“The Government alone will never be able to do it. It is only the people themselves who must utilise the law for the purpose of bringing justice at the doorstep of the large masses.”
- Justice PN Bhagwati,
Former CJI
Acts and Laws regulate how actions are to be done or not to be done within a society. They form a kind of legal umbrella which guides the citizens of a country. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA, lately has been under lot of criticism and scrutiny in the UT of J&K. An Act cannot be against the betterment of society and individual. However, many individuals construe it otherwise and highlight the misuse of the same using an alibi which is not justified. Are the police malapropos in lodging FIRs against suspects and slapping UAPA against them? Or is it that the individuals within the society need to understand that it is being done to enforce the rule of law?
The UAPA was passed in 1967 and prevents any unlawful activities in India whether committed by Indian citizen or any foreign national. The act, as per Section 2(1)(o), refers ‘Unlawful Activity’ as ‘any action taken by an individual or association intended to disrupt the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India’. The Act was amended in 2004 to include ‘terrorist act’ in the list of offences. This enabled banning of organisations involved in terrorism activities. Again, in 2019, the act was amended to include certain special procedures to handle terrorist activities and designate individuals as terrorists. Under the Act, the central government may designate an organisation as a terrorist organisation if it commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares for terrorism, promotes terrorism, or is otherwise involved in terrorism. It now empowers the DG NIA to order seizure of property if the case is dealt by NIA. The act now ensures speedy investigation of offences and empowers NIA to investigate offences related to cyber-crime and human trafficking apart from terrorist related offences.
Many critics have voiced their opinion against implementation of UAPA. They feel that this law is against the fundamental rights. According to them an individual cannot be called a terrorist before any conviction in court of law and undermines the very principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. It has also attracted lot of criticism on provisions of bail under UAPA. If the person is charge sheeted under UAPA, it becomes extremely difficult to grant bail to any individual.
UAPA is applicable in pan India. In J&K, the enforcement of this act becomes more important because of the number of individuals being radicalised, recruited and pulled towards terrorism. It is extremely important that the person abetting these activities is booked to prevent any innocent from picking up a gun. Instigators have been coaxing gullible youth to perform anti national acts which is in line with the agenda sponsored from Pakistan. Many of these include graduates and literate individuals who, after falling prey to such designs, get caught and ruin their future. They are unaware that those who are instigating and promoting these acts are always out of the legal radar and are enjoying the perks given by agencies in Pakistan. The enforcement of this Act in J&K has cast aspersions on J&K Police misusing the same to their advantage. Is it true? Why would the police do so?
Majority of local population want normalcy. Only those who are targeted along with their well wishers, to include family and friends, raise their voice when the suspect is caught by the police. Nowadays, nobody wants their child to be apprehended under UAPA as penalties are high. Character certificate for an individual booked under the act is not granted by local authorities for job, education loan, etc. Instead of blaming the police, it is the duty of the parents and relatives to ensure that their kith and kin do not get pulled towards terrorism. They should expose individuals who are instigating them so that they are booked under the Act. A good message has gone across the UT after NIA ordered seizure of property of individuals associated with terrorism. This will now deter OGWs to provide logistics support to terrorists. Chances of survival of a terrorist will reduce drastically if OGWs stop supporting them.
Lately, juveniles have been tasked to undertake activities which are related to terrorism. A young mind can easily be motivated and brainwashed and it is difficult to identify such individuals who do not have any past record. Therefore the police needs to keep a check on probable individuals who likely to fall prey to handlers sitting across.
Disposal of these cases needs to be quick. As per data from open source, it is evident that, after lodging the FIR, the disposal of the case takes a long time. The police needs to be in total synergy with NIA/ SIA to gather sufficient evidence before the suspect is apprehended. From 2015 onwards, the cases registered under UAPA have been increasing but not alarming. In 2019, 255 cases were registered under UAPA and 227 persons were arrested. As per MHA report, 346 persons have been arrested in 2020. It is just 0.000025 percent of approximate 1.36 Crore population of J&K. This, by no stretch of imagination reflects excessive use of UAPA. There is a need to understand that the purpose of UAPA is to stop any unlawful activity which may disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India and, in doing so, one will have to apprehend suspicious individuals who could be terrorists. However, the only shortcoming is the need to show urgency in resolution of cases as many accused continue to languish in jail for months and are released because of lack of evidence. Once arrested, the disposal should be in a time bound manner. The fault line here is poor investigation report done by officers who are not adept at it. Investigation and making a report is a specialised job. Once could think of inducting a specialised stream of law qualified investigating officers in police who solely are responsible for investigation and disposal of cases and leave the executive branch of police to do their daily work. Also an individual involved in an unlawful act for the first time cannot be compared to an individual who is a perpetual offender and has been in jail multiple times. We may think of categorization of offences in UAPA based on type of offence. For example, a person caught transporting unauthorised things could be in a different category as compared to an individual who has been caught throwing a grenade or involved in killing of innocents. Even a juvenile or a first timer needs to be treated differently than one who has already been booked earlier.
As a society, instead of pointing fingers on the police and law enforcement agencies, our effort should be to assist the police to expose individuals who are abetting terrorism. No law enforcement agency will arrest an individual without any reason. If the individual has been apprehended for some reason, the accused should cooperate with the police and answer all queries. J&K Police and all law enforcement agencies are highly competent and doing their best to enforce UAPA only when required. We just need to increase our trust factor and leave it to them to dispense the case based on ground facts.
"UAPA is our strength and not our weakness"
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