UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES PREVENTION ACT: HOW IT

PROVING TO BE DRACONIAN LAW.

-by Aniket Pandey

The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act or UAPA is an Indian law introduced to

make powers available to protect the sovereignty and integrity of India. The law
was implemented in the 1960s and later on, further amendments were
imposed. Under the BJP rule government, the terrorist amendment act where
individuals can also be tagged as terrorist if there is certain evidence which
insight hateful behavior against the country. The UAPA law grants autonomy to
the state which however violates the lawfulness and goes against the basic
tenets of the constitution.

In recent times there is a wholesome opposition against the anti-terror law

because it questions the dissent of an individual which is very basic for
everyone. The UAPA,2019 which is amended under the anti-terror law removes
any chances of institutional mechanism for judicial review. When article 370
was abrogated from Jammu and Kashmir the police invoked section 13 of UAPA
which prohibited the citizens for more than a year to use the internet as a free
will those who were accessing the social media through VPN's to doge the
longest ever internet ban were captured under the section 13 of UAPA.

After 2014 when BJP led government came into rule more than 40 cases were
booked under the UAPA act this surfaced out after the Bhima Koregaon case
and the Delhi riots in that many students and journalists were on the radar
because they were dissenting the authoritarian nature of the government. The
unlawful activities prevention act has become a poisonous tree as it gives
absolute power to the state and parliament which minimizes the role of the
judiciary. Devangana Kalita, Natasha narwal, Umar Khalid, Stan Swamy,
Siddique Kappan are noticeable names who were booked under the draconian
law by the state. Yet the shreds of evidence related to any of the cases don't
prove to be powerful enough to question one's fundamental right and drag
him/her under this law.
A law that undermines human rights and criminalizes mere political thoughts
and political protests is an assault on democracy. Such an ironic concept is being
played out as how the Unlawful prevention act curbs the rights and freedom of
citizens for protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the nation. The
foundational stone democratic rights and individuality is getting hampered in
the name of nationalism. The whooping 165% rise from 2016 in the UAPA cases
has become a concern as India was placed 142nd position in the world press
freedom index and 53rd in the democratic index which states that Indian
democracy is a "Flawed democracy". To stop UAPA from being a tool of
repression independent judiciary of our country should strike down the law and
clarifies some draconian amendments it should challenge the absolute control
of the state and mark the values of democracy at their fullest.