-Scroll.in Most of the prominent faces of the December 2019 protests battle police cases. These days, 24-year-old Sharjeel Usmani spends most of his time travelling from one Aligarh court to another for hazri, attendance. There are four cases against the Aligarh Muslim University student, all of them connected to protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019. As the law was passed, protests erupted across the country and...

-TheWire.in In high courts across the country and in the Supreme Court, a number of cases are pending relating to basic rights India's citizens are supposed to enjoy. New Delhi: Seventy-two years ago on this day, the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India. Two months after that, on January 26, 1950, the country’s Constitution came into effect. But how has the implementation of our constitutional rights and safeguards been going? In high...

-The Hindu How many bills have been tabled without prior discussions? What needs to be done to improve public consultation in policymaking? The story so far: The Union Government has listed 29 Bills (26 new and three pending) to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament. In 2014, the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy was adopted, mandating a host of rules, including that whenever the Government makes any law, it must place a...

-TheWire.in Only six states have the rules necessary to operationalise the PESA Act's provisions – yet the myth that PESA is alive and kicking prevails. A quarter-century ago, on December 24, 1996, the Parliament enacted a law unlike any other in the country. This was India’s first law to actually recognise people’s powers, in the form of the gram sabha at the hamlet level. This path-breaking legislation was the Provisions of the...

-Scroll.in Such methodology to gauge the effectiveness of policing has only resulted in underreporting of cases and institutionalising dishonesty. We are happy to blame the politicians and the government for the various shortcomings of India’s criminal justice system but are reluctant to understand certain underlying reasons for these and focus on possible solutions. Two of these problems are corruption and general unfriendly behaviour in the police department. Most citizens know how difficult it...