Muslim Personal Law

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has created a furore again by saying that a Muslim woman raped by her father-in-law is no longer the wife of her husband. What is different this time is that voices of dissent within the Muslim community are much stronger and vociferous.

Ghettoised education

MP government orders swapping of educational premises of two colleges on communal lines.

Armed Forces Act

The abuse of the Act led to the rape and death of Manorama last year. Its been a year, and despite all the talk about right to information, the government has not made the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission report on the Act public. However, Indian Express releases a report which outlines the main recommendations of the Report - shockingly, it recommends that the law be extended to the whole of India!

A goonda list?

The UP decision to 'list' all 'anti-social' elements is shocking. Clearly there is a problem of rising crime graph, and the solution must be located in better and transparent policing. But this measure seeks to further empower the police, turn the presumption of innocence on its head and will mostly be used agianst the weaker sections of society.

Police reforms - urgent necessity

The Patna SP being troubled for doing his duty is another regular story which calls for the need for immediate organisational reforms to shield the police force from political interference, which maintaining accountability to elected representatives.

New Rennaissance

Jaitirth Rao writes a very engaging piece on the need for a new discourse in India - a new rennaisance that moves away from seeing the State as the only site of struggle. Very well written.

Sati still around in Rajasthan

Recent reports of sati being glorified by the government of Rajasthan is a cause of concern.

Death Penalty film banned

The 'progressive' government of West Bengal pressurised the Nandan theatre to withdraw from screening a film against the death penalty. The Left shows it has little to distinguish itself from the RSS/Shiv Sena when it comes to respecting free expression.

Emergency - lest we forget

Its important to remember the worst failure of the cosntitutional structure 30 years ago - when Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency.

Domestic Violence Bill

A long pending demand for a comprehensive Domestic Violence Bill was approved by the cabinet today. Women's groups said that this is an improvement on the earlier Bill drafted by the NDA government. The Bill looks progressive, but finer details will unfold only with a draft being circulated.

Fines on BJP and Sena for bandh

The Bombay High Court has imposed a fine of Rupees 20 lakhs each on BJP and Shiv Sena for calling a bandh to protest the Ghatkopar bomb blasts, which led to loss of lives and property. The damages are payable to the State of Maharashtra and not the individual victims, though.

Compensation in Gujarat Cases

An argument for a law horizontalising constitutional rights.

Identity politics

Nivedita Menon explores the value of identity politics in a democracy - very well written, even if one may disagree with her.

AP reservations

The reservations for Muslims as a community by Andhra Pradesh is meeting increasing resistence, being seen as a divisive move.

Bar girls

The Maharashtra government's moralistic stand is spelling doom for numerous bar-girls by depriving them of employment. One can only hope the government sees sense soon.

Quota for Muslims

Andhra Pradesh government has accepted a Backward Classes Commission Report and classified muslims as a backward class, providing 5% quota for muslims in education and state employment. Its political as well as social implications remain to be seen.

Private Sector affirmative Action

Amidst the demands of reservations in the Private Sector, Sudhir Krishnaswamy details an alternative diversity based action plan that will ensure adequate representation for dalits in private sector amployment.

Tigers or Tribals? The Forest Bill Debate

Sunita Narain joins issue on the Forest Bill debate to say the need is to strike a balance between protecting the forests and wildlife and ensuring livelihood of the tribals.

Panchayati Raj

The Panchayati Raj Amendment Bill, which seeks to introduce more accountability into the local self-government, was long overdue.

Communal Crimes - Draconian Bill

The draft Communal Crimes Bill is a draconian piece of legislation. Instead of locating hte problem where it lies - i.e. lack of accountability of police and other state officials in event of communal violence, the Bill gives draconian powers to the police.

Nuts and bolts of the Information Act

The initial implementation of Right to Information Act might cause a little trouble - given the massive infrastructure it envisages in such limited time frame. One only hopes that these initial pains are overcome soon.

Railway Children

We have all seen the 'railway children' - making a living of begging and cleaning in trains and railway platforms. Aveek Sen portrays a touching image of their lives, exciting both sympathy and outrage.

Ban on smoking in flims - the compromise

The compromise reached between free expression and smoke ban on films advocate allows smoking to be shown only in rare situations such as treatment of historical personalities known to smoke, and period films.

Civil Suit in Gujarat Riots

A civil suit have been filed by several people injured in the Gujarat riots demanding compensation from the RSS and its affiliates for calling that 'Bandh' that led to loss of lives and property. Making those reesponsible for the riots rather than make the state pay up is good - hopefully making rioting expensive might be a step towards preventing them in the future.

Domestic Violence Bill

After years of campaigning, the women's movement seems to have impressed upon the government to come up with a strong Domestic Violence Bill. The chief features of the Bill are:

• The bill will create a civil law where domestic violence is very broadly defined.
  
  
• The crime will be non-bailable.
  
  
• Earlier laws covered only violence by husbands or in-laws. This time all relationships are included.
  
  
• So far, women who lodged criminal cases would find themselves cut off from all financial support. But now women will have a right to interim compensation.
  
  
• The bill also guarantees that women have a right to residence.

Media reach

The print media is reaching more villagers than ever before. The latest National Readership Survey, 2005 found Dainik Jagaran and Dainik Bhaskar to be the highest selling dailies. It might be time for the 'progressives' to begin to engage with the vernacular press.

Police violence

The utterly unaccountable and torturous Indian police force burnt its fingers this time by resorting to violence against a high profile rally demanding the right to employment, led by noted economist Jean Dreze. Of course, this is only a symptom of a deeper malaise in the system, making news only because someone important was involved.

Review of the Armed Forces Act

The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee set up to review the provisions of the draconian Armed Forces Act has submitted its report. The extensive powers given to the armed forces under the Act led to widespread protests in the North-East. The publication of the report and the government's response to it is awaited.

Property law favours Hindus

Indian property law, like most of the family law, is based on religion. For Hindus, this allows a legal entity 'Hindu Undivided Family' to be accepted as a separate body for tax purposes. This means that a hindu family with any given income is liable to pay much lower income tax than a christian or a muslim family. Making it meet the constitutional muster under Article 15, which guarantees equality on the basis of, among other things, religion, very important.

Laws that never come into force!

Though this is not a strictly human rights related question, but many human rights legislations have faced a situation where the legislature duly passes a law to be enforced when notified by the government - which never happens. The most famous law that met with such fate was the Constitutional amendment which amended Article 22 and made preventive detention more difficult. Fali Nariman talks interestingly of the executive frustrating the legislative will.

Employment Guarantee Bill

Guaranteeing employment was a key election promise of the government. The Bill tabled in the Parliament has diluted the guarantee to leave little hope in it. A civil society movement is going strong, which might help us see a good law ultimately.

Right to Information - Indian law and SA experience

Sidharth Narrain has written a very good article on the legal position under the new Right to Information Act. Probably one of the first uses of the new legislation should be to ask for the disclosure of the reports of the innumerable Commissions of Inquiries set up by various state and central governments, whose reports were never made public for political reasons. That option now seems to be foreclosed because the new law overrides all previous laws, therefore including the Commissions of Inquiry Act, which gave the government the power to refuse disclosure. The story on the use of the right to information in South Africa, which is the only country to grant it as a constitutional right, is also interesting. The crucial difference in South Africa is that the right is available against private companies as well.

Religious freedom?

The United States is debating a Freedom of Religion statute which seeks to muzzle criticism of religions in the name of upholding non-discrimination. Similar issues were raised against the Indian Communal Crimes Bill. There is a difference between discriminating against a person on the basis of her religious/non-religious beliefs and allowing free democratic debate on the ideas upheld by these groups. One cannot claim protection of ideas and censor dissent.

Smoke ban in films

The government is contemplating a ban on any depiction of smoking in movies. A ban for commercial advertisements for tobacco products is already in place. But the concerns are that banning such images in films is undue interference with artistic freedom, as articulated by many in the government as well as the film industry, including actor Amir Khan. It makes an interesting case for the limit of free speech, and the difference between the protection of commercial and artistic speech, if any. The ban is even more controversial because the government has issued the regulation on the basis of a law which was aimed only to regulate commercial advertisement of tobacco use.