Fighting for a semblance of justice: The Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group

In part 3 of the Chhattisgarh Diaries series, Bar & Bench’s Aditya AK interviews Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JAGLAG)..There is a maelstrom of activity at what has become the temporary office of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group. A month after they were evicted from Bastar, the group has found that their client, tribal rights activist Soni Sori’s family members are being harassed by the local police..They are making phone calls and shooting off e-mails, in an attempt to bring the situation to the notice of as many people as possible. The next day, Sori’s sister and brother-in-law would both be released..One shudders to think what would have happened had the lawyers not intervened..In many ways, the formation of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Clinic can be attributed to the tribal rights activist and AAP politician..Shalini’s association with Sori began in 2011, when she was still a student of Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, interning with Human Rights Law Network (HRLN)..“Soni’s problems with the police had started in 2011, after which she had fled to Delhi. We soon realised that there were more cases against her that she was unaware of, and soon we had seven cases to deal with..Through that, we realised that her cases were just a small part of the problem. In each case where she was an accused, there were around 25-30 other people also accused, many of whom were already languishing in jail. The cases were so flimsy that it was appalling to see that people were actually behind bars. .It seemed that the criminal justice system was a complete farce.”.Feeling a need to better understand how the law works in a conflict zone, Shalini and a couple of others felt that it was time to set up a legal centre in Soni Sori’s home state of Chhattisgarh..“At the time we were graduating, the centre was coming up, and we just happened to be the right people at the right time. What I want to highlight here is that it wasn’t the brainchild of two or three of us, the legal community at large was involved, and we wouldn’t have existed without the support of other lawyers..We originally started with Isha and I, and two others from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).”.Since 2013, the Jagadalpur Legal Aid Group (or JAGLAG as they are commonly known) has been representing people victimised by the rampant police brutality that seems to be the order of the day in the state..Says Isha,.“When we started, for the major part of one-and-a-half years, we were mostly doing documentation and research work. We tried to intervene in cases only through local lawyers. .Later on, our role changed in that there was direct confrontation with the police. We picked up cases of fake encounters, illegal detention and custodial torture by security forces. So that put us up against the police. We were branded by the police as Naxalite lawyers.”.Ever since, the Bastar police has been on a vendetta against the members of JAGLAG and have employed various methods in attempting to drive them out of the state..Isha recounts the chain of events that led to their eviction..“Generally, the intensity of the police operations has increased in the last 3-4 months, and parallel to that, the pressure on people who were speaking out also increased. There were three cases of sexual violence that occurred from October 2015 to January this year. We were the lawyers in all those cases. .Malini Subramaniam, who recently got evicted, documented it. She was constantly harassed by the Samajik Ekta Manch and the police for reporting on police atrocities. They indulged in sloganeering at her residence and pelted stones on her car. .We tried to get an FIR registered, after which there was a declaration by Samajik Ekta Manch that the next target would be us. We were evicted almost on the same day as Malini.”.The now defunct Samajik Ekta Manch was an organisation comprising various members, including lawyers, formed with an anti-Naxal agenda. And it was yet another example of the methods used by the police to harass so-called Naxal sympathisers..“Before we were evicted, the Samajik Ekta Manch held a conference and said really nasty things about us. It was a public vilification on local television and in newspapers. They used to say, ‘Yeh ladkiyan angrezi daaru peeti hai’ (These women drink imported liquor). .It was clear that the police was behind all of this.”.Shalini adds,.“There was direct pressure on our landlord to evict us, and that was the last straw. There was harassment before as well; there were these ‘anonymous’ complaints against us saying that we were fraudulent lawyers.”.In the wake of these complaints, they received little support from the legal fraternity in the region; in fact, the Bastar Bar Association passed a resolution calling into question their right to practice in the state..“For the first four years, they didn’t have any issues with us; we even co-hosted a seminar on legal aid and justice. Just as police harassment increased, even they started harassing us. .They were probably being pushed by the police. So the police used many strategies – direct threats, pushing the Bar against us and the Samajik Ekta Manch. These were not independent incidents.”.To make matters worse, the Association passed a second resolution saying that they would not be responsible if something untoward happened to the lawyers. However, the Chhattisgarh State Bar Council eventually intervened, and upheld their right to practice as per the Advocates Act, 1961..This harassment of lawyers in the region, Shalini says, is not something new..“Amarnath Pandey, who worked for HRLN, has 13 or 14 cases lodged against him for taking on the police. He had to leave Ambikapur and his practice was dissolved. His brother has been picked up in a dubious case and is still in prison. Even his juniors have cases against them..We experienced something similar; our landlord was harassed, the lady who cooks for us was harassed, even our clients were harassed. Everybody around us was suffering, which meant that we had to leave the place..Another lawyer, Satyendra Chaubey, was arrested under the CSPSA for having a chargesheet of a Naxal in house.”.At this point it is pertinent to ask whether the unbridled powers conferred upon the state police under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) is to blame for the state of affairs..Shalini doesn’t believe so..“I think the CSPSA is just one of the many black laws. We have realised that the policing is so bad in a conflict zone and the general atmosphere has influenced the court so much that you don’t even need these laws. .Regular IPC provisions are good enough to put away people for long periods of time..The CSPSA and the UAPA make a lot of difference in non-conflict zones. You will see them being used in Raipur, where the legal system works to a certain extent, but in Dantewada you don’t need the CSPSA.”.In light of recent events in the state, the National Human Rights Commission was approached to investigate the security forces’ excesses..Shalini says,.“After the attack on Soni, the NHRC had constituted a seven-member team. Six of them had come to investigate 2-3 other incidents, including our eviction and Malini’s..We have been sending them information for a very long time; Bastar has been a sensitive region for years. We really can’t tell what they think until the report comes out. All we can say is that we are very happy that they have taken note of it. A seven member team is a very healthy sign that they are taking it seriously..In the past, there had been another NHRC inquiry, and what we understand is that it was not very well planned. They faced problems of translations, accessing villages etc. So they did not get the information they needed to investigate cases of sexual violence. We hope that this won’t be repeated this time.”.So what is the way forward for JAGLAG?.Isha says,.“We want to go back, but we don’t know if the atmosphere is right. The major problem is accommodation. With the kind of pressure that they put on our landlord and the image they have made of us in Jagdalpur, it will be extremely difficult to find a house..We had to leave within two days, our cases are still there. Some lawyers are taking the cases pro bono only for the time being. There is no reason why professional lawyers in Jagdalpur should be doing the cases for free.”.It is quite heartening to see their level of commitment to their clients, with little concern for their personal well-being..In fact, even their sense of humour is intact. Shalini says,.“For what it’s worth, we have requested the government to give us a house!” (laughs).On a more serious note, she continues,.“Being victims of this war, we are entitled to safety and security, which the government has to provide. The government also has a duty to uphold fundamental rights, especially those of our clients, who belong to the very vulnerable section of society..They are too poor to afford their own lawyers. They have a fundamental right to a lawyer of their choice, which is us. And that is being violated by us not being allowed to stay there. It is completely unfair to our poorest clients in jail. Apart from that, we have a fundamental right to practice, and it is the government’s duty to safeguard our rights.”.And what keeps them going? Isha concludes,.“Something as simple as a sense of justice? I don’t know. People want to fight on the ground as well, it’s not like we are fighting only in the courts. We are trying to ensure that the law is being upheld.”