INDIA

A total of 326 cases were registered in the country under the controversial colonial-era penal law on sedition between 2014 and 2019 in which just six persons were convicted. The Supreme Court last week observed that Section 124 (A) of the IPC -offence of sedition has been enormously misused and asked the Centre why it was not repealing the provision used by the British to "silence" people like Mahatma Gandhi to suppress the freedom movement. According to the Union Home Ministry data, a total of 326 cases were registered under the sedition law between 2014 and 2019, with the highest 54 cases in Assam. Out of these cases, charge sheets were filed in 141 cases while just six people were convicted for the offence during the six-year period. The data of 2020 has not been compiled b...

Human rights experts of the United Nations on Friday called on Indian authorities to halt the eviction of the residents of Khori Gaon in Haryana’s Faridabad. “We appeal to the Indian government to respect its own laws and its own goal of eliminating homelessness by 2022 and to spare homes of 100,000 people who mostly come from the minority and marginalised communities. It is particularly important that residents be kept safe during the pandemic, they said in a statement. Last month, the Supreme Court directed Haryana and the Faridabad municipal corporation to remove “all encroachments” consisting of around 10,000 residential constructions in the Aravali forest area near the village, asserting that the “land grabbers cannot take refuge of rule of law” and talk of “fairness”. Termin...

A delegation led by Islamic organisation Raza Academy chief Mohammad Saeed Noori met Saleh Mohammad, Minister of Minority Affairs in Rajashtan on Wednesday and urged him to bring a law to ensure action against people who make insulting remarks about Prophet Muhammad. Noori told him that Indian Muslims are grief-stricken due to ”insulting” remarks being made against Prophet Muhammad. ”Muslims can tolerate anything but not any kind of insult to Islam and Prophet Muhammad,” he added In response, Saleh said that the issue would be discussed with the state’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and a bill will soon be passed in the legislative assembly. A day earlier, Noori had spoken about the need for the law at a conference held at the famous shrine of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer dist...

On Thursday, the Supreme Court said that the police misuses the sedition law to frame people who speak against the government. An SC bench led by CJI N V Ramana described the British-era sedition law as "colonial". "The sedition law is a colonial law. Do we still need the law in our country after 75 years of Independence," Chief Justice NV Ramana questioned. "Sedition provision Section 124A of IPC is a colonial-era which was used to silence dissent or protest against British and was used against Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Does the government want to retain it after 75 years of independence," the bench said. The SC said "like 66A of I-T Act, quashed before it was abused to arrest thousands for airing their views, sedition law is misused by police to fix persons who spe...

The International Press Institute (IPI), on Wednesday, in a recent report demanded immediate release of Kerala based journalist, Siddique Kappan, after his bail plea was rejected recently. Kappan was arrested Oct 5 on his way to cover a gang rape case in Uttar Pradesh, the IPI said in a series of tweets raising concern over Kappan's detention. The authorities have accused him of sedition and planning unrest. But IPI spoke with Kappan's wife, his lawyer and journalist colleagues, who all say he was just doing his job, they added further. Kappan was been held in inhumane conditions - including while sick with COVID19 - and has faced serious violations of due process and that he was unable to attend his mother's funeral after she passed away last month. The IPI has expressed its conc...

The Cabinet Committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today has approved increase the Dearness Allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2021 to 28% representing an increase of 11% over the existing rate of 17% of the Basic Pay/Pension. In view of the unprecedented situation which arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three additional instalments of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners, which were due from 01.01.2020, 01.07.2020 and 01.01.2021, had been frozen. Now, the Government has decided to increase the Dearness Allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2021 to 28% representing an increase of 11% over th...

In a video going viral over the social media an official of the Uttar Pradesh Police is heard saying, "Yeh BJP wale Bomb Laaye hain" (The BJP men have brought bombs). As per news reports the man heard in the video is the Supeintendent of Uttar Pradesh Police from the Poll Violence that erupted in Etawah district. Though BJP won the election, during this time there was a lot of ruckus in many parts of the state. Violence also took place during the election after the nomination. In various parts of Barabanki, Siddharthnagar and Aligarh, Agra, Unnao, Etawah and Chandauli, attempts were made to stop voting. Meanwhile, this video of Etawah SP is going viral on social media. In this viral video, the Etawah's SP City Prashant Kumar is seen pleading with folded hands to BJP leaders ...

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based organization, has called on authorities in Uttar Pradesh to drop criminal investigations into journalists Nidhi Suresh, Mannoj Shukla, Yashwant Singh, and cease harassing members of the press over their work. The Sadar Bazar police in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur have registered an FIR against Newslaundry journalist Nidhi Suresh after she reported on a woman named Ayesha Alvi who had petitioned the Delhi High Court on being “harassed” by the media after she converted to Islam. Reporter Manoj and the editor of another web portal, Bhadas Media, have also been named in the same FIR. “While criminal defamation codes should never be used against journalists, it is especially galling to see such laws wielded by fellow members of the press,...