Foreign observers will keep a close watch on the Chhattisgarh High Court's hearing on rights activist Binayak Sen's appeal on Monday. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) has forwarded to the Chhatisgarh government a request from an eight-member European Union (EU) delegation keen to watch the proceedings in the HC in Bilaspur on January 24. Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh has forwarded the Centre's request to the HC, leaving it to the judiciary...

Members of ‘Bandi Mukti Committee' — a human rights organisation — and a section of the city's intelligentsia demanded the immediate and unconditional release of renowned physician Binayak Sen here on Thursday. Dr. Sen was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Raipur sessions court on December 24 last year on Sedition charges. Criticising the way Dr. Sen's lawyer was not allowed to give explanation supporting his client after the judgement, Magsaysay Award-winning...

While there will be general agreement that the judgement in Binayak Sen's case represents a gross miscarriage of justice, most people will attribute it to the overzealousness of a lower judicial functionary, or, at the most, to the prevailing atmosphere in the state of Chhattisgarh. If the trial had been held elsewhere, they would argue, Binayak would not have got the verdict he did. They are probably right, just as...

The trial court judgment holding Binayak Sen guilty of sedition has led to widespread outrage. IN India's legal history, no trial court judgment in a criminal case has perhaps caused as much international outrage as the December 24, 2010, judgment of the Second Additional District and Sessions Judge of Raipur, B.P. Verma, did. In his 92-page judgment, Judge Verma convicted Dr Binayak Sen, the well-known human rights activist and medical...

The seven papers in The Lancet: India Series mentions Dr Binayak Sen; the journal’s January 8-14 issue carries an article by the paediatrician who has been sentenced to life on charges of sedition. The Lancet calls Sen a world renowned public health physician, rights activist and civil liberties expert who has worked tirelessly over the years to protect the human rights of vulnerable people, including health as a human right. The Lancet...