—without compensation, without apology.

Systemic Implications: No closure for victims, no accountability for investigators

While the acquitted walk free, the victims of the 7/11 blasts are left without justice or answers. The ATS, which led the investigation, has now seen two major terror cases of that era — this and the Malegaon 2006 blasts — unravel due to procedural misconduct and communal bias.

In Malegaon, too, Muslim men were first arrested, only to be later absolved when the National Investigation Agency uncovered the role of Hindutva extremist groups. The parallels reinforce growing concerns that India’s terror probes are often driven more by political pressure and profiling than by forensic rigour.

Abdul Wahid Shaikh & the Innocence Network

Wahid, who was a school teacher at the time of his arrest, transformed into a fierce activist on his release in 2015. He started ‘Innocence Network’, a campaign for the release of the 12 others. He wrote books on his life in jail, researched on the Indian criminal justice system and obtained a PhD degree recently on the same. He, along with the  Jamiat Ulema-i-Hindu, also worked meticulously on the case. 

Conclusion: A broken system exposed

The 2006 Mumbai train blasts case will now be remembered not just for its brutality, but for the colossal miscarriage of justice it occasioned. The High Court’s judgment reaffirms the fundamental tenet of criminal law: that the burden of proof lies on the State, and every accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. The case calls for immediate reforms in anti-terror investigations, greater prosecutorial accountability, and the establishment of a robust compensation framework for the wrongfully accused.

What also remains a question is the crucial issue of reparation and or compensation for the accused and their families given the loss of lives, livelihood and utter ostracisation by society. The penalty that ought to be paid by police officers (in this case from the ATS Mumbai) responsible for the investigative lapses is also a loophole in the system that provides no succour to those wrongfully accused.

Related:

One More Innocent Terror Accused, One More Book But Will Our System Respond?

No innocent should ever be jailed, my life is dedicated to get other innocents released: Abdul Wahid Shaikh

Bombay HC grants bail to Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti Members

2008 Jaipur blasts: Rajasthan HC acquits all four who were given death penalty

Malegaon blast case: Court rejects Pragya’s plea seeking exemption from appearing for trail

After 23 years in Prison on false charges, five Men walk out free in Samleti Blast case

The post A Spectacle of Injustice Undone: After 19 years, Bombay HC’s acquittal in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts case recognises the (mis) use of ‘torture for confession’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The case pertains to Lokesh Kumar Solanki, alias Rajput, who was found guilty under Sections 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, which penalise promoting enmity between different religious groups and circulating rumours or statements likely to cause public mischief.

Delivering the sentencing order on July 8, 2025, Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh of the Karkardooma Courts said that Solanki had “added fuel to the already simmering tensions” in February 2020 by disseminating inflammatory messages aimed at stoking hatred and inciting violence against the Muslim community. These actions, the judge noted, were especially grave in the backdrop of communal riots then engulfing North East Delhi.

“The fact, that during the tense period of February 2020, the convict had added fuel to the already simmering tensions by spreading messages which were intended to promote enmity and hatred for Muslim community and induced the members of the group to commit crime against Muslim, calls for no leniency and makes the offence very serious in nature.” (Para 7)

Despite the seriousness of the offence, the court acknowledged that Solanki had already been incarcerated for over three years, the maximum sentence provided under the relevant sections. Consequently, the judge concluded that justice would be served by awarding the maximum sentence but ordering his release since no further imprisonment could legally be imposed.

“However, the fact remains that convict has already undergone the imprisonment of more than 03 years which is the maximum punishment which could be awarded for offences punishable u/s 153-A/ 505 IPC.” (Para 8)

Arguments raised

Prosecution sought maximum sentence: During the sentencing hearing, Special Public Prosecutor Saleem Ahmed urged the court to impose the maximum punishment under both provisions, citing the content of Solanki’s messages and their intended communal impact. He argued that Solanki’s conduct was calculated to disturb public order and warranted no clemency.

Defence pleads for compassion: Appearing for the convict, Advocate Nishant Kumar Tyagi highlighted Solanki’s youth, his family responsibilities, particularly his aged parents, and the fact that he had already spent more than three years behind bars awaiting trial and judgment. He requested that any sentence be ordered to run concurrently and that the court take into account the period of pre-conviction custody.

Order of the Court: Sentence imposed, fine levied

After hearing both sides, the Court sentenced Solanki as follows:

• Three years’ simple imprisonment under Section 153A IPC, along with a fine of ₹25,000. In default of payment, an additional six months’ simple imprisonment.
• Three years’ simple imprisonment under Section 505 IPC, along with another fine of ₹25,000. In default, six more months’ simple imprisonment.

The sentences will run concurrently, and the convict was granted the benefit of Section 428 CrPC, which allows set-off for time already spent in custody.

Since Solanki has already served more than the maximum prescribed period of imprisonment, the court ordered his release, subject to payment of the total fine of ₹50,000. The order notes that the fine has been paid.

Broader Context: A message on hate speech

This case is one of the few successful convictions in connection with incitement to violence during the 2020 Delhi riots, which left over 50 people dead and hundreds injured. The court’s strong words reaffirm that hate speech, particularly during periods of communal unrest, will not be treated as a benign offence.

At the same time, the order reflects the tension in India’s criminal justice system between protracted trial processes and the need for proportionate sentencing. Though the court recognised the gravity of Solanki’s offence, it was legally constrained from ordering any further imprisonment.

The order of the Delhi Court may be read here.

Related:

How the Delhi riots case remains stagnant with close to a dozen student leaders incarcerated

“This Means FIR”: Delhi Court orders further investigation, FIR against BJP leader Kapil Mishra five years after Delhi riots

5 Years of Delhi Riots: Some Punished, Some Rewarded!

Delhi Police on Trial: Three court orders reveal collusion, cover-ups, and custodial torture by police officers during 2020 Delhi riots

The post Delhi Court sentences riots accused for promoting hatred against Muslims, sentences him to 3 years in custody appeared first on SabrangIndia.

What triggered the abuse?

The incident occurred on Tuesday, July 8, after school staff allegedly discovered bloodstains in a washroom. Instead of handling the situation with discretion and sensitivity, the school principal decided to launch a public and humiliating investigation. According to the police, the girls were herded into the school’s convention hall, where they were shown images of the bloodstains via a projector and asked to identify whether they were on their periods, as reported in The Indian Express.

“Who Is Menstruating?”- Thumbprints and strip searches

Those who disclosed they were menstruating were asked to submit their thumb impressions. Girls who said they were not were taken, one by one, to the washroom by a female attendant who allegedly forced them to remove their clothes and undergo a physical inspection to confirm if they were telling the truth, according to NDTV. One parent of a Class 7 student spoke to Times of India and said, “My daughter came home trembling. She told me she was forced to undress in the washroom, in front of other students. This isn’t discipline; it’s mental harassment”.

Police action and legal charges

According to Thane (Rural) Additional Superintendent of Police Rahul Zalte, the parents protested outside the school premises on Wednesday, demanding strict action against the school staff involved. The police promptly registered an FIR against eight individuals, including the principal, four teachers, the woman attendant, and two trustees.

The accused have been charged under the BNS Sections 74 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 76 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), in addition to relevant provisions of the POCSO Act, as reported by Free Press Journal.

On Wednesday evening, the principal and attendant were arrested, and the school management dismissed the principal from her post, officials confirmed. A senior police officer said both women would be produced before a court on Thursday, according to the report of Mumbai Mirror.

Students left traumatised

A particularly harrowing detail emerged when one girl, who had denied menstruating, was accused by the principal of lying. She was reportedly asked, “Why are you using a sanitary pad if you’re not menstruating?” and then forced to give her thumbprint under coercion. Many girls reportedly went home crying and mentally disturbed, revealing the trauma to their families. Parents and local child rights groups have labelled the incident mental and physical abuse, demanding further criminal prosecution and inquiry by the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR).

Thane Rural Police have stated that they are currently recording statements from students and witnesses. “We are taking the testimonies of other children and school staff, and gathering all electronic and forensic evidence,” said an investigating officer, while speaking to India Today.

Related:

A Silent Emergency: Farmer suicides surge in Maharashtra amid apathy, debt, and systemic collapse

Beed to Delhi: Lawyer beaten in Maharashtra, judge threatened in Delhi—what the path for justice means for women practioners in today’s India

When Courts Fail Survivors: How patriarchy shapes justice in sexual offence against women cases

Surviving Communal Wrath: Women who have defied the silence, demanded accountability from the state

The post Thane School Horror: Principal, attendant arrested for forcing girls to strip in menstruation check, case registered under POCSO appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Ministry attributes this freeze to the lack of clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), a high-level body chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A July 1 government communication cited by the newspaper stated: “Provisional award letters to the remaining candidates (from serial number 41 to 106) in the selected list may be issued in due course, subject to availability of funds.”

Established in 1954–55, the NOS scheme offers financial assistance to students from historically disadvantaged and oppressed communities, including Scheduled Castes (SC), De-notified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs), semi-nomadic tribes, landless agricultural labourers, and traditional artisan families, with an annual household income cap of Rs 8 lakh. It enables them to pursue postgraduate and doctoral studies abroad.

In previous years, all selected candidates received provisional letters without delay. This year, however, the Ministry has adopted what it describes as a “phased approach” that hinges on funding availability—a move that has left many scholars in limbo just weeks before international admissions deadlines.

Speaking to The Hindustan Times, an unnamed ministry official pointed squarely to bureaucratic red tape at the highest levels: “It is an issue with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs not approving the money allocated to these scholarship schemes. We have the money, but we also need the green signal from above to give it out.”

Government Says no funds, but spends over ₹500 crore on PM’s Foreign Trips

The claim of “lack of funds” for the National Overseas Scholarship stands in stark contrast to the significant public expenditure on Prime Minister Modi’s own overseas travel. According to data provided by the Ministry of External Affairs in response to a parliamentary question raised by MP Fauzia Khan, over ₹517 crore was spent on PM Modi’s foreign visits between 2014 and 2022 alone. This includes costs for chartered flights, accommodation, logistics, and security. The expenditure on a single foreign trip often exceeds the annual budget for the NOS scheme. The contrast has drawn serious concern among student groups, academics, and civil society organisations, who view this disparity as a reflection of the state’s shifting priorities—away from inclusive education and toward high-profile statecraft.

Broader pattern of scholarship disruptions

This isn’t an isolated instance. A series of scholarship schemes targeting marginalized students have faced similar bottlenecks, delays, and arbitrary exclusions in recent months—raising questions about systemic withdrawal of support for higher education among Dalit, minority, and backward-class students.

Take the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), for instance. This fellowship, awarded by the Ministry of Minority Affairs to research scholars from six notified minority communities (Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi), has left over 1,400 PhD candidates without stipends for months. According to a Wire investigation published in June 2025, payments to most scholars have been stalled since December 2024. Some have not received their stipends even prior to that period. (Detailed report may be read here and here.)

Similarly, the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes witnessed chaos during its June 2024 cycle. Initially, the National Testing Agency (NTA) released a list of 865 selected candidates in March 2025. However, just a month later, a revised list slashed the number to 805—removing 487 previously selected scholars without explanation or transparency, triggering anguish and confusion across research institutions.

Political Pushback and Declining Numbers

On June 10, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and INC leader, Rahul Gandhi, wrote to Prime Minister Modi, raising alarm over what he described as the “deplorable” condition of hostels, malfunctioning portals, and erratic disbursement of scholarships across the country. He particularly highlighted the case of Bihar, where the state’s scholarship portal allegedly remained defunct for three consecutive academic years, effectively denying all aid to eligible students during 2021–22.

As per the report of The Wire, Gandhi noted a steep decline in the number of scholarship recipients: “The number of Dalit students receiving scholarships fell by nearly half, from 1.36 lakh in FY23 to just 69,000 in FY24.” He also criticised the quantum of scholarship disbursals, stating that many students complain the amounts are “insultingly low” and insufficient to cover basic expenses.

A larger crisis of educational access?

The government’s repeated invocation of “fund constraints” and committee approvals, despite existing budgetary allocations, has sparked outrage among students and education rights advocates, who say that the current delays are not mere administrative lapses but indicative of a broader policy shift away from targeted educational equity. For many first-generation learners from SC, OBC, EBC, and minority backgrounds, these scholarships represent their only pathway to higher education, especially abroad or at the doctoral level. As things stand, the fate of 66 National Overseas Scholarship awardees remains suspended in uncertainty, and with it, their long-cherished hopes of studying abroad.

Related:

Union scraps Maulana Azad Scholarships for Research Scholars from Minority Communities

Why has the Union govt pulled the plug on minority education schemes?

AISHE survey shows enrolment of Muslim students in higher studies falls significantly compared to other communities

Maulana Azad Foundation terminated by Centre as government cuts down on minority schemes

The post Funds Withheld, Futures on Hold: Dalit, OBC, Minority students face scholarship crisis amidst delays and cuts appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Thevars [caste Hindus] treat Sikkaliars [Dalits] as slaves so they can utilise them as they wish. They exploit them sexually and make them dig graveyards for high-caste people’s burials. They have to take the death message to Thevars. These are all unpaid services.
— Manibharati, social activist, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu

In the past, twenty to thirty years ago, [Dalits] enjoyed the practice of “untouchability.” In the past, women enjoyed being oppressed by men. They weren’t educated. They didn’t know the world… They enjoy Thevar community men having them as concubines… They cannot afford to react; they are dependent on us for jobs and protection… She wants it from him. He permits it. If he has power, then she has more affection for the landlord.
— A prominent Thevar political leader, Tamil Nadu^[1]

“Dalit” is a term first coined by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, one of the architects of the Indian constitution of 1950 and revered leader of the Dalit movement. It was taken up in the 1970s by the Dalit Panther Movement, which organized to claim rights for “untouchables,” and is now commonly used by rights activists.^[2] Violence against this section of the Indian people, Dalits, who constitute (2011 Census figures) 16.6 per cent of the population is both societal, systemic and instructional cutting through all intersectionality’s. This analysis and graphic visualisation looks at this phenomenon, not contain, today normalised, in 2025.

On June 24, 2025 — The Indian Express reported, “Nine people have been detained after a mob forcibly shaved the heads of two Dalit men and forced them to crawl over allegations of cow smuggling in Odisha’s Ganjam district. According to the police, the victims had bought a cow and two calves and were returning home when a mob accosted them in Kharigumma village under Dharakote police limits and demanded Rs 30,000. When the men expressed inability to pay, the mob allegedly beat them up, forcibly shaved their heads, made them crawl and had them drink sewage water. A video purportedly shows the two men crawling with grass clamped between their teeth as some men follow them. The group also took away cash of Rs 700 from them and their mobile phones, police said.” This is not, unsurprisingly, a stray or isolated event – with CJP recording 113 incidents of anti-Dalit atrocities from the month of January to June.

The all-pervasive caste system has long cemented itself as a fortifying structure of Indian society. With a state machinery that openly runs on a proto-fascist, pro-Hindutva model – the continued marginalisation of Indian minorities has become, in dystopian fashion, extremely normalized in the day-to-day news cycle. This report tries to trace this normalisation by forming understandings of the historical, typological and the systemic nature of the violence enacted upon Dalit and Adivasi/tribal individuals in India by considering data consolidated within the months of January-June.

Historical & Structural Context – Everydayness of Caste Atrocities

One must always remember that caste atrocities in India is not a regime-specific conundrum, and that while there is a strong relationship between the (present, ideologically driven) Hindutva state and the exacerbation of such atrocities — India has had a long, shameful history where the caste system has been entrenched into every facet of living. Ania Loomba, in The Everyday Violence of Caste, writes: “Caste violence in India is one of the most long-standing instances of the routinisation of violence, predating European colonialism although not unshaped by it, and now firmly enmeshed within the new global order. Despite untouchability being constitutionally abolished in 1950, caste oppression is pervasive today. Over 160 million Untouchables- or Dalits- are subject to different forms of discrimination: they are denied access to places of worship, clean water, housing, and land; their children are still kept out of, or ill-treated within, schools; they are forced into menial and degrading occupations, notably manual scavenging; and, despite a governmental policy of affirmative action, they remain largely excluded from the country’s businesses, educational establishments, judicial services, and bureaucracy.1 If violence against lower castes and outcastes is rendered banal by being woven into the fabric of everyday life, it is also conducted via spectacular acts. Dalits are raped and murdered for daring to aspire to land, electricity, drinking water, and to non-Dalit partners. Inter-caste marriages, especially those between lower caste men and women of higher castes, result in murders, kidnapping, and the public punishment of such men and (often) the women involved. Dalit women remain subject to constant sexual assault by upper caste men. In general, caste segregation shapes India’s rural landscape, as well as large parts of its urbanity.”

In Indian society, the entrenched hierarchy of caste is all-pervasive, affecting the lives of Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi individuals – through popular and institutional violence at different scales. This routinization, that Loomba writes about, is a process that has spanned centuries: almost from the birth of Hinduism, as a religion — and therefore, the committing of atrocities has been naturalized into social order. We could invoke Martin Macwan, who rightly wrote, in 2001, “The systematic elimination of six million Jews by Nazis hit us hard on the face because it took place in such a short span of time. In the case of Dalits, though the “genocide” has been systemic, it has taken place at a slow pace. The current government statistics of murder, rape, and assault that Dalits are subjected to paint a horrible picture if extended to a history of 3000 years. We have reason to believe that approximately 2,190,000 Dalits have been murdered, 3,285,000 raped and over 75,000,000 assaulted.”

Methodology and Data Sources

In this report, we use data from CJP’s own database, and from multiple reliable think-tanks, non-governmental organizations, news outlets, legal filings and academic publications. We also take into account cross-verified posts from social media accounts that specialise in hate-watching, reporting on Dalit and Adivasi issues, etc. The data from the National Crime Records Bureau’s own publications has also been used for contextualization.

We have attempted to classify this data on the basis of geography, types of violence, and looked into institutional response: from law enforcement and respective state governments’ attitudes to caste-based violence. The report endeavours to be grounded in intersectionality, taking into account the changing metrics of class and gender, which quite obviously come into play while discussing caste.

Typology of Violence: Key Patterns from 2025

• Violence Against Adivasis and Tribal Populations

Tribal and Adivasi lives have also been rife with violence within the country – being victimised by large scale unrest, institutional crackdowns, and targeted attacks in different parts of the country. While encounters have intensified in the BJP ruled state of Chhattisgarh, and CRPF camps being set-up in the “most vulnerable Maoist locations”, the CPI (Maoist) party has proposed peace talks with the government. This was followed by 200 civil rights groups and individuals urging for the government to show their intent at reaching a ceasefire and some form of agreement. The statement from the signatories of these organizations is as follows,

“It is now exactly 20 years since the state sponsored and now banned Salwa Judum began in Bastar, causing enormous misery in terms of people killed, villages burnt, rapes, starvation, mass displacement and other forms of violence. Since then, the villagers of Bastar have known little peace. They barely returned to their villages when they were faced with Operation Green Hunt and successive operations. Since 2024, under the name of Operation Kagaar, over 400 people have been killed (287 in 2024, 113 in 2025).i While the exact numbers of civilians killed is unknown, given that several of those claimed as Maoists have been identified by villagers as civilians, it is evident that civilians are being disproportionately affected ii. An Article 14 estimate between 2018 and 2022 counts more civilians (335) killed than security personnel (168) and Maoists (327). iii 2024 saw several incidents of children being killed. SATP gives the breakup for 2025 to 15 civilians, 14 security forces and 150 Maoists. The forces have got Rs. 8.24 crore as rewards for these killings.”

Parallely, the centre’s failure at dealing with ethnic clashes in Manipur has drawn widespread criticism from the states – according to Human Rights Watch – at least five people have died and scores injured, including security force members, in recent clashes, alone. On March 8, a man was killed and several were injured in Kangpokpi district when violence broke out after the authorities attempted to restore transportation connections across the state. On March 19, another man was killed following clashes between two tribal communities in the state’s Churachandpur district. The violence, so far, has killed more than 260 people and displaced over 60,000 since May 2023.

Land conflicts have also followed tribal populaces – according to Land Conflict Watch, there are 962 reported ongoing land conflicts in their Conflicts Database. Out of these 116 conflicts are in the Conservatory and Forestry sector, with 459,735 people currently affected. The following charts shows the shares of the kind and numbers of conflict going on in the country, in context of land area and people affected — based on data available from the Conflicts Database of the Land Conflict Watch website.

As mentioned before, while state actors do perpetrate a huge share of the violence borne by the tribal populations in India – this does not mean that they are spared from acts of targeted violence by upper-caste perpetrators.

CJP recorded 74 incidents of anti-Christian violence in India in 2025— out of which, 48 were cases of harassment, assault and violence under the pretext of allegations of conversion. While not all of these were mandated on Adivasi individuals, a bone of contention that the propagators of the formulation of the Hindutva state has with the so called “Christianisation of tribals/Adivasis” has been rooted in ideas of “foreignness”. It is also manifest in the Adivasi v/s Vanvasi formulation, with the RSS and it’s multiple outfits like the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram committed to an alteration/manipulation of the pre-Hindu, Adivasi identity, threatened as they are by the ‘original inhabitant’ argument, before the onset and domination of the “Vedic period” in early Indian history.

A recent book, among several earlier studies on the subject, Kamal Nayan Choubey’s Adivasi or Vanvasi-the politics of Hindutva, observes, “Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, popularly known as Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or VKA is the tribal wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As the largest tribal organization in the country, it works in many areas of Kerala, Jharkhand and the North-east of India. Till the late 1970s, VKA’s work was limited to a few districts of Chhattisgarh (then Madhya Pradesh), Jharkhand (then Bihar), and Odisha but it has gradually and continuously expanded its footprint in different parts of the country…. It is noteworthy that from its inception VKA focused on spreading Hindu values by organizing religious rituals in tribal areas and working in the area of education and hostels.” Academic works and publications on the methods of RSS’ penetration among tribals stress on the Ekal School, an education model that not just imposes “caste Hindu practices” among Adivasis who’s traditional belief systems are animistic, but also instils an element of the “outsider other” when it comes to the Indian religious minority, the Christian or the Muslim.[3] Studies of the syllabus taught in these schools also reveals how the “project was intended to spread disharmony”. Subsequent incidents of targeted violence in several Adivasi-dominated areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh has empirically shown Adivasis adopting an assumed adversarial role against India’s religious minorities.[4][5]

The Washington Post reported in February 2025 about multiple grassroots evangelical pursuits of the grassroots organizations of the far Hindu right, under the pretext of developmental work – has been trying to induct millions of tribal people who have been outside mainstream religion, or are Christians. All of this is conducive to the central ahistorical one-dimensional belief that the converted Adivasi has been stolen away from the “homogenised Hindu original-state” — ignoring all dimensions of oppression, dynamics of caste and struggle, and presenting a dichotomy of the “homegrown” Hinduism and the “foreign” Christianity – ignoring the neo-colonial model that has been replicated by Hindutva outfits. Satianathan Clarke writes for the Harvard Theological Review, “First, Christians, through their sustained service among the Adivasis, “enjoy considerable appreciation of and support for their work from the local population.”37 This presents an obstacle for the Hindutva organizations to infiltrate the Adivasi areas. “The advance of the Parivar [Network of Hindutva organizations] in the tribal area is, therefore, possible only if the Christians are discredited and displaced.” Second, Christians are targeted because of the secular position they have increasingly taken over the last decade. In the context of Hindu communalism’s fascist potential, Christians present a counter model in their “reaching out to secular, liberal and Left formations for joint initiative.” Christianity, especially among Dalits and Adivasis, must be stopped at any cost from being presented as an alternative option to Hindutva. Panikkar’s discussion, I believe, is in line with my claim that Christians are being persecuted because their work among the Dalits and Adivasis is perceived as an effort to thwart the homogenizing aim of Hindutva.”

Besides these, there have been incidents of harassment, and torture, where tribal women have been gang raped, Adivasi people repeatedly subjected to humiliation and assault at the hands of upper caste individuals and community members.

Anti-Dalit Violence

Between the months of January and June, CJP recorded 113 incidents of caste atrocities on Dalit individuals across different states in India. A general categorisation of this violence can be seen as follows.

This chart tells us that out of the 113 cases, assaults had the highest rate of incidence – with a combined percentage of 25.9% [Assault and Assault with the intent of humiliation, combined], followed by high rates of harassment in the form of discrimination – and finally, more grievously, murder and sexual violence – at 20.5% and 18.8% respectively. What is essential for us to remember, is the fact that caste atrocities cannot be neatly separated in clinically placed boxes of violence. Each category is deeply inter-related with the others, and Dalit people, as individuals and as collectives, go through multiple enactments of violence.

Snigdha Adil writes, “The confluence of the material (the body) and the symbolic (language) suggests that the recurrent embodied experiences of exclusions manifest on the caste body and are consequently, articulated; these orations, then, reproduce marginalisation in the lived reality. Such rhetoric is internalised by the Dalit individual, and imposes a state of humiliation and self-loathing upon them. Chakrabarty asserts that the Dalit person’s sense of their body is refracted through a third-person consciousness; it is impossible for the Dalit individual to imagine a reprieve from the corporal schema of degradation that is imposed upon it by the ‘upper’-castes. The process of discrimination as it is enacted against the body and, thereby, shapes (or contorts) it entails the construction of the Dalit (non-)self. To comprehensively understand the agents and methodologies of discrimination within the context of modernity – which is characterised by social mobility through urbanisation, education, and employment opportunities beyond the caste-specific occupational fields – as opposed to the feudal past, one must adopt an archaeological approach towards an understanding of the practice of Untouchability. The camouflage of caste discrimination into innocuous practices to detect and distance the ‘lower’-caste individual despite the external performance of progressive beliefs unveils the “inalterability of the ‘Indian mind’” (Archaeology of Untouchability 219). As one is compelled to operate in ambiguous spaces of social exchange wherein the identity of those one engages with is unknown, exacerbated by the need to concomitantly maintain a façade of transcendence from outdated religious codes as well as the superiority of the self; one must evolve new codes and signifiers that accommodate plausible deniability. … In the same vein, it may be argued that the social, material, and personal deprivation of Dalits is not inherent but maintained through the performance of caste practices and symbols.”

Therefore, we can also make two conclusions from what Adil writes, and a historical study of Brahminical violence on Dalit communities: one, that the nature of attacks is aimed to be a debilitating force on the dignities and the abilities— because the intent behind these attacks is to impinge upon the Dalit sense of self and identity – both individual and communal. Two, the style and the formations of attacks have modified themselves over time while maintaining the same antediluvian spirit of oppression – manifesting through different forms of ostracisation, causation of humiliation, and outright physical and psychological violence.

Structural and systemic violence, cultural and symbolic assertion, physical and sexual violence, caste slurs and verbal abuse, exclusion and boycott are all different forms of atrocities affecting Dalit individuals in India. If we were to look at the data for just the month of June, we would see that all of them can be put into the aforementioned “categories”, or exist at the intersections between two or many of them.

1st June, 2025: A Dalit family was attacked by a group of men with sticks and rods during a wedding ceremony on Friday night, police said. The attackers reportedly shouted caste-based insults, angry that a Dalit family was using a marriage hall in Rasra, Uttar Pradesh. Raghvendra Gautam, the brother of one of the injured men, filed the police complaint. He said, “We were celebrating happily when suddenly a group of men stormed in and shouted, ‘How can Dalits hold a wedding in a hall?’ Then they started beating everyone.” The attack happened at the Swayamvar Marriage Hall around 10:30 p.m. Two people, Ajay Kumar and Manan Kant, were badly hurt and are now in the hospital.

June 1, 2025: A minor Dalit girl who was raped and found with nearly 20 knife wounds in Muzaffarpur died at the Patna Medical College and Hospital on Sunday, June 1, 2025. The 11-year-old was transferred to Patna on Saturday for better medical treatment, but was allegedly left in pain inside the ambulance outside the Patna hospital for about five hours, and was admitted after intervention by Bihar Congress president.

 June 4, 2025: A Tribal woman was gang-raped and then her intestines were pulled out by inserting hands in her rectum, incident happened in Khandwa city of Madhya Pradesh.

June 10, 2025: Dhanush, a Dalit youth employed in an IT firm in Coimbatore, was reportedly in a relationship with a woman from a different religion. He was found hanging at his lover’s residence.

June 18, 2025: Due to not being able to repay a loan of 80 thousand, a Dalit woman was tied to a tree, humiliated and beaten in front of her own child, the child will not be able to forget this shock for the rest of his life, the incident is from Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh. The woman’s husband has left her, she has the responsibility of two children, she earns her living by working as a daily wage labourer.

June 20, 2025: On Sunday, A Dalit teenager who dared to ask for ration was shot dead in broad daylight in Bilhari village in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. His brother, Ashish, who had accompanied him, was also injured. 

June 22, 2025: The incident occurred in Dadrapur village, within the limits of Bakewar Police Station, where a group of Brahmin men attacked a Katha Vachak (religious preacher) and his aides for organising Baagavat Katha in the village after discovering that he belongs to a lower caste.”

June 22, 2025: A 13-year-old patient from Meerut admitted to the orthopaedics ward at a top hospital in the city, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 20-year-old man inside the women’s washroom around 1 am on Sunday. The girl, a Dalit, was being treated for knock knees, and was accompanied by her mother at the facility’s general ward.

June 22, 2025: At a hospital in an Andhra Pradesh district, a 15-year-old girl, almost eight months pregnant, spends her days in a 150-bed ward, surrounded by expectant mothers and wailing infants. Authorities have deemed it dangerous to terminate her pregnancy at this stage, and say sending her home is not an option either – the teenager is the victim of sexual abuse over two years by 14 men, who are from an influential community in the village where the crimes took place.

June 22, 2025: “A shocking incident of caste-based violence has emerged from Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, where members belonging to the Bahujan community were severely assaulted by upper caste men, who brutalised them and forcefully tonsured their hair, urinated on them, for taking part in a religious event.

June 23, 2025: Two Dalit men were allegedly subjected to brutal physical and psychological abuse in Kharigumma village under Dharakote block in Ganjam district.

June 24, 2025: “Dalit assistant professor Dr Ravi has allegedly faced caste discrimination after the principal at SV Veterinary University’s Dairy Technology College in Andhra Pradesh removed the chair from his office, forcing him to work while sitting on the floor. He alleged that he was on leave on Thursday, and when he returned to the college on Friday and went to his room, he found that there was no chair. Associate Dean Ravindra Reddy, who had come to test the milk in the existing device, had removed the chair from his room.”

June 26, 2025: Nearly All Students Withdrawn from Karnataka School After Dalit Woman Appointed Head Cook. “In a shocking incident from Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, a 60-year-old differently abled Dalit woman was allegedly raped and robbed by a known history sheeter. The accused, identified as 23-year-old Fairoz Yasin Yaragatti, was later shot in the leg by police during an encounter”

June 27, 2025: On Friday, members of the family were sowing seeds in their land in Narayanapura village of Madhya Pradesh’s Lateri tehsil when some people, allegedly from the Gurjar community, attacked them. The men not only beat up members of the family, including two women, but also snatched their soybean seeds and sowed them in their own field.

Jyoti D. Bhosale, in The Intensification of the Caste Divide: Increasing Violence on the Dalits in Neoliberal India, [emphasis ours] writes, “The increased physical infliction of violence on the Dalits, apart from simply being the perception of threat, is a reactionary response to prevailing psyche steeped in prejudice and caste arrogance and are expressions of retention of privileged positions within the caste order, in spite of long drawn resistance and constitutional efforts against the same. In their study of Bhumihars (landowning caste) and caste violence in Bihar, Nandan and Santosh (2019) argue that in the context of the crumbling down of traditional mode of dominance through upper-caste identity and feudal agrarian structure, and also with the increased representation of OBCs and other lower castes, the goalpost of the Bhumihars has shifted. It has now become that of establishing themselves not as perpetrators of violence but as guardians of Hindutva which also protects their caste identity. They thus resort to ‘symbolic’ violence towards the lower castes, while on the ‘enemies’ of Hindu right-wing ideology, overt violence is inflicted. Can the quantitative reduction of incidents of bodily violence itself account for decreased brutality against the Dalits? Numerous incidents of violence such as Tsundur massacre (1991); Bara massacre (1992); Bathani Tola massacre (1996); Melavalavu violence (1997); Laxmanpur Bathe massacre (1997); Ramabai Killings(1997); Bhungar Khera incident (1999); Kambalapalli violence (2000); Khairlanji massacre (2006); gangrape of Sumanbalai (2009); Mirchpur killings (2010); Dharmapuri violence (2012); Marakkanam violence (2013); Dangawas violence (2015); Ariyalur gangrape (2016); Kanchanatham temple violence (2018); Hathras gangrape and murder (2020) are amongst the very many clear cases of explicit brutality. These challenge the underlying liberal presumption prevalent across social sciences that with progression in time, democratization etc, societies become more civil. There is evidence to say that with such progression, cruelty may not just continue but also sharpen (Rushe and Kirchheimer 2003).

Thus, it will not be erroneous to state that these enactments of violence are located at the juncture of asserting caste-pride, and the violent need to humiliate and assert dominance through forms that adapt and reinvent themselves with the passage of time.

Sexual Violence

Amidst the different forms of violence enacted upon Dalit and Adivasi people, sexual violence happens to be one of the foremost ones.

Sourik Biswas writes for the BBC, “These [Dalit] women, who comprise about 16% of India’s female population, face a “triple burden” of gender bias, caste discrimination and economic deprivation. “The Dalit female belongs to the most oppressed group in the world,” says Dr Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters. “She is a victim of the cultures, structures and institutions of oppression, both externally and internally. This manifests in perpetual violence against Dalit women.” Out of the 113 incidents recorded by CJP, 29 were acts of sexual violence. Approximately 10 rape cases are reported every day when it comes to Dalit women.

Manisha Mashaal, the founder of Swabhiman Society, told Equality Now that one of the biggest challenges in cases of sexual violence is that survivors or the families are pressured into compromises with the accused. Community and social pressure plays a major role in impeding access to justice in such cases. Another issue is the lack of quality and effective systems in place to provide the survivors of violence and their families with immediate social, legal, and mental health support along with proper and timely rehabilitation. This pattern of violence also translates to Adivasi women – even intensifying, with the stereotyping of these women as “promiscuous” and an allotted sexual availability – which ultimately reduces them to fetishized commodities. While Behanbox, upon perusal of a report ‘Beyond Rape: Examining The Systemic Oppression Leading To Sexual Violence Against Adivasi Women’ – found that while the two-finger test that checks the hymen and its rupturing has been outlawed by the Supreme Court, in almost 15 of the 32 cases studied had the victims go through them.

It found that according to the National Crime Bureau Report (2022), a total of 10,064 cases were registered for crimes against Scheduled Tribes (STs), an increase of 14.3 per cent over 2021 (8,802 cases). The crime rate increased from 8.4 per cent in 2021 to 9.6 per cent in 2022. The report reveals that 1,347 cases of rape and 1022 cases of assault on Adivasi/Tribal women were reported in 2022.

Mapping Caste Atrocities and Socio-Political Dynamics

The 113 cases that CJP documented were spread out all over the country– which you can see in this map– although some states emerged as hotspots.

As displayed above, the worst offending states were Uttar Pradesh (34 cases), Madhya Pradesh (15), and Tamil Nadu (8). This calculation tracks with NCRB data that the Deccan Herald reported, “About 97.7 per cent of all cases of atrocities against SCs in 2022 were reported from 13 states, with Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh recording the highest number of such crimes, according to a new government report … Of 51,656 cases registered under the law for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in 2022, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 23.78 per cent of the total cases with 12,287, followed by Rajasthan at 8,651 (16.75 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh at 7,732 (14.97 per cent).”

This intensity of caste-based violence in states is deeply reflective of the social structures present within these states and their respective hierarchies.

In Uttar Pradesh, the last caste census was conducted in 1931. According to the data from this census, it was found that only 9.2% of the population was composed of Brahmins, while 7.2% was made up of Rajputs (Thakurs). Sudhir Hindwan’s CASTE AND CLASS VIOLENCE IN THE INDIAN STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH – the intermediary (backward) castes made up about 42 per cent of the population, the scheduled castes 21 per cent and Muslims 15 per cent. While no caste census details are available after that, estimations based on the data from the 2011 census leads us to believe that the 20% of the “forward caste” demographic are composed by the 12% of the populace who are Brahmins, and the remaining 8 the Rajputs.

A report from the policy research lab of Jindal Global University found that out of the 80 constituencies in the state, 23 of the dominant general caste constituencies have representatives from the respective castes, thus indicating a 100% rate of correlation when it comes to caste identity and election of representation. The report states, “Whereas there were 15 constituencies who have OBC as their dominant caste and their MP too comes from the OBC. On the other hand, there are 3 constituencies where Muslims are dominant, and the winning candidate too comes from the same … Out of the 19 winning candidates who won the 2024 parliamentary elections and come from the scheduled caste background, 17 came from those seats which were reserved for the scheduled caste in the elections, thus out of 80 there were only 2 seats where the winning candidate was from the scheduled caste and the seat was not reserved. This highlights the social disparity that persists within the political and social realm of UP.” The maps pictured here represent this disparity when it comes to the distribution of political power among different caste compositions in Uttar Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh reflects a similar vein of absences. For the 2023 state legislative elections, The Print found on a fieldwork based investigation that the now-ruling party of the state, BJP, had given 34% (79) of its tickets to upper caste candidates, followed by 30% to Backward Classes (69) — while only providing the Scheduled Tribe and the Scheduled Caste candidates 21% (47) and 15% (35) of its tickets — despite being the state with the largest number of tribes. It is also to be remembered that none of these tickets were given to candidates in unreserved constituencies.

This preference given to the provision of tickets to non-Dalit candidates translated in the poll results. The Hindu reported, “Despite its rhetoric over the question of caste census, Congress failed to make a dent in the OBC vote. Thus, BJP’s landslide victory was shaped by an accretion from most social sections, including the OBCs of Madhya Pradesh. Besides consolidating among its upper caste voter base, the BJP this time managed to attract more OBCs and Adivasis compared to 2018.

The Congress stayed significantly ahead of the BJP among SC communities, while other parties bagged 16%. The BSP polled 19% of the Jatav votes; with the Congress securing almost half the Jatav votes. Among the tribal voters, the Congress maintained an advantage over the BJP. The vote share was the closest among the Bhil community with a difference of only 4% between the Congress and BJP. The Congress secured half or more of the votes of other tribal communities; while the BJP managed more than a third of the votes. Congress did get overwhelming support among Muslims, though their population in the State is barely 7%—hardly enough to help the Congress make an impact. As mentioned above, with BJP gaining among Upper Castes, the Congress found very thin support among these sections, including the Rajputs, compared to 2018. In conclusion, it is clear that the BJP has consolidated its traditional upper caste vote bank, along with making significant inroads into the OBC communities in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress’s vote among the SC, ST and minority communities is not large enough to match the BJP’s social bloc.”

Tamil Nadu: Exceptional Violence

Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, has been known for fostering caste-consciousness from time immemorial. The private sphere is an example – where the National Family Health Survey data suggested that the state had one of the lowest rates of inter-caste marriages, only reaching a meagre 2.59%. The state also has the highest number of consanguineous marriages, with a whopping 28% share, as opposed to the national average of 11%. In a report on caste-based tensions in two villages in Tirunelveli, ThePrint reported, “Students wear coloured T-shirts inside their school uniform, which also refer to their caste identity. Sometimes, those T-shirts will also have the image of leaders of their communities,” said the headmaster of a government school in Madurai, who did not wish to be named … “In the village, we reside in Dalit colonies and they reside in the Upper Caste streets. So, once we get into the school, this segregation remains the same; they don’t sit next to us or mingle with us,” said a Class 10 student of a state-run school in Tirunelveli district.”

As the state gears up for the 2026 elections, one sees the carrying over of trends from 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as the BJP tries to shed its image as a Brahminical party in the state, and makes alliances and coalitions with smaller caste-based parties for greater parties. South First reports, “Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, despite its anti-caste image, continues to partner with the KMDK, a regional ally whose leaders have made inflammatory caste-based remarks. The DMK’s support for KMDK-led cultural events, such as Valli Kummi performances, is seen as a move to win over the influential Kongu Vellalar Gounder community. Critics say the alliance highlights a growing ideological dissonance, where electoral calculus increasingly trumps the party’s professed commitment to social justice.” Many political theorists, like TN Raghu, have pointed out that the DMK and the AIADMK are two sides of the same coin – where they have alienated their rooting in Periyar’s anti-caste politics for vote banking strategies. Raghu told SF, “Whether in power or not, DMK has never really raised its voice against the dominant castes. Take for instance the honour killing of Sankar and the struggles of Kausalya – DMK never staged major protests or spearheaded movements around such incidents. They fear that aggressively opposing caste oppression will alienate majority caste voters. Often this silence is justified as political strategy … In elections, it is almost like a competition between DMK and AIADMK – who can stay more silent about caste issues and thereby win more votes from caste-dominant Hindu communities.”

Law Enforcement Failures

While most of these cases have never had any political leadership comment anything reformist, or acknowledge the depth of the rot in each state – the police have been equally responsible in lackadaisical delivery of judgement, if not perpetrating the very same violence in themselves. Out of the 113 cases calibrated by CJP when it comes to anti-Dalit atrocities, 9 were cases where the police directly were violent towards the victims, 6 were cases where no action was undertaken, and 5 were cases where it was unclear if a report was filed. Out of the remaining 92 cases where action was undertaken – there were 4 cases where the action undertaken was merely conducive to procedure and not actual ensuring of justice.

This tracks with NCRB data, which states that 12,159 cases of atrocities against STs were pending investigation, and a total of 2,63,512 cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) while 42,512 cases of atrocities against STs went for trial. Conviction percentage under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in conjunction with the Indian Penal Code (IPC) remained at 36 per cent for SCs and 28.1 per cent for STs. At the end of the year, 96 per cent of cases of atrocities against SCs were pending trial whereas, for STs, the percentage stood at 95.49.

GC Pal, in Caste and Consequences: Looking through the Lens of Violence, writes, “As caste relations are rooted in the social structure, caste traditions and the advent of modernity together produce a new ‘coalition’ between dominant caste perpetrators and the classes (powerful members from their caste groups in community and also from administration). The social status of the accused and its association with larger ‘social class’ plays a significant role in course of access to justice. Overwhelming caste loyalties and sentiments influence the decisions of the personnel in administration and judiciary. Moreover, the administration being represented majorly by the dominant caste members very often show apathy towards the complaints. In this regard, Ambedkar (1989) is of the view that: ‘When law enforcement agency- the police and the judiciary, does not seem to be free from caste prejudice- since they are very much part of the same caste ridden society- expecting law to ensure justice to victims of caste crimes is rather an impractical solution to this perennial social problem.’ That is why, he emphasises that the presence of elaborate legal provisions may not always guarantee rights to social justice, it necessarily depends upon the nature and character of the civil services who administer the principle…‘If the civil services, by reason of its class bias, is in favour of the established social order in which the principle of equality had no place, the new order in the form of equal justice can never come into being’ (ibid)”

Conclusion

This report details the deep rot within the Indian socio-polity, and its exacerbation by the current Hindutva machinery, ideologically driven with accompanying violence against targeted sections as a key tool for penetration. Dalits are one such target.

The way forward, would perhaps be rooting policy action in accountability and welfare, then just vote bank strategy. Over the years, multiple judicial decisions have weakened the PoA, with judgements refusing to grant caste slurs “prima facie value” – when not made in “public view”.

According to Equality Now, the NCWL’s recommendations to India’s Central Government and State Governments outline steps duty-bearers should take to protect Dalit women and girls from sexual violence, and ensure justice and protection:

• Incorporate and effectively implement the abolition of caste-based discrimination and patriarchy in national-level law and policy;
• Recognise Dalit women as a distinct social group; develop and implement policies specifically focused on advancing their rights, wellbeing, equal standing, and protection within the law;
• Produce and disseminate disaggregated data on the status of Dalit women, particularly in government plans and development programmes; address intersectional forms of discrimination throughout the criminal justice system;
• Ensure full and strict implementation of existing legal protections, particularly the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and the timely investigation and disposal of cases of violence against Dalit women and girls;
• Organise, support and fund community-based education, legal literacy and training programmes that improve understanding of intersectional discrimination and violence, including combating casteist and sexist stereotypes amongst criminal justice system officials; empower Dalit communities to better understand their legal and constitutional rights;
• Recognise that economic dependence is a significant reason behind Dalit women not filing police complaints; deliver a national plan with separate funding aimed at accelerating efforts to reduce the poverty gap between Dalit communities and the general population;
• Ensure Dalit survivors who report sexual violence are legally protected by the state from retaliation by the accused; prevent further violence targeting them, such as through social boycotts, and impose restrictions on these;
• Provide Dalit survivors and family members with immediate and longer-term assistance including medical aid, free legal aid, psycho-social support services and counselling, and quality, holistic rehabilitation.

Key to these systemic changes is acknowledgement of the deep-rootedness of the problem. Indian society and politics, resistant and rigid against such self-scrutiny when it comes to caste bias and communalism, has remained obdurate in its inability internalise this malaise. Until that happens, any measures taken to address the issue could remain palliative.

(The legal research team of CJP consists of lawyers and interns; this graphic visualisation report has been worked on by Saptaparma Samajdar)

Sources

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/dalit-men-tonsured-forced-crawl-cow-smuggling-allegations-odisha-10083930/
2. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/606848/pdf
3. http://www.india-seminar.c0m/2001/508/508%20martin%20macwan.htm.
4. https://thewire.in/rights/maoists-government-dialogue-plea-salwa-judum-chhattisgarh-adivasi
5. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/27/india-ethnic-clashes-restart-manipur
6. https://www.landconflictwatch.org/all-conflicts
7. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/abs/hindutva-religious-and-ethnocultural-minorities-and-indianchristian-theology/E61809FF5F9D5A78D9E9A6E817226B39
8. https://syahissc.wordpress.com/2023/12/10/the-banality-of-caste-recognising-caste-through-concealment-narratives/
9. https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/araucaria/article/view/27036/24166
10. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-54418513
11. https://equalitynow.org/press_release/india_caste_system_preventing_justice_nov2020/
12. https://www.ncwl.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BEYOND-RAPEv1.0.pdf
13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48504938
14. https://jgu.edu.in/jsgp/jindal-policy-research-lab/caste-and-victory-uttar-pradesh-analysis/
15. https://theprint.in/opinion/bjps-madhya-pradesh-candidate-list-lacks-obc-representation-congress-can-best-it/1837583/
16. https://www.thehindu.com/elections/madhya-pradesh-assembly/the-role-of-castes-and-communities-in-madhya-pradesh-vote-share/article67611007.ece
17. https://theprint.in/india/not-just-wristbands-life-in-tamil-nadu-schools-is-caste-coded-punishments-to-t-shirts/2160880
18. https://www.ncwl.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BEYOND-RAPEv1.0.pdf
19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48644566?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3A822b3e6ad5e2a5029ebffd9856f2a875&initiator=recommender&seq=7
20. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/not-every-insult-against-scst-persons-can-be-considered-as-offence-under-scst-protection-law-says-supreme-court/article68559244.ece
21. https://equalitynow.org/news/press-releases/indias_government_must_do_more_to_end_caste_based_sexual_violence_say_dalit_womens_rights_activists/
22. https://www.9dashline.com/article/narrating-violence-is-hindutva-responsible-for-violence-against-indias-christians
23. https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/hindutva-groups-increase-attacks-on-india-s-christian-school/
24. https://theprint.in/india/adivasi-identity-st-status-politics-whats-fuelling-anti-christian-attacks-in-chhattisgarh/1305275/

[1] From Human Rights Watch’s pathbreaking 1999 Report, Broken People. These quotations are from: 1 Human Rights Watch interview, Ahmedabad district, Gujarat, July 23, 1998. See explanation of manual scavenging below in the Summary and in Chapter VII. 2 Human Rights Watch interview, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, February 17, 1998. 3 Human Rights Watch interview, Madurai city, Tamil Nadu, February 18, 1998. https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/India994-02.htm#P350_19723

[2] “Dalit” is a term first coined by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, one of the architects of the Indian constitution of 1950 and revered leader of the Dalit movement. It was taken up in the 1970s by the Dalit Panther Movement, which organized to claim rights for “untouchables,” and is now commonly used by rights activists.

[3] https://www.amazon.in/Adivasi-Vanvasi-Tribal-Politics-Hindutva/dp/0143470485 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09731849241260929;

[4] A Committee set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and headed by Avdhash Kaushal reported on Ekal Vidyalaya schools in the Singhbhum district in Jharkhand and in the Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts in Assam. The Committee’s report, submitted to the MHRD in 2005, brings out the communalisation that is rampant in these schools and in their curriculum and textual materialsThe teacher at the Ekal Vidyalaya in Chirchi in Tantnagar block, Singhbhum district, proudly claimed that rather than imparting alphabetical knowledge, he was more intent on protecting “Hindu culture”. He also boasted of his role along with other colleagues in the illegal destruction of a half-built church in the village in 2002. The report states: “The training to the teachers of Ekal schools was mainly to spread communal disharmony in the communities and also to inculcate a fundamentalist political ideology… creating enmity amongst communities on the basis of religion.” The complete report, ‘Final Report on the field visit and observations of Mr Avdhash Kaushal for Singhbhum district in Jharkhand and Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts in Assam’, can be accessed at: http://www.sabrang.com/khoj/ekal_report.pdf

[5] MS Golwalkar, the chief ideologue of the RSS had espoused in We or Our Nationhood Defined, “…only those movements are true ‘National’ that aims at re-building, re-vitalising and emancipating from its present stupor, the Hindu Nation. Those only are nationalist patriots, who, with the aspiration to glorify the Hindu race and Nation next to their heart, are prompted into activity and strive to achieve that goal. All others are eithertraitors and enemies to the National cause, or, to take a charitable view, idiots…outsiders, bound by all the codes and conventions of the Nation, at the sufferance of the Nation and deserving of no special protection, far less any privilege or rights. There are only two courses open to the foreign elements (Christians and Muslims), either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture or to live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race. That is the only sound view on the minorities’ problem’; https://sabrangindia.in/document/we-or-our-nationhood-defined-1947-edition/

The post Caste Atrocity in 2025: Normalisation, neglect and the crisis of accountability appeared first on SabrangIndia.

As per the report of Hindustan Times, a division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Sanjay A. Deshmukh directed the Mondha Police Station to register the FIR within one week based on a complaint filed by Somnath’s mother, Vijayabai Suryawanshi, and asked the Superintendent of Police, Parbhani, to transfer the case to an officer of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) rank. The bench also took strong exception to the delay in registration of the FIR, despite the presence of post-mortem, magisterial inquiry, and inquest reports that collectively indicated that Somnath had suffered grievous injuries in custody.

Background and arrest

Somnath Suryawanshi, a final-year law student from Pune, had travelled to Parbhani to appear for his examination when he was caught in the aftermath of large-scale protests that erupted on December 10, 2024. The protests were sparked by the desecration of a glass-encased replica of the Indian Constitution placed near a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, an act that allegedly followed a public meeting organised by the Hindu Sakal Samaj Morcha, a far-right outfit. Police launched sweeping arrests following the violence, picking up over 50 men and women, most of them from marginalised and Dalit communities.

Somnath was allegedly detained on December 11, and according to police accounts, he died on December 15, four days later, after collapsing inside the Parbhani Central Prison. Authorities claimed he had complained of chest pain and was shifted to a state-run hospital, where he was declared dead.

However, this narrative was forcefully challenged in a writ petition filed by his mother in April 2025, alleging that her son had been brutally tortured in custody, and that the police had tried to cover up the custodial killing. Her legal team, led by advocate Prakash Ambedkar, assisted by Sandesh More and Hitendra Gandhi, argued for immediate FIR registration, suspension of the concerned officers, and the formation of a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Postmortem and magisterial inquiry findings

A magisterial inquiry, concluded on March 20, 2025, unequivocally held the police responsible for Somnath’s death, confirming multiple instances of custodial violence. His post-mortem report documented 24 visible external injuries and several internal injuries, concluding that the cause of death was “shock due to multiple injuries.” The inquest report too noted visible trauma on the body.

Despite these findings, the police failed to initiate criminal proceedings against their own personnel. In her petition, Vijayabai also alleged that police officer Ashok Ghorband had offered her ₹50 lakh to not file a complaint against the department. She accused the police of acting out of caste-based hatred, and demanded full disclosure of the magisterial report and an impartial probe.

April 29, 2025: High Court intervenes

In a significant first intervention, the Aurangabad Bench on April 29, 2025, expressed grave concern over the direction of the ongoing police-led investigation. The court observed that the inquiry appeared to be conducted with a “preconceived notion,” undermining the credibility of the process. It restrained the police from proceeding further with the investigation, pending further review, and set the next hearing for May 8, emphasising the need to safeguard the integrity of the process.

The restraint order marked a serious judicial rebuke and indicated that the court was unwilling to let the same police force accused of custodial violence investigate the case unilaterally. (Detailed report may be read here.)

May 8, 2025: Ongoing scrutiny

At the subsequent hearing on May 8, the court continued to press for accountability and demanded updated records, while public prosecutor A.B. Girase, appearing for the state, maintained that no illegality had occurred and that the CID-led probe was ongoing. The petitioner’s counsel rejected this, arguing that continuing the investigation under the same agency—despite it being accused—was a violation of basic legal norms and natural justice.

Advocate Hitendra Gandhi cited the 2023 Badlapur custodial death case as a precedent, where the Bombay High Court had constituted an SIT to probe the custodial killing of Akshay Shinde, an accused in a sexual assault case who was allegedly killed in a staged encounter. The court in that case had allowed Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai, Lakhmi Gautam, to constitute his own team, drawing officers from any department of his choosing.

July 4, 2025: FIR ordered, CID criticised

At the July 4 hearing, the court finally ordered the mandatory registration of an FIR, noting that the post-mortem, magisterial inquiry, and inquest reports provided sufficient prima facie evidence to warrant criminal proceedings. The bench also criticised the CID for seeking a second medical opinion from JJ Hospital in Mumbai, bypassing the original seven-member autopsy team, calling the move suspicious and unnecessary.

“The post-mortem report shows that there were 24 visible injuries. Of course, there are internal injuries also,” the court observed, as per the HT report. It questioned why such strong medical findings had not yet translated into criminal proceedings.

Public prosecutor Girase again argued against premature FIR registration, claiming the inquiry was still incomplete. The bench, however, rejected this argument, noting that continuing delay in the face of clear evidence amounted to obstruction of justice.

Towards judicial accountability in custodial deaths

The High Court’s categorical order to file an FIR, its castigation of the CID, and its early restraint on a biased probe mark a significant step in holding law enforcement accountable for custodial deaths, particularly those involving caste-based violence. The court’s observations also signal growing judicial impatience with institutional delays and systemic obfuscation in such cases.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 30, 2025. The outcome could have wide-ranging implications for custodial death jurisprudence in Maharashtra, and may set a precedent for mandatory independent probes in all such incidents. If an SIT is constituted under judicial supervision, it could strengthen demands for structural reforms in how police misconduct, especially involving vulnerable communities, is investigated and prosecuted.

Related:

Magistrate probe indicts Parbhani police in Somnath Suryawanshi custodial death: MSHRC

Parbhani police under scrutiny: Fact-finding report exposes allegations of brutality, illegality, and constitutional violations

Massive all-party march in Parbhani demands justice for Dalit youth’s custodial death

Special Report: ‘They came like monkeys; they came like Nazis.’ Ambedkari Bastis in Parbhani face the traumas of police brutality

The post Bombay High Court orders FIR in Somnath Suryawanshi custodial death case, slams police for delay and bias appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Historical Frame: Contesting sacred space

Sambhal is a Muslim-majority town (approx. 77.6%) in western Uttar Pradesh with historical and architectural significance. Sambhal is home to the Shahi Jama Masjid, one of only two surviving mosques built during Babur’s reign, with the other being in Panipat. The mosque stands as a rare surviving monument from the early Mughal era.  The town also holds significance in Hindu belief as the prophesied birthplace of Lord Kalki, the tenth avatar of Vishnu. While the mosque is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), right-wing groups claim it was built on the ruins of the “Hari Har Mandir”, allegedly demolished during the Mughal era. These claims rely on discredited 19th-century colonial accounts, particularly by ACL Carlleyle, whose report was rejected by the then ASI Director General, Sir Alexander Cunningham.

This confluence of history and myth set the stage for conflict, especially in a town that was once a stronghold of anti-CAA protests and continues to elect Muslim representatives like MP Zia Ur Rahman Barq, whose family has long resisted the majoritarian politics of the ruling party. Over the past few years, this mythical narrative has been aggressively revived. Mahant Rishiraj Giri, a petitioner in the present dispute, has said he wanted to file a case even before the Babri suit. The town has already been declared a potential “Kalki Dham” by BJP leaders, and PM Modi laid the foundation of a Kalki temple in 2024.

November 2024: A timeline of escalation

• November 19: A civil suit by eight petitioners is filed alleging the mosque was once a temple. Within hours, by 3:30 pm, the Sambhal civil court grants permission for a survey, waives the notice requirement, and appoints an advocate commissioner. By 7:00 pm, the survey was underway. The mosque committee was neither notified nor given a chance to be heard.
• November 22: Friday prayers occur under heavy police presence.
• November 23: Authorities begin preventive detention under Section 107/116 of the CrPC; 34 persons, including the father of MP Zia Ur Rahman Barq, are bound by peace bonds up to ₹10 lakh.
• November 24: A second survey is conducted without fresh court orders. Police are accompanied by PAC, RAF, and officials from multiple districts. This time, a video went viral showing members of the survey team chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, and a rumour spread that the mosque was being excavated. The ablution tank was drained, and water was seen seeping from the structure, fueling panic. A protest breaks out. Police respond with tear gas, lathis, and gunfire. Five Muslim men are killed.

Police Firing: Lethal force, denials, and eyewitnesses

According to Masjid Committee President Zafar Ali, the protest on November 24 was peaceful until CO Anuj Chaudhary responded to concerns with verbal abuse and an unprovoked lathi charge. he police, led by CO Anuj Chaudhary, responded with verbal abuse, a lathi charge, and then tear gas. As people began to flee, the police escalated, firing live ammunition.Tear gas followed, and then live rounds were fired. The crowd began to disperse, but police pursued them into lanes and homes. Eyewitnesses reported police using slurs, destroying property, and shooting indiscriminately.

Five Muslim men were killed, including a minor:

• Kamran (17), shot in the chest.
• Nasir, Abbas, Basim, and Nabeel—each with fatal injuries, many allegedly from police bullets.

Videos circulated showing police shouting “Goli chalao” (fire the gun), pelting stones, and dragging minors. Authorities denied using firearms but later admitted to firing “warning shots”. Zafar Ali, who openly accused the police, was detained and later arrested under serious charges.

Authorities claimed the protesters were armed and that police only fired in retaliation. Yet, no police injuries or gunshot wounds from “desi kattas” were documented. The families dispute the claim of crossfire and assert that their relatives were unarmed and shot from the front. (Detailed report may be read here.)

Suppression of victim families and testimonies

The families of the deceased report:

• Denial of postmortem reports.
• Being forced to sign blank papers or coerced to remove references to police in their complaints.
• Rapid burials under police pressure.
• Heavy surveillance at their homes, making it difficult to speak to outsiders or pursue legal recourse.

For example, Kamran’s family was called to identify his body, made to give thumbprints on documents, and forced to bury him amid a police convoy. Nasir’s mother said she saw two bullet wounds but received no documentation. Basim, before dying, told his family he was shot by police. The police allegedly forced them to rewrite their complaint, removing the word “police”.

The Legal Offences: Violating due process and the law

As per the report, the lower court’s order violated:

• Section 80(2) CPC: No genuine urgency justified bypassing notice to the mosque committee.
• Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991: This law bars alteration of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on 15 August 1947.
• Article 26 of the Constitution: Grants religious denominations autonomy over their places of worship.

Despite these clear violations, the Allahabad High Court later upheld the survey, and referred to the mosque as an “alleged masjid” even in a whitewashing plea. The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings but failed to undo the communal spectacle that the survey facilitated. (Detailed report may be read here.)

Myth-Making: Temple discoveries and state rituals

Shortly after the violence, local officials claimed to “discover” a hidden temple near the Shahi Jama Masjid. The structure was cleaned and declared sacred. District officials performed worship ceremonies, and a priest claimed the idol “smiled”. This triggered a wave of temple “discoveries”, 24 sites were surveyed by the ASI within weeks. Carbon dating was announced, and claims emerged that 56 temples and 19 sacred wells had been hidden by Muslims.

The government launched a spiritual tourism project titled “Kalki Nagri.” Plans were made to develop 87 religious sites and a 24-Kosi Parikrama Marg. Authorities, priests, and right-wing figures declared temple idols had been “discovered” at sites like wells and drains. In some cases, idols were immediately installed and worshipped. The state began institutionalising the narrative that Sambhal is a Hindu holy site under siege.

Muslim residents refuted these claims, saying these were existing sites in disrepair. As per the report, a local lawyer remarked: “They are digging up new temples every day. We fear they will come into our homes and dig one up there too.”

A new police chowki named “Satyavrat Chowki” was built outside the Shahi Jama Masjid using stones from the protest site. The chowki was inaugurated with Hindu rituals, including a havan and shlokas etched on its walls

Administrative Reprisals: Raids, Demolitions, and Surveillance

In the weeks after the firing:

• Mass detentions occurred. 83 people, including minors and Masjid Committee President Zafar Ali, were jailed. Over 160 bail pleas have been rejected. (Detailed report may be read here.)
• Zafar Ali, who publicly stated he saw police firing, was arrested on March 23, just before he was scheduled to testify before a judicial commission. He had not been named in any FIR prior. His arrest included disproportionate BNS charges, including those carrying life imprisonment or death penalty. Dormant cases from 2018 and 2021 were suddenly revived against him.
• Police launched electricity theft drives: 1440 cases were registered, mostly against Muslims, including 16 mosques and two madrasas. A total fine of ₹11 crores was imposed. MP Barq alone was fined ₹1.91 crores (Detailed report may be read here.)
• Encroachment demolitions began in Muslim areas. Some residents pre-emptively dismantled their own homes.
• The Janeta Sharif Dargah, previously a site of interfaith worship, was marked for probe, its clinic shut down, and its fair cancelled.
• Loudspeakers were removed from mosques.
• Police built a new outpost, engraved with Hindu shlokas, using stones allegedly “thrown by Muslims” on November 24.
• The administration questioned the Dargah’s Waqf status, and its land was bulldozed. This marked the first major Waqf land crackdown since the 2024 Amendment Act. (Detailed report may be read here.)

Surveillance and silencing of victims

Families of victims report constant police surveillance. The report recorded one mother stating that “They sit outside our house 24×7. You are lucky you met us while they were away.”

Many families, like those of Nasir, Abbas, and Nadia, reported being beaten, having property vandalised, and facing threats if they spoke to media or filed complaints. The DVRs of CCTV footage were seized. Police broke into homes and slapped women, dragged children, and refused to register complaints.

Constructing a new narrative: From victims to villains

The state and media spun a narrative portraying Muslims as aggressors:

• UP CM Adityanath claimed Muslims had turned mosques into “mini power stations”.
• He invoked a fabricated figure of 168 Hindu deaths in the 1978 Sambhal riots to justify crackdowns.
• Posters branding Muslims as “pathharbaaz” (stone pelters) were plastered across the town.
• The Kalki Dev Tirth Samiti was instituted to develop “religious tourism”, with 87 sites being prepared for Hindu pilgrimage.

The result is a manufactured transformation of Sambhal from a Muslim-majority town to a contested Hindu religious centre, without public debate, evidence, or consent.

Legal recommendations and civil society appeals

The report calls for:

• Independent investigation into police killings and torture.
• Immediate release of detainees without proper FIRs.
• Enforcement of the Places of Worship Act in both letter and spirit.
• Rebuilding trust through compensation and an end to bulldozer demolitions.
• Holding judicial commissions accountable for bias.
• A nationwide civil society campaign to reject communal myth-making and support Sambhal’s residents.

Conclusion: Sambhal as a “Template”

The report ends on a haunting note:

“Ultimately, the situation in Sambhal is not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of narrative construction that seeks to redefine the Muslim community as a problem to be managed rather than a population deserving of rights and protection. As such, it calls for a reevaluation of how narratives are formed, disseminated, and challenged in the pursuit of justice and communal harmony, alongside a robust resistance to the forces that seek to communalize and polarize Indian society.”

Sambhal, the authors of the report warn, is not an aberration, rather it is a preview. If unchallenged, the Sambhal model will become the blueprint for future communal engineering. The report is a call to document, resist, and refuse—to protect the republic from turning against its own.

The complete report may be read here.

Related:

Sambhal Custodial Death: A systemic failure exposed

Supreme Court blocks execution of Nagar Palika’s order regarding well near Sambhal Mosque, prioritises peace and harmony

Uttar Pradesh’s new tactics for harassment: Electricity theft charges, strategic revival of temple, opening up of 1978 Sambhal communal riots cases

Sambhal Mosque, Ajmer Dargah: how deep do we plunge into the abyss?

Sambhal Violence: State crackdown intensifies, thousands accused, and allegations of police misconduct ignite a political and communal crisis in Uttar Pradesh

Sambhal’s darkest hour: 5 dead, scores injured in Mosque survey violence as UP police face allegations of excessive force

The post “Sambhal: Anatomy of an Engineered Crisis”- How a peaceful Muslim-majority town was turned into a site of manufactured communal conflict appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The case involved K. Umadevi, an English teacher in a government school in Tamil Nadu, whose personal circumstances brought a crucial service rule under judicial scrutiny. The judgment is a detailed exploration of how personal life changes, such as divorce and remarriage, intersect with employment rights, and how courts must adopt a purposive and humane approach rather than a rigid, technical one.

The facts of the Case

The story of the legal battle began with the petitioner marrying her first husband in 2006 and had two children, born in 2007 and 2011. In December 2012, she joined the Tamil Nadu state government as a teacher. Her first marriage was legally dissolved in 2017, and the custody of her two children remained with her former husband.

A year later, in 2018, Ms. Umadevi remarried. When she conceived a child from this second marriage, she applied for maternity leave for a period of nine months, from August 2021 to May 2022.

Her request was turned down. On August 28, 2021, the Chief Educational Officer of Dharmapuri District rejected her application. The reason cited was Rule 101(a) of the Tamil Nadu Fundamental Rules, which governs the service conditions of state employees. The rule stipulates that maternity leave can only be granted to a woman government servant with “less than two surviving children.” The authorities concluded that since Ms. Umadevi already had two children from her first marriage, she was ineligible for maternity leave for her third child. The rejection order flatly stated that there was “no provision” for granting such leave for a third child born through remarriage.

The Journey through the Courts

Aggrieved by this decision, Ms. Umadevi approached the Madras High Court. A single-judge bench heard her plea and, in a judgment dated March 25, 2022, ruled in her favour. The judge adopted a liberal interpretation, holding that the central Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, should prevail over the state rule. The court reasoned that the phrase “having surviving children” should imply that the children are in the mother’s custody. Since Ms. Umadevi’s children from her first marriage were not living with her, the child from her second marriage was, for all practical purposes, her first child in her new family unit. The single judge set aside the rejection order and directed the state to sanction her leave.

However, the relief was short-lived. The Government of Tamil Nadu filed an appeal before a Division Bench of the same court. On September 14, 2022, the Division Bench overturned the single judge’s order. It took a stricter view, stating that the government’s policy was clear and restricted the benefit to two children. It held that maternity leave was not a fundamental right but a right flowing from service rules. The bench found the single judge’s decision unsustainable and allowed the government’s appeal, leaving Ms. Umadevi without the benefit.

This set the stage for the final appeal before the Supreme Court of India.

The Supreme Court’s analysis

The Supreme Court, in a detailed and empathetic judgment authored by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, delved deep into the constitutional and international legal frameworks surrounding maternity rights.

The state government argued that its policy was tied to fiscal responsibility and the national objective of population control. Granting leave to Ms. Umadevi, it contended, would set a precedent that could strain the exchequer and undermine the “small family norm.”

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the Division Bench had erred by not following the spirit of a previous Supreme Court decision in Deepika Singh vs. Central Administrative Tribunal, which had dealt with a similar situation. It was also emphasized that the right to maternity leave is a facet of a woman’s reproductive right, which is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution—the right to life and personal liberty.

The Supreme Court’s reasoning was multi-layered:

1. Constitutional Foundation: The Court grounded its decision firmly in the Constitution. It described Article 21 as a “potent provision” that includes the right to live with dignity, the right to health, and the right to make reproductive choices. It also invoked Article 42, a Directive Principle of State Policy, which mandates the state to make provisions for “just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.”
2. Harmonising Conflicting Goals: The Court acknowledged the state’s objective of population control as “laudable.” However, it stated that this goal is not “mutually exclusive” with the objective of providing maternity benefits. The two, the Court said, “must be harmonized in a purposive and rationale manner to achieve the social objective.” A rigid rule that forces a woman to choose between her employment and her desire to start a family in a new marriage was seen as counterproductive.
3. Purposive Interpretation: The Court stressed that beneficial legislations like maternity leave rules must be given a “purpose-oriented approach.” The purpose is to protect the dignity of motherhood and enable a woman to care for her child without fear of losing her job. The fact that Ms. Umadevi’s children from her first marriage were not in her custody and that the child in question was the first from her subsisting marriage were crucial factors. The Court implicitly suggested that the term “surviving children” in the rule should not be read in a purely statistical or biological sense, but in the context of the employee’s current family and dependents.
4. International Obligations: The judgment extensively referenced international conventions that India has ratified, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance,” and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to provide maternity leave with pay. The Court used these to underscore that maternity benefits are a globally recognized human right.
5. Guidance from the Maternity Benefit Act: The Court drew guidance from the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. It noted that the Act, after the 2017 amendment, does not completely bar maternity leave for a third child; it only reduces the duration of the leave. This, the Court observed, shows a legislative intent to provide support, not to create a hard stop after two children.

The Verdict

The Supreme Court concluded that the view taken by the Madras High Court’s Division Bench was incorrect. It stated, “In the circumstances, we are unable to agree with the view taken by the Division Bench of the High Court.”

The Court declared that Ms. Umadevi was entitled to maternity leave as per the rules. It set aside the Division Bench’s order and directed the Tamil Nadu government to release all admissible maternity benefits to her within two months.

The judgment is a significant step forward in the jurisprudence of service law and human rights. It sends a clear message that administrative rules, especially those concerning fundamental aspects of life like childbirth, reproductive rights cannot be interpreted in a vacuum. They must be viewed through the prism of the Constitution and with a sense of compassion that acknowledges the complex realities of human lives. The Court has affirmed that the state, as a model employer, must not only create policies but also apply them in a manner that is just, humane, and respects the dignity of its employees.

(The author is part of the legal research team of the organisation)

Related:

Maternity leave no ground for dismissal: SC

Woman Employee Entitled To Claim Maternity Leave For Period Of 6 Months: Allahabad HC

Policy on paid menstrual leave not on the horizons of the union government?

The post A Question of Rights: Supreme Court backs teacher in maternity leave dispute appeared first on SabrangIndia.