Incarceration of undertrials associated with "illegal" TU activity in Jharkhand termed violation of international law

An MSS rally before it was banned

The Jharkhand government has put four persons, accused of being associated with "illegal" trade union activity, Ajay Hembrum, Mohan Murmu, Daya Chand Hembrum and Damodar Turi, all of them undertrials, under solitary confinement, allowing them to mingle with other prisoners only twice a day for two hours.Arrested and put in Giridih Central Jail after the crackdown on the Mazdoor Sangathan Samiti (MSS), a registered trade union, banned on December 22, the relatives of these prisoners have complained that the cells in which these undertrials have been kept are unclean and without any basic facilities.
Worse, according to the relatives, they are prevented from giving basic items like mosquito repellents, food and clothes to the four inmates, with the number of persons who can visit and the frequency of visits having been "arbitrarily curtailed."
Bringing this to light, a civil rights organization, Persecuted Prisoners’ Solidarity Committee (PPSC), led by veteran human rights activist Stan Swamy and trade union leader and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj, have said that that Turi is not even a member of MSS.
In an email alert, PPSC has said, "These and other undertrial prisoners have been put in solitary confinement since March 23, 2018", adding, "In response, prisoners went on a hunger strike on March 27."
According to PPSC, following the hunger strike, "under pressure, since April 2 the jail administration allowed these prisoners to mingle with other prisoners only twice a day for two hours", calling the solitary confinement a "violation of the constitutional and statutory rights of prisoners as guaranteed by the law of the land."
According to PPSC, "It is unconstitutional and illegal to keep undertrial prisoners under solitary confinement in India. Solitary confinement is envisaged only for convicts (s.73, 74 IPC) and that too on compliance of strict statutory conditions." "Further", PPSC says, "it is only under an order of a Court that such confinement can be authorised (Sunil Batra v Delhi Administration, 1978 AIR 1675)", adding, "Internationally, solitary confinement is recognised as a form of torture."
Notably, India is a signatory to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1987.
MSS was declared an unlawful association under section 16 of the CLA Act, 1908, accused of being a “frontal organisation of the CPI (Maoist)." It has been working for the rights of doli mazdoor and other workers since 1989 in Giridih, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Ramgarh, Gaya, Kharsawan and Jhalda districts of Jharkhand.
Claiming to have membership of around 22,000 workers, MSS, says the PPSC email alert, has "exposed the fake encounter killing of one of their members Motilal Baske in June 2017, and has been protesting against the amendments to the land laws (Chotanagpur Tenancy Act 1908 and Santhal Pargana Act 1949) aimed at dispossessing Adivasis and Moolvasis of their land."

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

From SECI CMD to #OpenToWork: Gujarat cadre ex-IAS RP Gupta’s curious LinkedIn journey

Recently, I wrote a blog on retired Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat RP Gupta, with whom I used to interact during my Gandhinagar Sachivalaya days as the Times of India man. Written in the backdrop of the Government of India controversially easing him out of his position as CMD of the PSU Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a special purpose vehicle to promote solar energy, the title of the blog — "RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?" — is self-explanatory about the blog’s contents.

Search This Blog