Volume
7 Issue 2 The Human
Rights Magazine March - April
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From Valour to Hunger
Death and devastation stalk Bundelkhand region of UP in the wake of severe drought. In recent weeks several efforts have been made at various levels to draw attention to appalling conditions and extreme distress faced by farmers of the area. The state government has already declared all the districts of this region — Jhansi, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Banda — to be drought affected.
Where the rifles rule
On a mere suspicion, the army can open fire, arrest and even kill innocent civilians in north-east. This has let loose a reign of terror, writes Meihoubam Rakesh from Manipur, narrating tales of horror enacted in recent years.
Arresting Child Abuse
A society is judged by the way it treats its women and children. So is a judicial system. Nothing is more horrifying than the sexual abuse of a child. And nothing is more reprehensible than a judicial system that subsequently victimises the victim. The law itself as well as the methods of investigation and cross-examination needs to be over-hauled if we are to take even one small step towards aiding an abused child's progress to recovery. .
Defending the right to legal aid
Forty-five-year-old Baliram Dalvi had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999 by a sessions court in Alibaug which found him guilty of murdering a fellow villager in a dispute over tap water. He spent 10 years in prison. He was not represented by a lawyer during the trial. The lawyer Dalvi had engaged dropped out after the initial proceedings and the Alibaug court convicted him without hearing his defence. Three other co-accused in the case who had lawyers representing them at the trial were acquitted. Dalvi was consequently sentenced to a life-term without a lawyer who could cross-examine the prosecution witnesses and defended his case.
Letter from Tihar
A Kashmiri youth, Parveez Ahmad, narrates how police turned him from a gentleman to 'bomb-man' in a letter from his confinement in Tihar Central Jail, Delhi. Combat Law is in possession of his letter. It is being reproduced here
In Defence of Innocence
A woman serving a 20-year-long sentence gives birth to a child in Mirzapur jail in Uttar Pradesh. In a fervent appeal to President Pratibha Patil, the pleader seeks reprieve and a free and honourable life for her five-year-old son who is behind the bars for no crime of his. Shanti Devi's plea in her own words
Naxal Threat
In Uttrakhand today, what does it require for you to be locked up in jail, in solitary confinement with an armed constabulary guarding your every move and watching and tracking those who visit you? You don't need to be a liquor mafia leader, a real estate dodger or a major bungler of infrastructure funds. In fact, if you are any of these you may even find a pride of place in the ruling dispensation's services.
A Daughter’s Plea
I do not remember coming across a news report on any kind of naxalite activity in the state of Uttarakhand till the Chief Minister's conference on internal security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was held on December 20, 2007.
Inside Ghaziabad jail
The Indian criminal justice system from the days of the British Raj is based on one premise - innocent till proved guilty! Yet the reality is exactly the opposite. It is simply, punishment and more punishment for the undertrials till they can prove themselves innocent!
My Days in Prison
Somewhere during the last days of my imprisonment the semi-literate jail librarian, a turbaned Sikh gentleman, serving life sentence in Delhi's Tihar Jail summoned me. He asked me to prepare a list of books as Delhi Government had approved a budget of Rs 30,000 for the jail library.
‘M’ for Murder?
Weeks after the serial bomb blasts in a number of court premises in UP, a Calcutta Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) employee, Aftab Alam Ansari, was picked up randomly from Kolkata by the CID branch of West Bengal Police. He was handed over to Special Task Force of UP Police and framed as one of the main accused behind the serial blasts.
Primitive prisons set the clock back
Do we still hold the perception, "the degree of civilisation is judged by entering its prisons", as true in the 21st century and that too, in India?
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Once as Delhi's Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Kiran Bedi was moved by the plight of prisoners. Many among them wanted to attain some worth and dignity prompting her to take steps that now stand as a landmark in prison reform.
Taking prisoners off the eyes of law
Sadly, a gap has been arising between law and its practice when one considers about Section 167 (2) (b) of the Criminal Procedure Code This unequivocally mandates that "no Magistrate shall authorise detention in any custody under this section unless the accused is produced before him;"
Lock-ups ought to look up
Only last year a police station in Jaipur shot to fame. World's attention came its way as it won an international award. Transparency, community relations and humane detention conditions led Shipra Path police station to be adjudged the best police station in the world. Yet conditions in the vast majority of police lock-ups in India, however, remain dismal.
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Where kicks-and-blows rain
The Urdu/Hindi cognate for police lock up is hawalat. This means kicks-and-blows. Hwalat is housed inside a police station. And the term in local parlance for police station is thana. It means weren't-you. Once a suspect is taken to a police station, he knows that he is going to be asked weren't-you, or haven't you been, say in this-or-that-incident, may be robbery, dacoity, conspiracy et al. And to escape station officer's wrath he would have to brave all accusations whether true or not till court comes to his rescue.
Jails that fail justice
The Mumbai Central Prison, better known as Arthur Road Jail, perched in the heart of the city is meant for 800 inmates. Yet even in good times it houses no less than 3,500 prisoners. This alone points to the kinds of problems the people inside may face. Overcrowding is what dogs most prisons throughout the country. And put together overcrowding went up to a staggering 48 percent on a countrywide basis in 2005.
Arm poor with legal aid
"Legal aid is really nothing else but equal justice in action".
Legal aid is vital to a properly functioning criminal justice system. Its purpose is to protect the very poorest members of society by ensuring equality of arms for the accused against State-funded prosecution. Without legal aid for the neediest defendants the entire criminal justice system would be undermined, offering justice only to the rich, excluding the poor from the protection of the law.
Worst jail jitters trap women
Among all sorts of prisoners and undertrials, women are the worst sufferers.
Landmark orders on prisoners' plea
Faced with apathy, neglect and prejudice, prisoners often take plea for a reasonable treatment. Combat Law team compiles some of the important prison related case laws emanating both from Supreme Court and High Courts
Lashes of hunger
The present structure of prison as an institution has evolved over a period of more than one-and-a-half century. The basic structure of prison was built by the 19th century state in an atmosphere of strong punitive ideology and resentment and prejudice against native population.
Hunger Strike in AP Jail
The absence of functional and effective institutional mechanism to address the grievances of prisoners and unaccountability of penal institutions in Andhra Pradesh led to a fierce agitation by the prisoners in the Kadapa Central Prison. This was a little over two years ago. The developments were such as to make (Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative) CHRI to intervene.
Discipline and Punish
The degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. A society cannot be deemed to be civilised unless it treats its prisoners with sympathy and affection. This treatment is not possible till the society recognises and accepts their basic human and fundamental rights.
Video linkage leaves prisoners in cold
Law casts a duty upon the State to physically produce the accused before magistrate. This is the fundamental first step required for the accused to negotiate his freedom with judiciary. This negotiation is already fraught with a number of problems ranging from biases of judiciary to all dominant influences.
Women prisoners' rights
he prison system is a predominantly male-centric model, concerned with security and containment of threat. Little thought has historically been given to the gender-specific needs of the female prison population. Today, approximately four percent of the prison population in India is female and there are just 14 women-only prisons.
‘Justice Express’ leaves many stranded
Speedy trial is a fundamental right of all accused persons. This has clearly been laid down by Supreme Court in Husseinara Khatoon case. Often various High Courts too have reaffirmed this through their orders, or observations made in several cases.
Victims of Circumstances
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity — the clarion call of the French Revolution, one of the most significant events in world history, is the guiding principle of the democratic and human rights culture. The Revolution was the first to talk about State responsibility to citizens and rights of people vis-a-vis the State.
Juveniles and jails
On November 14, 2003, Umesh was convicted for life by the Sessions Court Mumbai. He was arrested for murder in April 1999. The offence had been committed a few days prior to the arrest. On April 12, 2004, the Bombay High Court declared Umesh a juvenile and released him forthwith.
Rehabilitating Undertrials
Expand your vision, and see that inside every culprit is a victim crying for help. If you heal the victim, you will eliminate crime from the planet," says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. If we go by the philosophy that culprits are victims of their own circumstances, then the best way of reducing re-offending is by ensuring that the prisoners are able to get back to the wider community as useful and law abiding members.
Tall talk of Arthur Road Jail SSP
Ensconced behind the formidable walls of Arthur Road Jail, is senior jail superintendent, Swati Sathe. She comes across as a soft spoken and gentle person. But looks can be deceptive. As a constable sitting outside described her, "madam is made of steel. She takes no nonsense."
Where HIV virus festers
Overcrowding, lock up deaths, dismal living conditions poor nutrition and medical facilities have been major afflictions dogging Indian prisons. However, these pale before a graver threat that stalks prison cells — HIV/AIDS. A threat exacerbated by poor health conditions and an indifferent and ignorant prison system.
Little girl's long haul
Carine (real name withheld) is a nine-year-old Congolese girl. She was recently arrested and put behind bars in Delhi's Tihar Central Jail's observation home, Nirmal Chhaya. In November last year she was charged with violating section 14 of Foreigners' Act, 1946 as well as certain sections of Indian Penal Code.
Waiting for the Hangman's noose
It has been 17 long years for Perarivalan, one of the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, as he waits for the President of India to give a final verdict. With the hangman's noose hanging ominously before him, its sheer wait is as bad as torture for him. Arivu (meaning knowledge), as Perarivalan is known to his friends speaks of his anguish in having to wait under the shadow of the gallows for years.
'Take juvenile off the gallows'
Nearly two years ago, human rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves worte to President of India to seek pardon or commutation of death sentence passed by trial court and confirmed by Supreme Court in the Om Prakash Lakra case who as per his school certificate was a minor at the time of triple murder allegedly committed by him.
A One-woman-show
Kiran Bedi's stint as Inspector General of Police (Prisons) in Tihar Jail might have been short-lived. Yet she wrote a rather long account of this in what looks like a perfect act of “one-upwomanship”. Vulcanina reviews Bedi's book on her sojourn in Tihar.
Hope and Despair in Iran
Over a quarter century has elapsed since the clock was set back by 1400 years in Iran, when a people's vehement struggle against a monarch was hijacked by Ayatollahs who turned out to be medievalists. As a result many Iranians were forced to resume the people's fight. One such person is Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi who writes about what befell Iran and Iranians in her book, Iran Awakening. A review by Mallika Iyer
Ebb and flow of greed!
Oblivious to the destruction of livelihoods and habitats, a discredited hydroelectric project that was discarded 15 years ago has been revived in Nepal. Advocate and human rights activist Gopal Siwakoti 'Chintan'discusses in this column the issues kicked off by the reincarnated Arun-III project
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