{"id":51475,"date":"2019-08-22T19:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T13:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=51475"},"modified":"2019-08-22T16:00:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T10:30:49","slug":"7-pm-sacrificing-liberty-for-national-security-22nd-august-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-sacrificing-liberty-for-national-security-22nd-august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Sacrificing liberty for national security | 22nd August, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment\nAct, 2019 could be catastrophic for fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Parliament passes The Unlawful\nActivities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 on 2<sup>nd<\/sup> August 2019.<\/li><li>A PIL has been filed in SC against\nUnlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unlawful\nActivities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The UAPA was passed by the Indira Gandhi government. Its political justification then was to deal with the secessionist utterances of the Dravidian movement. <\/li><li>An unlawful activity was defined as \u201cany action taken:<ul><li>which is intended, or supports any claim, to bring about, on any ground whatsoever, the cession of a part of the territory of India or the secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union, or which incites any individual or group of individuals to bring about such cession or secession<\/li><li>which disclaims, questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India<\/li><li>which causes or is intended to cause disaffection against India.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Today, however, the UAPA is not confined only to cases of secessionist organisations. It has now been extended to cases of terrorism too. After two draconian anti-terrorist legislation: the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) were repealed due to repeated misuse by law enforcement authorities; the UAPA was amended in 2004 to bring into its fold cases of terrorism.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Need\nof amendment in the existing law:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It is argued that when the government\ndesignates an organization as terrorist organization by law, then the members\ndisappear to form a different organization under different names.<\/li><li>Through the existing law, it is difficult\nto obtain permissions from several DGPs without the knowledge of the accused.\nThis results in transferring their properties and thereby slow and inefficient\ninvestigation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nUnlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Unlawful Activities\n(Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 amends the Unlawful Activities (Prevention)\nAct, 1967.&nbsp; The Act provides special procedures to deal with terrorist\nactivities, among other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Provisions\nof the bill:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Under the Act, the\ncentral government may designate an organisation as a terrorist organisation if\nit: <\/li><li>commits or participates\nin acts of terrorism, <\/li><li>prepares for terrorism,\n<\/li><li>promotes terrorism, <\/li><li>is otherwise involved\nin terrorism.&nbsp; <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bill additionally empowers the government to designate individuals\nas terrorists on the same grounds. &nbsp;<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Under the\nAct, an investigating officer is required to obtain the prior approval of the\nDirector General of Police to seize properties that may be connected with\nterrorism.&nbsp; The Bill adds that if the investigation is conducted by an\nofficer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the approval of the\nDirector General of NIA would be required for seizure of such property. &nbsp;<strong><\/strong><\/li><li>Under the Act,\ninvestigation of cases may be conducted by officers of the rank of Deputy\nSuperintendent or Assistant Commissioner of Police or above.&nbsp; The Bill\nadditionally empowers the officers of the NIA, of the rank of Inspector or\nabove, to investigate cases.<strong><\/strong><\/li><li>The Act defines\nterrorist acts to include acts committed within the scope of any of the\ntreaties listed in a schedule to the Act.&nbsp; The Schedule lists nine\ntreaties, including the Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings\n(1997), and the Convention against Taking of Hostages (1979).&nbsp; The Bill\nadds another treaty to the list.&nbsp; This is the International Convention for\nSuppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2005).&nbsp;<strong><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How\nit conflicts with fundamental rights:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The amended law allowed the state to\nencroach upon the fundamental rights of dignity, free speech, dissent and\nreputation. <\/li><li>It argued that the UAPA Amendment Act,\n2019, conferred upon the Centre \u201cdiscretionary, unfettered and unbound powers\u201d\nto declare a person a terrorist. The law could be used by the state to bring\ndisrepute to a person, and even worse, rob him or her of liberty. The heavy\nburden to prove the state machinery wrong rested with the person.<\/li><li>The right to reputation is an intrinsic\npart of the fundamental right to life with dignity under Article 21 of the\nConstitution, and tagging an individual as a \u201cterrorist\u201d even before the\ncommencement of trial or application of judicial mind does not amount to\ncompliance with the \u201cprocedure established by law\u201d.<\/li><li>The right of dissent is a part and\nparcel of the fundamental right to free speech and expression and, therefore,\ncannot be abridged under any circumstances except for [those] mentioned in\nArticle 19 (2). The UAPA, 2019, empowers the government, under the garb of\ncurbing terrorism, to impose an indirect restriction on the right of dissent,\nwhich is detrimental to our developing democratic society.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way\nForward: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Transparency:\n<\/strong>The\ngovernment must undertake structural change to provide transparency in the\nproceedings to be accountable to the actions elated to the investigations in\nthe terror activities.<\/li><li><strong>Accountability:<\/strong> The\nin-charge officer must be accountable for any unjust negative consequences that\nmay occur during the investigation.<\/li><li>Terrorism must be defined in an\nunprejudiced and non-discriminatory manner so that it is not misused by the\ngovernment against innocent civilians.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/sacrificing-liberty-for-national-security\/article29213720.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/sacrificing-liberty-for-national-security\/article29213720.ece<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 could be catastrophic for fundamental rights. More in news: Parliament passes The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 on 2nd August 2019. A PIL has been filed in SC against Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967: The UAPA was passed by&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-sacrificing-liberty-for-national-security-22nd-august-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Sacrificing liberty for national security | 22nd August, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":87,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51475","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=51475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}