Tag Archives: Habeas Corpus

Why Arnab is not released on bail today?

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Arnab Goswami was arrested yesterday morning by an encounter specialist of Mumbai Police. In the evening when he was produced before the Magistrate, he refused to extend police custody and remanded Arnab to Judicial Custody. Remember Police has no access to Prisons which is managed by a different Department of State Government.

Republic TV itself pronounced that his bail would be heard today at 3 PM and after hearing it has been announced court will resume hearing at 3 PM tomorrow when it will also consider the question of interim bail. It was also shown in the tracker that hearing was taking place a division bench of two learned judges of Bombay High Court. (The name has not been changed by the High Court so far.)

It appears from the web site of HIgh Court (https://bombayhighcourt.nic.in) that Arnab has not filed any petition for bail.

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Emergency proclamation 1975: revisiting the past

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Remembering Emergency days from childhood.

Indira cartoon emergency 1975

Those born after 1980 must read this:

Emergency is a dirty word in India. Constitution had vested certain powers in the Government to be invoked in case of emergency. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister invoked these powers on midnight of 25/26 June 1975 on the ground of ‘internal disturbance’ which ground has subsequently been deleted by Constitutional Amendment. The effect of Emergency Proclamation was that civil rights were suspended. Habeas Corpus was not available. Legal deliberations on abolition of due process is in a previous article here.
Mass arrest of dissenters and protestors was the first implication of emergency. Harassment and arrest of inconvenient politicians and lawyers was second. Mass vasectomy was next. Abuse of powers to arrest to settle personal scores by Congress party and Communist Party members was next. Soon Bureaucracy joined the party to settle scores or to make money.
Those with spine were either in jail or underground.

How was emergency proclamation affected average citizen?

For one thing, the trains were running on time. Absenteeism in Government offices was replaced with punctuality. I am not able to recall any other plus point. May be I was too young. But I noticed many things. Continue reading →

Due process of law in 1354, 1772, 1791, 1955, 1973, 2008 and 2012!

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None shall be condemned without Due Process of Law.

Due process is the right to be treated fairly by law. Right of Personal Liberty to a common man who is neither Nobel, Aristocrat, Royal or Rich was conferred very late in the west. Following is the earliest known concept to England:

“That no Man of what Estate or Condition that he be, shall be put out of Land or Tenement, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to Death, without being brought in Answer by due Process of the Law.
( See: Liberty of Subject (1354) CHAPTER 3 28 Edw 3. The STATUTE of The Twenty-eighth Year of King Edward III.)

Original text of 28 Edw. 3; borrowed from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

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