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Category: Repression

The UAPA Amendment And The Future Of Civil Liberties In A Constitutional Democracy

The UAPA Amendment And The Future Of Civil Liberties In A Constitutional Democracy

Youth Ki Awaas / by Nikhil Jois

Recently, the Home Minister Amit Shah introduced a legislation in the “people’s house” termed as the UAPA or Unauthorized Activities Prevention Act Amendment Bill 2019. The major change in the already existing law adds to the draconian characteristic which is carried by the law. The government intends to designate an individual as a “terrorist.” What’s more? The bill aims to designate an individual terrorist even before the accused be presented to the court for “due process” to prove someone a terrorist.
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Analysis | UAPA: Updated anti-terror law is likely to weaken Indian democracy

Analysis | UAPA: Updated anti-terror law is likely to weaken Indian democracy

pic: The Leaflet

The Leaflet / by Nivedhitha K

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 has been passed by the Parliament despite searing opposition to the inclusion of new provisions in the existing law. The Bill drew flak on two accounts. One, the new changes undermine human rights. Secondly, the amendments undermine the structure of Indian federalism.
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UAPA Amendment 2019: Petition challenges unilateral power to declare Individuals as Terrorists

UAPA Amendment 2019: Petition challenges unilateral power to declare Individuals as Terrorists

pic: sabrangindia

sabrangindia.in / by Sabrangindia

Just a week after the amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 was notified giving the Central Government power unilateral to designate an individual as “terrorist”, a Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court praying that it be declared unconstitutional.
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Law to brand individuals terrorists gets Rajya Sabha approval

Law to brand individuals terrorists gets Rajya Sabha approval

DNA / by Manan Kumar

The amendments have brought UAPA close to the USA’ Patriot Act that was enacted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
The Rajya Sabha passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, which empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists, on Friday as the Opposition lost yet another battle in Parliament. Until now, the government could only designate organisations as terrorists.
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Allowing the State to Designate Someone as a ‘Terrorist’ Without Trial is Dangerous

Allowing the State to Designate Someone as a ‘Terrorist’ Without Trial is Dangerous

The Wire / by Siddharth Varadarajan

The UAPA Amendment Bill is the single most dangerous piece of legislation the country has ever seen.
Should government officials and politicians – even upstanding democrats with a long record of respecting the rule of law like home minister Amit Shah – be trusted with the power to designate an individual as a “terrorist”, that too, without that person being tried and convicted?
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Liberties Are At An End

Liberties Are At An End

Live Law / by Santosh Paul

… From June 2018, ten of the most brilliant minds in the country pursuing the rights of man, found themselves in the tragicomic situation of the six men arrested in the Stalin cigar joke. Unfortunately for them this was a Kafkaesque reality which stared them in the face.
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Video: UAPA Amendment: Why Giving Govt Power to Declare Individuals `Terrorits´ is Problematic?

Video: UAPA Amendment: Why Giving Govt Power to Declare Individuals `Terrorits´ is Problematic?


en | 26:22 min | 2019

By The Polis Project

Suchitra Vijayan speaks to lawyer Darshna Mitra about the UAPA act, its long and violent history of weaponizing National security concerns to crush dissent, and what the recent amendments mean for the future of India as a constitutional republic.
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Video: UAPA Bill: India’s Most Dangerous Law Yet

Video: UAPA Bill: India’s Most Dangerous Law Yet


en | 8:21 min | 2019
The Wire / By Beyond The Headlines with Siddharth Varadarajan
The new Bill will allow the NIA to wreak havoc on India’s federal system. But what’s most dangerous is the amendment that will allow the government to declare not just organisations as terrorists – but individuals as well.
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Be afraid, be very afraid: Why amendments to UAPA are deeply wrong

Be afraid, be very afraid: Why amendments to UAPA are deeply wrong

Mumbai Mirror / by Invitation Chitranshul Sinha

The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA) was enacted by the Indira Gandhi government as a statute to prevent, curb and punish any ‘unlawful activity’. Such activities were, loosely speaking, seditious activities or such other activities against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India.
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