Designation of Organisations/individuals as ‘Terrorist Organization’/ ‘Terrorist’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967(UAPA)

Source: The post is based on the article “Designation of Organisations/individuals as ‘Terrorist Organization’/ ‘Terrorist’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967(UAPA)” published in PIB on 17th February 2023

What is the News?

The Ministry of Home Affairs has designated the Khalistan Tiger Force and the Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force as terrorist organizations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. 

A Punjab resident, Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, who is presently based in Pakistan’s Lahore, was also designated as an “individual terrorist” under the anti-terror law.

What is the UAPA Act?

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Can an individual be declared as a terrorist under UAPA Act?

The Central Government amended the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in August 2019 to include the provision of designating an individual as a terrorist. Prior to this amendment, only organizations could be designated as terrorist organizations.

How individuals are declared terrorists?

The central government may designate an individual as a terrorist through a notification in the official gazette and add his name to the schedule supplemented by the UAPA Act.

The government is not required to give an individual an opportunity to be heard before such a designation.

How can individuals remove the terrorist tag?

The UAPA gives the central government the power to remove a name from the schedule when an individual makes an application.

If an application filed by an individual declared a terrorist is rejected by the government, the UAPA gives him the right to seek a review within one month after the application is rejected.

The central government will set up the review committee consisting of a chairperson (a retired or sitting judge of a High Court) and three other members.

The review committee is empowered to order the government to delete the name of the individual from the schedule that lists “terrorists” if it considers the order to be flawed.

Apart from these two avenues, the individual can also move the courts to challenge the government’s order.