Student activists and Pinjra Tod members Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, along with 25-year-old Jamia student Asif Tanha are to be finally released from the confines of Tihar, two days late, after much back and forth. The three Delhi violence conspiracy case accused were granted bail by the Delhi High Court on June 15, but were not released by the Police on flimsy grounds of “address verification”.

On June 16, the trial court Judge Ravinder Bedi deferred their release by citing “heavy board of bail applications listed before the undersigned”, despite a higher court’s order to release them. The Delhi Police went a step ahead in their unnecessary demands and sought time till June 21 for verification of their addresses and sureties.

In the application filed before the trial court, the centrally governed Delhi Police reportedly stated that their outstation permanent address is pending and could not be completed due to paucity of time. Asif, Natasha and Devangana are permanent residents of Jharkhand, Rohtak and Assam respectively. Using this to their advantage, the Police contended that additional time would be required by the investigating agency in filing the verification report as their personnel would have to travel to these states. These were clearly outright delaying tactics.

Further, the Delhi Police had also sought directions to the UIDAI to verify the Aadhaar card details of their sureties, and that a proper physical verification of their mobile numbers was required. “Further subscriber detail of the above mobile number is being obtained from the concerned service provider to corroborate the same with the version of applicant,” read their plea as per LiveLaw.

Events transpired post bail

As soon as the Delhi High Court granted bail to the three activists, the Delhi Police moved the Supreme Court through a special leave petition appealing against their bail order. Since the trial court deferred the hearing on their release, the activists moved the High Court under section 482 (inherent powers of High Court) of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the Trial Court’s action, arguing that it was violative of their fundamental rights.

On June 17, the same Delhi High Court Bench that had granted bail to the activists heard the urgent matter concerning their release and ordered the Trial Court to consider their release “with alacrity”. The Bench was quoted as saying, “We expect the trial court to proceed with promptitude and expedition and pronounce on the issues pending determination before it forthwith.”

While hearing the arguments, the High Court also seemed confused about the Police’s contention of sending officers to different states for verification when their local Delhi addresses have been used throughout the chargesheet and that these addresses weren’t verified in the long period of one year when they were in custody.

The media reported Justice Bhambhani questioning, “Maybe I’m missing something here. But what is this Assam, Jharkhand thing about. These are local sureties, you’ve had the accused in custody for a year. Chargesheet has been filed.” He also seemed to be surprised about Aadhaar verification and wondered if the Police followed similar protocol in all other cases.

As the matter reached back to the trial court, the lawyers of both parties were informed by the Additional Sessions Judge that he had already issued their release warrant. Judge Bedi observed that keeping them imprisoned till the police verified all necessary information was not a plausible reason and shot their argument down.

What is the law on this?

Having kept the three in continued custody for over 48 hours despite a release order in public domain is direct contempt of court. Section 2(b) of The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, clearly states that wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court shall amount to civil contempt.

The Police ought to have released them on bail but failed to respect the order of the High Court, interfering with the administration of justice. This unusual delay tactic by the State is often abused in extraordinary circumstances only when they’re up against certain dissenting elements. Case in point is Dr. Kafeel Khan, who was granted bail by the Aligarh Chief Judicial Magistrate on 10 February, 2020 but continued to languish in jail for the next three days, despite three release orders from the Magistrate.

He was charged under Indian Penal Code sections for promoting enmity between different religious groups after his speech at AMU on December 12, 2019, in opposition to the citizenship laws. On February 13, he was told that he was booked under the National Security Act, 1980, that led to his further detention until the Allahabad High Court stepped in and set aside the detention order ruling that his speech did not promote violence. Contrary to the allegations of the State, the court accepted after 6 long months, that his speech was a call for unity and integrity!

As a strong and binding precedent, the Supreme Court in Arnab Manoranjan Goswami vs State of Maharashtra and Ors (2020) recorded, “The doors of this Court cannot be closed to a citizen who is able to establish prima facie that the instrumentality of the State is being weaponized for using the force of criminal law. Our courts must ensure that they continue to remain the first line of defense against the deprivation of the liberty of citizens. Deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many. We must always be mindful of the deeper systemic implications of our decisions.”

In complete disrespect to the Supreme Court’s precedent and the High Court’s order, the Delhi trial court opined that it was already 6 P.M (on June 16) and that an order could not be passed due to a heavy caseload. Even in normal circumstances, the activists should not have had to approach the High Court again for the implementation of its order!

The Delhi Police has disobeyed not just any order but a significant high court order that has actively crushed its entire narrative on the alleged conspiracy, reading down the UAPA charges. In Natasha Narwal’s bail order (Crl Appeal No. 82 of 2021), the court clearly stated that “the State cannot thwart grant of bail merely by confusing issues.” Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened over the past few hours, with the additional burden of the lower court’s non-cooperation.

In Arnab Goswami’s bail order, the top court had remarked that courts must be alive to the situation as it prevails on the ground, in the jails and police stations where human dignity has no protector. The courts must constantly be looking to expand this footprint of liberty as a necessity in any democracy but the three activists have been harshly deprived of this.

Related:

Creative understanding of UAPA grants freedom from jail for activists: Delhi HC
A new hope: Student activists charged under UAPA get bail
How the regime is hounding Human Rights Defender Dr. Kafeel Khan

The post Natasha, Devangana, Asif to be released from Tihar, two days after securing bail appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Dr Kafeel Khan who was granted bail by Allahabad High Court on September 1 was released from Mathura jail around midnight. The order came on Tuesday morning and when his family went to Mathura jail to seek his release, the jail authorities refused to do so citing non-receipt of the order.

His wife, Shabista Khan, tweeted from her Twitter account

Even after high court order they are not releasing drkafeel from mathura jail @Troll_Ziddi @007AliSohrab @Iamsabbag @kashaf512 @SanjayAzadSln @yadavakhilesh @priyankagandhi

— Dr Shabista Khan (@ShabistaDr) September 1, 2020

Before Khan was finally released at midnight, Khan’s brother Adeel Khan said, “The authorities are not releasing Dr Kafeel Khan and are trying to implicate him again under some other charge. If he is not released from jail today, we would file a contempt petition in the High Court on Wednesday. The Mathura jail authorities are saying that they do not follow the order of the court but the orders of the District Magistrate, and they can’t release Dr Kafeel until they receive the orders from the DM of Mathura,” as reported by News18.

Khan’s lawyer, Irfan Ghazi, alleged that he tried to meet the DM, Aligarh regarding Khan’s release but the DM did not meet him. “Mathura jail administration informed at around 11 pm that Dr Kafeel will be released, and at around midnight, he was released,” Khan’s lawyer Irfan Ghazi told PTI. His family said they would file a contempt petition at the high court the very next day if Khan was not released on Tuesday; but fortunately, it didn’t come to that.

“I will always remain thankful to all my well-wishers, who raised their voice for my release,” Khan told PTI after his release. “The administration was not ready for release, but because of the prayers of people, I have been released. In Ramayana, Maharshi Valmiki had said that the Raja should act for ‘Raj Dharma’. In UP the ‘Raja’ is not doing ‘Raj Dharma’ but is doing ‘Baal Hatth’ [being stubborn like a child].”

Dr Khan’s mother Nuzhat Parveen said she will finally be able to “see, touch and feel” her son. “I am very happy that my son is coming out of the jail. I will be able to see him, touch him and feel him after a long time,” she added. “My son is a good person and he is never against the country or society. Today is my daughter-in-law’s birthday as well, and we are carrying a cake with us as she is in Mathura.”

Khan said that the Yogi government could frame him in any other case. He thanked the judiciary for ruling in favour of his release. In a sarcastic vein, he added that he wanted to thank the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police for not killing him in an encounter while taking him from Mumbai to Mathura, reported Scroll.

Khan was arrested on January 29, 2019 for his allegedly provocative speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He secured bail and as he was to be released on February 13, charges under the National Security Act (NSA) were slapped against him. He has been in detention since then, as the state government extended his detention twice.

The Allahabad High Court, in expedited hearings, ordered for immediate release of Khan while setting aside the detention order issued against him and deeming the extensions of detention orders to be illegal. The court held that the speech on the basis of which Khan was detained did not amount to threatening peace and tranquility of the city. Rather, the court said that his speech gave a call for national unity and integrity.

Related:

Kafeel Khan’s speech does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence: Allahabad HC
Hope to attend my daughter’s birthday this year: Dr. Kafeel Khan
Yet another adjournment in Kafeel Khan case in Allahabad HC

The post Dr Kafeel Khan released at midnight from Mathura Jail appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is my view that the army must be deployed in the rarest of rare cases ­not as a knee-jerk reaction of governments at the Central and state levels. The army and security forces have, despite obvious shortcomings as are documented and well-known, tried to do their best and upheld their country's honour and integrity: Sanjoy Hazarika
 
The Committee that submitted its report in May-June 2005 recommended the repeal of the draconian law but replacement of certain provisions of the Unlawful Prevention of Atrocities Act (1967) Act with certain amendments. The UPA Act itself has been thereafter been amended in 2008 and 2012. The entire report can be read here. It is now eleven years since this recommendation, 58 years since its application to the states of the north-east, and the writ of the AFSPA continues, except in Tripura.
 
While recommending its removal from the statute books, the Committee said, “The Act is too sketchy, too bald and quite inadequate in several particulars. It is true that the Hon'ble Supreme Court has upheld its constitutional validity but that circumstance is not an endorsement of the desirability or advisability of the Act….besides.. the Act, for whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness”. 

In March 2015, the Left Front Government of Tripura, after a thorough review of the law and order situation of the State came to the conclusion that peace has been restored and that the situation is under control and has repealed the act and its writ in the state. See https://sabrangindia.in/interview/tripura-our-cadre-are-living-contact-people-and-their-problems-manik-sarkar-chief-minister
 

Annexure IV to the report is a Note to the Jeevan Reddy Committee Report authored by senior journalist Sanjoy Hazarika. We reproduce this here
 
At the end of a long night, there is a dawn…

Sanjoy Hazarika

When introducing the Armed Forces Special Powers Bill (1958) in the Lok Sabha, the then Home Minister Shri Govind Ballabh Pant declared that "certain misguided sections" of the Nagas were involved in "arson, murder, loot, dacoity etc." He added, "So it has become necessary to adopt effective measures for the protection of the people in those areas. In order to enable the armed forces to handle the situation effectively whenever such problem arises hereafter, it has been considered necessary to introduce this bill."

Some members of Parliament, especially from Manipur, and elsewhere opposed the Act; one of them, L. Achaw Singh of Manipur, described the proposal as "unnecessary … an anti-democratic measure … a lawless law."

AFSPA in the North-East has continued for 47 years. The Committee's essential recommendation, as laid out in both its conclusions and the proposed changes to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (as amended in 2004), is that AFSPA must be repealed forthwith; the gains of the law are extremely moot, its negative impacts have been overwhelming.

Many of the security problems of the region can be tackled by local police and commando forces, with the assistance of the armed forces where essential. But the dependence of the states on the army must be reduced to the minimum and armed forces should be deployed only as a last resort.

Numerous representations from the public as well as from the army, paramilitary and police have informed the Committee that political problems must be addressed politically and not militarily. These must include the processes of development of participative planning, involving local traditional groups in the role of self-governance, instead of sheltering behind the army and other forces. As we have noted earlier, there has been a sustained and systematic failure of governance; without the restoration of governance and the faith of the public in the ability of governments to rule justly and provide security to their citizens, the problems may become more acute.

This is a long and difficult task and the pressures are enormous. The Committee does not underestimate the scale of the challenges. But there is no option for the Indian State or the states of the Union. Faltering and even failing, at times, the states of the Union, and especially the North-east, must strengthen their own systems of governance, restoring the confidence of the people and providing the basics of governance.

AFSPA in the North-East has continued for 47 years. The Committee's essential recommendation, as laid out in both its conclusions and the proposed changes to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (as amended in 2004), is that AFSPA must be repealed forthwith

What started as a political demand and insurgency in the Naga Hills, now Nagaland, has developed into a number of militant armed uprisings in not less than five other states – Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. These have international connections with various armed groups and forces inimical to India and democratic forces. In addition, there are the problems of illegal migration into the region, especially Assam. The intensity of the challenges are immense: these range from ethnic standoffs and struggles for land and space as well as political rights.

In the past half century, another major change has affected the violence: on both sides of the "barrier", the lethality of weapons and their easier availability has transformed the power and quality of the fighting. RDX, AK-56s, machine guns and sniper rifles are used extensively. The immediacy of communications has also effectively changed the profile of these organizations as well of fighting: people can see, hear and even communicate with them by email!

A consequence of such long-drawn out conflicts has been the collapse of governance in a number of the states; the security of the citizens is at extreme risk, from security forces and the militants. During this period, there have been some positive gains – awareness of human rights has increased in India and the world, the media is stronger as are non-government organizations and civil society groups. Violations of human rights by state forces and by non-state armed groups cannot, in these days of instant information, be hidden any longer.

The upsurge in Manipur after the death of Ms. Manorama Devi last June in the custody of the Assam Rifles is a demonstration of this awareness, although there are official views that the agitation was also orchestrated by the underground groups. The latter are not the concern of this Committee, which was appointed last November, as a democratic response by the Central Government to a democratic demand by the people of the state for the repeal of the Act. After a detailed process of hearings in Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya as well as New Delhi and interactions in Arunachal Pradesh and extensive internal deliberations, the Committee has reached a conclusion which is detailed in this report.

It is my view that the army must be deployed in the rarest of rare cases ­not as a knee-jerk reaction of governments at the Central and state levels. The army and security forces have, despite obvious shortcomings as are documented and well-known, tried to do their best and upheld their country's honour and integrity

We have been encouraged by the openness with which people approached the committee and spoke their views without fear or favour, despite many pressures. We also are encouraged by the fact that many of the armed groups in the North-east are in the process of negotiation or seeking conversations which can bring armed confrontations to an end and restore dignity to civil society and the rule of justice and law.
 
The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said in March 2003 that "respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law are essential tools in the effort to combat terrorism – not privileges to be sacrificed at a time of tension."
 
We hope that the report of the Committee will help in the process of reconciliation and democratisation in the North-east, create a space for dialogue and discussion, reducing conflicts and helping the region write a new chapter of peace, change and happiness in its troubled history. We also hope that it strengthens the county's unity, integrity and security and creates an atmosphere for people to live in dignity, honour and peace.

At the end of every dark night, there is a dawn, however delayed. And for every day, there is a dawn, whether we see it or not.

(Sanjoy Hazarika, New Delhi, May 30, 2005)

The post Repeal Draconian AFSPA Law: Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee, 2005 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Irom Sharmila on a hunger fast for the past 15 years, and released from detention by a court in Imphal, Manipur on Monday, February 29,  has appealed to the women of India for support to her cause.

Irom Sharmila had started her hunger strike on November 4, 2000 demanding a repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958. In an open appeal issued on March 1, she has addressed Indian women activists on two issues. One, she wants active support for repeal of AFSPA and second, she wants an open discussion on whether her fast should continue. The existence of AFSPA on the statute books has ensured impunity for India's armed forces for repeated human rights violations against Manipuri people, especially women.

A court in Imphal on February 29, 2016 released Irom Sharmila, who has been on a 15-year-long hunger strike to press for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, from custody. On her release Sharmila Irom is quoted by the media to have said,  “I shall continue the fast at the footsteps of the Shahid Minar in Imphal town. I will not eat anything till my goal is achieved,” she said while coming out of the court room. She also expressed regret over the declining support to her cause, particularly from women activists.

“I am sorry that women activists and civil society organisations have distanced themselves from me and my cause. If they had extended support to my campaign, perhaps by now the AFSPA, which gives carte blanche to the security forces, might have been repealed,” she said. She further said, “I am not discouraged by the lack of support since I know that victory will be there at last.”

“Sharmila was charged with attempting to commit suicide under Section 309 of IPC. However the court found no evidence to establish that she is trying to commit suicide and accordingly ordered her release,” C. Momon, Sharmila’s advocate, told reporters in Imphal. Local media has reported that given Sharmila’s condition and her resolve to continue her fast unto death, she may be re-arrested soon, a police officer is quoted to have said.

She has been arrested, tried and released several times on the charge of trying to take her own life. Sharmila is also undergoing trial in the Patiala House court in Delhi on the same charge.

Until her release in Imphal on February 29, Sharmila was lodged in a security ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal. She is guarded round-the-clock by jail, police and hospital staff. The government is spending about Rs.70,000 a month on her medication and feeding her through the nose.

Appeal for:

– A collective statement by women and other activists to the President, Prime Minister and other authorities.
– Launching a  'Save Sharmila' campaign  among students.
– All ex-army men  writing a joint representation to the authorities.
– A day-long fast in solidarity and a message to Sharmila Irom.
 
 

The post Irom Sharmila’s Anguished Appeal to Women of India appeared first on SabrangIndia.