Dissent

Supreme Court Judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has asserted that the goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047 cannot be achieved through criminalisation of dissent, mindless arrests under the anti-terror law UAPA and "deep social fault lines". Speaking at the first national conference of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in Bengaluru on Sunday, Justice Bhuyan also lamented the poor representation of women in the higher judiciary. He contrasted it with the figure of more than 50 per cent women making it to the posts of judicial officers in district judiciary across the country. "But has it been replicated in constitutional courts? That is the question. That is where the scrutiny of the collegium system comes in. Why is it that when the assessment becomes subjective, women do not make the grade? Out of 287 SC judges since 1950, we had a total of only 11 women judges. Why? Starting with Fathima Beevi and now Justice Nagarathna, it is some two per cent," Justice Bhuyan said. He said that as per

The family of a former Boeing quality control manager who killed himself after lawyers questioned him about his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects has settled a lawsuit against the aircraft maker. Details of the settlement over John Barnett's death were not disclosed in a court filing Monday. Barnett, a longtime Boeing employee, shared his safety concerns with journalists after he retired in 2017. He said he once saw discarded metal shavings near wiring for the flight controls that could have cut the wiring and caused a catastrophe. He also noted problems with up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on Boeing's 787 planes. Barnett shared his concerns with his supervisors and others before leaving Boeing, but according to the lawsuit they responded by ignoring him and then harassing him. Barnett, 62, shot himself on March 9, 2024, in Charleston after answering questions from attorneys for several days. He lived in Louisiana. The document announcing the settlement and closing

A rights group on Thursday reported dozens more home raids and arrests across Belarus in the latest intensification of a years-long crackdown on dissent in the country of 9.5 million people. The Viasna human rights centre said it knew of at least 159 people targeted by searches and detentions in multiple Belarusian cities, including the capital, Minsk. Those targeted by authorities included relatives of jailed dissidents, journalists and others, it said. Leaders of Belarusian opposition have called the new wave of arrests, which is the biggest in recent months, "a blow to the solidarity within the country". According to Viasna, there are 1,419 political prisoners now held in Belarus. Many of those detained Thursday and earlier in the week had been helping families of those jailed for political reasons. Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on dissent in August 2020, after an election the opposition and the West denounced as a sham gave him

The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), giving figures up to 2021, says that only 12 sedition cases have been filed in West Bengal between 2014 and 2021

When an amendment to Section 124A made its way to the IPC in 1898, it stood to define sedition as an offence that incites or seeks to incite emotions of dissatisfaction with the government

Harnessing dissent can help us develop faster and better

There could be further leaks on Pegasus in the American media, following the one in the New York Times in January

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking clarifications in its 2020 verdict by which it had held that public spaces cannot be occupied indefinitely

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a plea challenging certain provisions of the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Panchajanya attack makes Infosys first big corporate to fall victim to RSS and its affiliates hit-and-run tactics

From the late 19th century onwards, nationalists were regularly falling foul of the Sedition law

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Saturday

Book review of The Spirit of Enquiry: Notes of Dissent

Govt must reveal who is targeting Indian citizens

Sedition law isn't just a colonial hangover. It's a convenient weapon for under-performing governments to conflate themselves with the nation and use against critics

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Friday

The statute has no place in a democracy

Book review of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero

Refuses to stay HC order granting bail to three students in Delhi riots case

Delhi High Court raises the bar on UAPA application