PUCL expresses its deepest anguish at the death on 30.12.2024, of Shri Ravikiran Jain, former National President of PUCL and Senior Advocate of Allahabad High Court in Prayagraj on 30.12.2024. One of the original stalwarts of PUCL which he joined long ago in 1977, his demise marks the end of an accomplished lawyer and a great human rights stalwart who never shied away from talking truth to power. He courageously took on the current Chief Minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath, for committing grave human rights violations and endangering constitutional rule of law and democracy.
Despite suffering from a debilitating nervous ailment which left him with severe pain and restricted movement, Ravikiranji always urged all of us in the PUCL to take on everyday violations of human rights which affected the ordinary citizen, especially from marginalised backgrounds like Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis.
Right from his student days, Ravikiranji exhibited his intense desire to fight against injustice and discrimination. Although he came from a Congress family, he fought against the anti-people policies of the then Congress government in Saharanpur, his home town. A brilliant orator, he became the President of the University Students Union. Starting law practice in Chandigarh, he suddenly shifted to Allahabad, an unknown city to him. By sheer dint of hard work, perseverance and commitment to the cause of social justice, democracy and human rights he became one of the greatest fighters for civil liberties and human rights in UP.
Ravikiranji was an activist, lawyer, campaigner, legal researcher and writer all rolled into one. During his long tenure he took up hundreds of cases covering numerous fields. Ever sensitive to the plight of ordinary workers, he took up the fight against manual sand mining , by representing mining workers who launched a massive movement against mechanised sand mining operated by a mafia of politically connected contractors, officials and businessmen. When hundreds of ordinary workers were beaten, attacked and arrested in fabricated cases of carrying arms, he fought their cases inside and out of courts, and won for the workers their right to livelihood.
Right from the Emergency era (1975-77), Ravikiranji was a lifelong opponent of state tyranny and use of draconian laws like the TADA, POTA and the preferred weapon of choice by the present government, UAPA, and in UP the UPCOCA laws. He argued the case of the Bhawanipur murder of 9 villagers by the state police in the name of being Maoists; he fought for justice of persons accused of the communal violence that engulfed Pratapgarh following Praveen Togadias’s visit. He stood in defence of Dalit authors who were facing false prosecutions. He defended Seema Azad who was unjustly arrested under UAPA and was instrumental in securing an acquittal. There was no issue too small or unimportant so long as a tinge of injustice, unfairness and human rights violations existed.
Till the very end, Ravikiranji remained keenly concerned about rising incidents of hate crimes, mob lynchings and demolitions of houses of Muslims, in different parts of UP just as much as he was untiring in his opposition to encounter deaths which have shown an increasing trend in UP under Adityanath.
Along with fighting numerous cases of police brutality, custodial violence and state terror, Ravikiranji remained intensely committed to challenging the development paradigm pursued by the Indian State since the New Economic Policies of the early 1990’s. He was a strong advocate of the right to development as a people centered, consultative human right, based on protecting the interests of the most marginalised. This was a concept that he put forward on many occasions.
Right from the time of bifurcation of erstwhile unified UP into Uttarakhand, he repeatedly emphasised the destructive potential of the so-called development projects, particularly calling attention to serious environmental dangers posed by big infrastructural projects in mountainous areas. In fact, during the founding workshop, held for reconstituting the PUCL after the formation of the State of Uttarakand,what was articulated under his guidance was that the core concern of Uttarkhand PUCL was that the people had a right to land, water and jungle against uncontrolled development.
He was amongst the pioneers of championing the rights of local bodies and Panchayati Raj Instittutions to decide on the nature and type of development projects they wanted for their areas drawing sustenance from the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments and the Right to development’. Ravikiranji was a vocal supporter of local bodies deciding for themselves their pathways to development and their rights to demand full information and disclosure of any industry coming into their areas. One of the most significant fights was for farmers protesting against setting up of thermal power plants in agricultural areas near Allahabad.
Ravikiranji will be long remembered by the PUCl for his collective contribution along with K G Kannabiran and other colleagues to the development of `Human Rights Defender’s jurisprudence’ during the period 2007 - 2010. He worked for a recognition that human rights defenders themselves need protection. This led to the NHRC establishing a human rights defenders focal point.
Given his unique position of straddling different fields of litigation, constitutional scholarship, political philosophy and activism, he remained acutely conscious of the need to protect human rights defenders, who were being targetted by brutal state police for exposing their misdeeds..
Ravikiranji was an ace criminal lawyer who had a sound understanding of constitutional law. Despite his advanced age and illness, Ravikiranji was always open to discussion with younger lawyers and would help strategise litigation in different levels of courts. It was this effervescent spirit of striving for justice and never being deterred by the consequences of resistance, that made Ravikiranji even as he was struggling with ill health, play a key role in the preparation of the PUCL PIL filed in the Allahabad High Court seeking dismissal of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of UP for having supported Justice Shekhar Yadav’s controversial statement made in a VHP event on 8th December, 2024. Justice Yadav’s speech has been widely condemned as being communal and amounting to hate speech. The PUCL PIL pointed out that by speaking and defending Justice Shekhar Yadav, the CM was speaking in gross violation of the oath of office which requires him to safeguard and act in compliance with the Constitutional value of secularism and mutual respect of all religions. The CM’s utterance would also violate the spirit of fraternity which is one of the basic elements and structure of the Indian Constitution.
As National President of PUCL from 2016 - 2022, Ravikiranji helped guide PUCL through the difficult and challenging period of the Modi-led BJP Rule which saw the use of dreaded draconian laws like UAPA, anti-sedition laws and other laws against human rights activists. Never one to be deterred by threats of intimidation and false implication, he remained a front-line fighter against rising fascist politics which has engulfed the country.
He never saw himself as only of the PUCL but worked closely with environmental groups and belonged to the larger human rights movement.
In Ravikiran Jain’s death, PUCL has lost a great human rights fighter and thinker. He leaves behind a gap which will be difficult to fill. We extend our condolences to his wife and 2 daughters and their families and the entire human rights community at this loss.
Kavita Srivastava,
President
Dr. V. Suresh,
General Secretary