[Reader-list] Fwd: PUDR Welcomes Supreme Court Judgment on Arup Bhuyan v/s the State of Assam

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Subject: PUDR Welcomes Supreme Court Judgment on Arup Bhuyan v/s the
State of Assam

Press Release

February 15, 2011

People’s Union for Democratic Rights welcomes the recent Supreme Court
judgement (Arup Bhuyan v/s the State of Assam) passed by the bench of
Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra stating: `Mere
membership of a banned organisation will not make a person a criminal
unless he resorts to violence or incites people to violence or creates
public disorder by violence or incitement to violence.’ It also
stresses upon Section 25 of the Evidence Act which mandates that if
not supported by material evidence, confession to the police is
inadmissible in court. In so doing, it takes into account the gruesome
forms of torture a person is subjected to in custody, which, the Court
said, can force a person to `confess to almost any crime’. The
judgement terms such statements, brought forth by arm-twisting,
‘extra-judicial’. This verdict could have a significant bearing on the
cases of Piyush Guha, Narayn Sanyal, Binayak Sen and several thousand
others who continue to face incarceration in jail on insubstantial
grounds.

The criticism of this judgement by the Congress led Government and the
BJP, and their stated intent to file a review petition before a larger
bench of the Court, warrants complete censure. The concern expressed
by the BJP was that in the light of this judgement only specific acts
of crime would have to be proved. This takes us back to the premise
upon which draconian laws like UAPA and CSPSA have been successful in
criminalizing legitimate activities: the presumption that an accused
is guilty until proven innocent. The spurious argument being given by
the Congress and the BJP ——that the judgement is a threat to national
security—— feeds into the State-encouraged paranoia among the general
public. This anxiety regarding public security is being conveyed by
the same State that is waging war against its own people and has
caused insecurity amongst its citizens not just in terms of their
physical safety but in the form of inflation, unemployment and a
consistent misappropriation of public funds, to name a few.

Proscription of organizations only serves to curtail constitutional
rights like freedom of association, expression and conscience as well
as discourages the sustenance of a congenial atmosphere for debate and
discussion. When the articulation and propagation of one’s beliefs and
ideologies is prevented, organization banned and its membership
criminalized the suppressed dissent festers into antagonism against
the suppressors, in this case, the State. Unmindful of these
fall-outs, when the State decides to ban organizations, it displays
the perverse logic of a Government which grants patronage to
majoritarian fascist organizations such as the RSS and Shiv Sena to
propagate and practice divisive politics. And treats heinous crimes by
its members as crimes of individuals——not of or by the
organizations——a principle which both the Congress led UPA Government
and the BJP are reluctant to follow for others.

PUDR urges the democratic opinion in the country to raise their voice
against those who are critiquing the judgement from a myopic illiberal
perspective and demands that in the light of the aforesaid judgement,
the State must discontinue the prohibition of lawful activities by
outlawing groups and organizations. We also demand that laws like UAPA
and CSPSA, that strengthen the State’s hand in arbitrarily targeting
groups and individuals working for the safeguard of democratic rights
and constitutional freedoms, be revoked to restore a functional
democracy.

Harish Dhawan and Paramjeet Singh

Secretaries