Columnists

Nikita Sonavane

The writer is are associated with the Bhopal-based Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project

Why it’s important to know background of those killed in 2019 Hyderabad police encounter

Wed, May 25, 2022

The widespread public sanction for retributive police violence can increase the impunity of the errant law-keepers, often at the expense of the most vulnerable.

Parliament has just passed a dangerous bill

Fri, Apr 08, 2022

Nikita Sonavane, Praavita Kashyap and Mrinalini Ravindranath write: The right against self-incrimination is at the heart of protection from police excess. Evidence mandated by the Criminal Procedures (Identification) Bill violates it

The dangers of a centralised database for justice system

Fri, May 28, 2021

It will replicate caste bias and violate liberty and privacy of citizens.

When anti-cruelty laws don’t protect animals and only harm humans

Thu, Mar 25, 2021

Class and caste elitism mars legal remedies to address animal cruelty, tends to criminalise vulnerable communities who depend on animal labour

Intimate partner violence: beyond legal definition of consent

Fri, Mar 05, 2021

Scant judicial attention has been paid to the casteist and patriarchal underpinnings of consent

States must stop clamping down on free speech in name of fake news

Tue, Feb 09, 2021

“Minimum government, maximum governance” has unfortunately translated into minimum government transparency and maximum public penalisation.

People of denotified tribes continue to bear the burden of an unjust colonial past

Tue, Dec 08, 2020

Certain communities such as the Denotified Tribes (DNTs), which have a history of persecution by the criminal justice system, are targeted under specific laws and legal provisions.