South Asia Citizens Web

I wish to thank the majority and dissenting Justices of the Supreme Court for their judgment, which allowed us four weeks to seek relief in this matter, and the public-spirited citizens & lawyers of India for putting up a spirited fight on our behalf, whose memory I will cherish. I am humbled by the solidarity, which crossed borders, rallying in our support.

The PEN International report on freedom of expression in India, was released in late September 2018 it calls on the Indian authorities to protect writers, journalists and others exercising their right to free expression.

The Asma Jahangir memorial at Asia Society in New York was held on 30 Sept 2018 There was a public discussion with Phillip Alston, Steve Coll, Ayesha Jalal, Hina Jilani, Ahmed Rashid, Samina Ahmed with BBC’s journalist Lyse Doucet moderating the discussion. This was followed by a short speech by Asma Jahangir’s daughter Munizae Jahangir ....

Pension Parishad rally and sit-in in New Delhi on 30th Sept - 1st Oct 2018. Some 12000 people gathered from all over India demanding pension between Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 per month

[1 Oct 2018] PUDR welcomes the Supreme Court’s order on the petition filed by Prof. Romila Thapar and others for extending protection from custody to the five activists- Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bhardwaj and Arun Ferreira- arrested a month ago by the Maharashtra Police. A three-judge bench in its 2:1 majority judgment, even in refusing the demand of the petitioners for constituting a Special Investigating Team, recognised the damage to individuals that can be caused by such arbitrary arrests and has enabled every possible challenge to this power before the appropriate courts to secure personal liberty of the five activists. An inspiring and detailed assertion of the rights to personal liberty and to political opinion in the judgment delivered by Justice Chandrachud, in his dissent, is heartening.