Dilip Simeon's blog

NB: To this excellent commentary on justice I will add a few lines from J.P. Stern's book, Hitler: The Fuhrer and the People (1992). They are taken from pages 113-114; a chapter called The Spirit of National Socialist Law: "National Socialist law is not, as in Dickens, 'an ass': that is, extravagant, purblind, and pompously remote from the true interests of the litigants and the community at large. It is the exercise of objective-seeming power in support of purely arbitrary and subjective decisions, its true character on no way hidden but emphasized by the mock-formality of its wordings. It is the law as it informs Franz Kafka's unfinished novel, The Trial (1914-15). 'Someone must have falsely denounced Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning', runs its famous first sentence; and from this opening to Josef K.'s execution at the end, neither he nor anyone else in the novel ever asks the obvious question as to what ...

NB: These remarks in the SC order are gratifying, and show that some of our judges are diligent in their duties as defenders of citizen's freedoms against the misuse of state power. I hope judges and magistrates in lesser courts take a lesson from this judgement and refrain from succumbing to the authoritarian impulses of the regime now in power. DS New Delhi: Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, who got bail last week, was "trapped in a vicious cycle of criminal process where the process itself has become the punishment," the Supreme Court has said, warning that arrest "cannot be used as a punitive tool". The detailed judgment in the case that was released today contained a series of extremely strong remarks. Muhammed Zubair had walked free last week, after more than a month in jail, days after Chief Justice NV Ramana flagged the matter of "hasty and indiscriminate arrests, difficulty in obtaining bail, and prolonged incarceration of undertrials". "Ar...

New Delhi: Bewajaah koi bhi sadak par ikattha bilkul na ho jisse poori millat ko nuksaan uthaana pade, jumma padhein aur apne ghar jaakar dua kariye aman aur shanti mohobbat kaayam rahe . Do not gather on the road together without reason, the entire community will have to bear the brunt. Read your Friday prayers, go home and pray that harmony, peace and love will prevail. This was what Javed Mohammed, 54, wrote on Facebook on 11:12 am on 10 June 2022, among other appeals he made for peace on Facebook and Whatsapp ( here , here and here ) to address resentment felt by Muslims, 14 days after a spokesperson of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made abusive comments about the Prophet Mohammed. It was on 26 May 2022 that Nupur Sharma, later removed as BJP spokesperson, made those remarks during prime-time national television debates on News24, Republic TV and Times Now, sparking outrage, both nationally and globally , and spurring protests across the country. The Facebook timeli...

The arrest of human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and R.B. Sreekumar, the former additional director general police, by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad on the basis of a first information report (FIR) that copiously draws on the Supreme Court judgment in the Zakia Ehsan Jafri case is patently malafide. The arrest came close on the heels of the Supreme Court judgment dismissing the challenge by the widow of late Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, to the closure report filed by the special investigation team (SIT), thereby discarding the allegations of a larger conspiracy by high state functionaries, in the Gujarat riots of 2002. The arrest was preceded by home minister Amit Shah’s coming down heavily on Setalvad, accusing her of giving baseless and false information about the Gujarat riots, soon after the Supreme Court’s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court judgment gratuitously slams not only Zakia Jafri but also Setalvad and others by its totally unwarranted and...

Justice H.P. Sandesh, judge of the High Court of Karnataka, on Monday orally disclosed in the court hall that there was a “threat” to him after he raised questions about the functioning of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The judge revealed this during the hearing of a petition filed by Mahesh P.S, deputy tahsildar, who is an accused in the ₹5 lakh bribery case involving J. Manjunath, an IAS officer and the then Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district. Justice Sandesh, during earlier hearings of the petition last week, had questioned why ACB had not acted against Mr. Manjunath. Though the judge neither disclosed the source from whom he received the threat nor the nature of threat, he asked ACB’s counsel whether ACB’s Additional Director-General of Police [Seemant Kumar Singh] was so powerful. However, Justice Sandesh revealed that another judge of the High Court came to him and told him that there was a threat from some person, who is said to have referred to an earli...

NB:  This is the kind of detailed documentation that we require in India. Those interested in studying the jurisprudence of lawlessness further could read William Scheuerman's book:  The End of Law . DS Chris Hedges: Fascists in our midst Supreme Court rulings, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, herald the ascendancy of Christian fascism in the United States... The Supreme Court is relentlessly funding and empowering Christian fascism. It not only overturned Roe v. Wade, ending a constitutional right to an abortion, but ruled on June 21 that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program. It has ruled that a Montana state program to support private schools must include religious schools. It ruled that a 40-foot cross could remain on state property in suburban Maryland . It upheld the Trump administration regulation allowing employers to deny birth control coverage to female employees on religious grounds .  It ruled that employment discrim...

Calling the Supreme Court order on Zakia Jafri's petition a "wonderful piece of literature", senior SC lawyer Kamini Jaiswal on Tuesday said the judgment is "completely illegal, unconstitutional and violates every tenet of law and fundamental rights"... https://www.deccanherald.com/national/sc-order-on-zakia-jafris-appeal-illegal-unconstitutional-and-violates-every-tenet-of-law-1122315.html 'Heaven Help Us if SC Judges Intended Setalvad's Arrest': Justice Lokur Eminent Citizens Write To CJI To Suo Moto Clarify That Zakia Jafri judgment was not Intended to have adverse consequences Written by various lawyers and other individuals (304 in total), the letter expresses concern over the imprisonment of activist Teesta Setalvad,; former  ADGP RB Sreekumar and others, stating that they were being hounded "because they chose to pursue justice for the over 2000 people who were killed in Gujrat in February 2002... https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/lette...

January 6 wasn't the end of the fascist revolt against democracy. We're watching democracy be taken away not by Proud Boys waving batons, but by conservative justices who hide their grotesque anti-democratic views behind the trappings of the Supreme Court.    The end of Roe v. Wade: American democracy is collapsing   Judges appointed by popular vote-losing presidents used a stolen Supreme Court seat to overturn the people's will...  Donald Trump may be out of office, but his stubby misogynist fingers are still grabbing Americans by the pussy . Any hope that the reaction to the leaked draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health would shame the Republicans on the Supreme Court into not overturning Roe v. Wade was crushed on Friday morning. Spontaneous protests break out across U.S. after Supreme Court overturns Roe Justice Samuel Alito - a human-shaped incel forum crammed into an itchy judicial robe -  was determined to make these words the public reco...

NB : The UAPA has become means of rubbing out the lives of 'inconvenient' persons without a formal death sentence. That is what happened to Fr Stan Swamy , and it looks as if that is what will happen to Prof Saibaba. This is the Indian justice system today. We can only hope some shred of conscience remains. DS Several activists and organisations in India and abroad have urged Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana to free G.N. Saibaba, a paraplegic former Delhi University professor serving a life term for links with Maoists whose health is said to have turned precarious. The petition was initiated by the Indian Social Action Forum and has been endorsed by organisations such as the US-based Pen America, Southern Illinois Democratic Socialists of America, civil rights groups, trade unions, Indian and Dalit organisations in the UK, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as activist groups in India, including the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled. The petitioners s...

Questioning the basis of the entire process, Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram tweeted: “Will the learned spokespersons for the BJP please answer the following questions: 1. Which is the ‘scheduled offence’ under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that has triggered an investigation by ED? 2. Which police agency has registered an FIR in respect of the scheduled offence?” He added: “3. Where is the FIR? Will you please show us a copy of the FIR? 4. Did you know that absent a scheduled offence and absent an FIR, the ED has no jurisdiction to start an investigation under PMLA?” The Congress has maintained from Day 1 that the money-laundering case cannot be made out when no transfer of money or assets has taken place.... Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala said: “No FIR has been registered so far because they know no crime has been committed. There was a private complaint by (MP) Subramanian Swamy. And the court has already ordered a stay on that...

NB: The RSS/BJP government is destroying the rule of law in plain sight of the judiciary, bureaucrats and police, all of whom are sworn to uphold the Indian Constitution. It takes a minutes or hours to destroy a home and the hearts of its inhabitants; but it will take decades to restore the faith of ordinary citizens in the integrity of our public servants. The cabal now running the country are without conscience and without any principle aside from the worship of power and brute force. The consequences are terrible to imagine, but who cares? DS The Yogi Adityanath administration has left nobody in any doubt about what the bulldozer demolitions in the state are really about. He and his police force decide who is a ‘criminal’ and dispense justice by demolishing their homes. The judiciary is sought to be propitiated by using the veneer of municipal building planning laws while the demolitions serve a larger ideological purpose of generating fear in the minority community. This has been ...