No democracy without dissent: SC on activists

‘SAFETY VALVE’ Top court issues notice to Maha govt; 5 to be under house arrest

NEW DELHI/PUNE/MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped Pune police from taking custody of five activists who were arrested a day before for alleged Maoist links, and placed them under house arrest in their respective homes until the case is heard again on September 6.

A three-judge SC bench headed by chief justice of India Dipak Misra also asked the Maharashtra government to file a response by September 5 to a petition by historian Romila Thapar and others that alleged the arrests were aimed at muzzling dissent.

“Dissent is the safety valve of democracy, the pressure cooker will burst if you don’t allow the safety valves,” justice DY Chandrachud, a part of the bench with justice AM Khanwilkar, said.

The SC bench questioned the rationale behind the arrest nine months after violence on January 1 left one person dead and four others injured in Bhima Koregaon, where hundreds of thousands of Dalits were celebrating the bicentennial of a war between the British and the Peshwas.

“There are wider issues raised by them (petitioners). Concern raised is that you are quelling dissent. Democracy is not safe if you quell dissent and that is what they are worried about,” the court said.

In near-simultaneous Pune police raids across five states on Tuesday, lawyer and trade union Hearing begins in the afternoon on a petition by academics challenging the arrests.

the bench says, as it orders house arrest for the five activists till Sept 6 activist Sudha Bharadwaj, poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, creating fear and enmity between groups, and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The arrests were part of an investigation into the Bhima Koregaon violence. Navlakha’s transit remand from his house in Delhi to Pune was stayed by the Delhi high court on Tuesday evening and he was put on house arrest, and following a late-night hearing, Bharadwaj’s transit warrant was also recalled by the local magistrate.