Editorial, "BAIL MUST BE THE RULE, NOT AN EXCEPTION," in Vol. 17: Part 1, No. 4, 28 February 2021 issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD.

 BAIL MUST BE THE RULE, NOT AN EXCEPTION

is a near axiomatic rule so pronounced in the landmark order in State of Rajasthan v. Balachand, AIR 1977 SC 2447, of course with the rider, “except where there are circumstances suggestive of fleeing from justice or thwarting the course of justice or creating other troubles in the shape of repeating offences or intimidating witnesses and the like, by the petitioner who seeks enlargement on bail from the court.” Normally our first-instance courts take into consideration prima facie allegations and then even routinely order for the remand in judicial custody of the accused on their first production, consigning their pleas of innocence/requests for release on bail, to the ‘discretion’ of the courts in various tiers in the course of criminal proceedings, which can stretch for years. Even the above dictum of Justice Krishna Iyer bases upon the longstanding rule of our criminal jurisprudence, a legacy of the colonial rule, of the presumption of innocence of the accused until their guilt is proved beyond all reasonable doubt. And this editor did not find any discussion of the matter linking it to the basic or fundamental right of the accused to life and liberty (Article 21) and/or his freedom of movement and association (Article 19) in that decision. However, it is comforting to find such linking to Article 21 in the relatively recent Sanjay Chandra v. CBI, (2012) 1 SCC 40, decision of our Apex Court. In contrast, we find that the European Court of Human Rights, generally looks up such matters from the angle of their Convention Article 5 basic rights, which can be found in the Buzadji decision published in this issue; further, that Court clarifies that such right exists right from the time of first production of the accused. Hope our courts too begin to look up this grave matter primarily from the angle of human rights to liberty, etc. rather than relegate it to their merciful discretion. Here, the ASJ Sri Dharmender Rana, New Delhi, who boldly granted bail to Disha Ravi standing in favor of personal liberty and stating categorically that “[the alleged] 'Toolkit' reveals that any call for any kind of violence is conspicuously absent. In my considered opinion, Citizens are conscience keepers of government in any democratic Nation. They cannot be put behind the bars simply because they choose to disagree with the State policies. The offence of sedition cannot be invoked to minister to the wounded vanity of the governments,” deserves a big Kudos from all of us. Further the very sedition clause in the IPC, often misused by the power-intoxicated governments, needs to be repealed altogether – which, by the way, has been a sort of our ‘national demand’ evolved during our freedom struggle.   §§§

Editorial, "INTERNET FREEDOM A MUST FOR HUMANITY," in Vol. 17: Part 1, No. 3, 15 February 2021 issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD.

INTERNET FREEDOM A MUST FOR HUMANITY

The recent arrest of an environmental activist of Bangalore, Disha Ravi, for her some edits of Greta Thunberg’s ‘tool kit’ on the current farmers agitation in North India all over the world, has once again brought to focus the utmost need for almost absolute non-interference by States plus solid assurances/ arrangements by nations to ensure the freedom for speech and expression on the internet. It is doubtless that some American corporate companies are the actual managers of the entire internet and we have seen how corporate social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc. have misused their powers, and blocked the accounts of even the U.S. President Trump when he was in and now even after he is out of office. They have developed into dangerous censors undermining the freedom of speech on the net. In India we often see this or that person being arrested for trivial ‘offences’ relating to speech and expression on the internet and even charged with ‘sedition’. In the B.J.P. ruled States this revolting phenomenon is quite frequent though those run by others also no less prone to this dictatorial mentality. We may note that with the great developments in telecommunications and related technologies, entire world has become much smaller – like a global village – with more facilities for people of various nationalities, races, communities etc. to interact easily as also feel the pleasures and pains of the others and respond to those too. As such now onwards general human concerns would result in worldwide protests; the nation state itself may soon become redundant – though, of course, the ruling cliques everywhere would not let it vanish that easily. Then, we found nothing objectionable in the tool kit for which Disha Ravi was arrested; naturally, people post/share many links in their posts on the net to enable others follow their thoughts and programs. Moreover, internet speech is also a sort of blurting out of the subconscious feelings and conduct of the persons and so utmost privacy should be assured to the netizens, not such savage repression. Ultimately any reputed international organization, with the consent of many/most of the nations, may have to take charge and ensure that Internet is shifted to a headquarters outside America and, preferably, located in Geneva or Stockholm etc. to be managed under the UN auspices, with other useful changes in its conduct, but, firstly, our people must seriously protest and agitate against such repressive policies and measures of the corporates/ governments undermining the basic freedoms of the netizens.  §§§

Editorial, "REPUBLIC DAY RALLIES AND WRANGLINGS," in Vol. 17: Part 1, No. 2, 31 January 2021 issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD.

 REPUBLIC DAY RALLIES AND WRANGLINGS

The farmers agitation around Delhi seems to have grown quite intense and gave rise to some awkward developments on the Republic Day with a section of farmers, mainly Sikhs, breaking away from the permitted route for their tractor rally and going on rampage near the Red Fort premises, and are even alleged to have hoisted a Khalistani flag at a vintage point on the Red Fort – or at any rate all admit that a Sikh religious flag (Nishan Sahib) was hoisted. It seems the Sikh farmer agitators were very aggressive and rode roughshod over their tractors and injured hundreds of policemen too, and in the melee, police say, a tractor overturned and a Sikh farmer (tractor-driver) was killed in the accident. Of course, no dearth of counter-allegations that his tractor toppled and he died because of police shooting him down in the first instance. One Deep Sidhu, admittedly a BJP man till recently and don’t know whether he continues so since this agitation, was the main person behind this hoisting of the ‘Nishan Sahib’ it seems and he has gone viral on the net through a video posted by himself explaining the circumstances in which the struggle took that shape; he stresses that it was to emphasize the ‘unity in diversity’ of the Indian nation that he chose to hoist that Sikh religious flag. However, a Sikh Congress MP (Ludhiana) Mr. Ravneet Singh Bittu had earlier exposed the Khalistani separatists’ involvement and incitement in the farmers agitation though he himself is camping there as one of the activist agitator leaders and even stated that the Khalistanis are spending crores of rupees for the purpose. But he seems to have kept diplomatic silence on this Republic Day melee at the Red Fort and also about the role of the alleged ‘false flag’ of BJP, Deep Singh Sidhu. However, OpIndia, a pro-BJP website, openly accuses that the Sikhs for Justice, a banned pro-Khalistan US-based group that has been attempting to ‘build a campaign for secession of Punjab’ since its inception in 2007, and which came to notice in August 2018 pro-Khalistan rally at Trafalgar Square, London, releasing the “Referendum 2020’ declaration, is very much behind these tractor rally riots and a Khalistani flag was hoisted on Red Fort with insult to the national tricolor. We have made already clear in our previous editorials that we decry this Khalistani hand but at the same time demand that suitable amendments be made in the farm laws as suggested by us earlier and this burning problem be satisfactorily resolved at the earliest. §§§

Editorial, "Can Courts Solve Political Disputes?", in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 January 2021, Vol. 17, Part 1, No. 1 issue

 CAN COURTS SOLVE POLITICAL DISPUTES?

Whatever may be the socioeconomic roots/ramifications of the farmers’ agitation surrounding our national capital, it cannot be gainsaid that it is mainly political, with several organizations and sundry political parties trying to fish in the troubled waters, citing excuses of farmers’ grievances. Witnessing the lifestyle of the agitating farmers with what their cars, tractors, tents, etc., one gets the impression that many of them are capitalist landlords, rich peasants, and others influenced by those sections – again many of them seem to be Sikhs, no way a deprived section in Indian polity, but quite an enterprising, thriving community, in a way much pampered by all the establishments concerned all along, except in the difficult decade of the 80s when they put their own religious/community interests above all; almost a majority among them supported the ideal of Khalistan, a separate Sikh State, too, which led ultimately to the rise of a Frankenstein monster, then the much-lamented Operation Blue Star and consequent cataclysms – assassination of a Prime Minister and resultant mayhem of anti-Sikh riots. Now with their increased prosperity, the Sikh community world over has become more assertive and aspirational and the demands for Khalistan have grown – planned and aided by Pakistan too – and become stronger and more vocal day by day. The beginning of this agitation is mainly due to this, and we do not see other farmers in other states much interested in it. At this juncture, our Supreme Court has stepped in, even stayed the operation of the three impugned farmers’ Acts, constituting a conciliation committee even. However, we feel – especially watching the postures of the agitation leaders rejecting any solution less than repeal of the three laws – the courts can never solve such basically political disputes, at the best it may work to facilitate their resolution, that’s all. The solution lies in bringing one consolidated Act instead of the two on farm products trading, price assurance, etc. incorporating two crucially needed amendments of 1) the promises on MSP with a guarantee of government purchase of up to 50% farm produce in case farmers need so & 2) protecting States’ powers and rights to levy duties on exports/imports of farm produce to/from other states/territories. This results in the automatic repeal of two of the three Acts; and regarding the third, fresh notifications, adding or deleting to the list of essential commodities, can be issued from time to time. ♣♣♣