Former Supreme Court judges Aftab Alam, Madan B Lokur, Gopala Gowda and Deepak Gupta on July 24 raised concerns on the misuse of anti-terrorism laws in India, reported The Hindu. Justice Gupta said the courts should intervene and lay down guidelines on the use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
“The UAPA should not remain in this form,” he said. Justice Gupta was speaking at a virtual conference on “Democracy Dissent and Draconian Laws – do UAPA and sedition have a place in our statute books”, organised by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms.
The retired judge noted that Manipur activist Erendro Leichombam was arrested on charges of sedition for speaking out against cow urine being promoted as a cure for Covid-19. He asked whether we were living in a “police state”.
Leichombam and Manipur journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem were arrested for their comments on May 13. On May 17, an Imphal court granted them bail, but before they could be released, the government invoked the National Security Act.
Leichombam and Wangkhem were granted bail this week with different courts observing that their continued detention was in violation of the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
“Vagueness of the law allows prosecution agencies to charge people,” Justice Gupta said. “Even 70 years after independence our judges don’t seem to realise what is sedition, what is terrorism.”
Justice Lokur said the courts, society and the state should consider the mental trauma afflicted on the families of activists, journalists and civil society members accused of sedition under the UAPA and are languishing in jail for months.
The retired judge asked what kind of society is being built where the families and friends of those jailed have to face barbs about their kin being called traitors for expressing their dissent.
“There is now something called soft torture,” he added. “I have been to children’s homes where there is one toilet for 50 children. Adult jails are perhaps better. But isn’t this torture?”
Justice Alam said the government has chances of diverting its attention from the actual 3% of terrorism cases by focusing on dissent. He pointed out that chargesheets were filed in only 42% of the cases registered under UAPA in 2019 even though the Act allows 180 days to file them after arresting the accused. For non-UAPA cases, the police get 60 to 90 days to file the chargesheet.
“Jails are being stuffed with people booked under UAPA, but only a minuscule get convicted,” said the former judge. “We are willing to rob our people of liberty without anything to show for it or without any accountability.”
Justice Gowda said that laws such as UAPA give security agencies unbridled power and the government the situation to commit excesses. Noting that the UAPA limits the power of judges to order a judicial review, Gowda said a law that takes away the constitutional courts’ authority to grant bail is itself unconstitutional.