UAPA

 "In Its Anxiety To Suppress Dissent...": Court's Sharp Words For Centre.. Delhi Riots: Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Tanha were arrested in May last year on conspiracy charges linked to violence over the citizenship law  https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pinjra-tod-activists-jamia-student-arrested-in-connection-with-delhi-riots-case-get-bail-from-high-court-2464070 There is a difference between the "constitutionally guaranteed right to protest" and terrorist activity, the Delhi High Court said Tuesday, as it granted bail to three activists arrested more than a year ago in connection with riots that followed protests against the controversial citizenship law.

on 13 June 2020 Delhi Police arrested Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal from their home, framing them as co-conspirators in the Delhi Riots that left over 50 people dead, rendered hundreds homeless, and destroyed the lives and livelihoods of thousands of (mostly) Muslim working class families. Booked for over a hundred offences ranging from supplying weapons to murder and instigating riots; these women student activists, despite getting bail in three out of four cases, continue to be locked up in Tihar Jail under the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA). The sole reason for their incarceration is their participation in the women-led protests in North-East Delhi against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) – a set of laws and processes which will drastically re-shape Indian citizenship for various minorities and marginalised communities.

The violence in North-East Delhi in February 2020, was the worst the city has experienced since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The loss of life and property has been used by the regime to incarcerate, intimidate and victimise protestors and survivors, their families, friends and neighbours. Along with Devangana and Natasha, thousands have been incarcerated on false charges in a riot where they lost their own kin, family and homes. Before the wounds of the violence could begin to heal, and as the country was reeling under the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, the
anti-democratic Modi-Shah regime regime initiated the CAA registration process in 13 districts across the five states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, bringing to force the very laws and processes that these historic, peaceful protests were speaking out against at hundreds of sites across the country, and indeed, the world.

Families and friends of those arrested, unlawfully detained and even tortured at the hands of the biased police machinery continue to run from pillar to post to meet the needs of their loved ones. Every day, they grapple with the endless delays that pervade the judicial system, collect resources and assurance for bail, fight the whimsies of officers, and hope for a semblance of justice in a system that offers little respite.

Prisons reflect the worst of the power structures of an unequal society. They house a disproportionate share of people from marginalized social locations; are congested and unsanitary; cut people off from their social fabric, and offer little for a life beyond the bare minimum. In the newly found intimacies of the prison, Devangana and Natasha became vectors to raise concern for the violations that make these carceral institutions.
Even the small mercies offered by the system were taken away with the pandemic: stopping of phone calls and meetings with loved ones, restrictions on time spent outside one’s cell or barrack, and halting delivery of letters and other items that loved ones could send to prison.
Responding to these dire conditions, Devangana and Natasha filed a petition in the Delhi High Court holding the State accountable for an explicit lack of intent in responding to the needs arising from the pandemic. With
terribly insufficient health care, no vaccinations and barely any tests, overcrowding, the poorly managed movement of prisoners within the jail, the prisoners’ very right to life was under threat. Seeking infrastructure and provisions to meet the physical and emotional needs of those in prison, the petition also showed that while for the outside world it is important to raise their voices against the incarceration of political prisoners, inside the prison, the distinction between a political prisoner and other prisoners is tenuous. Devangana and Natasha have shared their barracks,
beds and hugs with women and children incarcerated for petty crimes, sometimes not even knowing the charges levied against them. Solidarity and care are central to life in prison and require that we demand equally for the rights of each and every person caught in this unjust system, no matter the accusation against them.

New Lakshadweep Regulations & Sedition Charges | लक्षद्वीप के नए क़ानून और राजद्रोह | Faizan Mustafa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wo2yLkLp_0 

https://maktoobmedia.com/2021/06/10/lakshadweep-filmmaker-aisha-sultana-booked-for-sedition-over-remarks-against-administrator-praful-khoda-patel/ 

Aisha Sultana had participated in Malayalam news channel Media One’s prime time debate on the issue on June 7, where she made the remarks against COVID-19 mismanagement of current Lakshadweep administration.

“The island was COVID-free until Patel came leading to the outbreak of the disease,” she said, reacting to the hate campaigns and police complaints against her. She said that despite being aware of the dilapidated healthcare system on the island, the administrator paid no heed and demoted the medical director. “I compared him to a bio-weapon,” she said, referring to the statements she made in the show. “My comments were not made against the Union Government. I implied the biological impacts of the regulations heralded in by the administrator on the native population,” she added.

Why the Supreme Court must repeal Sedition Law by Mihir Desai https://www.theleaflet.in/why-the-supreme-court-must-repeal-sedition-law/  the judgment not only refuses to grant the second prayer praying guidelines for lodging sedition FIRs against journalists, it goes on and shuts the door for any guidelines to be issued for regulating the filing and prosecution of cases of sedition against journalists or others.

What is interesting is that while the courts in many cases have given a narrow interpretation to the provision of sedition, granted both anticipatory and regular bails, and quashed FIRs, this has not stopped the police from filing FIRs on totally frivolous complaints and at times arresting those accused, including young students, journalists, tribal activists and similar other dissenters. The law of sedition has been utterly misused across the board, causing a substantial chilling effect. Those who are prominent and have the resources are able even to approach the Supreme Court directly but many others have to spend time in jail or in hiding, affecting their families, jobs, careers and studies. As it is, courts are not easily accessible for many poor persons. Additionally, charges of sedition are usually clubbed with UAPA offences or with other special laws, complicating the matter.

The extreme misuse and abuse of sedition law to muzzle dissent can no more be softened through reading down, issuing guidelines, or appealing to the police. It was an unconstitutional law and continues to be so today. It is anti-democratic, and against the freedom of speech and expression. It is being used to infringe upon the right to life and personal liberty. It is high time that it is junked. The Parliament will not do this: there are too many political benefits for the ruling political party, and even the opposition parties tend to use it when they get the opportunity. The Supreme Court should therefore stand tall and put the section where it belongs: into the dustbin of history.

Why, despite SC’s Vinod Dua ruling, dissenting journalists won’t be safe. https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/06/10/why-despite-scs-vinod-dua-ruling-dissenting-journalists-wont-be-safe By Kalpana Sharma 10 Jun, 2021
Sedition law has no place in a democratic society https://www.theleaflet.in/sedition-law-has-no-place-in-a-democratic-society/ by Amritananda Chakravorty   February 12, 2020 As long as undemocratic laws like sedition remain on statute books they will be misused. In light of the legal principles mentioned above, it is very clear that in each of the recent three cases of alleged sedition, the police has not bothered either about the law or about the facts of the case. To arrest 50 TISS students for raising slogans supporting Sharjeel or to charge the teacher and a mother of a child for a play with alleged insulting remarks against the Prime Minister with the charge of sedition remain the most grotesque examples of the police acting on behalf of the fascist regime.  https://www.theleaflet.in/sedition-law-has-no-place-in-a-democratic-society/

The Supreme Court, in 'Vinod Dua', has held that every journalist is entitled to protection from sedition as defined in the Kedar Nath judgment. A national consensus on the removal of the provision is called for. by Faizan Mustafa June 4, 2021 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/supreme-court-sedition-law-vinod-dua-case-modi-govt-freedom-of-press-7343120/ 

In the last seven years, an extreme nationalist ideology actively supported by pliant journalists repeatedly used aggressive nationalism to suppress dissent, mock liberals and civil libertarians and several governments routinely invoked Section 124-A that penalises sedition. the constitutional law expert  points out that according to data from the National Crimes Record Bureau, "between 2016 to 2019, there has been a whopping 160 per cent increase in the filing of sedition charges with a conviction rate of just 3.3 per cent. Of the 96 people charged in 2019, only two could be convicted”. These figures are more proof of how the provision is used for harassment even though the chances of conviction are slim.

Why does India still have a colonial sedition law? | NL Cheatsheet What is sedition? When can it be applied? And what is the Kedar Nath Singh judgement the court mentioned in its ruling on Dua's case all about? Meghnad S explains. https://youtube.com/embed/rdu4uVabmhg?startt=220&end=645