The Evening Wrap: Supreme Court orders halt to eviction drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri

The Supreme Court on April 20 paused the advancement of bulldozers in violence-hit Delhi’s Jahangirpuri for an anti-encroachment drive. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana ordered status quo on a “special joint encroachment removal programme” spearheaded by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in Jahangirpuri, where a recent communal clash scarred the peace in the area. “Maintain status quo. We will list it tomorrow,” Chief Justice Ramana ordered briefly in the morning when senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Subhash Chandran, for the residents, sought the court’s immediate intervention against NDMC’s bulldozers. However, an hour after the court passed the status quo order, Dave was back before the CJI. This time, he informed the court that the demolition was still on. The authorities had not halted the breakage, claiming they had not got the court’s order. “It is not stopping despite Your Lordships’ order being widely reported in the media. This is very sad... We are in a society that follows the rule of law... Despite the world knowing the court’s order... Despite knowing you have intervened, they continue to say ‘we have not received the order’... This sends a terribly wrong message,” Dave submitted in court. The CJI promptly ordered the Secretary-General, Supreme Court, and Judicial Registrar to immediately communicate to the Mayor, Delhi Police Commissioner, NDMC and NDMC Commissioner the status quo order of the morning. Dave had secured the stay order in the morning by arguing that the demolition was “unauthorised and unconstitutional.” The status quo order had come even as the media aired visuals of bulldozers thrashing into property and possessions in Jahangirpuri. Dave had reminded the court that this was an area where “riots took place recently.” He said no prior notice of the demolition drive was given. “Law says there should be 15 days’ prior notice and a right to appeal,” the senior lawyer had said. A communication sent by the NDMC to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, North-West Delhi, had sought protection from 400 police personnel for the “special joint encroachment removal programme” in Jahangirpuri. It said various departments were participating in the programme, including the Public Works Department, local body, police, works/maintenance Department, Health Department, sanitation department, enforcement cell of the NDMC and even the veterinary department. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, had joined in, saying such “precipitative action” as in Jahangirpuri was not an isolated one. He said other States were witnessing such incidents. The Jamiat, in its petition, has primarily sought a direction from the court to the Centre and States such as Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to avoid impetuous steps such as using bulldozers to raze buildings. Destroying the house of a suspect as a means of punishment was foreign to criminal law. The petition referred to how authorities in Madhya Pradesh had employed bulldozers to demolish properties of those accused of rioting during Ram Navami celebrations. “Residential accommodations or any commercial property cannot be demolished as a punitive measure,” the Jamiat petition urged. The petition said the police should be provided specialised training in handling communal riots. It said Ministers, legislators and anybody unconnected with the criminal investigation should be restrained from “apportioning criminal responsibility regarding criminal action publicly or through any official communication until determined by a criminal court.” The plea alleged that several Ministers and legislators made statements about the guilt of a certain section of society, undermining the criminal justice system and the role of courts. Judge sends Julian Assange extradition decision to U.K. government A British judge on Wednesday formally approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges. The case will now go to Britain’s interior minister for a decision, and the WikiLeaks founder still has legal avenues of appeal. The order, which brings extradition closer, comes after the U.K. Supreme Court last month refused Assange permission to appeal against a lower court’s ruling that he could be extradited. A judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued the order in a brief hearing, as Assange watched by video link from Belmarsh Prison. Home Secretary Priti Patel will now decide whether to grant the extradition. The move doesn’t exhaust the legal options for Assange, who has sought for years to avoid a trial in the U.S. on charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of a huge trove of classified documents more than a decade ago. His lawyers have four weeks to make submissions to Patel, and can also seek to appeal to the High Court. Assange lawyer Mark Summers told the court that the legal team had “serious submissions” to make. The U.S. has asked British authorities to extradite Assange so he can stand trial on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk. Supporters and lawyers for Assange, 50, argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that his case is politically motivated. A British district court judge had initially rejected a U.S. extradition request on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. U.S. authorities later provided assurances that the WikiLeaks founder wouldn’t face the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk. In December, the High Court overturned the lower court’s decision, saying that the U.S. promises were enough to guarantee that Assange would be treated humanely. Assange’s lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in jail if he is convicted in the U.S., though American authorities have said the sentence was likely to be much lower than that. Assange has been held at Britain’s high-security Belmarsh Prison in London since 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle. Before that, he spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed. Last month, Assange and his partner Stella Moris married in a prison ceremony. Judges must give reasons for granting or refusing bail: Supreme Court Judges are duty-bound to give reasons for granting or denying bail, especially in cases involving serious offences and hardened criminals, the Supreme Court has held. Cryptic bail orders without giving any reasons have no place in the judicial system, it said on Tuesday. “There is a recent trend of passing such orders granting or refusing to grant bail, where the courts make a general observation that ‘the facts and the circumstances’ have been considered. No specific reasons are indicated which precipitated the passing of the order by the court,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana observed in a judgment. The case concerned the grant of bail by the Rajasthan High Court to a man accused of raping his minor niece for years. The man is an “infamous criminal” with 20 pending criminal cases to his name, involving offences like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity, etc. Setting aside the bail order, Chief Justice Ramana, who wrote the verdict, observed that “judges are duty-­bound to explain the basis on which they have arrived at a conclusion... Reasoning is the life blood of the judicial system. That every order must be reasoned is one of the fundamental tenets of our system. An unreasoned order suffers the vice of arbitrariness”. “There is need to indicate reasons for prima facie concluding why bail was being granted particularly where the accused is charged of having committed a serious offence. Any order devoid of such reasons would suffer from non-­application of mind…” the judgment noted. The judgment said the High Court erred in granting bail to the accused in a mechanical manner without any reasoning. The apex court ordered the accused to surrender in a week. Protests intensify in Sri Lanka over killing of anti-government protester The fatal shooting of an anti-government protester by the Sri Lankan police on Tuesday has sparked widespread criticism domestically and internationally, while intensifying ongoing anti-government protests in the wake of severe food shortages and record inflation. The police opened fire on demonstrators in Rambukkana town, located in Kegalle district and about 100 km from Colombo, amid non-stop agitations by citizens across the country. They are demanding that the ruling Rajapaksa brothers resign, taking responsibility for the deepening economic crisis in the country. Chaminda Lakshan, the first victim of police violence in the ongoing demonstrations, was a father of two, and in his early forties. “Chaminda Lakshan was at the protest, but not anywhere in the front, according to another injured protester. He [Chaminda] was apparently standing on the side when he suddenly clutched his stomach and fell,” said Ruwan Wijewardene, a former State Minister of Defence, who visited the area hours after the incident. “Why did the police open fire to disperse the crowd? New visuals emerging from the scene have made police claims of protesters turning violent highly questionable,” he told The Hindu on Wednesday. The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) has promised an inquiry. Dozens, including some policemen, were injured in the incident on Tuesday, following which a police curfew was declared in the area. International rights watchdogs, Colombo-based diplomats and local activists were quick to condemn the move. On Wednesday, Opposition lawmakers strongly condemned the police shooting in Parliament. Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa said Lakshan was “brutally murdered by the terrorist government” Batticaloa MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said that when Tamils and Muslims were victims of “state terrorism” in the past, the majority Sinhalese community “rarely spoke up”. “But we will not be bystanders when the state unleashes violence against the Sinhalese,” he told the House, referring to past incidents such as the death of several thousands of Tamil civilians in 2009 at the end of the civil war, and the many instances of anti-Muslim violence in the post-war years. Meanwhile, street protests are only intensifying in the island nation, following Lakshan’s death and the recent price hikes affecting various essential items and services such as wheat, bread, and bus fares. On Tuesday night, a large group of demonstrators at Galle Face, near the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, held candles in silence, paying their respects to Lakshan. On Wednesday, street protests called for justice in the Rambukkana incident. In Brief The special team of police that is investigating the dacoity-cum-murder case at Kodanad estate will question former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s confidante V.K. Sasikala in Chennai on Thursday. This is the first time she will be questioned in the case. A senior police officer privy to the investigation said Sasikala will be questioned at her residence in T. Nagar, Chennai. A summons was issued to her with regard to the questioning, the official added. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 20 APRIL 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Supreme Court orders halt to eviction drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri The Supreme Court on April 20 [paused the advancement of bulldozers in violence-hit Delhi’s Jahangirpuri]( for an anti-encroachment drive. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana ordered status quo on a “special joint encroachment removal programme” spearheaded by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in Jahangirpuri, where a recent communal clash scarred the peace in the area. “Maintain status quo. We will list it tomorrow,” Chief Justice Ramana ordered briefly in the morning when senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Subhash Chandran, for the residents, sought the court’s immediate intervention against NDMC’s bulldozers. However, an hour after the court passed the status quo order, Dave was back before the CJI. This time, he informed the court that the demolition was still on. The authorities had not halted the breakage, claiming they had not got the court’s order. [A structure is demolished during an anti-encroachment drive in the violence-hit Jahangirpuri area of New Delhi on April 20, 2022. ] “It is not stopping despite Your Lordships’ order being widely reported in the media. This is very sad... We are in a society that follows the rule of law... Despite the world knowing the court’s order... Despite knowing you have intervened, they continue to say ‘we have not received the order’... This sends a terribly wrong message,” Dave submitted in court. The CJI promptly ordered the Secretary-General, Supreme Court, and Judicial Registrar to immediately communicate to the Mayor, Delhi Police Commissioner, NDMC and NDMC Commissioner the status quo order of the morning. Dave had secured the stay order in the morning by arguing that the demolition was “unauthorised and unconstitutional.” The status quo order had come even as the media aired visuals of bulldozers thrashing into property and possessions in Jahangirpuri. Dave had reminded the court that this was an area where “riots took place recently.” He said no prior notice of the demolition drive was given. “Law says there should be 15 days’ prior notice and a right to appeal,” the senior lawyer had said. A communication sent by the NDMC to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, North-West Delhi, had sought protection from 400 police personnel for the “special joint encroachment removal programme” in Jahangirpuri. It said various departments were participating in the programme, including the Public Works Department, local body, police, works/maintenance Department, Health Department, sanitation department, enforcement cell of the NDMC and even the veterinary department. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, had joined in, saying such “precipitative action” as in Jahangirpuri was not an isolated one. He said other States were witnessing such incidents. The Jamiat, in its petition, has primarily sought a direction from the court to the Centre and States such as Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to avoid impetuous steps such as using bulldozers to raze buildings. Destroying the house of a suspect as a means of punishment was foreign to criminal law. The petition referred to how authorities in Madhya Pradesh had employed bulldozers to demolish properties of those accused of rioting during Ram Navami celebrations. “Residential accommodations or any commercial property cannot be demolished as a punitive measure,” the Jamiat petition urged. The petition said the police should be provided specialised training in handling communal riots. It said Ministers, legislators and anybody unconnected with the criminal investigation should be restrained from “apportioning criminal responsibility regarding criminal action publicly or through any official communication until determined by a criminal court.” The plea alleged that several Ministers and legislators made statements about the guilt of a certain section of society, undermining the criminal justice system and the role of courts. Judge sends Julian Assange extradition decision to U.K. government A British judge on Wednesday [formally approved the extradition of Julian Assange]( to the United States to face spying charges. The case will now go to Britain’s interior minister for a decision, and the WikiLeaks founder still has legal avenues of appeal. The order, which brings extradition closer, comes after the U.K. Supreme Court last month refused Assange permission to appeal against a lower court’s ruling that he could be extradited. [A man rides a scooter past graffiti near the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on April 20, 2022. ] A judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued the order in a brief hearing, as Assange watched by video link from Belmarsh Prison. Home Secretary Priti Patel will now decide whether to grant the extradition. The move doesn’t exhaust the legal options for Assange, who has sought for years to avoid a trial in the U.S. on charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of a huge trove of classified documents more than a decade ago. His lawyers have four weeks to make submissions to Patel, and can also seek to appeal to the High Court. Assange lawyer Mark Summers told the court that the legal team had “serious submissions” to make. The U.S. has asked British authorities to extradite Assange so he can stand trial on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk. Supporters and lawyers for Assange, 50, argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that his case is politically motivated. A British district court judge had initially rejected a U.S. extradition request on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. U.S. authorities later provided assurances that the WikiLeaks founder wouldn’t face the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk. In December, the High Court overturned the lower court’s decision, saying that the U.S. promises were enough to guarantee that Assange would be treated humanely. Assange’s lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in jail if he is convicted in the U.S., though American authorities have said the sentence was likely to be much lower than that. Assange has been held at Britain’s high-security Belmarsh Prison in London since 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle. Before that, he spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed. Last month, Assange and his partner Stella Moris married in a prison ceremony. Judges must give reasons for granting or refusing bail: Supreme Court  [Judges are duty-bound to give reasons for granting or denying bail]( especially in cases involving serious offences and hardened criminals, the Supreme Court has held. Cryptic bail orders without giving any reasons have no place in the judicial system, it said on Tuesday. “There is a recent trend of passing such orders granting or refusing to grant bail, where the courts make a general observation that ‘the facts and the circumstances’ have been considered. No specific reasons are indicated which precipitated the passing of the order by the court,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana observed in a judgment. The case concerned the grant of bail by the Rajasthan High Court to a man accused of raping his minor niece for years. The man is an “infamous criminal” with 20 pending criminal cases to his name, involving offences like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity, etc. Setting aside the bail order, Chief Justice Ramana, who wrote the verdict, observed that “judges are duty-­bound to explain the basis on which they have arrived at a conclusion... Reasoning is the life blood of the judicial system. That every order must be reasoned is one of the fundamental tenets of our system. An unreasoned order suffers the vice of arbitrariness”. “There is need to indicate reasons for prima facie concluding why bail was being granted particularly where the accused is charged of having committed a serious offence. Any order devoid of such reasons would suffer from non-­application of mind…” the judgment noted. The judgment said the High Court erred in granting bail to the accused in a mechanical manner without any reasoning. The apex court ordered the accused to surrender in a week. Protests intensify in Sri Lanka over killing of anti-government protester The fatal shooting of an anti-government protester by the Sri Lankan police on Tuesday has sparked widespread criticism domestically and internationally, while [intensifying ongoing anti-government protests]( in the wake of severe food shortages and record inflation. The police opened fire on demonstrators in Rambukkana town, located in Kegalle district and about 100 km from Colombo, amid non-stop agitations by citizens across the country. They are demanding that the ruling Rajapaksa brothers resign, taking responsibility for the deepening economic crisis in the country. Chaminda Lakshan, the first victim of police violence in the ongoing demonstrations, was a father of two, and in his early forties. “Chaminda Lakshan was at the protest, but not anywhere in the front, according to another injured protester. He [Chaminda] was apparently standing on the side when he suddenly clutched his stomach and fell,” said Ruwan Wijewardene, a former State Minister of Defence, who visited the area hours after the incident. “Why did the police open fire to disperse the crowd? New visuals emerging from the scene have made police claims of protesters turning violent highly questionable,” he told The Hindu on Wednesday. The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) has promised an inquiry. Dozens, including some policemen, were injured in the incident on Tuesday, following which a police curfew was declared in the area. International rights watchdogs, Colombo-based diplomats and local activists were quick to condemn the move. On Wednesday, Opposition lawmakers strongly condemned the police shooting in Parliament. Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa said Lakshan was “brutally murdered by the terrorist government” Batticaloa MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said that when Tamils and Muslims were victims of “state terrorism” in the past, the majority Sinhalese community “rarely spoke up”. “But we will not be bystanders when the state unleashes violence against the Sinhalese,” he told the House, referring to past incidents such as the death of several thousands of Tamil civilians in 2009 at the end of the civil war, and the many instances of anti-Muslim violence in the post-war years.  Meanwhile, street protests are only intensifying in the island nation, following Lakshan’s death and the recent price hikes affecting various essential items and services such as wheat, bread, and bus fares. On Tuesday night, a large group of demonstrators at Galle Face, near the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, held candles in silence, paying their respects to Lakshan. On Wednesday, street protests called for justice in the Rambukkana incident. In Brief The special team of police that is investigating the dacoity-cum-murder case at Kodanad estate will [question former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s confidante V.K. Sasikala]( in Chennai on Thursday. This is the first time she will be questioned in the case. A senior police officer privy to the investigation said Sasikala will be questioned at her residence in T. Nagar, Chennai. A summons was issued to her with regard to the questioning, the official added. 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