A workshop on Socio-Legal Awareness was organised by Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) on 28 June at MTF Junior High School Muradnagar, Ghaziabad. “The unjust powerful person and authority exploits the rights of the deprived people and to counter them we have to be organised and be aware of our rights,” said Syed Akhlaq Ahmed, National Coordinator of APCR while delivering his talk on Human and Civil Rights Protection in India – Current Scenario. He further delivered his enlightening views on Criminal Justice System in India and Civil Rights violation Case and its Persuasion.
Speaking on Communal Riots and Role of Civil Rights, Activist Fawaz Shaheen, AMU Law Student opined that fact finding, documentation and investigation should be the first response from activist to communal riots. An activist must pursue administration to take action against rioters and hate mongers and if police do not take any action, public pressure should be used. He further spoke on FIR Investigation and Arrest. Using RTI Act-2005 to Defend Civil Rights was delivered by Student Activist Mohammed Zakir Reyaz.
GUJARAT RIOTS PROBE PANEL GETS 22ND EXTENSION
The Gujarat government on 30 June granted yet another extension to the Justice Nanavati Commission which is probing the 2002 Gujarat riots. “Today, the state government granted a two-month extension to the commission, valid up to 31 August,” said secretary to the panel C G Patel. This is the 22nd extension granted to the commission. In December 2013 it had got a six-month extension, which was to expire today. The commission comprises Justices G T Nanavati and Akshay Mehta (both retired).
In 2008 it submitted a part of its finding, which held that burning of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, which led to the riots, was “a planned conspiracy”.
HC REJECTS PIL AGAINST EXCLUSION OF ARABIC, PERSIAN AS PAPERS IN CIVIL EXAMS
The Delhi High Court on 2 July refused to entertain a PIL seeking quashing of a UPSC notification by which Arabic and Persian languages were excluded from the list of optional subjects for the main Civil Services examinations. “How this issue falls under the public interest? They all are IAS aspirants and they can come forward to file a case,” a bench comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said. “Do you (petitioner) want us to stall the entire selection process? We are satisfied with UPSC’s response,” the court said while dismissing the PIL filed by Delhi-based lawyer Shahid Ali on the issue.
The PIL had sought quashing of “March 5, 13 notification, published by UPSC in the gazette on March 6, whereby UPSC excluded Arabic and Persian from the list of optional subjects mentioned in group 2 ‘literature of languages’ from the main examination of civil services conducted by UPSC.” It had also sought a direction to UPSC that Arabic and Persian be included “again in the list of subjects mentioned in group 2 ‘literature of languages’ of the main examination of Civil Services conducted by UPSC.”
URDU SCHOOL IN KURLA SLUM FACES DEMOLITION
The fate of about 800 students of the Maharashtra Urdu High School in Kurla is at stake as their 16-year-old educational institute faces closure, a report said on 1 July. The school in the sprawling Kranti Nagar slum may be demolished as it falls within 10 metres of a water pipe. A Supreme Court order says structures within 10 metres of a water pipe should be cleared.
The school has now pinned its hopes on civic authorities allotting it an alternative plot and says its closure will deprive the impoverished people of the area of the only school in the locality. The BMC has already surveyed and marked the distance up to which it plans to clear the area. Last week trustees of the school discussed the issue with a select group of media-persons.
MARRIAGE REGISTRATION MANDATORY FOR ALL RELIGIONS: DELHI GOVT
The Delhi government’s rule for mandatory registration of marriages is applicable to all religions, including Muslims and Christians. “Everyone in the city, irrespective of their religion, has to get their marriage registered. Marriage registration has been made mandatory in compliance of the Supreme Court’s order,” said Dharam Pal, revenue secretary, Delhi government. The previous Congress government failed to pass a bill in this regard in the face of opposition from Muslim MLAs who had raised questions about the implications of the rule on the community.
But with President’s Rule in force in the Capital, the notification for compulsory marriage registration was issued without any major opposition. Shoaib Iqbal, an MLA from Matia Mahal – who had opposed the bill earlier – has now decided to meet the L-G over the issue though. “It is a sensitive issue and administration should not have taken such a decision. They should have implemented it through a proper channel so that everyone had a say on it.
REPORT BY MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP PAINTS BJP BLACK
BJP has made it to the ‘State of The World’s Minorities and Indigenous People 2014’ report for all the wrong reasons. The report, released by Minority Rights Group (MRG) International on 3 July, delves into BJP’s role in the Muzaffarnagar riots in UP in the run-up to the polls. According to a case study on the Muzaffarnagar riots that was part of the report, both Muslim and Jat respondents held BJP responsible for the communal violence.
“India has progressive and significant legislation and policies that protect the rights of its minorities, including national- and state-level minority commissions, SC/ST Act, and reservations for minorities in education and politics. India’s neighbours have not quite managed to secure such broad rights protection at the national level. Still, India has problems implementing its own legislation. SC/ST Acts has provisions for special courts…but few states have established such courts…India has provisions in the penal code which can be used to prosecute hate speech crimes. But widespread entrenched discrimination against minorities and gender discrimination result in the lack of will on behalf of authorities to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and hate speech against minorities,” said Nicole Girard, Asia programme coordinator, MRG and co-author of the South Asia chapter of the report.
COMMUNAL CLASHES EMERGE IN UP
The seething communal tension in Uttar Pradesh is again emerging in the form of small clashes. Post Lok Sabha elections, 13 incidents of communal clashes have left five persons dead and over 100 injured in the state. Though of low intensity, these clashes pose a serious law and order concern in the state, which is yet to recover from the scars of last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots.
Nearly half of these clashes occurred over petty disputes on use of loudspeakers in a religious place or playing of drums and use of firecrackers in processions. A series of similar incidents, after SP government came to power in 2012, had surcharged communal atmosphere which snowballed in the form of large scale riots in Muzaffarnagar.