BOMBAY: Fifteen eminent citizens have strongly condemned the “brutal treatment and arbitrary incarceration” meted out to z former judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, Justice A.S. Bains, who has been held under the draconian TADA by the present regime headed by the Chic! Minister, Beant Singh, and have demanded that he be released immediately on humanitarian grounds,
In a joint appeal, the signatories have pointed out that 70-year-old Justice Bains (retired), is a well known legal luminary suffering from cardiac aliments, was arrested on April3 under TADA. He is being systematically hounded by the State Government for his role as the head of the Review Committee which ordered the release of 3,000 innocents on grounds of violation of human rights.
Later, a chairman of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, he continued his crusade against the State Administration by exposing and highlighting instances of human rights violation, When Singh took over as the new Chief Minister of Punjab he lost no time in making persons like Justice Bains (retired). “Justice Bains was handcuffed by the police after arresting him in an elaborately planned punitive manner and treatment, which is painful even to recount,” the appeal adds, relying on the report of the Committee for Information & Initiative on Punjab, released recently. They regretted that the Punjab Government is not in any hurry, nor is the Punjab judiciary, to make attempts to release Justice Bains despite hectic efforts by several human rights activists. The signatories have urged the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, to personally intervene in the matter, as well as the Chief Justice of India. % The signatories, include Mornal Gore, retired Justice H. Suresh, M.P. Vashi, former judge,
A.S. Uraizee, P.B. Samant, Iqbal Masud, Arvind Deshpande,
Prof .J.K. Hangal, Anand Patwar Dhan.
Article extracted from this publication >>
