Rights | SabrangIndia https://sabrangindia.in/category/rights/ News Related to Human Rights Sat, 14 Nov 2026 04:09:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://sabrangindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Favicon_0.png Rights | SabrangIndia https://sabrangindia.in/category/rights/ 32 32 A Prisoner of Conscience: Dr Kafeel Khan on Two Terms in Prison I Teesta Setalvad https://sabrangindia.in/a-prisoner-of-conscience-dr-kafeel-khan-on-two-terms-in-prison-i-teesta-setalvad/ Sat, 14 Nov 2026 04:09:39 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=50094 Twice he has been imprisoned, once because he helped procure oxygen cylinders to save lives , including new born basis in a Gorakhpur hospital (2017), then because he dared, as an Indian Muslim to speak out on the infamous CAA 2019 & NRC (2020). Both times, he was ill-treated be it in the prison in […]

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]]> Twice he has been imprisoned, once because he helped procure oxygen cylinders to save lives , including new born basis in a Gorakhpur hospital (2017), then because he dared, as an Indian Muslim to speak out on the infamous CAA 2019 & NRC (2020). Both times, he was ill-treated be it in the prison in Gorakhpur or Mathura: subject to brute custodial violence.
In a deeply personal conversation with Teesta Setalvad, he speaks once again about the humiliation endured by his family, his mother’s courage, his wife’s unwavering support, and his continued commitment to medicine and teaching. He also reflects on the children and families he has never forgotten, the role of mainstream media in shaping public perceptions, and the many people still waiting for justice and bail.
As both his books show, The History Sheeter (recently released) and The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis, Dr Khan remains irrepressible and a powerful communicator. Scenes from his first book were even used in the Shahrukh Khan film featured Jawan though the film did not acknowledge this!
What does it take to hold on to hope without giving in to bitterness? Dr Khan shows us how, in this conversation that reveals courage, abiding humanity and perseverance.

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]]> Health: Why do women in India still carry the burden of sterilisation? https://sabrangindia.in/health-why-do-women-in-india-still-carry-the-burden-of-sterilisation/ Fri, 13 Nov 2026 12:38:44 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=50089 Exploring the inherent patriarchal attitudes that govern Indian government policies on family planning, the author, a renowned specialist argues how the focus, timing and methods must be on encouraging men to perform vasectomies rather than the more commonly performed intrusive tubectomy on women and specifically advocates more robust all-round efforts than the token November 21-December 4, government observed Vasectomy Fortnight

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]]> India’s family planning programme rests on one operation, and it is performed only on women. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019–21), around 37.9% of currently married women aged 15–49 have been sterilised. For men the figure is 0.3%. In 1992–93 the first NFHS recorded male sterilisation at about 3.5%, so the gap has widened over thirty years. Fact sheets from NFHS-6 (2023–24) put the figures at about 36.5% and 0.5%.

As a gynaecologist, I find this hard to defend on medical grounds. The simpler and safer operation is the one we almost never perform.

Two operations, compared

A tubectomy closes the fallopian tubes so that the egg and sperm cannot meet. To reach the tubes, the surgeon has to enter the abdomen. In a minilaparotomy (“minilap”) this is done through a small cut in the lower abdomen, usually under local anaesthesia with sedation. In laparoscopic sterilisation a thin telescope is passed through a small cut near the navel after the abdomen is filled with gas, and a ring or clip is placed on each tube. Both are short and safe in trained hands, but they are –still—an abdominal surgery. The risks, though uncommon, include infection, bleeding, injury to the bowel or bladder, and problems with anaesthesia.

A vasectomy closes the two thin tubes that carry sperm. These lie just under the skin of the scrotum. In no-scalpel vasectomy the doctor reaches them through a single tiny puncture, under local anaesthesia. There is no entry into the abdomen and usually no stitch. The man walks home and can return to light work within a couple of days. Complications are mostly minor, such as bruising, swelling or a small infection. It does not affect erections, sexual desire or physical strength. One point needs honest counselling: a vasectomy does not work at once, and the couple needs another method (of contraception) for about three months afterwards.

Both operations are highly effective. The World Health Organisation (WHO)-supported family planning handbook puts first-year failure at about 0.5 per 100 for female sterilisation and about 0.15 per 100 for vasectomy. Both should be treated as permanent.

On every count, vasectomy is the lighter procedure. Yet the heavier one is done over a hundred times more often.

Camps, Targets and Bilaspur

This did not happen by accident. For decades the programme was run on numerical targets. After the coercive vasectomy drives of the Emergency in the mid-1970s, sterilising men became politically untouchable, and the targets shifted to women. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo moved the world from population control towards reproductive rights, and in 1996 India announced a Target Free Approach. On paper, targets ended. In practice “expected levels of achievement”, incentive payments to acceptors and motivators, and pressure on frontline workers kept much of the old logic going.

Its cost became impossible to ignore in November 2014. At a sterilisation camp in Takhatpur, in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh, 83 women were sterilised at a single camp. Thirteen of them died in the days that followed.

In September 2016, in Devika Biswas v Union of India, the Supreme Court held that what was happening in such camps violated women’s right to health and reproductive freedom. The court directed the Union government to phase out sterilisation camps within three years and to strengthen regular health facilities instead. It also said states must not set even informal targets, that consent must be explained in a language the woman understands, that deaths and failures must be audited and reported, and that compensation should be raised.

The standards were already there. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare publishes manuals on standards and quality assurance in sterilisation services, covering screening, asepsis, the number of cases a team may do in a day, and follow-up. The Family Planning Indemnity Scheme provides compensation for death, complications and failure after sterilisation. What has been missing is consistent practice.

Why the gap persists

Myths come first. Many men, and many families, believe vasectomy causes weakness, ends a man’s capacity for hard labour or damages his sexual life. None of this is true, but families who depend on his wages often share the fear. NFHS-5 found that about 35% of men agreed that contraception is women’s business and a man should not have to worry about it.

Then there is timing. A woman meets the health system at delivery, and sterilisation is often offered soon after childbirth or with a caesarean section. That suits the system, but it is not always a good moment for a permanent decision. NFHS-5 gives the median age at sterilisation as 25.7 years. A decision made at 25, sometimes within days of a birth, has to last a lifetime.

Counselling is thin. Among sterilised women in NFHS-5, only about 65% said they had been told about other methods, and about 59% had been told about possible side effects. The public sector now offers a wider range: the intrauterine device (IUCD), including after delivery; the injectable contraceptive MPA under the Antara programme; the non-hormonal weekly pill Chhaya; condoms and daily pills. A woman who has never been offered these has not really chosen sterilisation.

Every year from November 21 to December 4, the government observes a Vasectomy Fortnight to encourage men to come forward. It is welcome, but a fortnight cannot undo a year of silence.

What needs to Change

Counselling must be real: unhurried, in the woman’s own language, without the husband or the motivator answering for her, and never in the labour room. Reversible methods should be offered first to young couples, with steady supplies so that a missed injection does not become an unwanted pregnancy.

Quality standards must apply in every facility, with follow-up visits that actually take place. States should publish what the Supreme Court asked for: how many procedures, how many complications, how many deaths, how many failures, and what was done about each.

Men need to be reached directly. ASHAs and ANMs speak mostly to women. We need male health workers, satisfied vasectomy users and trained no-scalpel vasectomy providers at district level, speaking to men where they work.

Finally, a woman must be free to say no, to sterilisation or to any method, without losing a benefit or the goodwill of the health worker she will need again. Family planning was meant to give women control over their bodies. A programme where one sex does nearly all the bleeding has not yet done that.

(The author holds a degree in medicine, an MBBS, MS [Obstetrics and Gynaecology], is an obstetrician-gynaecologist from Assam and is also a medical reviewer at abortion-riyadh.com)

Sources

  1. NFHS-5 (2019–21), India Fact Sheet, IIPS and MoHFW: https://rchiips.org/nfhs/NFHS-5_FCTS/India.pdf
    2. NFHS-5 (2019–21), India National Report, IIPS and ICF: https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR375/FR375.pdf
    3. Devika Biswas v Union of India & Ors, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 95 of 2012, Supreme Court of India, judgment of 14 September 2016 (summary, Human Rights Law Network): https://www.hrln.org/litigation/devika-biswas-versus-union-of-india-and-ors-writ-petition-c-no-95-of-2012-the-supreme-court-of-india
    4. National Health Mission, MoHFW, Family Planning programme, guidelines and manuals: https://nhm.gov.in/index1.php?lang=1&level=2&sublinkid=821&lid=222
    5. WHO, Family planning/contraception methods fact sheet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/family-planning-contraception
    6. WHO/Johns Hopkins, Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers, contraceptive effectiveness: https://fphandbook.org/sites/default/files/legacy/book/fph_appendix_a/index.shtml
    7. Centre for Economic Data and Analysis, Ashoka University, “Female sterilisation in India: prevalence, informed choice and regret” (2024): https://ceda.ashoka.edu.in/female-sterilisation-in-india-prevalence-informed-choice-and-regret/
    8. UNFPA, International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994): https://www.unfpa.org/icpd


Related:

Menstrual health of women in shambles: Surveys highlight need for inclusive and accessible healthcare services

Human rights of Women in mental health institutions violated: SC

India’s Poorest Women Benefit Less From Public Health, Nutrition Services

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]]> Diwali 2026: Smoke, noise, fires and the failure of restraint https://sabrangindia.in/diwali-2026-smoke-noise-fires-and-the-failure-of-restraint/ Thu, 12 Nov 2026 07:43:15 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=50064 Across cities, Diwali celebrations brought severe pollution, excessive noise, fires, deaths and violence, the events raise questions about civic responsibility and enforcement: when existing rules repeatedly fail, what measures can ensure celebrations do not endanger others?

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]]> The Diwali night began with celebrations, but in several cities, it was followed by smoke, severe pollution and a large number of emergency calls. In Delhi, air quality deteriorated sharply as the evening progressed.

On November 8, at 10 pm, the city’s overall AQI stood at 371, while 20 monitoring stations were in the “severe” category. Smoke hung over roads and residential neighbourhoods, visibility dropped and residents reported difficulty breathing. The manner and method of India’s recording of pollution levels (AQI) is controversial. Independent platforms like AQI.in and IQAir reported morning readings between 600 and 610 (“hazardous”). The numbers differ because of Indian authorities/government playing around with statistics: India’s official National Air Quality Index (NAQI) caps its scale at 500 and averages data over 24 hours. Private trackers typically use the US EPA standard—which has stricter thresholds for fine particulate matter (\ (PM_ {2.5}\)) and no upper cap—and report real-time hourly spikes rather than 24-hour averages! So, in reality air quality in Delhi was worse than what was propagated.

Restrictions were ostensibly already in place, with green firecrackers permitted only during prescribed hours. Yet crackers continued to be burst in several parts of the city, and pollution continued to rise through the night. The following morning, Delhi recorded some of its worst pollution readings in years, with PM[1] 2.5 concentrations crossing 2,000 micrograms per cubic metre at several locations. At Mundka, the reading reached 3,744 µg/m³, while other stations recorded concentrations above 3,000.

The national 24-hour standard for PM 2.5 is 60 µg/m³[2].

These are not marginal departures from permissible levels. They clearly show the scale of pollution produced when a city already struggling with winter air quality enters a night of widespread firecracker bursting. AQI can be checked here: Link: https://www.aqi.in/in

When the monitors went silent

The pollution issue also raised serious questions about monitoring and public information. According to the Indian Express, on Diwali night, 45 of Delhi’s 59 monitoring stations had missing hourly readings for at least one pollutant. By midnight, 29 stations were not reporting some readings, and by 1 am the number had risen to 36. This was also the period when particulate pollution was peaking.

Data later released by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee showed that several of the missing periods coincided with extremely high concentrations. An analysis found that all 125 station-hour readings missing from the Central Pollution Control Board’s records were above 1,000 µg/m³ in the corresponding DPCC data, the Times of India reported.

The gaps matter because people cannot protect themselves from a danger whose extent is not being clearly recorded or publicly reflected during the period when exposure is at its highest.

Stubble burning cannot explain away everything

The issue of Delhi’s air pollution has often been reduced to one familiar explanation: farm fires and stubble burning. Crop-residue burning remains a serious source of pollution across the wider northern air shed. On Diwali day, Punjab recorded 1,152 farm fires, the highest single-day figure of the season, sharply increasing the state’s cumulative tally.

But acknowledging the contribution of stubble burning cannot explain away what happened within Delhi as evening celebrations intensified. The pollution surge followed sunset and continued through the night, with experts pointing to stagnant winter conditions combined with substantial firecracker emissions. At several locations, pollution levels rose sharply during the hours when crackers were being burst.

 

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Mumbai also recorded sharp localised spikes after nightfall, while several inland cities in Maharashtra reported poor and very poor air quality. Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur, Malegaon and other cities recorded serious deterioration.

The available evidence does not require a choice between farm fires and firecrackers. Both can contribute. The problem arises when one source is repeatedly invoked to minimise or divert attention from another.

Mumbai’s averages and the air people actually breathed

Mumbai initially appeared to have had a better Diwali, with its citywide AQI lower than during the corresponding period last year. But citywide averages concealed what was happening in individual neighbourhoods.

In Andheri, PM2.5 stood at 42 at 8 pm. Within two hours, it had surged to nearly 500 in one set of readings and even higher on private monitoring platforms.

Malad recorded similarly extreme levels, while Chembur saw PM10 concentrations of around 480. Other parts of the city also recorded sharp spikes after dark.

A citywide average may suggest improvement, but a resident does not breathe the city’s average. People breathe the air immediately around their homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods.

This is particularly important for children, elderly people and those already affected by respiratory or other health conditions.

The morning after Diwali brought little relief to several areas. Eight monitoring locations in Mumbai entered the “poor” category, with Bandra East among the worst affected.

Even the upper floors are not an escape

A study in Mumbai added another dimension to the problem of urban pollution. There is often an assumption that living high above the street means living above the worst of the city’s polluted air. The findings suggested otherwise.

According to a study by the Mumbai Ecological Research and Analysis Group (MERAG), across residential complexes in Wadala, upper floors of high-rises could be up to 40 per cent more polluted than lower levels. Researchers found a persistent increase in pollution with height in the buildings examined. Smoke and fine particles do not necessarily remain at street level. Air currents, distant emissions and complicated wind patterns created by clusters of high-rise buildings can carry and trap pollutants at higher elevations. For residents of increasingly vertical cities, moving higher may not always mean moving away from pollution.

Less noise, but still too much

There was one limited positive trend. Mumbai’s peak firecracker noise levels were reported to have fallen sharply compared with levels recorded two decades ago. A recent study found peak readings significantly lower than those recorded in 2006. \

But lower does not necessarily mean acceptable or safe.

A peak reading of around 93 decibels was still above permissible ambient noise limits for residential areas. Mumbai has notified silence zones where firecrackers are prohibited and restrictions also exist on bursting crackers late at night.

The purpose of these restrictions is not difficult to understand. An elderly person, a patient, an infant or someone seriously ill cannot simply choose to stop hearing explosions outside the home.

The issue is therefore not merely whether some people enjoy loud celebrations. It is whether others have any right to peace, rest and safety within their own homes.

That question lies at the heart of the larger problem.

Are appeals and restrictions enough?

For years, the response has largely followed a familiar pattern. Courts issue directions. Authorities prescribe timings. Green crackers are promoted. Silence zones are notified. Appeals are made for restraint.

Yet every year there are reports of violations.

But later, allowed certified green crackers in Delhi-NCR for two Diwali days.

On October 15, Bombay High Court had extended the total ban on bursting firecrackers on public streets, lanes, and footpaths to apply throughout the year and across all festivals, including Navratri, Diwali, and Christmas.

The question that now needs to be asked more directly is whether limited permissions and appeals to voluntary compliance can actually be enforced at the scale required in large Indian cities.

If the answer is repeatedly no, then the debate over stronger restrictions or prohibitions cannot simply be dismissed as hostility towards a festival.

A ban or prohibition is not automatically the answer. But if existing regulation repeatedly produces toxic air, excessive noise, injuries and deaths, the effectiveness of the present system must be honestly examined.

The question is whether India can have a Diwali that is celebratory without turning into a night when the elderly and sick live in dread of the next explosion.

A ten-year-old and a firecracker

In Delhi’s Narela, a ten-year-old boy died after a firecracker burst in his hands. He had reportedly been holding a flower-pot firecracker outside his home when it exploded.

The flames burned his chest, and his family initially believed the injury might be minor. He later fainted, was taken to hospital and declared dead. On the same Diwali, the Delhi Fire Services received 281 calls, with at least 24 related to fires caused by bursting crackers.

The danger is known. The repeated injuries are known. The risks of allowing children to handle firecrackers are known. Yet the question remains whether the knowledge of these dangers is reflected in how people actually behave.

Fires across the Mumbai region

In Mumbai, firecrackers were linked to 137 of the 142 fire calls received on Diwali. In Thane, all 44 fire calls received by Sunday night were reportedly caused by firecrackers.

Across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, more than 500 fire incidents were reported over the weekend.

A day after Diwali, authorities in Mumbai, Nagpur and Thane imposed restrictions on rockets and similar aerial firecrackers following the surge in fire incidents.

In Mumbai, a lift operator died after being trapped as smoke spread through a high-rise building.

Other fires were also reported in residential and commercial structures.

The pattern again raises a question about regulation. Why do additional restrictions so often follow major incidents rather than preventing them?

Fifty people rescued in Thane

In Thane, a major fire engulfed a residential building during the Diwali night. Residents fled through smoke-filled passages, while some took shelter in balconies and utility ducts.

Around 50 people were rescued as the fire spread through several floors of the 17-storey building. An elderly resident described being trapped as flames and smoke spread, while others sheltered with ageing parents.

Firefighters worked through the night, while the exact cause was examined. The episode again demonstrated how vulnerable densely populated vertical cities can become when fire spreads through a residential building.

Thane’s fire services were also reportedly facing a serious manpower shortage, and firefighters from Mumbai had to be called in.

Cities have grown taller and more densely populated. The risks associated with fire have grown with them.

Two families, twelve deaths

In Madhya Pradesh, the scale of tragedy was even greater. Six members of a family were killed in a fire in Katni, including three children and a two-month-old infant.

The fire broke out in a residential-cum-commercial building, and the family was trapped upstairs as the blaze spread. A preliminary inquiry pointed to an earthen lamp as a possible source. The fire was fuelled by highly inflammable material stored below, while rescue teams struggled for hours to save those trapped inside. The district collector later apologised to families and residents, acknowledging that six lives could not be saved despite the deployment of fire tenders.

On the same night, another fire in Seoni killed six members of another family. In both cases, families were asleep when the fires spread.

Twelve people from two families were dead, including children, elderly people and members of different generations.

The other problem: how do we live with one another?

The pollution and fires are one part of the story. The other is the increasingly visible absence of civic restraint. Firecrackers are burst inside housing societies, near parked vehicles, beneath balconies and beside buildings occupied by hundreds of residents.

Those who do not wish to participate have little control over what happens around them.

An elderly person cannot prevent smoke from entering the home. A family with an infant cannot control where a rocket will land. A patient cannot necessarily escape a night of explosions by simply closing a window.

The issue is not whether people have a right to celebrate. It is whether celebration gives anyone the right to disregard the safety and peace of those living around them.

This is a question of civic sense and shared urban life.

One argument, one death

In Mumbai, a dispute connected with firecrackers ended in the death of a 19-year-old. Shubhankar Mukhiya and his friends were heading towards Juhu beach when crackers were burst near a parked motorcycle.

An argument followed. According to police, the motorcycle belonged to one of the accused, and the confrontation initially appeared to have ended.

Police alleged that the accused later returned with two others and that Mukhiya and his friends were attacked with kicks and punches. Mukhiya fell, suffered a severe head injury and later died.

A disagreement over firecrackers had escalated into an alleged fatal assault.

The question is not simply what caused the argument. It is why an increasingly ordinary disagreement in public life can so quickly become an occasion for violence.

Violence around the celebration

In Delhi, another teenager did not return home from a Diwali outing. Sixteen-year-old Devansh had reportedly gone out with friends to buy crackers.

Police said that a group of men allegedly tried to snatch his money and phone. When he resisted, he was stabbed and later died after being taken to hospital. The circumstances were different from the Mumbai case, but both the incidents form part of a larger and troubling picture of aggression in public spaces. Diwali is meant to be a festival of homes, families and communities. Yet the night also produced fights, assaults and confrontations.

When those enforcing the rules are attacked

There is another dimension to the problem. Rules are meaningful only if someone can enforce them. When police personnel or other officials attempt to enforce restrictions on firecrackers, noise or public safety, they can themselves become targets of hostility or violence.

The image of a lone policeman attempting to enforce a rule, while facing an aggressive crowd or being attacked, raises a basic question about civic conduct. What does it say about respect for law when a person performing a public duty becomes the object of anger merely for attempting to enforce regulations?

The issue cannot be reduced to firecrackers alone. It concerns a wider relationship between citizens, public authority and shared rules.

Are we becoming an insensate and uncivil society?

This is the more difficult question raised by the events surrounding Diwali. Are Indians becoming increasingly insensitive to the effect of their actions on those living around them? Are we becoming more aggressive, less restrained and less willing to accept even the most basic rules of shared civic life?

The evidence of one festival cannot answer such a large question by itself. But it can expose a pattern.

Smoke is treated as someone else’s problem. Noise is treated as a neighbour’s problem. A falling rocket is treated as an accident waiting to happen somewhere else.

Rules are often accepted in principle but resented when they are enforced against us. And when a disagreement arises, too often the response is not restraint but aggression.

The old, the sick and the very young have little power in this situation. They cannot negotiate with the person bursting crackers outside their home. The person who chooses silence cannot impose it on the person who chooses noise.

The family that follows the rules cannot guarantee that its neighbours will do the same.

Urban life requires restraint

Living in a crowded city necessarily requires limits.

A person living in a high-rise, an apartment block or a densely populated neighbourhood does not live in isolation. Every action takes place close to someone else.

That is why urban life requires civic restraint.

It requires recognising that a celebration in one flat can become a disturbance in another, and that an act carried out for pleasure can impose danger or suffering on someone who has not chosen to participate.

This is not an argument against celebration.

It is an argument against the belief that celebration means freedom from responsibility.

The question before the next Diwali

The Diwali of 2026 again demonstrated the limits of relying only on appeals, partial restrictions and voluntary compliance.

Court directions and institutional controls remain important, but they are meaningful only when they can be implemented and enforced.

The debate must therefore move beyond the familiar argument between those who want unrestricted celebrations and those who seek restrictions.

The more practical question is what actually works.

Can limited permissions, prescribed timings and appeals to civic sense deliver a genuinely safer and less polluted Diwali?

If they cannot, should authorities consider stronger restrictions, clearer prohibitions and designated spaces where activities involving serious risks can be more effectively controlled?

A saner Diwali should not be impossible to imagine.

It should not be a night when elderly people and patients dread the next explosion, when children lose their lives, when homes and high-rises catch fire, or when those attempting to enforce the rules face violence.

What the Diwali night left behind

A ten-year-old died after a firecracker burst in his hands. A 19-year-old died after an argument connected with crackers escalated into an alleged assault, while another teenager was stabbed after going out to buy Diwali crackers.

Hundreds of fire calls were received across the Mumbai region, around 50 people were rescued from a burning high-rise in Thane, and twelve members of two families died in separate fires in Madhya Pradesh.

Delhi’s pollution monitors developed gaps as particulate levels surged, while corresponding data later showed some readings in the thousands.

Mumbai’s overall air quality appeared better in aggregate, but individual neighbourhoods recorded dramatic spikes after dark. Noise levels may have fallen over the years, but they continued to exceed permissible limits.

The festival has passed, but the questions remain.

What kind of institutional controls can actually ensure compliance? Is a stronger prohibition necessary where limited regulation repeatedly fails? And what does our conduct during these celebrations say about our capacity to live with consideration for others?

These are not questions about whether people should celebrate their festivals.

They are questions about how they celebrate them, and whether celebration can coexist with civic responsibility, public safety and respect for the people living around us.

A festival cannot become an occasion when the old and sick live in dread, young lives are lost, public spaces turn violent and even those attempting to enforce the law face aggression.

The smoke, noise, fires and violence of this Diwali should force a more serious conversation before the next one arrives.

 

[1] PM means Particulate Matter (also known as particle pollution), which is a mix of microscopic solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air).

[2] µg/m³ stands for micrograms per cubic meter and measures the mass concentration of a pollutant in a specific volume of air.

 

Related:

Diwali has been celebrated by Muslims for centuries

Toxic Air To Blame For Lung Cancer; No Longer Just A Smoker’s Disease

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]]> 20 Years Without a Union, 18 Days of Hunger Strike: Jamia Students Script a Win | Teesta Setalvad https://sabrangindia.in/20-years-without-a-union-18-days-of-hunger-strike-jamia-students-script-a-win-teesta-setalvad/ Sat, 07 Nov 2026 03:23:26 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=50020 To ensure campus democracy and an elected union, Jamia Millia Islamia’s students fought back through an 18-day hunger strike. Teesta Setalvad speaks with Ebin Basil and Mohammad Athnan about the struggle to regain their university and an elected students’ union after two decades. The conversation also confronts the stigma and demonisation Jamia and its students […]

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]]> To ensure campus democracy and an elected union, Jamia Millia Islamia’s students fought back through an 18-day hunger strike.

Teesta Setalvad speaks with Ebin Basil and Mohammad Athnan about the struggle to regain their university and an elected students’ union after two decades.

The conversation also confronts the stigma and demonisation Jamia and its students have faced, part of a right wing agenda to obliterate the institution’s emergence from India’s struggle for freedom.

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]]> Assam: Gauhati HC quashes NSA detention of activist Pranab Doley https://sabrangindia.in/assam-gauhati-hc-quashes-nsa-detention-of-activist-pranab-doley/ Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:11:20 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=50006 Doley was arrested in July this year for a protest against a hotel project near Kaziranga, and had been booked under the nefarious National Security Act (NSA) after a court granted him bail; Forum for Social Harmony, AMSU-AIKMS and BAA accuse the Assam government of criminalising land rights activism

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]]> A division bench of the Gauhati High Court on Friday, November 6, quashed the detention, under the National Security Act (NSA) of activist Pranab Doley, announced advocate Dipesh Agrawala, one of the lawyers who represented him. The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.

A copy of the judgement is not yet available.

Doley was arrested on July 12, days after he took part in a protest against a hotel project at Ingle Pathar, a village adjoining the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Predictably, the police had alleged that he “unlawfully trespassed into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and thereafter trespassed into the nearby ATDC [Assam Tourism Development Corporation] Hyatt project at Ingle Pathar with deadly weapons” during the protest. Doley, is the convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC) and a leading face of the agitation against a proposed luxury hotel project near Kaziranga National Park.

On July 29, a sessions court in Golaghat granted bail to Doley, stating that the investigating officer had already recorded the statements of key witnesses and that there was no possibility of the accused concealing or tampering with the evidence.

However, the very next day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state detained Doley under the National Security Act, alleging that he had carried out “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources” in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. Shockingly, this means that he was not released from jail, despite the bail order.

In August, the Congress had alleged that the Assam government invoking the Act against Doley was part of a “growing pattern” of the BJP “weaponising extraordinary laws to silence dissent”. Party leader Jairam Ramesh had described the state government’s allegations against Doley as “vague and speculative”.

Citing detentions of at least two other persons under the Act in Uttar Pradesh in April, the Opposition MP claimed that this was a familiar script followed by the Narendra Modi government.

At the time of the arrest itself, three organisations have issued strongly worded statements condemning the arrest of prominent Assam land rights activist Pranab Doley, describing the police action as an attempt to suppress democratic dissent and intimidate communities resisting corporate-backed projects in and around Kaziranga. In separate statements released on July 12, the Forum for Social Harmony, the Asom Mojuri Shramik Union (AMSU) and All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), and the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) alleged that Doley’s arrest is part of an intensifying pattern of criminalising indigenous rights defenders, farmers and people’s movements challenging land acquisition, displacement and the expansion of corporate interests in ecologically sensitive areas. While each statement approaches the issue from a distinct perspective, all three organisations unequivocally demand Doley’s immediate and unconditional release, withdrawal of what they describe as false and politically motivated criminal cases, and an end to the alleged use of police powers to stifle democratic protest.

The statements were issued hours after the Assam Police detained Doley in Guwahati on July 12 in connection with a criminal case registered at Bokakhat Police Station.

Forum for Social Harmony calls arrest an attack on democratic rights

The Forum for Social Harmony characterised Doley’s arrest as “an attack on democratic rights”, alleging that the Assam government had deployed the police machinery to suppress a legitimate people’s movement centred on land rights, livelihood protection and environmental justice. The organisation said the arrest was deeply alarming because it followed a prolonged and peaceful campaign by local farmers, indigenous communities and several people’s organisations opposing the proposed luxury hotel project at Engle (Inglay) Pathar in Kaziranga.

According to the Forum, the government’s response has not been to engage with the concerns raised by affected communities but to repeatedly invoke criminal law against movement leaders. It alleged that the filing of one criminal case after another reflects a “dangerous trend” of shrinking democratic space, where constitutionally protected rights to dissent and freedom of expression are increasingly curtailed through criminal prosecution and police action.


Related:

‘Attack on democratic rights’: Rights groups denounce Pranab Doley’s arrest

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]]> Censorship: Government keen on stripping legal immunity for social media platforms https://sabrangindia.in/censorship-government-keen-on-stripping-legal-immunity-for-social-media-platforms/ Fri, 06 Nov 2026 10:50:51 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=49999 As reports of the Indian Union government’s moves to scrap the legal immunity guaranteed under Section 79 of the IT Act come in, with Indian Express, on November 5, yesterday reporting these moves, organisations advocating media freedom and accountability have expressed concern and alarm

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]]> Clear indications that the union government is considering moves to scrap Section 79 of the IT Act that strips social media platforms of any legal immunity for publishing content has drawn concern and criticism from organisations advocating freedom of expression and accountability.

The Indian Express had reported yesterday, November 5, that the IT Ministry has begun discussions on a sweeping overhaul of India’s social media regulatory framework, including a proposal to withdraw the legal immunity available to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X for content posted by their users.

The move, which could significantly impact how social media companies operate in India, is likely to raise public future, concern and condemnation as also set the stage for a major confrontation between the government and the technology industry, given that the protection has been central to the business models of some of the world’s largest internet companies. Reported The Indian Express.

Key to these deliberations is a rethink around the concept of “safe harbour”, a legal protection that shields internet intermediaries from liability for third-party content. According to two senior government officials, the government is exploring whether this protection should be restricted to services that merely transmit or carry information, such as internet service providers (ISPs), telecom service providers (TSPs) and peer-to-peer messaging platforms, rather than social media companies that actively determine what content users see.

What discussions centre around is the debate around whether or not social media platforms can continue to be considered “passive carriers of information”, given that they actively use sophisticated algorithms to rank, recommend and amplify content, besides also their ability to moderate posts based on their own community guidelines, which may not always align with Indian laws. According to the orientation of these discussions, such practices, amount to exercising editorial control over content, raising questions about whether these companies should continue to enjoy the same legal protections as traditional intermediaries.

“Intermediaries were supposed to be simply carriers of content, and safe harbour in that sense made sense. When you receive a message from someone, the platform’s only responsibility is to carry that message and deliver it to you without making any changes to it. But with social media platforms deploying complex algorithms to boost engagement and virality, the boundaries have been blurred. They definitely determine what gets shown to users, and are no longer simple carriers of content,” a senior government official told Indian Express.

Responding to these developments today, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has expressed alarm by the Indian Express that the Ministry of Electronics and IT has begun discussions on stripping social media platforms of safe harbour under Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000. IFF states that, “Nobody should mistake this for a move against Big Tech for it is a move against the people who use these platforms. Safe harbour is not a gift to Meta, Google or X. It is the legal foundation that lets ordinary Indians speak online without a platform’s lawyers deciding in advance whether their post is worth the risk and taking it down. If it is taken away, and every platform becomes liable for every post, comment and video. The rational response for any company is to remove anything that might draw a complaint, a notice or a summons. Criticism of the government, reporting on protests, satire, and the speech of people without lawyers will be the first casualties which are already being censored by automated filters implemented pursuant to the IT Rules, 2021.”

The statement issued by IFF goes on further to state that it was this very distinction that the Supreme Court recognised exactly this in Shreya Singhal (2015), which is why it read down Section 79 (3) (b) to require a court order or a lawful government direction before platforms must act. Besides, says IFF, the e timing tells its own story as the report says that MEITY’s rethink was shaped by a view within government that platform algorithms have favoured Opposition and anti-establishment narratives over official messaging, and by the role of Instagram during the student protests in July. In other words, the complaint is not that platforms host too much illegal content but it is that they host too much content the government dislikes.

“This is also the latest step in an escalation that has been building for years. The 2023 Fact Check Unit amendment tried to make the government the arbiter of truth about itself, until the Bombay High Court struck it down. The Sahyog portal has turned Section 79(3)(b) into a parallel, opaque takedown channel that sidesteps the safeguards of Section 69A, a practice X is now challenging in court. In August, a Parliamentary Standing Committee gave Mark Zuckerberg three days to apologise personally for the brief removal of the Prime Minister’s video or face the loss of safe harbour. Subsequently advisories were issued on October 8, 2026 and October 10, 2026 pressuring digital platforms to implement pro-active censorship through, “enhanced due diligence”.

The role of Instagram during the students’ protests in July, when the platform emerged as a key vehicle for mobilising online support, is understood to have played a part in these deliberations. The government has been examining how social media platforms determine the reach and visibility of different kinds of content, and whether their recommendation systems can influence public discourse while remaining insulated from legal responsibility for the material they amplify.

The friction between the government and social media companies has intensified in recent months. In July, the IT Ministry summoned Meta’s global policy executives, including its global affairs president Joel Kaplan, after a video uploaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly withheld by Facebook in India during the students’ protests. The government had also raised concerns about the prevalence of deep fakes and the company’s compliance with Indian laws.

The tensions are not limited to Meta. Elon Musk-owned X has challenged the Centre’s online content blocking and takedown framework, including the use of the government’s Sahyog portal to issue removal notices. In September 2025, the Karnataka High Court dismissed X’s challenge to the mechanism, following which the company filed an appeal. The dispute has become emblematic of the widening disagreements between the government and technology platforms over the boundaries of online speech and the state’s authority to regulate it.

The government’s thinking has also received impetus from recent observations by the Supreme Court in the Just Rights for Children Alliance vs S Harish case, where the court raised concerns about social media companies’ failure to adequately prevent the circulation of child sexual exploitation and abuse material.

In its October 15 order, the court observed that Section 79 was inadequate to address persistent regulatory failures, describing the loss of safe harbour as a consequence that was too drastic for routine non-compliance but insufficient to deter violations. It called for a separate framework of proportionate penalties, including monetary fines, while retaining the loss of safe harbour as a last resort for serious violations.

Separately, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, chaired by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, has also pushed for stronger action against social media companies. In August, Dubey warned that Meta could lose its safe harbour protection following the temporary removal of Modi’s video, and said the committee had recommended withdrawing such protections from platforms failing to comply with Indian laws.

Child Sexual Abuse, Deep fakes, Non-consensual Intimate Imagery real problems: IFF

Safe harbour was never meant to be a bargaining chip that MEITY waves at a company to extract compliance, states IFF. While there are real problems on these platforms such as child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery and deep fakes, the Supreme Court’s observations in Just Rights for Children Alliance on October 15 deserve a serious answer. The answer is not blanket censorship argues IFF

“But the answer is targeted, rights-respecting obligations with independent oversight, transparency about takedowns, and a grievance process that works for users. It is not a liability regime that pushes platforms to delete first and never ask. Nor is it a rule that platforms must clear product changes with the government before shipping them, which would hand the state a license raj over the design of the services Indians use every day. Any change of this scale must go through Parliament, with a published draft, a genuine consultation and a full debate. It cannot be settled in closed-door meetings between the Ministry and a handful of companies. What IFF will do IFF will send a detailed representation to the Ministry of Electronics and IT setting out why the proposed changes to Section 79 are unconstitutional and unworkable, and what a rights-respecting approach to platform accountability should look like. We will also write to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology. We are filing RTI applications with MeitY seeking the minutes, agendas, attendance lists and file notings of every meeting held on the review of safe harbour, including the meetings with Meta and other platforms in July and August, and the basis for the Ministry’s assessment of how platform algorithms treat government and Opposition content. The public has a right to know who is in the room when the rules of their speech are being rewritten. We will publish what we receive, and we invite other civil society groups, journalists and platform users to join us in asking the Ministry to put any proposal to open consultation before it goes anywhere near Parliament.”

Government

Meanwhile it appears that the discussions are still at an exploratory stage, and no final decision has been taken on the contours of the proposed changes. To be sure, stripping social media companies of safe harbour would likely require making amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, which would have to be approved by Parliament.

Queries sent by IE to the IT Ministry, Meta, and Google did not elicit any response until publication.


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The State Wants the Delete Button: India’s new architecture of digital censorship

From Punjab ’95 to Satluj: When cinema becomes a battlefield over history, memory and censorship

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]]> 61-hour highway blockade forces Maharashtra sugar mills to agree to Rs 4,200 per tonne for farmers https://sabrangindia.in/61-hour-highway-blockade-forces-maharashtra-sugar-mills-to-agree-to-rs-4200-per-tonne-for-farmers/ Fri, 06 Nov 2026 08:23:01 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=49994 Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana calls off agitation after months of protests and a prolonged standoff on NH-48; revised formula includes staggered payments and a share in additional sugar revenue

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]]> After more than 61 hours of road blockades that brought traffic on the Mumbai-Bengaluru National Highway-48 to a grinding halt, sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra have called off their agitation following an agreement with sugar mill owners over cane prices. The settlement, reached late Thursday night, November 5, provides for payments of up to Rs 4,200 per tonne to farmers, bringing an end to the agitation led by the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana under the leadership of Raju Shetti.

As reported by The Indian Express, the agreement was finalised at a meeting at the Kolhapur district collector’s office, attended by Maharashtra Minister Hasan Mushrif, representatives of sugar mill owners and members of the farmers’ organisation. Shetti, who had been demanding an initial payment of Rs 4,500 per tonne, agreed to the revised arrangement.

Under the formula, farmers will receive an initial payment of Rs 3,900 per tonne. An additional Rs 100 will be paid at the end of the crushing season, while the remaining Rs 200 will be disbursed before the next crushing season, subject to sugar prices remaining stable at Rs 45 per kg.

The agreement also includes a provision to ensure that farmers benefit if sugar prices rise. If prices exceed Rs 45 per kg, 70 per cent of the additional revenue will be passed on to sugarcane growers, with the remaining 30 per cent going to factory owners, Shetti said.

Following the agreement, Shetti announced the withdrawal of the agitation at the Kini toll plaza in Kolhapur and Nagthane in Satara at around 1 am on Friday, November 6. A strike scheduled for Friday was also called off. Traffic along the Pune-Satara-Kolhapur stretch of NH-48 subsequently began returning to normal.

Months of demands culminate in highway blockade

The agreement follows nearly two months of sustained protests by sugarcane growers, who had been demanding an initial payment of Rs 4,500 per tonne, arguing that the amount was necessary to secure a fair return for their produce.

The agitation escalated on November 3, when the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana launched road blockades at Nagthane in Satara district and the Kini toll plaza in Kolhapur district. As reported by The Indian Express on November 4, the protests disrupted traffic at several points along the highway, including Satara, Nagthane, Atit, Umbraj and Kini-Wathar. With both Mumbai-bound and Kolhapur-bound traffic affected, police were compelled to divert vehicles through interior village roads.

The blockade was not the organisation’s first attempt to press its demands. On October 13, farmers had blocked the highway at the Kognoli toll plaza on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border for more than 34 hours over the same issue.

The farmers’ demands extended beyond the immediate price of sugarcane. Shetti had also called for an increase in the minimum support price of sugar from Rs 31 per kg to Rs 50 per kg, arguing that the existing price structure did not adequately address growers’ concerns.

Speaking to the media during the November agitation, Shetti had criticised the state government and sugar mill owners for their failure to engage with the protesters despite the prolonged blockade. He pointed out that farmers had remained on the roads for over 24 hours without any official visiting them to hear their demands.

The protest had also received political support. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who represents Karad in Satara district, backed the agitation, accusing the state government and sugar factory owners of repeatedly ignoring farmers’ demands despite two months of protests.

 

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Arunachal’s anti-dam protests intensify as arrests, militarisation and threats to press freedom fail to silence resistance

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]]> Kerala High Court’s Observations on Protest in Educational Institutions Unacceptable & Restrictive: NAJAR https://sabrangindia.in/kerala-high-courts-observations-on-protest-in-educational-institutions-unacceptable-restrictive-najar/ Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:51:35 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=49988 The National Alliance for Justice, Accountability & Rights (NAJAR) have urged the Kerala High Court to reconsider its position on the right of all, including students, to peaceful protest

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]]> The National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR), a collective of lawyers, law students, and legal professionals from across India, has in a statement issued today, decried the recent Kerala High Court’s reiteration that dharnas, hunger strikes and satyagraha “have no place in a constitutional democracy, much less in academic institutions.” NAJAR has emphasised that non-violent dharnas (sit-ins) are democratic and lawful mechanisms for accountability when institutional remedies fail. In fact, various judgements of courts across the country have upheld this constitutional right as part of Article 19. The collective has urged the High Court to reconsider its position and uphold the constitutional right to peaceful protest of all citizens and students.

A brief background on the facts and legal proceedings:

Two days ago, on November 3, 2026, a Division Bench (DB) comprising Justices Anil K. Narendran and Muralee Krishna S., in Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit v Archana P.S. & Ors (W.A. 2276/2026), set aside a single judge’s interim order. The interim order had directed the university to accept the fees of 16 suspended students of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (Kalady, Ernakulam, Kerala) and let them appear for their exams. The appeal before the Division Bench (DB) was decided on grounds of pleadings and interim relief. In doing so, the DB quoted, and gave fresh life to, the 2017 observations in Dr Antony Thomas v V.M. Muhammed Rafique, to say that students engaging in such protest in an educational institution are liable to be expelled or rusticated.

The university has alleged that both obstruction and assault took place on August 13, 2026. Students on their part have disputed this, and an investigation is ongoing. NAJAR has stated that it takes no position on disputed facts and does not condone violence, if it has happened. But the issue of whether violence took place and whether peaceful protests have a place in a campus are entirely different questions, and the two must not be inter-twined. NAJAR believes that presenting non-violent campus protest as inherently ‘anti-democratic’ confuses peaceful agitation (for better facilities) or student rights with unlawful disruption and the same cannot be accepted.

Peaceful Protest in Academic Spaces is a Constitutional Right:

Article 19 (1) (a) and (b) under the Indian Constitution guarantee freedom of speech and expression and the right to assemble peaceably and without arms. Nothing in the Constitution excludes dharna or satyagraha as forms of peaceful protest, and nothing suspends these rights when a citizen is a student or when the place is a university campus or academic institution. The Supreme Court has recognised peaceful protest as part of these freedoms, including in in the famed Ramlila Maidan Incident (2012), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v Union of India (2018) and Amit Sahni v Commissioner of Police (2020).

Invoking Dr. Ambedkar to restrain peaceful protest is unfair:

On November 3, 2026; the Division Bench repeated the following observations of the Court in Dr. Antony Thomas v. V.M. Muhammed Rafique and others:

“Political activities like dharna, hunger strikes and other practices like Satyagraha have no place in a constitutional democracy, much less in academic institutions. Anyone indulging in the said activities in an educational institution would make himself liable to be expelled and/or rusticated. Educational Institutions are meant for imparting education and not politics. By their political ambition the political parties cannot hold to ransom the educational institution or the right of the civilized students to receive education.”

These observations apparently stem from Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s “Grammar of Anarchy”, wherein he had stressed that, where there are constitutional remedies available, there is no justification in adopting unconstitutional methods. However, says NAJAR, to misquote Dr. Ambedkar in such a skewed fashion, particularly in the context of student politics is nothing more than a futile attempt at stretching the clock of constitutionalism over institutional suppression. The whole ideation is problematic in manifold ways.

First, the above quoted passage is conditional. It says unconstitutional methods lack justification where constitutional methods are open. The relevant question is whether constitutional channels were actually open to these students, and the Court actually has not examined it on merit. When university authorities act arbitrarily, constitutional avenues inside the campus stand effectively shut. In such situations, peaceful protest is not a breakdown of law; it is the only remaining constitutional recourse to invoke administrative accountability.

Second, Dr. Ambedkar’s call to rely on constitutional remedies alone has to be read with the shift in his personal and political ideology pre and post adoption of the Constitution. The fact that in the pre-independence era, the people had to rely on both violent and non-violent means of protest against the colonial oppressors doesn’t vitiate the political reality of today, which many a times demand lawful means of protests including Satyagraha and dharna. In fact, more often it is the constitutional institutions that compel the citizens to adopt such means. Quoting Babasaheb, who himself led the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927, to justify a blanket ban on satyagrahas is selective. Equating non-violent protest with criminality distorts the original intention and warning.

Satyagraha and the role of student movements in India today:

Satyagraha was one of the methods of mass resistance during India’s freedom movement. It is difficult to call it ‘alien’ to constitutional democracy when this method, popularised by Gandhi himself, helped create one. Student movements, likewise, have shaped campuses in Kerala and the country, from the freedom struggle to later movements for rights and institutional reform. Back then, students boycotted colonial institutions and joined the Non-Cooperation and Quit India movements. In recent years, students have challenged sexist hostel curfews and caste discrimination on campus. After the NTA cancelled the NEET-UG exam amid paper leak allegations, students across the country peacefully took to the streets, following which Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, former Union Education Minister, had to resign.

These movements are not ‘distractions’ from or ‘disruptions’ in education. They are how students and youth demand answers and accountability from educational institutions. To say that educational institutions are meant for imparting education and not politics is either political illiteracy or a much despicable attempt to isolate students from critical thinking and democratic expression.

NAJAR Re-affirms Right to Peaceful Organising and Protest:

NAJAR has emphasised that it believes that all students across campuses and learning spaces must have lawful channels to raise grievances, and institutions should answer reasonable grievances, rather than discipline or crack down on those who raise them. De-politicizing campuses strips students of their ability to question injustice and understand, reform social structures.

Belonging to a particular political ideology or refusing to tender an apology, or relying on matters yet to be evidentially ascertained, cannot be the reasons to shun protesting students from placing their reasonable grievances for institutional reforms, in a constitutionally democratic manner. Protesting peacefully does not make the students ‘less civilized’ or ‘unruly’.

Rather restricting the right to peaceful protest is a highly dubious attempt of subverting the progressive, democratic civic spaces in a state like Kerala, which is what it is today, thanks to democratic resistance, protests and the constitutional fights spearheaded by student and citizen movements!

Hence, the collective has also called upon the Sree Sankaracharya University to complete the enquiry promptly and fairly, in accordance with natural justice and proportionality. NAJAR has also urged that the 2017 observations of the High Court not be relied upon currently by the Kerala High Court to punish peaceful protests. Campus dissent must not be criminalised or treated as a threat to education.

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]]> Goa SIR: Bombay High Court orders ECI to restore names of six voters deleted from final electoral roll https://sabrangindia.in/goa-sir-bombay-high-court-orders-eci-to-restore-names-of-six-voters-deleted-from-final-electoral-roll/ Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:37:11 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=49979 The Bombay High Court (Goa Bench) directed the Election Commission to restore the names of six family members within 10 days, questioning why voters who had shifted residence were compelled to submit enumeration forms containing declarations about their previous addresses

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]]> The Bombay High Court’s Goa bench on November 5 directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to restore the names of six members of a family whose names were deleted from the final electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Goa.

A division bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar allowed the petitions challenging the deletion of their names and the rejection of their Form 8 applications, which are used by existing voters to update their residential addresses.

The court directed the Booth Level Officer (BLO) of the Santacruz Assembly constituency in Goa to include the petitioners’ names within 10 days, after verifying their residence.

As reported by LiveLaw, the bench said, “We allow the petition… We have rejected the contention of the ECI that the hearing in the present plea be deferred as the issue of SIR is pending before the Supreme Court…. This is not pertaining to SIR… We therefore ordered the BLO of Santacruz Constituency (in Goa) to add the names of the petitioners within a period of 10 days from today.”

The court also refused the ECI’s request to stay the operation of its order for two weeks.

Court questions requirement to submit enumeration forms

The dispute arose after the petitioners, members of the Salgaonkar family, approached the court stating that their names had been omitted from the electoral roll despite submitting Form 8 applications seeking changes to their residential addresses.

The ECI argued that under the SIR guidelines, voters were required to submit a pre-filled enumeration form along with Form 8. Since the petitioners had not submitted the enumeration forms, they were asked to file Form 6, which is meant for fresh inclusion in the electoral roll.

The bench questioned this requirement, pointing out that the pre-filled enumeration form contained a declaration that the elector continued to reside at the address recorded in the existing electoral roll.

Questioning how voters who had shifted residence could be compelled to make such a declaration, Justice Menezes observed:

“If a voter comes to you with Form 8, saying he has changed his address you just cannot tell that person that look your name isn’t included in the draft roll now you will have to fill in Form 6 (inclusion of new voter). Your enumeration form, basically has a declaration that a person continues to live at the address as mentioned in the existing voters list. But consider, if someone has changed their residence, can you compel the person to make a false declaration by submitting that pre-filled enumeration? Why can’t that person simply give a Form 8 because anyway, his name is there in the existing list he just wants to get his address changed.. Why compel enumeration form?”

The bench had also questioned why an existing elector seeking an address correction should be required to apply as a new voter.

Court flags risk of excluding eligible voters

During the hearings, the bench questioned the ECI’s approach of rejecting Form 8 applications instead of keeping them pending for verification. It also raised concerns about the consequences of compelling relocated voters to submit declarations that no longer reflected their actual residential status.

As reported by Bar and Bench, the court flagged a “catch-22 situation” in which voters who had shifted residence faced rejection of their Form 8 applications and were instead directed to submit Form 6, potentially creating further difficulties in establishing their electoral registration.

The ECI, represented by Senior Advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, argued that the draft SIR roll was prepared afresh (de novo) on the basis of newly collected enumeration forms. According to the ECI, voters whose names did not appear in the draft roll could not use Form 8 to modify an existing entry and were required to apply afresh through Form 6 during the claims and objections period.

The court, however, allowed the petitions and directed restoration of the six names. It also rejected the ECI’s request to defer the proceedings until the Supreme Court decides the broader challenges to the SIR process.

The detailed written order is awaited.

 

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]]> Delhi Police: Ankita Bhandari’s parents detained, ‘Dragged, driven around, no help to unwell wife,’ says father https://sabrangindia.in/delhi-police-ankita-bhandaris-parents-detained-dragged-driven-around-no-help-to-unwell-wife-says-father/ Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:20:10 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=49976 Activist Yogita Bhawana who has been championing and supporting the cause of #Justice for Ankita Bhandari, tweeted a video around 12 noon, Thursday November 5, showing the callous conduct of the police

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]]> New Delhi: The parents of Ankita Bhandari, the 19-year-old Rishikesh resort employee murdered in 2022, were not only detained from Raj Ghat late Wednesday night, November 4. At least four police officers “surrounded them, dragged them away, and shoved them inside a police vehicle”, they have alleged.

“My wife was feeling weak and dizzy, so we were just trying to sit for a moment, when the police began to drag us away. One lady constable said that my wife was acting,” said Virendra Bhandari, Ankita’s father as reported by the media, The Times of India and The Print.

A senior police officer told ThePrint that Ankita’s parents were removed as Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) has been imposed on Rajghat and its surroundings areas.  Ankita’s father, however, alleges police is tracking their location.

The Bhandari parents, along with social activist Yogita Bhayana and Congress leader Mumtaz Patel, had gone to Raj Ghat to offer prayers. “We have come here to pray for Ankita and get some strength. The Delhi Police has been tracking our phone location so as soon as reporters began speaking to us while we were catching our breath, they detained us,” Virendra Bhandari said. The expression of public protest was silent and peaceful.

 

Instead of allowing their anguish expression, the Delhi police appeared insensate and brutal. Reports state that the couple was allegedly kept in a police van for close to two hours. “They made us sit in the van for close to two hours without any water. My wife was feeling weak and they provided no emergency assistance, but kept on making rounds around markets and roads in that area,” he added.

Later, the police eventually dropped the duo at Burari Hospital, where Virendra claimed that his wife was not given proper treatment. “My wife was not happy with how she was being treated at the hospital so we just left. We don’t want this government’s treatment or help; we have seen enough mistreatment.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) M. Harsha Vardhan told ThePrint, “Parents of Ankita Bhandari were intending on putting up an indefinite dharna so they were removed. We have no issues with them sitting there for a few minutes, but when the police posted there learnt that they intended on doing an indefinite strike, we had to detain them.”

The officer added that the parents were not being tracked, but when they reached the spot, Central Industrial Security Force personnel present alerted the Delhi Police. “We had no intentions of detaining them for two hours but when the Central District police detains people, we take them to Burari or Chhatrasal area, so when Ankita’s parents complained of being unwell we took them to Burari hospital,” he said. He added that the time spent inside the vehicle could be due to the traffic congestion.

The development comes weeks after the Bhandari couple protested in the Capital against the appointment of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the governor of Sikkim. The family has alleged that Gautam was involved in Ankita’s death.

Previously, in October 2026, the parents had also faced similar police brutality at India Gate. At the time, Leader of the Opposition (LOP), Rahul Gandhi had also visited the site of the protest.

 

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The post Delhi Police: Ankita Bhandari’s parents detained, ‘Dragged, driven around, no help to unwell wife,’ says father appeared first on SabrangIndia.

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