“Take again Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code. Now so far as I am concerned that particular section is highly objectionable and obnoxious and it should have no place both for practical and historical reasons, if you like, in anv body of laws that we might pass. The sooner we get rid of it the better.” —Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament during debates on the first amendment to...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...

Sixteen-year-old Rubina Khatun (name changed) of Jinarditola village in Malda's Kaliachak-II had an affair with Raisuddin, a local boy. Although the affair did not meet with approval from her parents, especially as her Class X exam was near, she was obstinate. On October 16, Rubina's father, Saifuddin Sk, lodged a complaint with the local police station, alleging that Raisuddin had taken his daughter away. A police search did not yield any...

Maoist leader was himself charged with sedition only as an after-thought Narayan Sanyal is a 74-year-old man with white hair parted to one side and fibromatosis in both hands. His arrest memo notes that he wears dentures, has spots on his body and smokes cigarettes. “My health is not going well, arthritis is a new thing catching up, age is telling,” he writes in a letter addressed to a ‘Dear...

Search is on for the 15-year-old girl's father, Umed Singh Domestic help offered Rs. 10,000 to take the blame In yet another case of ‘honour killing' in Rohtak, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly murdered at the behest of her father because he suspected her of having an affair with a neighbourhood boy. An accomplice has been nabbed while Umed Singh, the father of the girl, is on the run. The teenager was reported...