{"id":113406,"date":"2021-06-19T10:47:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T05:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=113406"},"modified":"2021-06-21T15:27:29","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T09:57:29","slug":"balancing-civil-rights-and-anti-terror-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/balancing-civil-rights-and-anti-terror-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Civil rights and Anti-terror laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Synopsis<\/strong>: The objective of UAPA is to check terrorism, and its misuse is against the ethos of democracy.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Background<\/strong>:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, Delhi High Court granted bail to activists who were undertrial for their alleged involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots.<\/li>\n<li>The judgment is a judicial opposition to the authoritarian regime of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (\u201cUAPA\u201d).<\/li>\n<li>Also, the UAPA is one of the most abused laws in India today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>How UAPA is being misused?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li>Firstly, it <strong>restricts the right to bail<\/strong> of the accused. Section 43(D)(5) of this Act prevents the release of any accused person on bail if:\n<ul>\n<li>The court is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such a person is <strong>prima facie true (what appears to be true at first)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, the <strong>adversarial system of criminal justice<\/strong> causes further delays in overburdened courts.\n<ul>\n<li>It is based on the testing of evidence through <strong>cross-examination. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The court considers which side\u2019s evidence is more persuasive.<\/li>\n<li>In higher profile cases such as the Delhi riots case, where the record is bulky, trials can take many years. It leaves the accused in prison for years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Thirdly, section 43(D)(5) is against <strong>natural justice and rule of law.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In ordinary cases, both sides produce evidence and the court cross-examine them. But when <strong>Section 43(D)(5)<\/strong> is applied, the court looks at the prosecution\u2019s evidence, which requires that bail be denied.<\/li>\n<li>It forces the court to make decisions on guilt or innocence based on one side\u2019s unchallenged story.<\/li>\n<li>It deprives individuals of their freedom for years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>That is why in the case of Section 43(D)(5) when police prepare the charge sheet, it is highly difficult to get bail until there are no internal contradictions.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Why the judgment holds significance?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li>Firstly, pendency in courts and increasing burden leaves under-trials in prison.\n<ul>\n<li>That is why bail is the only safeguard and <strong>guarantee of the constitutional right to liberty.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, the Bench of Justices observed that Section 43(D)(5) is against the <strong>basic principles of criminal justice.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Thirdly, the court suggested <strong>that criminal offenses must be specific<\/strong> in their terms, to protect the innocent.\n<ul>\n<li>To attract the provisions of the UAPA, the charge sheet must reveal factual, individualised, and particular allegations against the individual.<\/li>\n<li>It should specifically link the accused to terrorist activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fourthly, UAPA applications should be <strong>limited to terrorism-related<\/strong>\u00a0cases <strong>only<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Court also said \u201cTerrorism\u201d is a term of art, and not a word that can be thrown around loosely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lastly<\/strong>, the court also highlighted the significance of the right to protest and to dissent<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Indian courts have to play an important role in finding a balance between citizens\u2019 civil rights and anti-terrorism legislation. It is the responsibility of the judiciary to keep a check on the executive\u2019s tyranny.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GBF8M7J2G.1&amp;imageview=0\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The objective of UAPA is to check terrorism, and its misuse is against the ethos of democracy. Background: Recently, Delhi High Court granted bail to activists who were undertrial for their alleged involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots. The judgment is a judicial opposition to the authoritarian regime of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/balancing-civil-rights-and-anti-terror-laws\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Balancing Civil rights and Anti-terror laws<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1435],"class_list":["post-113406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-sec_5","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704937014},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}