Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) secretary Kirty Roy has petitioned the District Magidtrate Magistrate Cooch Behal district of West Bengal against the “illegitimate restrictionson” on the lives and livelihood of the villagers of Krishnapur Palpara village under Tufanganj – I Block and Tufanganj police station in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal by the Border Security Force personnel attached with Krishnapur Border Out Post under 62 Battalion BSF.

According to the memorandum, the population of Krishnapur Palpara village is around 5740, where almost 60 percent of the villagers belong from Hindu Scheduled Caste (Dalit) and 40 percent from minority Muslim (OBC) backgrounds. The main occupation of the villagers is agriculture. More than 950 acres of cultivable land in the village that belongs to the villagers is located outside the border fencing, which is heavily guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF). The BSF regulates the ingress and egress of the villagers to their fields through the fencing gate no. 5 and 6 that are located about 300 meters to 400 meters from the International Border Pillar (IBP).

The fact-finding team of MASUM revealed that the agricultural land outside the fencing is very fertile and multiple crops can be cultivated throughout the year. The villagers are willing to cultivate jute, maize, chili and vegetables throughout the year to earn good profits from their yields. However, due to the whimsical restrictions imposed by the BSF, they are restricted to cultivate profitable crops like jute and maize. Even if they had planted vegetables and chili in the land across the fencing, due to the irregularity of opening the fencing gates, most of their crops were ruined incurring heavy financial loss.

About 500 families reside across the fencing and have their agricultural land there. Due to lack of proper irrigation facilities across the fencing, the villagers are not able to cultivate paddy in their fields as well. It has been found that the villagers for being restricted to cultivate jute and maize in their lands are incurring a financial loss of Rupees 60 to 90 thousand per acre of land in a year. This loss has been continuing since the past 5 years due to the illegitimate restrictions by the BSF. When they were asked why such a whimsical restriction, the BSF states that there are government rules by which jute and maize cultivation in the borders are restricted. However, they have failed to show such government rules when asked.

Not only in agriculture but restrictions are in place to hinder social practices as well. Due to no particular reason the BSF do not allow the villagers to perform the last rites of the Hindu population in a crematorium located across the fencing near the river banks, which has been used by the villagers for almost 200 years. Due to the restraint, the villagers have to walk for almost 5 kilometers to perform the last rites.

On January 11,.2023, the villagers went to the Block Development Officer of Tufanganj – I block with a written complaint on the issues of restriction on their lives and livelihood. But the BDO Tufanganj didn’t accept the complaint and said that he can’t do anything on the issues of the villagers. Later the villagers sent the complaint to the BDO via registered post on 27.01.2023, but action was taken on the issues.

The following are the names and details of few victim villagers: 

MASUM states that these whimsical actions and arbitrary restriction imposed by the Border Security Force personnel of Krishnapur Border Out post upon the villagers of Krishnapur Palpara is not only challenging their life and livelihood but also violating the Article 21 and Article 19 of the Constitution of India and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The plight of the villagers and denial of their proper livelihood practices is against the Articles 7 and 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as well as the goal number 8 and 16 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In all these international instruments, the Government of India is a party and has taken pledge to adhere with.

Under the circumstances, the organisation has requested the urgent intervention of the District Magistrate to fulfil the following demands:

• The Border Security Force should be posted at the zero point and not inside the village.

• BSF should be instructed to follow the law of the land and stop imposing their own made-up rules

• ·       Disciplinary action should be taken against the BSF Company Commander of Krishnapur BSF BOP and all others for imposing illegal restrictions upon the                  villagers and harassing them

• BSF should not restrict the life and livelihood of the villagers particularly of the farmers.

• The villagers should be provided with agricultural support.

• The farmers should be compensated for the financial loss due to the illegal restriction of the BSF attached with Krishnapur BOP.

Finally, the memorandum demands that the villagers of Krishnapur should be allowed to perform last rites at the designated crematorium without any restrictions.

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The new year has begun and the saga of religious harmony in the country continues. It was reported by a local citizen-managed social media Sikh group on Facebook that an old man passed away in Saidwani Khag village in Budgam, Kashmir. Reportedly, the day the man died, his body was guarded by and taken care of by the Muslims in the village until other members of the Sikh community and other family members could arrive there. Only two Sikh persons were living in the village and hence in a humanitarian gesture, the Muslim villagers took care of the deceased person until other Sikh members arrived and also took part in the last rites and cremation as per Sikh rituals.

The video may be viewed here: 

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A Division Bench comprising of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup J. Bhambhani has granted interim bail of three weeks to Natasha Narwal to attend the last rites of her deceased father, Dr. Mahavir Narwal who succumbed to Covid-19 yesterday, on May 9.

Natasha, who has been in jail for over a year, facing under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) charges for her alleged role in the Delhi violence case of 2020, had approached the Delhi High Court for bail to look after her diabetic father who tested positive for the virus. The order was reserved on April 28.

During the proceedings today as per  LiveLaw tweet, Justice Mridul asked if there was any member in the Narwal family who could cremate Late Dr. Mahavir. To this, Advocate Adit S Pujari said, “There is no one, your lordships. Her mother passed away 15 years ago. Her brother is down with Covid.”

Justice Mridul: Is there no other member in the family to do the cremation?

Pujari: There is no one, your lordships. Her mother passed away 15 years ago. Her brother is down with Covid.#DelhiHighCourt #NatashaNarwal

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 10, 2021

The Bench also noted that her father’s body is waiting at Rohtak hospital, Haryana to be claimed and that the State does not oppose the relief prayed by Natasha Nawal.

Accordingly, she has been directed to be released on a personal bond of Rs.50,000 for a period of three weeks and is expected to surrender before the jail authorities by providing a copy of her RTPCR test report.

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A persons last rites are a deeply personal matter, and given how the World Health Organisation (WHO) has itself clarified that cremations and burials are both safe ways to dispose off remains of Covid-19 infected people, any effort to force people from one community to dispose off bodies in a manner that is not in accordance with their religious beliefs reeks of a communal agenda. In a special leave petition, seeking leave to appeal against High Court order refusing to stay burials of dead bodies in Mumbai, the Supreme Court has issued directions to the Bombay High Court to decide the matter within 2 weeks. The Supreme Court noted that the order was given by the High Court at an interim stage and hence deemed it appropriate to send the petitioners back to the High Court for final disposal of the case.

The petition in Supreme Court was filed by a Mumbai resident Pradeep Gandhy as one of the cemeteries is near his residence raising concern that the infection could spread through the infected dead bodies. He contended that the original petition, which is pending before the Bombay High Court, had challenged the permission given by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to use certain cemeteries for burials and the interim order has rendered the plea infructuous.

He had further contended that religious rights must not be prioritised over public health. An intervention application was also filed by Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind claiming that burial of dead bodies was inherent and essential to the practice of Islam as well as Christianity and denying this would go against the right to practice one’s religion under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. The application also contended that the petition was filed based on unfounded apprehensions which lacked scientific backing and hence should be dismissed.

The bench comprising Justices RF Nariman and Indira Banerjee observed that a proper hearing was warranted after calling for a report from the state government as well as the municipal body, thus maintaining status quo until the matter is finally decided by the high court. The BMC had initially issued a circular stating that if a Covid-19 infected dead body was to be buried, it would have to be buried outside Mumbai. Following uproar from minorities, it revised the circular stating that burials can be done in Mumbai but in larger burial ground to avoid the spread of infection to nearby residents. However, even this is bizarre given how the virus cannot infect anyone if the body is buried underground!

The Central government, in the advisories issued by it from time to time, had also issued a manual on Dead body management which had allowed both Cremation and burials as way of disposing remains of people who died due to Covid-19. This manual was made basis the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Image Courtesy: Live Law

Noted human rights activist, Sudha Bharadwaj has been granted temporary bail by the Bombay High Court from August 17 to August 20 to be able to attend her father Ranganath Bharadwaj’s last rites. Her father passed away on August 7. Sudha has been languishing in a Pune jail since October last year. She will be taken to Bangalore.

The Maharashtra police raided and arrested several prominent human rights activists in India on August 28 on the pretext of their alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon case. Following this, a writ petition was filed in the SC by eminent Indians such as historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain among others. The SC disposed off the writ petition saying that the activists could avail relief from lower courts as per the law. All five activists-lawyers were under house arrest for a time period until October 26, a time period extended by the Supreme Court allowing them time to seek bail or other remedies in appropriate courts. Within minutes of the Pune court rejecting bail pleas of Adv. Sudha Bhardwaj, Adv. Arun Ferreira and activist Vernon Gonsalves, while Ferreira and Gonsalves were arrested immediately, Bhardwaj was arrested two days later.

Sudha Bharadwaj, born in 1961, has been associated with the trade union movement in Chhattisgarh for more than 25 years. She was the general secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and a member of Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS).

After living and working in Bilaspur for several years, Sudha had moved to Delhi recently and was teaching at National Law University Delhi as a visiting Professor, where she taught a seminar course on tribal rights and land acquisition, and a part of the regular course on law and poverty. As part of the programme of the Delhi Judicial Academy, she addressed the presiding officers of labour courts from Sri Lanka. Shock gripped parts of the country when this relentless defender of human rights was first faced with sudden raids and later arrested.
 

In March 2019, Sudha Bharadwaj was honoured by Harvard Law School. She is among 21 women honoured by the Harvard Law School this year through a portrait exhibition on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Bharadwaj was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case in August and is currently in a prison in Pune.
 

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