According to local police, the issue began on September 13, when the bike of a Dalit boy collided with a car carrying Rajput men. The boy was allegedly slapped by the car’s occupants. When he and his mother later went to the accused to raise the issue, they were reportedly beaten, reported The Observer Post.

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Link: https://x.com/ambedkariteIND/status/1967797182863683665

Later that evening, the situation worsened. A group of men allegedly entered the Dalit family’s home, held them hostage, and beat them. Women in the family were also among those assaulted.

The next day, on Sunday evening, violence spread in the village. Clashes broke out between members of the Dalit and Rajput communities, leading to stone-pelting and disruption of peace. Police forces were deployed immediately to contain the situation.

“Stone-pelting was reported around 8 PM. Our teams reached the spot and brought the situation under control,” said Acting Assistant Police Commissioner of Mussoorie, Amit Saxena. He added that CCTV footage from the area is being reviewed to identify those involved, as reported

According to report, at least six individuals have been detained so far. A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered under multiple sections, including provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Senior officials confirmed that leaders from the Bhim Army also visited the village, which added to the tensions.

The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) has been deployed, and multiple police teams are stationed in the area. Despite the presence of law enforcement, locals report ongoing fear.

“We are afraid. Even with police around, the atmosphere remains tense,” a villager told reporters on condition of anonymity, reported The Observer Post.

Authorities say they are monitoring the situation closely and will take strict action against those found guilty. The case has once again brought focus to the deep-rooted caste divisions and the urgent need for effective enforcement of protective laws.

Related:

Caste Atrocity in 2025: Normalisation, neglect and the crisis of accountability

Dalit and Tribal girls brutalised in Andhra Pradesh: Twin crimes lay bare caste violence and systemic collapse

Rajasthan’s rape crisis: a string of horrific crimes challenges the state’s record on women’s safety

The post Anti-Dalit Crime: Dalit Family brutalised in Ghaziabad appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Ali’s cancer was detected only on August 11, weeks after his condition had worsened inside the camp. He was initially shifted to the Goalpara Civil Hospital and later to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Doctors informed authorities that his cancer was terminal and that he could only be given palliative care. Despite this, the state refused to release him. On September 1, his cousin Abdul Jalil petitioned the Goalpara Deputy Commissioner for his release, citing both medical necessity and the detention centre superintendent’s own advice to take him home for treatment. The plea was ignored, according to Scroll’s report.

Ali died at the State Cancer Institute, Guwahati on Sunday, leaving behind his elderly mother, wife, three sons and four daughters.

Declared Foreigner on dubious grounds

Like thousands of others, Ali’s ordeal began decades ago. Branded a “D-voter” (doubtful voter) in 1997 by the Election Commission, he faced a Foreigners Tribunal inquiry years later. In 2017, a notice was issued; in April 2021, the tribunal declared him a “foreigner.”

Family members allege he was never informed of the ruling until police arrived to detain him in May 2025. His lawyer, they say, failed to communicate the verdict. Ali had submitted the 1951 NRC showing his parents’ names and electoral rolls from 1966 and 1970 with his maternal grandparents’ names, but the tribunal dismissed these citing “inconsistencies” in linkage, as reported by Scroll. Even his mother’s sworn testimony was rejected, the tribunal claiming she was “tutored.”

This pattern mirrors other cases we have documented, where minor spelling variations, illiteracy-related memory lapses, or missing decades-old records are weaponised to strip citizenship.

Matia Detention Centre: A site of neglect and death

Ali’s death is the second in Matia this year. In April 2025, 42-year-old Md Abdul Motlib of Hojai district died at GMCH after falling ill in detention. Between 2015 and 2022, official records confirm 31 deaths of detainees branded “illegal foreigners”, according to Scroll.

The Matia detention centre, operational since January 2023, is India’s largest and has repeatedly been condemned for substandard conditions. The Supreme Court, responding to petitions, has over the past year issued a string of orders:

• In July 2024, it described conditions as a “sorry state of affairs” — citing lack of proper toilets, sanitation, medical facilities, and clean water.
• In October 2024, it directed the Assam State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) to conduct surprise inspections of Matia to verify conditions.
• In November 2024, after reviewing SLSA’s report, it noted that even basic amenities were lacking and directed the state to improve facilities within one month.

Detailed CJP reports may be read here and here.

Beyond individual cases

Ali’s death crystallises several themes:

• Judicial rebukes unheeded: Despite Supreme Court interventions, Matia continues with inhuman conditions.
• Medical neglect and denial of release: Even terminally ill detainees are held until death.
• Structural injustice in citizenship adjudication: Tribunals disbelieve even primary records, severing families from citizenship over trivialities.
• Silencing by fear: Families too poor to litigate learn of tribunal orders only when police arrive.

Amzad Ali’s life ended not simply because of cancer, but because of a system designed to exclude and punish. His death adds to a grim tally and underscores why India’s detention regime in Assam remains one of the sharpest sites of rights violations against its own citizens.

Related:

From Detention to Deportation: The mass deportations and detention crisis at Assam’s Matia centre

SC: Only 10 deported, 33 of 63 contest foreigner status from the Matia Transit Camp, Assam

Supreme Court condemns appalling conditions at Matia Detention Centre in Assam, labels situation a ‘sorry state of affairs’

Victory in Dhubri FT: Jarina Bibi declared Indian after years of ordeal

The post Death in Assam’s Detention Regime: 56-year-old Bengali Muslim succumbs to cancer amid denial of release appeared first on SabrangIndia.

They argued that such participation, along with the playing of Bollywood songs, would hurt the sentiments of Sanatan Dharma. The group warned authorities that if communal tensions escalated, the responsibility would lie with the administration.

 

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Communal flashpoints around festivals: a pattern repeating itself

Communal tensions around festivals are no longer isolated flare-ups but part of a disturbing, repeated pattern in several parts of India. In recent years, especially in BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh, right-wing groups have targeted Muslim youth and artists for participating in Hindu cultural events such as Garba during Navratri. Last year in n Jhansi, artist Baby Imran was barred from performing despite being invited, with the event’s electricity cut off as she began.

In Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Bajrang Dal members disrupted a dandiya celebration over a Muslim youth allegedly carrying chicken, while in Dewas, Hindu Jagran Manch threatened non-Hindus with violence if they didn’t leave the event. In Guna, Muslim youths were physically assaulted and handed over to police—one even beaten on video for resisting expulsion.

These incidents reflect a larger pattern of orchestrated exclusion and hate, masked as protection of religious sentiments. Festivals, once symbols of unity, are now flashpoints of division. This rising intolerance not only alienates minorities but also corrodes India’s pluralistic spirit. If left unaddressed, it risks normalising communal hatred as a part of public celebrations.

Related:

VHP leader assaults Muslim youth attempting to enter Navratri event in UP

When Navratri’s joyous Garba dance becomes a garb for exclusion: Gujarat, MP

‘Check Aadhaar card to keep out Non-Hindus’: Bajrang Dal to Garba organisers

The post Navratri: Communal demands mark pre-festival protest in Jabalpur appeared first on SabrangIndia.

These divergences were evident during the ECI’s third Conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs), held on September 10, 2025, at the India International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Management (IIIDEM), New Delhi. Chief Election Commissioner Shri Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi assessed state-wise readiness. CEOs presented updates on elector counts, digitisation progress, voter mapping, and polling station rationalisation—capped at 1,200 electors per booth.

ECI holds conference of Chief Electoral Officers of all States/UTs to assess
preparedness for nationwide SIR

Read more : https://t.co/nZ9mVaBY7g pic.twitter.com/8QdkGBEWi0

— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) September 10, 2025

Why the different approaches of the ECI’s SIR in Bihar and West Bengal?

The ECI is clearly applying varied approaches to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with the methodology and parameters in each state appearing to be influenced by specific legal and historical contexts. While the ECI’s stated and overarching goal is a single, nationwide exercise, the on-the-ground implementation reveals significant procedural differences from one state to another.

Parameters of the Bihar SIR: legal and procedural re-enumeration

The approach to the SIR in Bihar is defined by two key parameters, a comprehensive house-to-house (H2H) enumeration and a documentation process under judicial direction. Burden has been placed on the individual elector to ‘submit’ her/his form, in duplicate (though complaints have surfaced that only single forms have been supplied, rendering the efficacy or intent behind the house-to-house survey questionable. The methodology, as outlined by the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, requires a complete re-enumeration of voters, with Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) visiting every household multiple time to distribute and collect pre-filled forms. This process is not a simple update but an attempt to rebuild the voter list from scratch. Conduct of some of the BLOs—and the short time span and pressure put on them –has also raised more questions than what the ECI has been inclined to answer.

The June 24 notification from the ECI outlined a mixed motive of the ECI in the entire exercise. Apart from this being sudden and hurried –especially given that a revision of rolls for the poll-bound state had already taken place in January 2025—the wording of the notification clearly indicated that the poll body was stepping outside of its statutory mandate and actually assessing/evaluating people’s citizenship.

The Election Commission, in its June 24 order stated that “in case ERO/AERO doubts the eligibility of the proposed Elector (due to non-submission of requisite documents or otherwise), he/she will start a suo moto inquiry and issue notice to such proposed Elector, as to why his/her should not be deleted. Based on field inquiry, documentation or otherwise, ERO/AERO shall decide on inclusion of such proposed Electors in the Final Rolls. In each such case, ERO/AERO shall pass a speaking order. Also, EROs will refer cases of suspected foreign nationals to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955. For these purposes, AERO shall exercise ERO’s powers independently u/s 13C(2) of the RPA, 1950.”

Following the outrage caused in the launching of this exercise and several challenges to the Bihar SIR posed by organisations like the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and political players, the course of the exercise changed.

Crucially, now, the documentation parameter in Bihar is being shaped by the Supreme Court. While the ECI initially sought a list of 11 indicative documents to be submitted by individual electors, the court directed the inclusion of Aadhaar as the 12th prescribed document at its last hearing on September 8, 2025. This court order mandates that Aadhaar can be used as a standalone form of identity, a significant deviation from the ECI’s original plan and a parameter that has been set by legal intervention rather than the poll body alone. This makes the Bihar model a test case for how judicial oversight can directly influence the operational details of the SIR.

Despite initial reservations regarding the acceptability of Aadhaar, the Supreme Court, in its order dated September 8, 2025, clarified the legal position on its use for electoral purposes. The Court stated:

“The short issue pertains to the acceptability and status of the Aadhaar card. In view of the statutory status assigned to Aadhaar under the Aadhaar Act, the Aadhaar card is not proof of citizenship. However, keeping in view Section 23(4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Aadhaar card is one of the documents that may be used to establish the identity of a person. Learned Senior Counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI) has confirmed that the Aadhaar card shall be taken into consideration as one of the documents for establishing identity for inclusion or exclusion in the revised voter list for Bihar.”

The Court further held that the Aadhaar card shall be treated as the 12th document for identity verification purposes by the authorities, authorities are entitled to verify the authenticity and genuineness of the Aadhaar card, Aadhaar shall not be accepted as proof of citizenship and the ECI shall issue relevant instructions accordingly.

In compliance with the Supreme Court’s direction, the Election Commission of India issued instructions to the Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar, on September 9, 2025, regarding the use of Aadhaar during the Special Summary Revision (SIR). Aadhaar shall be treated as the 12th document for establishing identity, in addition to the 11 documents listed in Annexure C and D of the SIR Order dated June 24, 2025; it is to be accepted solely as proof of identity and not as proof of citizenship, in line with Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016. Under Section 23(4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, Aadhaar is already recognized as a valid identity document. DEOs, EROs, AEROs, and all concerned authorities were directed to ensure strict compliance, with any refusal to accept Aadhaar being treated with utmost seriousness.

ECI’s instruction on Aadhaar dated 09.09.2025 can be read here

The question that now arises is has the Supreme Court’s cautionary orders to the constitutional body governed its approach on electoral roll revision in Bengal? Then again comes the question, how come and on what justification has the ECI chosen selectively different parameters for the electoral poll revision in Assam?

Parameters of the West Bengal SIR: historical mapping and administrative overhaul

In West Bengal, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has adopted a distinct approach to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), anchored in a historical baseline. Rather than initiating a fresh enumeration, the ECI has ordered a house-to-house mapping exercise to cross-check the current electoral roll against the 2002 list—the last time an intensive revision was conducted in the state.

Booth-level officers (BLOs) have been tasked with visiting households of voters listed in the 2002 roll to verify if they still appear on the draft rolls for 2025. Electors will be informed of their original number (booth or constituency) and serial numbers, while children of those voters—if enrolled after 2002—can use their parents’ details during the upcoming SIR. BLOs will also record information about unregistered children of 2002 voters to streamline their inclusion.

According to the Telegraph, “The BLOs will verify each name on the current electoral rolls with the 2002 rolls. Those whose names figure in both the lists will not be required to submit any other documents. Their children, if they were enrolled after 2002, will also be able to use their parents’ details to fill in the forms during the SIR. The BLOs will also note down the details of the children of the 2002 electors in case they were not enrolled that year,” said a source.

Alongside this groundwork, the ECI has directed a significant administrative shift, the delinking of the Chief Electoral Officer’s office from the state’s Home and Hill Affairs Department and its relocation to Central Government premises. This move purportedly underscores the Commission’s concern over electoral integrity and highlights its intention to ensure a neutral administrative environment before launching the full-scale revision.

Delhi: on standby

Despite no imminent polls, Delhi’s electoral machinery is in high gear. Officials are training BLOs and rationalising polling stations as part of advanced-stage preparations.

“We want to be prepared whenever the exercise is launched,” an official stated, aligning with the ECI’s directive for all states to be SIR-ready, the Rediff reported. Ironically while some select media outlets have disclosed details of these varied, distinctive methodologies in the revisions, there appears to be no officially disclosed statement of the ECI endorsing these.

Assam: citizenship and political overtones

In Assam, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has taken on a distinctly political tone, closely tied to the state’s long-standing debates around citizenship and alleged “illegal entries” in voter rolls. With assembly elections expected early next year—marking the first since the redrawing of all 126 constituencies in 2023—the urgency is palpable. The ECI notification is available on social media and may be read here.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has positioned the SIR as a crucial step toward cleansing the electoral rolls, citing opposition comments as inadvertent justification for the revision. The last intensive revision in the state took place in 2005, and the updated voter list from that year is now being circulated among political parties, reported the TOI.

To meet the tight timeline, on August 4, 2025, Assam’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anurag Goel has issued a high-priority directive instructing all district election officers to ensure full preparedness within 15 to 20 days, ahead of the Election Commission’s official schedule announcement. This includes confirming the deployment of electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant EROs, and booth-level officers (BLOs), along with identifying additional BLOs for newly formed polling stations, as reported.

The directive also prohibits reassigning election personnel or data entry staff to other duties—especially in the Bodoland Territorial Council areas, which are simultaneously gearing up for autonomous council elections, likely in September.

Bihar: judicial oversight as a national test case

Bihar’s SIR, considered the model for the national rollout, is under the microscope of the Supreme Court. Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi have warned that any legal irregularity in Bihar could jeopardise the entire nationwide exercise. The Supreme Court clarified that the publication of the final voter list would not affect the adjudication of the matter, assuring the petitioners that it would step in if any illegality were found. “What difference will it (the final publication of the list) make to us? If we are satisfied there is some illegality, we can…,” Justice Kant remarked, as reported by Live Law.

The court has scheduled final arguments for October 7 and emphasised that its verdict will apply pan-India.

The Court has also intervened on documentation as Aadhaar has now been mandated as the 12th acceptable identity document, despite ECI’s initial reluctance. While not proof of citizenship, the court clarified it can be verified for authenticity, thereby adding a critical layer of judicially enforced uniformity to an otherwise flexible process.

A ‘unified’ framework, applied differentially

The ECI is attempting to manage a multifaceted, nationwide exercise with a consistent approach, but the ground-level implementation reveals significant variations. The ECI’s conference with CEOs on September 10, 2025, confirmed its plan to roll out the SIR with a “single schedule.” The ECI’s press note from that day further details this strategy, mentioning a review of documents to ensure “ease of submission” for eligible citizens and a focus on “rationalisation of polling stations” to have no more than 1,200 electors per booth.

However, the ECI’s actions in West Bengal, with its emphasis on a 2002-based mapping exercise, stand in contrast to the broader, more exclusivist approach discussed at the CEO conference. While ECI sources stated that the “SIR order of June 24 holds for entire country,” they also hinted that the “list of documents could be made more inclusive when the schedule was announced,” suggesting a potential for state-specific adaptations.

The Election Commission’s push to delink the CEO’s office in West Bengal from state government control—invoking the Representation of the People Act, 1950—raises questions about consistency in administrative principles. West Bengal, governed by the opposition party TMC, has long had a tense relationship with the ECI, and this move appears to reflect a deeper tension rather than a neutral policy shift. Is the emphasis on administrative “independence” truly about institutional integrity—or is it shaped by the political context of an opposition-ruled state?

This apparent paradox – a single, unified plan with state-specific execution—is a defining characteristic of the ECI’s current movement. The national training program for BLOs promotes uniformity in understanding the SIR module, yet the pre-revision activities across states tell a different story. Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa, and Arunachal Pradesh have each conducted state-specific consultations or training sessions, reflecting a decentralised pattern. However, most of these states are either governed by the BJP or its allies, casting doubt on whether this flexibility is uniformly available. The framing of these variations as tailored administrative responses should be viewed critically—especially when similar room for adaptation appears contested in states with non-BJP governments.

This approach, while perhaps practical, also raises questions about whether the final electoral rolls will be a truly uniform product, or a collection of lists prepared under different, albeit ECI-approved, methodologies.

Related

89 lakh complaints of irregularities during Bihar SIR were rejected by ECI: Congress

Bihar SIR: New elector applications doubled in just 2 days, showing a 96.6% increase

99.8% of 65 lakh voter deletions go unchallenged on 13th day of objection period

The post ECI’s nationwide SIR plan: a ‘unified’ push, applied differentially across states appeared first on SabrangIndia.

While refusing to stay the Act in its entirety, the Court partially suspended certain provisions, emphasising that such intervention was necessary to prevent arbitrariness and protect all parties until the matter is decided finally.

As per reports in LiveLaw, CJI Gavai began the pronouncement by observing: “Only in the rarest of rare cases a legislation can be stayed by the Court. Though the entire Amendment Act is under challenge, the challenge is essentially to certain specific provisions. We are, therefore, of the view that no case is made to stay the provisions of the entire statute.”

1. Five-year practice of Islam condition

Provision challenged: Section 3(1)(r) required that a person must have been a practitioner of Islam for at least five years before being eligible to create a Waqf.

Court’s observations:

• The condition is not per se arbitrary. The legislature’s concern was to prevent misuse, such as people converting to Islam solely to create Waqfs to shield properties from creditors:

“The possibility of any person not belonging to Muslim community, converting to the Islamic religion only in order to take benefit of the protection of Waqf Act so as to defeat creditors and evade the law under the cloak of a plausible dedication cannot be ruled out.” (Para 136)

• However, in the absence of any statutory mechanism to determine whether a person has indeed practised Islam for five years, the provision would lead to an arbitrary exercise of power.

Court’s direction:

• The provision is stayed until State Governments frame Rules to create such a mechanism.
• The stay is temporary and conditional on legislative follow-up.

2. Government power to derecognise Waqf land pending dispute

Provisions challenged:

• Proviso to Section 3C(2): Stated that if a property is disputed as encroached government land, it would not be treated as Waqf until a designated government officer submits his report.
• Section 3C(3): Empowered the officer, if determining it was government land, to order corrections in revenue records.
• Section 3C(4): Required the State Government to direct the Waqf Board to make corresponding changes.

Court’s observations:

• Entrusting the Collector or designated officer with the power to decide property rights violates the separation of powers:

“Though we have prima facie upheld the provisions of Section 3C(1) and 3C(2) of the Amended Waqf Act, we find that the question with regard to determination of title of a property being entrusted to a revenue officer would not be in tune with the principle of separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution. The question of determination of the title of a property will have to, in our considered opinion, be resolved by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority.” (Para 161)

• The interim suspension of Waqf status prior to judicial determination is prima facie arbitrary:

“If a property is already identified as a waqf property or is declared as waqf property, then without determination of the question as to whether such a property is a Government property or not and treating the said property not as a waqf property, in our prima facie view, is arbitrary.” (Para 158)

The final determination of title must rest with a judicial or quasi-judicial body, namely the Waqf Tribunal under Section 83, with appeals to the High Court.

“It is directed that unless the issue with regard to title of the waqf property in terms of Section 3C of the Amended Waqf Act is not finally decided in the proceedings initiated under Section 83 of the Amended Waqf Act by the Tribunal and subject to further orders by the High Court, neither the waqfs will be dispossessed of the property nor the entry in the revenue record and the records of the Board shall be affected. However, upon commencement of an inquiry under Section 3C of the Amended Waqf Act till the final determination by the Tribunal under Section 83 of the Amended Waqf Act, subject to further orders of the High Court in an appeal, no third-party rights would be created in respect of such properties.” (Para 209 iii)

Court’s directions:

• The proviso to Section 3C(2), Section 3C(3), and Section 3C(4) are stayed.
• Until title disputes are decided:
  • Waqfs cannot be dispossessed of disputed lands.
  • Revenue records and Waqf Board records remain unaffected.
  • Mutawallis cannot create third-party rights over such properties until final adjudication. 

3. Non-Muslims in Central Waqf Council and State Waqf Boards

Provisions challenged: Amended provisions allowed inclusion of a higher number of non-Muslims in Waqf bodies.

Court’s observations and directions:

• In the Central Waqf Council (22 members) – maximum of 4 non-Muslims.
• In State Waqf Boards (11 members) – maximum of 3 non-Muslims.
• This ensures that Muslim representation remains predominant in bodies managing Islamic religious endowments.

“It is directed that insofar as Central Waqf Council constituted under Section 9 of the Amended Waqf Act is concerned, it shall not consist of more than 4 non- Muslim members out of 22. Equally, insofar as the Board constituted under Section 14 of the Amended Waqf Act is concerned, it is directed that it shall not consist of more than 3 non-Muslim members out of 11.” (Para 209 iv)

4. Appointment of CEO of Waqf Boards

Provision: Section 23 permitted a non-Muslim CEO, who acts as ex officio Secretary to the Board.

Court’s observation and direction:

• Did not stay the provision.
• Issued a directive:

“Though we are not inclined to stay Section 23, we direct that as far as possible, efforts should be made to appoint the Chief Executive Officer of the Board, who is the ex-officio Secretary, from amongst the Muslim community.” (Para 209 v)

5. Registration of Waqfs

Provision challenged: Section 36 required:

• Mandatory registration of all Waqfs.
• Prohibition of creating new Waqfs without a deed.
• Six months’ compliance window.

Court’s observations:

• This is not novel — registration has been mandated under every Waqf law since 1923, including the 1954 and 1995 Acts.
• Even if a deed is missing, registration is possible by supplying particulars.
• Six months’ time has been provided, with courts empowered to condone delay.

Court’s direction:

• No stay.
• Held that this requirement is consistent with legislative history and is neither arbitrary nor discriminatory.

“We are, therefore, of the view that if for 30 long years, the Mutawallis had chosen not to make an application for registration, they cannot be heard to say that the provision which now requires the application to be accompanied by a copy of the waqf deed is arbitrary. Further, if the legislature, on noticing misuse of the waqf properties, finds that after the enactment of the impugned Act all such applications should be accompanied by a copy of the waqf deed, the same cannot be said to be arbitrary.” (Para 149)

“sub-section (10) of Section 36 of the Amended Waqf Act itself provides a period of 6 months from the commencement of the impugned Act. As such, we are of the considered view that an ample amount of time has been given for the waqfs which are not registered to get themselves registered. Apart from that, the proviso to sub-section (10) of Section 36 of the Amended Waqf Act provides that an application may be entertained by the court by way of such a suit etc., after the period of 6 months specified under the said sub-section if the applicant specifies sufficient cause. We are, therefore, of the prima facie view that such a provision cannot be held to be arbitrary or discriminatory.” (Para 192)

6. Abolition of “Waqf by User”

Provision challenged: The 2025 amendment abolished the doctrine of Waqf by user, which recognised a property as Waqf through consistent religious use even without a deed.

Petitioners’ argument: Many age-old Waqfs had no deeds, and their survival depended on the doctrine.

Court’s observations:

• Since registration has been required since 1923, Waqfs had 102 years to register:

“If Mutawallis for a period of 102 years could not get the waqf registered, as required under the earlier provisions, they cannot claim that they be allowed to continue with the waqf even if they are not registered.” (Para 147)

• The abolition is prospective, aimed at preventing misuse:

“If the legislature, in 2025, finds that on account of the concept of ‘Waqf by User’, huge government properties have been encroached upon and to stop the said menace, it takes steps for deletion of the said provision, the said amendment, prima facie, cannot be said to be arbitrary.” (Para 150)

Court’s direction: No stay. The abolition stands.

7. Other provisions left undisturbed

The Court refused interim interference with:

• Prohibition on Waqfs in Scheduled Areas and protected monuments.
• Restriction that only Muslims can create Waqfs.
• Application of the Limitation Act to Waqf disputes.
• Cap on women members in Waqf Councils and Boards.
• Amendments concerning waqf-alal-aulad, appeals, renaming of the Act, and structural changes.

Operative portion of the order

CJI Gavai concluded: “The prayer for stay of the impugned Act is, therefore, rejected. However, while doing so, in order to protect the interest of all the parties and balance the equities during pendency of this batch of matters, we issue the following directions…”

• Stayed:
  • Five-year Islam practice condition (till Rules framed).
  • Proviso to Section 3C(2), Section 3C(3), Section 3C(4).
• Directed:
  • Non-Muslim members capped at 4 (Central Council) and 3 (State Boards).
  • Preference for Muslim CEOs.
• Not stayed:
  • Registration mandate.
  • Abolition of Waqf by user.
  • All other provisions.

Summary of the interim order of the Supreme Court is as follows:

The complete judgment may be read here.

Related:

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Reaffirming Open Justice: The Supreme Court on speech and contempt

Supreme Court issues notice on plea for time-bound reverification of Assam NRC over “large-scale errors”

Custodial Death of Dalit Law Student Somnath Suryawanshi: FIR registered after Supreme Court upholds Bombay HC directive

The post Waqf Act Amendments Partly Stayed: SC blocks government control, backs registration and reforms appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Child was assaulted by two teachers in the classroom

According to a police report, the child was assaulted by two teachers—Rakesh Saini and Ravindra—inside the classroom shortly after he returned from a short absence. The complaint, filed by the boy’s father, alleges that one teacher held the child down while the other repeatedly beat him with a stick.

According to the Indian Express, Jhabrera Station House Officer Ajay Shah said that victim’s  father alleged that one of the teachers ‘threw the child to the ground, pressed his face with a shoe, and held his hands’ while the other ‘beat him with a stick’.

A 7-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by his teachers inside a classroom of a government school in Jhabrera village of Haridwar district in Uttarakhand for allegedly missing a day of school.@ghazalaahmad5 reports:https://t.co/FOyDJn20Ki

— Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) September 14, 2025

The child reportedly sustained multiple injuries, including a fractured hand and trauma to his back and hips. Photographs of the boy, shared by the family, show red scars on his body, highlighting the severity of the attack.

Principal accused of inaction

The child’s father initially approached the school principal to report the incident, but claims his concerns were dismissed. Instead of receiving support, he alleges he was met with threats from the accused teachers.

“When I went to the school, both teachers threatened me, saying: ‘Go away, otherwise we will kill you,” the father stated in his complaint, as reported

Following the alleged inaction by the school authorities, the father took the matter to Jhabrera police station, leading to the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) on September 11, 2025.

Legal action and investigation

Police confirmed that the FIR has been filed under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, for cruelty to a child. The case also includes charges under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) Section 115(2) for voluntarily causing hurt and Section 351(2) for criminal intimidation.

“Further investigation and due legal proceedings are underway,” officials at Jhabrera police station said.

The child is currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital for his injuries. His family says he remains in shock from the incident.

Complaint filed with Minority Commission and NHRC

Mohammad Saddam Mujeeb, former advisor at the Delhi Minorities Commission, has filed complaints with the National Commission for Minorities, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

“This is a clear violation of child rights and it needs to be investigated. Student safety is at stake,” said Mujeeb, Maktoob Media reported.

He added, “This can happen with any student in the state. It should not be repeated; hence, accountability must be ensured.”

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Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar, 81, who is survived by his wife Kiran, began his career in the Indian Railways and was drawn into academia after pursuing an MBA degree from the Faculty of Management Studies Delhi University. He then went on to complete his PhD from the Louisiana State University following which he joined the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad as a Professor in the Organisational Behaviour Area in 1985.

He retired in November 2006.

But what brought and kept him in public life was his activism for improving democracy and governance in the country.

In 1999, with a few of his IIMA colleagues, which included Tirlochan Shastry, 14 years his junior, he founded the ADR, which has since played a critical role in enhancing transparency in Indian elections for over two and a half decades. The ADR has won several notable cases at the Supreme Court including the one which paved for the scrapping of the Electoral Bonds scheme. More recently, it is the lead petitioners in the challenge to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.

A fellow petitioner in the Dr Manoj Kumar Jha, Rajya Sabha member with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) expressed his strong sentiments at the demise of Prof. Chhokhar on ‘X’ (formerly twitter. He said, “He believed that democracy is not sustained by the noise of elections, but by their fairness, transparency, and accountability. He reminded us, time and again, that clean politics cannot emerge from tainted processes. His departure leaves behind a void, but also a legacy—an unfinished task that belongs now to all who care about democracy. We must also renew our pledge to the cause he lived for: that elections in India be not just contests of power, but rituals of trust.”

Cannot believe this news!!!
The passing of @JagdeepChhokar is not just the loss of a man; it is the silencing of a conscience that spoke relentlessly for the integrity of India’s democracy. As founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms, he forced the nation to look into… pic.twitter.com/Nv8IoKaxua

— Manoj Kumar Jha (@manojkjhadu) September 12, 2025

His body was donated for medical research. Acknowledging this, the official account of LHMC & Associated Hospitals, New Delhi, India, a premier Central Govt. Institute under Dte General Health Sevices & MoHFW stated, “Department of Anatomy humbly acknowledges the voluntary body donation of late Jagdeep Singh Chhokhar –founding member of the Association for Democratic Reforms & former Dean, IIMA. Our gratitude to Ms. Kiran Chhokhar and family for their invaluable contribution to advancing medical education.

Former Election Commissioner (EC), Election Commission of India, Ashok Lavasa, also expressed his sentiment on social media. “The loss of Prof Jagdeep Chhokhar is tragic. He spearheaded the Association of Democratic Reforms, which has rendered yeoman service in maintaining high standards of electoral democracy. People like him and ADR are vital for questioning authorities.”

Prof Chhokar was also a prolific writer and researcher. His research appeared in several international journals, such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Columbia Journal of World Business (now called the Journal of World Business), International Labour Review, Industrial Relations, Journal of Safety Research. He also contributed chapters to edited books and has written several teaching cases. His also wrote many columns and articles for leading media houses.

Chhokar has also taught in several countries including Australia, France, Japan, and the US. Since his retirement, he had also been associated with ‘Aajeevika’ Bureau for over a decade, working on internal migration related issues.

A little-known aspect was his love for birds. Prof Chhokar obtained a certificate in ornithology from the Bombay Natural History Society in 2001 and enjoyed the company of birds on the IIMA campus and wherever he travelled.

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“When members of the police force don their uniforms, they are required to shed their personal predilections and biases, be they religious, racial, casteist or otherwise. They must be true to the call of duty attached to their office and their uniform with absolute and total integrity. Unfortunately, in the case on hand, this did not happen,” Justice Sanjay Kumar observed in the ruling, delivered by a Bench which also included Justice Satish Chandra Sharma.

Murder most foul, no FIR

The case was based on the complaints made by a teenager, Mohammad Afzal Mohammad Sharif, who allegedly witnessed four men — including one who was later identified to have political connections — fatally attacking a man in an autorickshaw during the May 2023 riots. The men, allegedly mistakenly assuming the boy was a Muslim, assaulted him and left him to die with head injuries.

It was after this incident that both Afzal and his father then went to the police station to file a complaint about the murder he witnessed and the assault on himself, but the police took no action. A subsequent appeal to the Superintendent of the Police (SP) of Akola also came to naught.  The murder victim was identified as Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad, who had been plying an autorickshaw owned by a Muslim. Afzal had claimed that Gaikwad was killed under the mistaken impression that he was a Muslim.

In 2023, two groups clashed in Akola, leading to the death of a man, over a social media post.

Sharif, who was a minor (17) at the time of the alleged incident, had earlier approached the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court complaining that the police officers concerned had failed in their duty by not registering an FIR with respect to the alleged attack and assault on him. He claimed that on his way back home that fateful night, he witnessed four unknown persons assaulting an autorickshaw driver. They then assaulted him, too, and damaged his vehicle. Sharif “asserted that he was an eyewitness to the murderous assault on the person in the auto rickshaw, whose name was revealed to him later as Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad.”

The petitioner also stated that it was well within the knowledge of the people of Akola that the deceased was plying the autorickshaw of a Muslim, which bore a sticker with the name “Garib Nawaz”. The appellant stated that under the mistaken identity/belief that the deceased was a Muslim, the four unknown assailants had caused his death and, thereafter, attacked him.

Sharif also told the SC that though an FIR was registered with respect to the murder of the autorickshaw driver, no FIR was registered over the alleged assault on him following which he approached the High Court, which dismissed his plea.

The SC said, “Though the affidavits filed by the police inspector of the Old City Police Station, Akola, tried to attribute motives to the appellant and the same was willingly accepted and acted upon by the High Court, we are not persuaded to agree at this stage. It was for the police to investigate the truth or otherwise of the specific allegations made by the appellant, a 17-year-old boy, who asserted that he was an eyewitness to the murder of Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad and was himself assaulted by the very same assailants.”

“If, in fact, the deceased was really murdered under the impression that he belonged to Muslim community and the assailants were not of that community, that was a fact that had to be ascertained after thorough and proper investigation. When the appellant claimed that he could identify one of the four assailants, that claim also required to be followed up with detailed investigation by ascertaining the location of the person so identified at the relevant time through mobile phone location, call data records, etc.,” the court said.

Negligence by the Police

Upset over the lack of progress in a case of alleged murder during the May 2023 communal riots over a social media post in Maharashtra’s Akola, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed setting up of a “a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising senior police officers of both Hindu and Muslim communities”.

“It was for the police to investigate the truth or otherwise of the specific allegations made by the appellant, a 17-year-old boy, who asserted that he was an eyewitness to the murder of Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad and was himself assaulted by the very same assailants… If, in fact, the deceased was really murdered under the impression that he belonged to Muslim community and the assailants were not of that community, that was a fact that had to be ascertained after thorough and proper investigation,” Justice Kumar pointed out.

The court took a stern view of the Akola SP’s failure to act on Afzal’s complaint, observing that “this conduct on the part of a superior police officer of no less a rank than a Superintendent of Police is indeed a cause for great concern”.

“Law requires, nay, ordains that its sentinels be vigilant, prompt and objective in enforcing and securing its mandate. To what extent the guardians of the law, viz., the police, discharge this task without bias and subjectivity is the question that arises in the case on hand,” the court noted.

SC orders SIT probe

Allowing an appeal by a witness in the case, Mohammad Afzal Mohammad Sharif, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and S C Sharma said, the SC directed the Maharashtra Home Secretary to constitute an SIT comprising senior police officers of “both Hindu and Muslim communities, to undertake an investigation into all the allegations made by the appellant, by registering an FIR in connection with the assault upon him on May 13, 2023, and take appropriate action thereon as warranted”. Significantly, the court also ordered the placing on record of the SIT probe report in three months. The State Home Secretary was also directed to initiate appropriate disciplinary action against erring police officials for their “patent dereliction of duties”.

SC order can be read here.

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Following the bloody assassination of Gauri Lankesh on September 5, 2017, in the lead up to state elections in Karnataka, the right-wing rumour-mill began circulating “information” about 24 murders of so-called members of the supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming a moral equivalence to the deaths of four slain rationalists. Romig’s investigations into these claims, evident in this excerpt, not just unravelled the truth but also speaks of the de-humanisation that such equivalence ensures. That was the first list. The second list is more chilling, it was unearthed during the investigations into Gauri’s murder by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that found two lists of names—the thirty-four people whom the conspirators ostensibly planned or hoped to kill! This included the veteran theatre director and public intellectual, Girish Karnad, the professor and translator, K.S. Bhagawan, Nataraj Huliyar, and CS Dwarkanath both regular contributor to Lankesh Patrike. This excerpt elaborates on this second list too.

The editors are thankful to the author and to Westland Books for permission to publish this excerpt.

CHAPTER 17

The Lists

Vish’s words troubled me. I knew that I could never fully understand all the complex forces at work in a place where I was just a visitor, no matter how much I interviewed and studied and commissioned translations of texts whose languages I couldn’t read. I worried, for one, about the complaint that so many BJP members had thrown at me on my last visit to Bangalore when I asked them about Gauri’s murder: that some two dozen Hindu activists have been murdered in Karnataka in recent years by Muslim fanatics, but that neither the press nor the police care—they care only about Gauri Lankesh. I worried that they were right and that my own obvious biases had blinded me.

During the 2018 state election campaign, the complaints about the twenty- four murders only grew. “Condemn the killing of BJP and RSS workers under Congress rule,” Amit Shah, the president of the BJP, said on an election-season visit to Karnataka. “More than 24 workers have died and the police hasn’t taken any action against the killers. They are roaming around free.” Modi said that the BJP is about “ease of doing business,” while the Congress in Karnataka is about “ease of doing murders.” Many BJP leaders said that all twenty-four were murdered by “terrorists.”

I followed up repeatedly with two BJP leaders who’d told me about the murders when I visited party headquarters in January, asking them to provide me with a list of names so that I could learn more, but neither responded. As far as I could find, an actual list had circulated only once: in July 2017, the legislator Shobha Karandlaje submitted a complaint to the central government with a list of twenty-three men who she said were “Hindu activists” who had been murdered by “jihadi elements.” “IT IS A BLOOD BATH IN KARNATAKA,” the letter begins. Fortunately for me, in February and March 2018, a superb and intrepid reporter for the website Scroll named Sruthisagar Yamunan spent weeks traveling around Karnataka to investigate each of the twenty-three names first-hand. One of the names on Karandlaje’s list, he noted, was ambiguous, and could refer to two different victims, so he investigated both, bringing the total number of cases up to twenty-four. He met with the families of all but one of the men on the list, talked to as many investigating officers as possible, and studied every police report.

Yamunan discovered that the very first man on the list is not, in fact, dead. (To her credit, Karandlaje called the man to apologize for including him after his aliveness came to light.) Two committed suicide. Two were apparently murdered by their sisters. According to police and families, the motives for a majority of the murders were real estate, political, or romantic rivalries. Three of the victims could in no way be described as Hindu activists. Among those who were, some were apparently killed by fellow Hindutva activists or BJP members. Several of the victims’ families made a point of telling Yamunan that they have no problem with Muslims and live in peace with their Muslim neighbours. And several were shocked and unhappy to learn that their loved ones’ names appeared on such a list. “I request people to not join any political party,” one widow told Yamunan; her husband, she said, was a BJP politician whose rival had hired a hit man to kill him. “They will use you and then throw you away.” Many of these non-jihad motives, Yamunan found, were clearly reported in local newspapers long before Karandlaje compiled her list.

In ten cases, Yamunan found, the accused perpetrators were indeed Muslim. All of these perpetrators were linked specifically to a hard-line Islamist organization called the People’s Front of India, or PFI, that operates in Kerala and Karnataka. And most of these ten murders occurred in coastal Karnataka, the region of the state where religious tensions run deepest, especially in Mangalore, a diverse city of around half a million people that’s known as a banking and university centre.

Kavitha told me that in coastal Karnataka the political climate is so fraught that news vendors kept Gauri’s paper hidden, offering it for sale only when asked. “If they kept it out in the stall, the owner would be beaten up,” she said. It wasn’t always this way. Mangalore used to be famous as a cosmopolitan, progressive city. Gauri had a particular admiration for Mangalore’s history of social reform, including an early school for Dalits. The novelist Vivek Shanbhag, who grew up in coastal Karnataka, wrote that decades ago there was a shared sense of community among Hindus, Muslims, and Christians “that words like secularism and tolerance cannot capture.” More apt, he suggested, was the Kannada word “sahabalve,” which literally means “life together.” “Mangalore was a very, very forward looking, very educated place,” he told me. “I can’t believe that it has deteriorated to this level.”

Now Mangalore is perhaps the most religiously segregated corner of the state. A senior police officer who’s served for years in coastal Karnataka spoke to me about the situation on condition of anonymity, given its political sensitivity. In Mangalore, he said, the Muslim population is wealthier and better educated than in most places in India. This actually makes tensions worse, he said, because both Hindus and Muslims feel they are competing directly from positions of strength, and ostentatious consumption on the part of young men from both sides—nice cars, flashy motorcycles—tends to fan resentments. Another source of tension is that the Muslim prosperity is often new wealth, earned at lucrative jobs in the Gulf by Muslim men who in previous generations would likely have been farm laborers for Hindu landowners. And in recent years, both sides have become markedly more religiously conservative. As the Kannada novelist Sara Aboobacker put it, “There is Hindu Talibanisation and there is Muslim Talibanisation.”

In recent decades, the police officer said, especially after the destruction of the Babri Masjid, Hindus and Muslims have both built up aggressive religious organizations in coastal Karnataka, each egged on by the growth of the other side. But their memberships consist “mainly of these riffraff boys who had nothing else to do, who had a lot of money, and who didn’t hesitate to commit small crimes or revengeful crimes.” In particular, the PFI on the Muslim side and the Bajrang Dal on the Hindu side would provoke each other: the PFI stealing Hindu cows, the Bajrang Dal attacking Muslim cow transports. The Hindu side became very active with what’s known as “moral policing,” with a special focus on attacking Muslim boys who talked to or merely sat next to Hindu girls. The PFI reciprocated, attacking Hindu boys seen with Muslim girls (although much less often, he said). Often the two sides function simply as gangs, using religion as a cover for turf-based criminal operations, such as land grabbing and illegal sand mining. As they always do, the political parties treat the rival gangs opportunistically: the Congress Party patronizes the Muslim groups just as surely as the BJP patronizes the Hindutva groups. In its early years, Gauri’s Communal Harmony Forum often shared the stage with the PFI and its precursor, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity, naively accepting them as a Muslim rights organization. When the PFI’s culpability in communal disharmony became obvious, the Communal Harmony Forum cut ties with them.

The two sides clash often in street fights, the police officer told me, especially in election seasons. Some of these fights result in murders, and the murders have spun into an endless cycle of revenge killings, “always tit for tat.” A murder that happens in Mangalore today, he said, can usually be traced back in a chain to a murder that happened in 1999. In recent years there have been so many prison murders in Mangalore that the wardens have been forced to segregate Hindus and Muslims into separate barracks. In Mangalore, he noted, these retaliatory murders are never committed with guns, because a gun wound “doesn’t create that violent scene that is required to drive a message. So it is a policy that you actually commit these murders with sharp weapons and make many cuts on the body. The message should be very, very strong, so the brutality should be visible.”

He said it’s certainly true that Muslim fundamentalists committed some of the murders on Karandlaje’s list, and also that those victims have gotten far less attention than Gauri, but the context is completely different. Here, he said, it’s “rowdies trying to eliminate each other.” In 2022, the journalist Johnson T. A. did a study of communal murders in coastal Karnataka and found that most were retaliatory, with an equal number on each “side”; the murdered Muslim activists have gotten just as little popular attention as the Hindutva activists.

Yamunan reported that two of the ten murders committed by Muslims on Karandlaje’s list happened in street fights between Muslim and Hindu toughs at official celebrations of Tipu Sultan, which had become a flash point. Two others were reportedly murdered in revenge for aggressive cow-protection vigilantism (one of whose killers was later stabbed to death in prison with a serving spoon). Some cases blurred the line between religious conflict and gang war. In one case of a Hindu activist murdered by a Muslim activist, police told Yamunan that drug turf was a factor: the victim and perpetrator were both marijuana dealers. In the face of this rowdy, macho, endlessly retributive political violence, the RSS and BJP loudly play the victim without acknowledging that their side commits the same violence, racking up a comparable body count among their opponents. The murders on both sides are outrageous and intolerable. But they are not lynchings, nor are they assassinations of elderly writers on their doorsteps.

When the discrepancies in Karandlaje’s list were brought to her attention, she called it an “oversight” and said that she would release a revised list. She never did, and she was clearly unchastened. A few months later, she raised an even more inflammatory charge. In coastal Karnataka, an eighteen- year-old Hindutva activist named Paresh Mesta was found dead in a lake, and Karandlaje loudly and repeatedly insisted that “jihadi elements” had split his head open, poured boiling oil on his body, cut off his tattoos of Hindu symbols, and castrated him. The post-mortem report showed no signs of assault and concluded that he had slipped into the lake and drowned, most likely because he was drunk.

I feel that I now have the facts about the twenty-three or twenty-four murders that BJP leaders kept insisting that I examine. They were lying about those murders, and they knew they were lying. By constantly arguing in bad faith in this way, they make it impossible to engage seriously with their position. It’s an appalling thing to do.

But I’m also appalled with myself—I just spent sixteen hundred words arguing, essentially, that I should care less about those murders than the BJP thinks I should. I think often of a passage from an essay by T. M. Krishna, the renowned South Indian Carnatic singer. “The BJP and company have not only poisoned the minds of their own supporters, they have achieved a larger goal,” Krishna wrote. “They have made the rest of us crass and inhuman to the extent that we are unable to empathise when an RSS member is killed. Of course, this only makes their case for a monolithic Hindu Rashtra stronger and, hence, politically convenient. I know we need to stop this cycle, rediscover empathy, the ethical and sublime, but I do not know how.”

• • •

After the arrests of the first suspects for Gauri’s murder, a very different list came to light. On my previous visit to Bangalore, I’d learned that Indian progressives had developed a habit of talking, often with gallows humour, about the List: an imagined ranking of who was most likely to die next. It turned out that the List was real. In the diaries that the SIT recovered from the arrested men, they found two lists of names—the thirty-four people whom the conspirators ostensibly planned or hoped to kill. The first name on one list was Girish Karnad. The first on the other was K. S. Bhagawan, aged seventy-three, a highly outspoken professor and translator, whom the Sanatan Sanstha often denounced on their websites. devout hindu oruanizations demand immediate arrest of heretic prof. bhauayan! ran one of their headlines in 2015, after Bhagawan declared publicly that Rama is not a god. Two months after Gauri’s murder, police had to escort Bhagawan to safety after a fiery speech he delivered in his hometown of Mysore, a couple hours from Bangalore.

According to the SIT, the conspirators, after killing Gauri, had decided Bhagawan would be their next target. In early 2018, the SIT had been eavesdropping on the phone calls of the first arrestee, K. T. Naveen Kumar, and had at first planned to wait and keep listening in to gain more information on his co-conspirators. But when they realized from his conversations that an assassination attempt on Bhagawan was imminent, they swept in and arrested him.

One afternoon when I was in Mysore, I arranged to meet Bhagawan in the café of my hotel. A cheerful man with a shock of thick white hair, he entered briskly along with a large man in a shiny grey suit. “This is my gunman!” he explained. The bodyguard joined him, he said, in 2015. “I gave a lecture on the Bhagavad Gita, which is said to be a very important document of Hinduism,” he recalled. “Certain portions of the Gita must be burnt, I said. I did not burn them, but I said they should be.” Some people “didn’t like it,” he said, chuckling with delight at the memory. “They attacked my house, pelting stones and all that. Immediately the Karnataka government provided me security. There are three policemen in our house, and one gunman will be always with me.”

“It seems that this group that killed Gauri Lankesh also intended to go after you,” I said.

“But they will not,” he said blithely.

He seemed indifferent to my questions about threats and assassinations; he was more eager to discuss literature and philosophy, which he did with relish. He told me he “developed a critical attitude toward the so-called Hinduism” after reading Kuvempu, the greatest of Kannada poets, who wrote a version of the Ramayana that “removed all these Brahminical values.” The thing we call Hinduism, he said, is nothing more than Brahminism. “I don’t believe in religion,” he said. “I believe in spirituality.”

He talked in detail about his work translating English literature into Kannada, including a number of Shakespeare’s plays; more than once he sent the gunman to his car to see if he could find a copy of one or another of his books. He said that he’s now writing a new analysis of the Ramayana. “Nowhere is Rama an ideal person,” he said. “He was only a killer, killing person after person and branding them as demons.” I told him I didn’t think the stone throwers were going to like that one, either.

M. Kalburgi, he said, “was an intimate friend of mine. Great man. Great scholar. And a true follower of Basavanna.” Gauri, he said, published many of his articles in her paper, and also a book he wrote denouncing the

proposed Rama temple in Ayodhya. “The pity is, those who killed them, they’re all Shudras, non-Brahmins. They all belong to the lower strata of society. You see how Brahminism has brainwashed them. The ideology is given by the Brahmin, but no Brahmin is caught so far.”

After a while we went to his apartment, which is up a flight of stairs, with a terrace outside the door, upon which two uniformed police officers had set up a sort of sniper’s nest, complete with a massive semiautomatic gun laid out on a blanket. The cops rose to their feet as we ascended the stairs, then went back to their distractions from their boring job, one looking at videos on his phone, the other leafing through a newspaper.

I asked Bhagawan if he worried much about his safety. “No, no, no, not at all,” he said. “I feel very happy.” “You seem happy,” I said. “Why don’t you worry?”

“I don’t know,” he said, uninterested in the question. “My worry is about writing only. I must write well. I must read great books. That’s my only concern.” I asked him if his wife worried about his safety.

“No, no, no, not at all, not at all, not at all,” he said. “In fact, she told me, every man is going to die, today or tomorrow. Why worry? You do whatever work you want to do, she said. So, from that day onwards I became completely free of mortal concern. I don’t think about death at all. Death comes on its own. Why should I think of it?”

Girish Karnad also seemed unbothered that he’d topped a hit list. (His son, Raghu, told me later that Karnad was sceptical of these lists.) One well- connected journalist told me that according to the SIT the killers were casing Karnad’s house right around the time I visited him there in January. In August 2018, five prominent left-wing activists and intellectuals were arrested for supposedly inciting a riot; later they were additionally accused of plotting to assassinate Modi. In protest, Karnad attended an event marking the first anniversary of Gauri’s death, oxygen tank on his lap, wearing a sign around his neck that read me too urban naxal. “If speaking up means being a Naxal, then I am an urban Naxal,” he told reporters. “I am proud to be a part of the hit list.”

Others were feeling understandably less defiant. “I want to erase it,” said Nataraj Huliyar, a long-time writer for P. Lankesh’s paper whose name appeared on a list. “I’m afraid my mother might see it.”

Another name on a hit list was that of the lawyer C. S. Dwarakanath, who also wrote regularly for P. Lankesh. An armed policeman sits in the foyer of his office to protect him. A thoughtful, gentle man, Dwarakanath told me that as a student he was actually an RSS member, but Lankesh transformed him. Now his hero was Ambedkar, the author of the Indian Constitution and the prophet of Dalit liberation. He suspected that he was being targeted for a lecture he delivered in Mangalore that was critical of the proposed Rama temple in Ayodhya. There was an uproar when he said that nobody knows where Rama was born or his date of birth—but he was merely quoting the text of a Supreme Court ruling. His point, he said, was that “Rama is in the heart of the people. Don’t impose any Rama on them.” He cited the great mystic poet Kabir, who wrote that there were four Ramas: the first is on the throne of Ayodhya, the second is in the heart of every human, the third is in every particle, and the fourth is beyond human comprehension. “That was my argument,” he said. “They never understood it, because their minds are blocked.” (Bhagawan, he thought, spoke too harshly. “Some people have a very good opinion of Rama and Sita,” he said. “We should not hurt their feelings.”) He used to appear regularly on TV debates, but now that he’s on the hit list, his family won’t let him.

The police told Kavitha that Gauri was “a great soul” because her death had prevented all those people on the hit lists from being killed. “That makes you feel her death didn’t go in vain,” she said.

Note: The book which has been widely reviewed including by the New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus and Tribune India was also a 2025 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for General Nonfiction. The. The Pulitzer Board called it “a captivating account of a crusading South Indian’s murder, a mystery rich in local culture and politics that also connects to such global themes as authoritarianism, fundamentalism and other threats to free expression. Sabrangindia is grateful for permission from the authors and publishers to publish four excerpts, at intervals of the book. 

(The first excerpt was published some days ago and may be read here. Parts two, three and four of more excerpts from the book to be also published at intervals)

Note from the Editors: We would like to express our heartfelt solidarity with the family of Gauri Lankesh, Indira Lankesh, Kavitha and Esha Laneksh, who have with pathos and determination built on the gaping vacuum created by Gauri Lankesh’s assassination. Gauri was also a close a dear activist friend of Sabrangindia’s co-editor, Teesta Setalvad.

Related:

Storms battered her from outside, but she stood, an unwavering flame: Gauri Lankesh

Honour for killers of Gauri Lankesh and MM Kalburgi in Karnataka, public felicitation and terms like “Hindu tigers” for accused Amit Baddi and Ganesh…

Protest in Karnataka as activists condemns felicitation of Gauri Lankesh murder accused by right-wing groups

Murderers or Martyrs? The dangerous glorification of murdered Gauri Lankesh’s accused by Hindutva groups

Gauri Lankesh assassination: 6 years down, no closure for family and friends, justice elusive

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PUCL has announced that it will lobby with the Governor and the President to prevent the bill from receiving assent, arguing that its legality is questionable and that it infringes upon the fundamental right to freedom of conscience, free speech, interfaith dialogue, equality, and individual choice. The organisation has warned that the bill’s punitive provisions are excessive and likely to be struck down by the courts if challenged.

Key concerns with the bill

PUCL pointed to several problematic provisions across the bill:

1. Overbroad definitions: The definitions under Section 2 are excessively wide, arbitrary, and untested for reasonableness. Concepts such as “allurement” and “coercion” are defined in ways far broader than similar state laws, and they introduce psychological pressure as a basis for criminal liability, which current police frameworks are ill-equipped to handle.
2. Prohibitory and punitive provisions: Section 3 declares conversions unlawful and, when read alongside Section 5, makes even voluntary adult conversions punishable. The bill also criminalises any form of abetment or “convincing,” which could include ordinary interfaith discussions, thereby stifling free expression.
3. Marriage and interfaith implications: The bill contains new restrictions affecting the right to marry, including potential implications for same-sex marriages.
4. ‘Ghar Wapsi’ and ambiguities: Section 3’s explanations, including provisions for “reconversion” to one’s previous faith, are vague and could be interpreted to support forced reconversions (“ghar wapsi”) targeting Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Ambedkarite communities. The law fails to clarify temporal limits for prior conversions, leaving room for discriminatory enforcement.
5. Draconian sentences: Punishments are extraordinarily severe: a minimum of seven years imprisonment (extendable to 14 years) and fines of ₹5 lakh for general violations; longer sentences and higher fines apply for women, minors, SC/ST individuals, and mass conversions. PUCL asserts that such mandatory sentencing is unconstitutional.
6. Invasive administrative oversight: The bill mandates intrusive District Magistrate inquiries into every conversion, potentially affecting interfaith marriages. Parties who “counsel, convince, or procure” conversions are criminalised, which constitutes a disproportionate restriction on free speech and interfaith dialogue.
7. Burden of proof on the accused: Section 12 places the burden of proof on individuals accused of facilitating conversions, violating the fundamental principle that the prosecution bears the burden of proof.

Conclusion

The PUCL asserts that the Rajasthan anti-conversion bill is an unconstitutional, overreaching law that undermines democratic principles and individual liberties. By attempting to regulate personal faith and interfaith interactions through coercive administrative and punitive measures, the bill threatens to marginalise minority communities and stifle free expression. The organisation is committed to lobbying at the highest levels of the state and central government to prevent the bill from becoming law.

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