The People's Union for Civil Liberties has condemned the Centre's threat to arrest Maoist sympathizers if they criticize the home ministry's policy in the issue.
As part of the programme, the 36 ministers are visiting J&K this week to participate in 60 public interactions at various places in the Union territory," Principal Secretary to the J&K government Rohit Kansal told reporters.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to revise electoral rolls in Bihar. The hearing is scheduled for July 10.
'If we accept this, then in a few years we will not see a democratic India that we know'
Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case, has filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court seeking that a provision under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to brand certain groups as a front for banned or terrorist organisations be quashed as it was bad in law.
'The moment they fall foul of the party in power, they become unsafe. Then nobody can guarantee their safety.'
With the Supreme Court declining to accord legal recognition to same-sex marriage on Tuesday, a section of the LGBTQ+ community, petitioners and activists highlighted the positives in the ruling and called for legislative action while others expressed dismay and concern.
'Anyone they don't like can be potentially arrested and thrown in jail for 30 days to induce regime change.'
Pune police on Tuesday raided homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them -- poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
As a consequence of prominence given to the brutality during those few days, a very important aspect of that episode got almost glossed over. This was the intervention by a very significant section of people who restored faith in humanity, and conveyed the message that only a small section of Indians, that too politically backed, were consumed by anti-Sikh majoritarianism. The overlooked facet of the events of 1984 was the story of significant sections of the city's populace, public figures and nondescript ones, stepping out hand-in-hand, to first stand with little but bravery in hands, in the way of attackers, and thereafter to provide immediate relief to those who lives were uprooted and who lost family members in the violence, recalls Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'Anybody and everybody who opposes this government for whatever reasons will be branded a terrorist and charged in such a manner that all human rights will be taken away.'
'It will be difficult to challenge Hindutva anymore as the police will have the power to charge you as anti-national.'
On such things as the meat ban and hijab ban, we are finding that elements that comprise the system are enthusiastic about denying people their rights. It says something awful about us as a society, asserts Aakar Patel.
'Silencing citizens has become a major institutional process under this regime.' 'The anti-Indian argument is a bogey -- meant to silence independent thinking people in India and turn us into goats and sheep.'
Maharashtra police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Farreira were arrested. Although Navalakha was also arrested, the Delhi high court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. Here are their brief profiles:
'Rather than criticising the kind of candidates fielded by political parties from our living rooms, NOTA in a sense implores the electorate to say this by turning up in person at a polling booth to ensure their protest is registered.'
The Tripura police have registered a case against four Supreme Court lawyers under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly promoting communal disharmony with their social media posts about the recent violence targeting Muslims
Tens of thousands of people, including Indian-Americans, took to streets in several United States cities to protest against controversial immigration policies of US President Donald Trump which has resulted in separation of children of illegal immigrants.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the Centre cannot preclude reservation from being extended to women in civic bodies by saying it doesn't apply to tribal areas.
From 2014 to 2017, Gupta served as the assistant attorney general for civil rights under President Barack Obama, where she advanced criminal justice reform, prosecuted hate crimes, protected voting rights and fought against discrimination.
The SC, however, rejected NIA's request for immediate stay to the order.
President Ram Nath Kovind said he was 'a determined champion of democracy during the Emergency' and would be missed by his readers.
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday held that citizens have right to cast negative vote rejecting all candidates contesting polls, a decision which would encourage people not satisfied with contestants to turn up for voting.
In 1954, a bench of eight Supreme Court judges declared that the Constitution-makers did not recognise the Fundamental Right to Privacy. It is hoped that a larger bench as and when constituted will uphold the Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right overruling the 1954 decision, says the distinguished lawyer, P P Rao.
The government claims the existing safeguards under the law are adequate, lawful, towards a legitimate purpose and provide for a "proportionate interference" in citizens' right to privacy, reports Nitin Sethi.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed three bills to replace the colonial-era criminal laws by voice vote.
'As 1.3 billion people wait for our prime minister to tell us what to do and then vanish again from our television screens, it is worth noting that this is not how the rest of the world is being led,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
The verdict in the right to privacy case is historic and of global significance because it establishes dharma, righteousness and destroys adharma.
The verdict in the right to privacy case is historic and of global significance because it establishes dharma, righteousness and destroys adharma.
'It is a sad day when social activists, environmental campaigners, anti-corruption workers are singled out as anti-nationals and then criminalised.'
'There are many things we need to work on.' 'At the heart of it is, one, the extent of inequality, which is not good for democracy and nation; two, a structural decline on how a country ought to function, how people should be held accountable, whose role is what.'
'Their role model is Iran: high control of the citizens by the State.' In Iran it is Islamic control; in India, it will be Hindutva control.'
Some believe she should no longer be the face of the struggle to free Myanmar from the new military dictatorship, observes Prakash Bhandari.
The Trump administration cited too many lawsuits and legal loopholes in the Obama-era regulation, which required public schools to allow students to use the bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities, as one of the reasons for its roll back.
The apex court questioning the police about the arrests said that 'dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you don't allow these safety valves, it will burst.'
'The Modi government is about privatising profits and nationalising losses.'
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
The ban restricts entry of people from Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela.
