The Election Commission has filed an affidavit expressing its stance in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) that wants a direction to the commission to frame new guidelines making voting mandatory. The commission said right to vote was not a fundamental right but statutory. “The decision taken by the voter after verifying the credentials…
The irony of Subramanian Swamy’s newest challenge to India’s hate speech and blasphemy laws is lost on many of his supporters. The same laws were used to prosecute Wendy Doniger and harass Maqbool F Hussain, as well asShirin Dalvi and others who published images depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Free speech in India is messily contested.…
Almost a month after journalist Jagendra Singh was allegedly killed for his social media posts against a Uttar Pradesh minister, his 22-year-old son came out of his personal grief to urge the Supreme Court, as the custodian of free speech, to protect more independent voices like his father’s from being “crushed to death” in the future.…
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the government’s response on a plea filed by a media professionals’ organisation challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions including penal laws on defamation. “Issue notice. A copy of this petition be served on the office of the Attorney General of India in course of the day. Let the matter…
Months after one of its campaigners was ‘offloaded from a flight, Greenpeace India on Monday claimed that a member of its international staff was denied entry into India despite having valid documents. According to the NGO, Aaron Gray-Block, a member of Greenpeace International, had flown in from Sydney on Saturday to take part in a series…
In occupied Kashmir, Hurriyet leaders have called upon India to allow a UN team to conduct investigation into human right violations as a result of enforced draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the territory. The leaders including Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Shabbir Ahmad Dar, Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, Hakeem Abdul Rashid, Farooq…
The episodes which have been taking place in Kashmir University for more than a week now are truly disturbing. The arrest of a student and the breakout of protests for his release by the fellow students is a very common reaction and genuine. This is not the first episode that took place at this highest…
Union Minister for Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India initiative would change the entire canvas of the country, adding that the Centre has taken additional measures to supplement the entire initiative. “The Digital India initiative is going to change the entire canvas of the…
From Ebola to the bombing of Gaza, civil society was the first responder to humanitarian emergencies during the last year, but faces dire threats and a funding crisis around the world, says a new report. “During the last year civil society was everywhere, doing great work often at the frontline of the world’s challenges, but…
At least 19 civilians, including five children, were killed by a Syrian regime barrel bomb attack and rebel rocket fire in Aleppo, a monitoring group said on Thursday. Fifteen of the civilians, among them four of the children and a pregnant woman, were killed in a barrel bomb strike on Wednesday evening on a rebel-held…