-EPW Despite curative measures and judgments, undertrials who are poor continue to rot in jails. The public debate over bail to the 2G spectrum accused and the controversy over the parole granted to murder convict Manu Sharma has unfortunately sidestepped a much more pressing concern – the plight of poor undertrial prisoners who have spent years inside jail without being convicted of any offence. A series of Supreme Court judgments over the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Bench asks Centre to speed up release of Pakistani prisoners by J Venkatesan
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Union government to expedite the release and deportation of all Pakistani and other nationals lodged in various prisons in the country. A Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and H.L. Gokhale told Additional Solicitor-General Parag Tripathi that there was no justification for keeping them in prisons. The Bench passed the order on a writ petition filed by Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh,...
More »Indifferent At Their Plight
-EPW Will the blatant discrimination against Muslims in the administration of justice ever end? The word secular was inserted into the Preamble of the Indian Constitution by the 42nd amendment in 1976; later on, the Supreme Court, in S R Bommai vs Union of India, held (in 1994) that secularism was an integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution. And yet, it has been a long time coming – Indian...
More »Hand that rocked rules now
-The Telegraph Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today put responsibilities of governance before demands for payback by a section of civil society that described as “fascist” the denial of permission to hold a protest in the heart of the city to push for demands voiced by Maoists. “There are many who had supported me before the elections and have turned away since then…. It does not matter to me,” Mamata said today in...
More »“People's voices being suppressed” by Ananya Dutta
The Trinamool Congress-led government is “suppressing freedom of expression of the people of West Bengal,” litterateur and Magsaysay awardee Mahasweta Devi said here on Monday. “The people's government has come and done something that was unimaginable in the last 64 years. The people have lost their right to assemble and express their opinion at the Metro channel,” said Mahasweta Devi, who, on earlier occasions, had come out in support of Mamata...
More »