“The UAPA [Unlawful Activities Prevention Act] has been amended in the past keeping in view the requirement. Presently no amendments in the UAPA are under consideration,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha on December 14, 2021 in answer to a series of questions regarding the law.

Various Opposition leaders from Congress, BJD, AITC, TDP including Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and even a BJP MP Vishnu Dayal Ram had enquired about the number of people arrested under UAPA and possible amendments to the law.

Specifically, they asked whether the central government planned to amend the Act following evidence about the large number of acquittals and thus prevent harassment of innocent people by abuse of law.

However, Rai replied to this query by saying, “Conviction is an outcome of an elaborate judicial process and is dependent on various factors, such as, duration of trial, appraisal of evidence, examination of witnesses, etc. There are adequate constitutional, institutional and statutory safeguards including inbuilt safeguards in the UAPA itself, to prevent misuse of the law.”

MPs also asked about the number of individuals including students below 25 years, who were arrested, granted bail, convicted, released and their average period of detention after arrest between 2018 and 2020. Additionally, they asked about custodial deaths.

Using the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2020 data, the Ministry showed that 1,421 people were arrested under UAPA, 1,948 people were arrested in 2019 and 1,321 people in 2020 – the pandemic year. While, 35 people were convicted in 2018, 34 people were convicted in 2019 and then a whopping 80 people were convicted ii 2020.

Further, the Ministry did not have data about 25-year-olds arrested under UAPA. But while 755 people below 30 years of age were arrested in 2018, the number rose to 1,096 people in 2019, and 650 in 2020.

“During 2018-20 only one case was registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in 2019, in the State of Odisha and that was in the district Balasore. The data regarding the period of detention is not maintained by NCRB,” said Rai.

The entire data can be seen in Annexure I and II of the following document.

Many like him continue to suffer behind bars. Sabrang India’s sister organisation Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) maintains a record of such cases on its Human Rights Defenders page.

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The TMMK and MMK in their press release have said that, “The Triple Talaq Bill paves way for imprisonment of innocent Muslim men on the false claim that they have pronounced Triple Talaq and at the same time rendering the Muslim woman and her family desolate.”

The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is another ‘Black Act’ that is an unjust law that trounces upon all facets of Justice. The National Investigation Agency in the name of curbing terrorism is indulging in arbitrary and unjust activities.

Protest held in Madurai

About the scraping of the special status of J 7 K, the press release states “It is evident that communal bias has instigated the central Government to abrogate Art 35A and suspend Art 370 from the Constitution, imprison leaders of Kashmir and divide Jammu and Kashmir in to two Union Territories by holding the people of Kashmir by the force of gun.”

The Mob lynching incidents have all been carried out in the name of beef and refusal to chant Jai Shri Ram. The videos of the inhuman acts have been circulated with impunity implying that the perpetrators have the indirect support of the Central Government and the state BJP Governments; said the statement.

Protest in Chennai

“A Country should be governed by the Constitutional Laws with the aim to uphold and safeguard the welfare of the people. The Central Government in contradiction to this objective making use of the brutal majority in the Parliament has brought these Black laws,” said Dr. M.H. Jawahirullah the president of MMK.

Dr. Jawahirullah told twocircles.net, “Around 60,000 people came out to participate in the protest from the 4 cities of Tamil Nadu. Leaders from DMK, Congress, CPM, CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi; representatives of other NGOs and movements such as People’s watch and Christian Goodwill Movement joined us in our protest.”

“ This mass protest is the beginning, we are going to continue our struggle, he added, “ We will educate the people about these Acts and how they are going to affect us. Already a petition against the abrogation of the special status of J & K has been filed in the SC, we will have our executive meeting in which we will decide what further action we can take to repel these black laws”.

‘The massive agitation that took place yesterday has kindled the spirit of opposition throughout the state and people are demanding their withdrawal,’ Dr. Jawahirullah concluded.

Other prominent leaders who were part of the protest are Central Chennai District President Abdul Salaam, South Chennai District President Ghori (alias) Muhammad Abu Backer, and North Chennai District President F. Usman Ali; P. S. Hameed, Vice President, TMMK and Chief Administrative Council Member P. M. R. Shamshuddin, Deputy General Secretary M. Yaqoob,  Kunangudi Haniffa, Member, Chief Administrative Council of TMMK ,Dr. M. H. Jawahirullah, President of Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, D.M.K. Secretary R.S. Bharathi, M.P., Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo Member Mr. G. Ramakrishnan, Communist Party of India State Deputy Secretary M. Veerapandian, Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Party’s General Secretary D. Ravi Kumar M.P., Coordinator Thirumurugan Gandhi and Christian Goodwill Movement coordinator Inigo Irudhayaraj.

Courtesy: Two circles
 

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The petitioner, defining himself to be a public-spirited person, says UAPA 2019 seeks to substantially modify Chapter VI of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Section 35 and 36. “The new Section 35 of the UAPA Act, 1967 empowers the Central Government to categorise any individual as “terrorist” and add name of such a person in Schedule 4 of the Act. It is submitted that conferring of such a discretionary, unfettered and unbound powers upon the central government is antithesis to the Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” says the petition filed through Advocate Pawan Reley. The much-debated recent amendment allows for notification of individuals as “terrorists” while under UAPA,1967, only organisations could be so notified.

UAPA 2019 strikes at Right to Reputation
Submitting that UAPA 2019 strikes at Fundamental Rights of an individual at various levels, the petitioner says it also mars the right to reputation of a person.
“…Right to Reputation is an intrinsic part of fundamental right to life with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and terming/tagging an individual as “terrorist” even before commencement of trial or any application of judicial mind over it, does not amount to following of ‘procedure established by law’ and is, thus, violative of right to reputation of such an individual who is being categorised as terrorist and being added in Schedule 4 of the UAPA Act, 1967.”

The petitioner has cited the case of ‘Board of Trustees of the Port of Bombay v. Dilip Kumar Raghavendranath Nadkarni & Ors’, while stressing on right to reputation as an integral part of right to life, wherein the Supreme Court had held that, “It is thus amply clear that one is entitled to have and preserve, one’s reputation and one also has a right to protect it. In case any authority, in discharge of its duties fastened upon it under the law, traverses into the realm of personal reputation adversely affecting him, must provide a chance to him to have his say in the matter.”
The petition further states that Section 35 of the impugned law is also violative of international conventions ratified and implemented by India as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1965) recognizes right of reputation of others and right to hold opinions without interference.

Curtails Right to Dissent
Media reports suggest that the petition further states that, “The UAPA, 2019 does not afford an opportunity to an individual, being categorised as terrorist, to present his/her case and let such individuals to live on the whim and caprice of the society thereinafter. The amended Section 35 of the UAPA, 1967 directly and adversely affects the fundamental right to free speech and expression as enshrined under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India. It is relevant to note here that Right of dissent is a part and parcel of fundamental right to free speech and expression and therefore, cannot be abridged in any circumstances except for mentioned in Article 19 (2)”.

“The UAPA, 2019 empowers the ruling government, under the garb of curbing terrorism, to impose indirect restriction on right of dissent which is detrimental for our developing democratic society,” it says.

Arbitrary powers conferred on State; manifest arbitrariness
The petitioner also raises the issue “whether the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 suffers from the vice of manifest arbitrariness?”
“prior to passing of the impugned law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 vide its Section 35 authorised only categorising of organisations as terrorist organisations but after coming into force of the impugned law, the same has been extended to individuals as well… it is necessary to draw a clear line of distinction between unilateral categorisation of an organisation as terrorist organisation and unilateral categorisation of an individual as a terrorist because the latter carries with itself far more prolonged consequences and repercussions for a person’s liberty and to live freely with dignity”.
The petition also further argues that the procedure for notification of an individual as a ‘terrorist’ is flawed and devoid of any impartial procedure, as the same lacks any judicial member or retired judicial member, especially in the instant case where fundamental rights of an individual are at stake, the petitioner submits.

The petition also argues that Section 35 of UAPA 2019 “does not specify detailed grounds or reasons based on which an individual can be termed as terrorist and, therefore, conferring of such an arbitrary and unfettered power without any limits or bounds amount to violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India”.

“…thread of reasonableness runs through the entire Part III of the Constitution (Fundamental Rights) and not even an iota of the provisions contained in Section 35 of the impugned law be termed as fair and reasonable,” it says while citing Supreme Court’s observation in the case of ‘Shayara Bano & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors’ wherein the court dealt with the scope of challenging validity of an enactment on grounds of being manifestly arbitrary and observed, “Manifest arbitrariness, therefore, must be something done by the legislature capriciously, irrationally and/or without adequate determining principle. Also, when something is done which is excessive and disproportionate, such legislation would be manifestly arbitrary. We are, therefore, of the view that arbitrariness in the sense of manifest arbitrariness as pointed out by us above would apply to negate legislation as well Under Article 14,” says the petition.
 

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