Jay Mala

Jay Mala is an Indian journalist, politician, advocate and social activist.[1] She is a contributing editor for the National Herald,[2] a newspaper founded by the first Prime Minister of India. She was co-founder of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party,[3] prior to which she was President of the Indian Student Congress.[4] Jay Mala is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, who in a 1985 landmark case sued the State of Jammu and Kashmir changing tort law in India.[5][6]

Jay Mala
OccupationLawyer

She was born to a Goud Saraswat Brahmin family.[7][8]

Career

1979 Student Protest Arrest at India Gate

Jay Mala as the President of Indian Student Congress in 1979 led thousands of university students in protest against the Janata Party government at India Gate, New Delhi. Then minister of external affairs and future prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee attempted to address the angry crowd but was pelted with stones. While bleeding from the head he was protected by Jay Mala, who led him to escape into the neighbouring Parliament building. In the aftermath of the protests Vajpayee personally secured the release of Jay Mala from Parliament Street Police Station.[4]

Jay Mala vs. Home Secretary, Government of Jammu and Kashmir

In 1982 she won a case against the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in the Supreme Court. Jay Mala, acting as a legal aid advocate, secured the release of Riaz Ahmed, proving he was still a minor when he was falsely imprisoned in Jammu and Kashmir.[9] Chief justice P. N. Bhagwati quashed the detention stating the prisoner was a school boy protesting for student rights and not as the police had falsely accused him of being an adult threatening grievous bodily harm armed with a knife.

The case set precedent in India for determining the age of a minor detainee. The judges established that a two years margin of error be applied in judicial proceedings to radiological and orthopaedic test results used to determine age in favor of the accused.[10] The case has been continuously quoted for three decades to secure the release of minors across India,[11] and influenced legislation of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000.[12][13]

1983 Jammu and Kashmir General Elections

She co-founded the Panthers Party in 1982, that contested all seats in the 1983 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections. Jay Mala stood in the Udhampur constituency as the only female candidate against sixteen other men. She came third with 3,768 votes (13.75%).[14]

She polled the second most votes out of all women candidates in the general election.[15] Only seven females had contested out of a total 512 candidates.

Bhim Singh, MLA vs State of J&K

In 1984 her husband Bhim Singh, an elected opposition member, was illegally arrested and hidden by the police while en route from Jammu for a debate at the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in Srinagar scheduled for 11 September, where his vote may have been crucial.[6] Jay Mala filed a case against the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, including then Chief Minister Ghulam Mohammad Shah as a respondent in order to find her husband and set him free.[16]

After Bhim Singh's release she was his advocate in suing the government for compensation. In a 1985 landmark judgement O. Chinnappa Reddy awarded her husband 50,000 rupees.[5] The order of the judgment as the first case for monetary compensation for false detainment, along with its high profile nature made it a quoted case in future litigations across India impacting law of tort.[17]

In the case judge Reddy also ruled on the politicized nature of her husband's false imprisonment, stating that the two police officers who acted with "mischievous or malicious intent" were mere subordinates and that he did "not have the slightest doubt that the responsibility lies elsewhere and with the higher echelons of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir."[18]

1987 Jammu and Kashmir General Elections

In the 1987 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections she was a candidate from the Jammu East constituency. She came fourth out of 19 candidates with 634 votes (2.25%).[19]

There were just 13 females out of a total 528 candidates in the general election.

2019 Citizenship Amendment Act protests correspondent

Mala Jay wrote for the National Herald, strongly in support of protestors during the uprisings across India and against the Citizenship Amendment Act.[20] She wrote in favor of university students championing their progressive secular values,[21][22] while reporting and berating incidences of police brutality, such as the use of tear gas inside the library of Jamia Millia Islamia University, in contravention to United Nations norms.[23] She highly criticized the government's handling of the Citizenship Amendment Act protests,[23] and gross atrocities committed under the NRC, where thousands of allegedly stateless persons were being imprisoned in cramped detention centres in India, under inhumane conditions. Some who had died in detention, later had their bodies sent to their families in India.[24]

Her article on the Republic Day of India, 26 January 2020 went viral with over 100,000 views in 24 hours,[25] and was the top story search result on Google for keyword "India", reporting on a resolution proposed by 154 MEPs in the European Union Parliament condemning the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Personal life

She is married to Bhim Singh, leader of the Panthers Party. Her son Ankit Love[26] is the leader of the One Love Party of Great Britain.[27] She named him Love, with hope he would bring peace to the Kashmir conflict.[28][29]

References
  1. "Bhim terms ongoing elections battle of Mahabharat" (PDF). Daily Excelsior. Retrieved 20 December 2016. Jay Mala, a senior Supreme Court Advocate and a social activist, also addressed a rally in Chenani Assembly constituency.
  2. "Mala Jay". nationalheraldindia.com. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  3. "Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) – Party History, Symbol, Founders, Election Results and News". elections.in. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  4. "Bhim greets Atal Bihari on his 84th birthday". Scoop News - Jammu Kashmir. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  5. "Bhim Singh, Mla vs State Of J & K And Ors". Indian Kanoon. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016. He was taken away by the police. As it was not known where he had been taken away and as the efforts to trace him proved futile, his wife Smt. Jayamala, acting on his behalf, filed the present application for the issue of a writ to direct the respondents to produce Shri Bhim Singh before the court, to declare his detention illegal and to set him at liberty.
  6. Subramanium, Giriraj. "A Jurisprudential Analysis—Bhim Singh v. State of Jammu & Kashmir". Supreme Court Cases. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  7. "Homeless MP candidate would "shut down" Saudi, Qatari and Brunei embassies in Westminster". The London Economic. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  8. "Ankit Love, 33 is the New Leader of the Panthers Party of India | JK Media News". JK Media. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  9. Bhagwati, P (29 July 1982). "Jaya Mala vs Home Secretary, Government Of ... on 29 July, 1982". Indian Kanoon. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  10. Ferrao, Ranjana Beverly (May 2013). "Enforcing Child Laws and Juvenile Justice in Goa" (PDF). Goa University. p. 232. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  11. "Parvez Quadar Khan vs Union Of India (Uoi) And Anr". Indian Kannon. 17 January 1990. Retrieved 20 December 2016. Learned counsel for the petitioner then contended that since in the case of Jaya Mala v. Home Secy. AIR 1982 SC 1297 : (1982 Cri LJ 1777) the Supreme Court had held that a young boy of 17 years could not be preventively detained
  12. Kadri, Harunrashid (January 2004). "Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2000 - Overview". Criminal Law Journal: 224 – via ResearchGate.
  13. "Dharmendra Munib Gupta vs The State Of Maharashtra on 16 July, 2013". Indian Kanoon. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  14. "Statistical Report on General Election, 1983 to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir" (PDF). Election Commission of India. p. 93. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  15. "Key Highlights of General Election to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir" (PDF). Election Commission of India. p. 8. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  16. "Bhim Singh vs State Of J&K on 31 August, 1984". Indian Kanoon. 31 August 1984. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  17. Church, Joan; Schulze, Christian; Strydom, Hennie (1 January 2007). Human Rights from a Comparative and International Law Perspective. Unisa Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 9781868883615. As part of its remedial power, the Supreme Court directs the state to pay compensation. For further illustration the following cases can be mentioned.
  18. Sakhrani, Monica (December 2011). Prisoners' Rights Volume II (PDF). New Delhi: Human Rights Law Network. pp. 16–23, 327, 371–355. ISBN 978-81-89479-77-0.
  19. "Statistical Report on General Election 1987 to Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  20. Jay, Mala. "Contrary to top BJP leaders' claims, Anti-CAA-NCR protests are spreading, not losing momentum". National Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  21. Jay, Mala. "The good news is that Indian students are still secular and reject communal rhetoric". National Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  22. "When BHU students sent a tarpaulin to PM Modi: The broken spell of Modi". National Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  23. Jay, Mala. "Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear: Democracy under a Dictator". National Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  24. Jay, Mala. "Bias inherent in NPR-NRC implementation guidelines". National Herald. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  25. Jay, Mala. "154 European Union lawmakers draft stunning anti-CAA resolution". National Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  26. Singh, Shillpi (4 May 2016). "People of London Get Ready, Here Comes One Love Party". NewsGram India. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  27. "The unknown revolutionary royal who wants to be London's next Mayor". Huck Magazine. 5 May 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  28. Rashid, Saima (30 April 2016). "All of a Sudden, Kashmir Has a King, Living in Exile!". Kashmir Life. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  29. "London mayoral polls: 'Maharaja' with message of peace". The Indian Express. 2 May 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016. His mother named him Love with the hope that he would bring peace to the region
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