Civil rights activist Binayak Sen favoured an institutionalised mechanism to oversee the process conducted in local courts even in routine cases.
Mr. Sen claimed there was absolutely a “total disjunction” between the evidence recorded and the judgement delivered by a Chhattisgarh court which convicted him on charges of sedition.
He was later released on bail by the Supreme Court.
“I wish possibilities of developing some form of institutionalised public oversight of process conducted in courts in routine cases of IPC can be discussed,” he said addressing a function here.
Sen said he was fortunate to have the support of so many friends inside and outside the country in his fight. “I am not alone in this sense. I am also not alone as thousands and thousands across the country are in same condition of incarceration which I myself found in,” he said.
Most of the people were not getting effective judicial recourse, he felt.
Sen, who works in rural areas of Chhatisgarh, said it is being propounded that it is legitimate to dispossess poor people of their access to common property resources like water, land and forest.
“Vast majority of poor people depend on natural resources for their survival. How the Indian nation advises these people to ensure their survival and how should they respond to this (efforts to dispossess them). These are the puzzling questions, answers to which we will have to find,” he said.
