PFI national council appeals judiciary to protect religious freedom, personal laws

Media Release
October 12, 2018

New Delhi, Oct 12: The National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of Popular Front of India held at its headquarters in New Delhi stated that a series of seemingly liberalist and progressive judgments came from the apex court in recent months intensifies the apprehension among the religious minorities that they may pave the way for Uniform Civil Code.

A highly impactful judgment given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India was on the issue of religious conversion of Akhila to Hadiya and her subsequent marriage with a Muslim. On 9 April 2018, setting aside a Kerala High Court judgment which annulled the marriage, Supreme Court said that “the right to marry a person of one’s choice is integral to Article 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution”.  It was one of the most important judicial interventions in recent history of the country to protect the fundamental rights of ordinary citizens against powerful right wing forces who tried to block it.

The state interference in religious affairs is against the spirit Indian constitution. Consequently, every community has the freedom to practice their religious customs and personal laws. However, the judgment that upheld the 1994 Allahabad High Court verdict on the status of Mosque in Islam and on the entry of  women in Shabarimala temple in Kerala were alarming interference in the religious affairs of the respective communities. At a critical juncture when the country is awaiting justice for the illegally occupied and demolished Babri Masjid,a judgment negating of essentiality of Masjid in Islam does not give a positive message. The concern that such judgments would be misused by a communally motivated government was reaffirmed by the passing of Triple Talaq ordinance in the name of Supreme Court verdict. Hence it is high time the Supreme Court come forward taking a clear stand that the Ayodhya Masjid-Mandir title suit would be dealt with as per records and not according to any religious faith.  This has become an onus on the part of highest judiciary in the context of consistent statements by some unscrupulous leaders that Ram Mandir would be constructed on the site of demolished Babri Masjid at any cost.

The judgments decriminalizing homosexuality and adultery claim to protect individual freedom and privacy. It may be interpreted that Supreme Court is merely imitating permissive values and concepts, which have already resulted in the decline of family and other social systems. The same enthusiasm was not seen in protecting personal freedom and privacy of individuals while ratifying the government decision on Aadhaar. The majority judgment failed to see the danger in linking every citizenship rights and availing of government welfare schemes and services with Aadhar. Though most of the recent majority judgments were presented in the superficial language decorated with liberalism and progressiveness, they are borne with far reaching consequences ruinous to individual, family and society.

The National Executive Council of Popular Front applauded the commitment of the Supreme Court that is being repeatedly shown in all available contexts that the Indian constitution and its values are supreme. The meeting observed that at a time when overt calls and covert attempts are being made by those who control the centers of power to subvert the democratic and secular foundation of our constitution, this uncompromising constitutional commitment must be  seen as the ultimate hope of India.

The three days meeting of the apex body of the organization discussed the socio-political situations prevailing in the country. The meeting also reviewed the activities of the organization in different states.  The determination and steadfastness shown by Popular Front   leaders and activists of Jharkhand state in the aftermath of organization’s ban was commendable.  The meeting has applauded the High Court decision that revoked the ban and urged the state government to ensure freedom of association in Jharkhand.  The proposal by the Community Development Department to allot Rs. 15 million for post-metric scholarship during the academic year 2018-19 was approved.

Chairman E Abubacker presided over the meeting. Vice chairman O M A Salam, General Secretary Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Secretaries Abdul Wahid Sait, Anis Ahmed and other NEC members attended the meeting.

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News Network
March 3,2020

New Delhi, Mar 3: Delhi's Tihar Prison authorities had made all necessary preparations for the hanging of four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape-and-murder case which was scheduled for Tuesday, officials said Monday.

However, on Monday evening, a city court deferred the hanging till further orders.

Postponing the execution, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana said the hanging cannot be carried out pending disposal of Pawan Gupta's mercy plea before the President, observing any condemned convict must not meet his "Creator" with grievance against courts for not acting fairly on the opportunity to exhaust legal remedies.

"We had made all the necessary arrangements for the execution of the four convicts which was scheduled for Tuesday at 6 AM. Now, the execution has been postponed and we are waiting for the further order by the court," a senior jail official said.

The hanging of the four men -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan -- who are lodged in Tihar jail, was fixed for March 3 in Tihar jail on a court order.

"We had checked the ropes. Hangman was called and dummy executions were carried out," another senior jail official said.

Barring Pawan, the other three had in the previous weeks moved curative petitions and mercy pleas which were all dismissed.

The first date of execution -- January 22 -- fixed on January 7 was postponed by the court to February 1. But on January 31, the court indefinitely postponed the hanging. On February 17, the court again issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 AM.

The court in its orders observed that the four convicts cannot be hanged since a mercy plea of one or the other convict was pending.

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: 18,653 COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally of coronavirus cases to 5,85,493, informed the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Wednesday.

As per the Ministry, there are presently 2,20,114 active cases in the country. The number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 3,47,979.

507 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total deaths due to the virus to 17,400.

According to the ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state by the virus with 1,74,761 cases including 7,855 fatalities.

Tamil Nadu is the second worst-hit state with 90,167 cases including 1,201 deaths. Meanwhile, Delhi has a total of 87,360 cases.

The Indian Council of Medical Research said that a total number of 86,26,585 tested up to June 30 of which 2,17,931 samples were tested on Tuesday.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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