Life And Liberty

Fifty years after ADM Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla, a firsthand account from inside the courtroom traces how ambition shaped the majority and principle shaped Justice H.R. Khanna’s dissent.

A day after Justice Mini Pushkarna declined to grant similar interim relief, doctors testified that the activist, showing low parameters, needs only continuous monitoring.

Days into a hunger strike that has now stretched past three weeks, the Delhi High Court declined to shift Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital of his choice leaving his family's claim that his consent and his choice of treatment were never truly his own, unresolved.

Amid a live split in Supreme Court jurisprudence on Article 21 and bail under special statutes, the Delhi High Court’s order granting bail after nearly five years’ incarceration marks a return to the constitutional reasoning laid down in Union of India v. K.A. Najeeb.

In its 298 page judgment late last month, the Court formulated safeguards against criminalisation of survivors under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, while providing a detailed plan for their medical and legal assistance and reintegration into society.

A Division Bench last week while criticising two Supreme Court judgments for diluting the UAPA precedent in K.A. Najeeb, implicitly doubted why inadmissible evidence like uncorroborated disclosure statements were being treated as ‘prima facie’ proof to deny bail. Is this a new dimension in UAPA’s bail problem?

In its over 140 page judgment, summarised here, the Court distinguished two sets of reliefs based on the alleged roles assigned to each of the seven individuals in the 2020 Delhi riots.

India’s refusal to accept individual complaints under the ICCPR leaves political prisoners without international recourse, unless civil society chooses to act.