send mail to support@abhimanu.com mentioning your email id and mobileno registered with us! if details not recieved
Resend Opt after 60 Sec.
By Loging in you agree to Terms of Services and Privacy Policy
Claim your free MCQ
Please specify
Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. Website can be slow during this phase..
Please verify your mobile number
Login not allowed, Please logout from existing browser
Please update your name
Subscribe to Notifications
Stay updated with the latest Current affairs and other important updates regarding video Lectures, Test Schedules, live sessions etc..
Your Free user account at abhipedia has been created.
Remember, success is a journey, not a destination. Stay motivated and keep moving forward!
Refer & Earn
Enquire Now
My Abhipedia Earning
Kindly Login to view your earning
Support
Anti-terrorism laws in India have always been a subject of much controversy. One of the arguments is that these laws stand in the way of fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.
The anti-terrorist laws have been enacted before by the legislature and upheld by the judiciary though not without reluctance. The intention was to enact these statutes and bring them in force till the situation improves. The intention was not to make these drastic measures a permanent feature of law of the land. But because of continuing terrorist activities, the statutes have been reintroduced with requisite modifications.
The UAPA was designed to deal with associations and activities that questioned the territorial integrity of India. The ambit of the Act was strictly limited to meeting the challenge to the territorial integrity of India.
The Act was a self-contained code of provisions for declaring secessionist associations as unlawful, adjudication by a tribunal, control of funds and places of work of unlawful associations, penalties for their members etc.
The Act has all along been worked holistically as such and is completely within the purview of the central list in the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.
The second major act came into force on 3 September 1987 was The Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act 1987 this act had much more stringent provisions then the UAPA and it was specifically designed to deal with terrorist activities in India.
When TADA was enacted it came to be challenged before the Apex Court of the country as being unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of India upheld its constitutional validity on the assumption that those entrusted with such draconic statutory powers would act in good faith and for the public good in the case of Kartar Singh vs State of Punjab (1994) 3 SCC 569.
The Act provides abundant powers to the law enforcement agencies to deal with the terrorists and disruptive activities.
The major provisions under the Act are: that whoever commits a terrorist act and causes death of any person shall be punished with death. In other cases of terrorist activities the term of imprisonment shall not be less than five years. This may extent to a life-term and also be liable to a fine. In case of conspiring, the minimum punishment shall not be less than three years. This may extend to life and also include fine.
As regards disruptive activities, the punishment is similar to conspiring to commit terrorist activities. The disruptive activities, whether directly or indirectly, which may affect the sovereignty or territorial integrity of India, cession or secession, by action or speech and so on, are considered as disruptive activities. In a nutshell it may be mentioned that the Act provides enough tooth to deal with the problem of terrorists and disruptive activities.
However, there were many instances of misuse of power for collateral purposes. The rigorous provisions contained in the statute came to be abused in the hands of law enforcement officials. TADA lapsed in 1995.
Other major Anti-terrorist law in India is The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 which was enforced on 24th April 1999.
This law was specifically made to deal with rising organized crime in Maharashtra and especially in Mumbai due to the underworld. For instance, the definition of a terrorist act is far more stretchable in MCOCA than under POTA.
MCOCA mention organized crime and what is more, includes `promotion of insurgency' as a terrorist act. Under the Maharashtra law a person is presumed guilty unless he is able to prove his innocence.
MCOCA does not stipulate prosecution of police officers found guilty of its misuse.
With the intensification of cross-border terrorism and the continued offensive agenda of Pak ISI targeted at destabilizing India and the post 11th September developments, it became necessary to put in place a special law to deal with terrorist acts. Accordingly, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA, 2002) was enacted and notified on 28.03.2002.
The POTA, 2002 clearly defines the terrorist act and the terrorist in Section 3 and grants special powers to the investigating authorities under the Act.
The Act provides for punishment for any officer who exercises powers maliciously or with malafide intentions. It also provides for award of compensation to a person who has been corruptly or maliciously proceeded against under the Act.
National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC)is an ambitious plan to set up an intelligence hub to collate and analyze inputs on terror activities in India.The NCTC will be the nodal agency for all counter-terrorism activities and will coordinate with intelligence agencies such as Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and state intelligence agencies.
It is aimed at combating terrorism by analysing threats, sharing the inputs and information with other agencies and converting these into actionable data.
The body has legal authority to carry out arrests, seize terror-related property & cash.
For the first time, a body under the IB will have powers to arrest.
It can seek documents, call records & financial details of suspects from all other agencies.
Given power of requisition the services of the National Security Guard or any other forces.
Will maintain a database of terrorists, their associates & of terror modules
Unending debates over the working of the anti-terror laws, TADA and POTA, in judicial, political and social circles have cast aspersions on the need for such a specific law. Yet, it can hardly be denied that that terrorism is here to stay, and constitutes the greatest contemporary threat to individual and collective security.
No legal instrument can be perfect, and no law can attain such a measure of flawlessness that it cannot be bent or broken, as long as the human instinct to do so survives.
Inherent deficiencies in the framing of laws, moreover, are magnified manifold within the context of a criminal justice system which is in as poor a state of health as India’s. It is an accepted fact that convictions for any offence, whether minor traffic violations or murder, take an extraordinary length of time. The courts are overburdened, and recent estimates indicate that there are around 3.1 million pending cases in 21 high courts and 20 million in subordinate courts in the country.
There has been negligible effort on the part of successive Governments to streamline the judicial system in the country. Attempts to create fast track courts to tackle pending cases have been largely unsuccessful. Even in areas where such courts have been established, prosecution continues to be delayed.
The fault lies, not in the legislation, but in the system that implements the law. Delays are chronic, right from the stage of issuing summons to the defendant, which, in some cases, can take several months, as processes are delayed on flimsy grounds.
TADA was victim to this process as well, and was widely criticized because its conviction rate was less than two percent. This was, curiously, advanced as grounds for scrapping the law by its critics.
The situation is nor irreparable, and the experience with the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999, deserves special attention in this regard. This legislation was passed by the Maharashtra Assembly in view of the growing menace of organised crime. The MCOCA has been an extraordinary success in Maharashtra, with a conviction rate as high as 78 per cent in some years.
There can be no doubt that, if a clear anti-terrorism strategy involving the police, the executive and the judiciary could be formulated and executed on a national scale, the successes of MCOCA could be replicated under POTA.
Regrettably, political indulgence and high-handedness have constantly undermined the implementation of counter-terrorism laws, and have infinitely complicated the terrorism debate. Among the aspects that have most frequently come under criticism is the abuse of such laws to carry out arrests of political opponents and a wide range of activists who are not covered by the intent and purpose of such laws.
There has been series of terror attacks in western countries by ?lone wolves? including the recent attack in New York.
To tackle this, countries like Canada have been focusing on assimilating migrants into their cultural mainstream. How are lone-wolfs different?
The common thread among all such attacks was that all these people acted on their own without any command from elsewhere. Most lone-wolfs get indoctrinated online out of own choice without any direct contact with radical propagators. Notably, objects of common use - like trucks, axes, knives are innovatively used as deadly weapons. These features of lone-wolf attacks help in effectively skipping the conventional surveillance radars. This strand of terrorism is not akin to conventional war that can have definitive beginning and end. It is rather closer to crime, which can best understood through, and handled by, the tools of law enforcement. Therefore, the security challenge is to be more efficient when it comes to preventing indoctrination than the actual act. What are the ways to prevent it?
Canada?s Social Integration - Understanding the plight of migrants, their worldview and their aspirations is the key to any integrationist effort. Enhanced social & personal relationships contribute greatly to the development of a =sense of belonging‘ and needs to be encouraged. For peple to forge a new beginning in the host society - being granted some form of a legal status, getting a job, Ensuring free assess to rental services, financial systems, education and healthcare opportunities is crucial. Cultural Integration - Canadian Multiculturalism Act - 1988 formalized a policy to encourage cultural diversity. Developing a sense of tolerance through recognition and understanding became an aspect of public policy. Accommodating the language of the migrants and funding multi-cultural initiatives can all help. Explaining Canadian customs and legal systems to the refugees was also given importance.
Australian Perspective - Australia had constituted many =Fixated Threat Assessment Centers‘ in 2006 to find people with obsessive, stalker-like fixations (not terrorists) on public figures and celebrities. Such people were overwhelmingly found to suffer from some form of mental illness, particularly psychosis. These centers have partnership with the health department to council these people and enhance their social cognition. Perpetrators of lone-wolf terrorism have also been found to exhibit a higher level of psychological disturbance and depression. The mental illness angle would also redefine remedial programs and rehabilitation for lone-wolfers.
Israel?s tactics - Transforming a motor vehicle into a simple but deadly weapon has long been a favoured terror tactic by Palestinians in Israel. In the wake of these attacks, Israeli officials began using concrete blocks or metal barriers to seal off areas for given periods of time. Another tactic taken by the Israelis is to proactively arrest alleged terrorists based on their profiles and their social media postings. While the tactic has raised questions about the impingement on people‘s personal freedoms, it is seen as an effective way to combat lone wolfs.
How can radicalism be prevented? Efforts for preventing polarisation along religious or ethnic lines through effective social integration are needed. Enhancing the ?sense of belonging? among different groups rather than looking for reasons to detain or expel them could help.
What is CCIT?
The CCIT was proposed by India in 1996. After two decades, the convention is yet to come to a conclusion. It is tool to develop a norm under which terrorists shall be prosecuted or extradited. It is still at primary stage of decision making in UNGA to seek consensus.
The discussions have yielded three separate protocols that aim to tackle terrorism: 1. International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. 2. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. 3. International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.
The CCIT have following major objectives:
1. To have a universal definition of terrorism that all 193-members of the UNGA will adopt into their own criminal law. 2. To ban all terror groups and shut down terror camps 3. To prosecute all terrorists under special laws 4. To make cross-border terrorism an extraditable offence worldwide.
What is the reason for deadlock?
It is mainly due to opposition from three main blocs – the US, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), and the Latin American countries. All three have objections over the ?definition of terrorism? and seek exclusions to safeguard their strategic interests. The OIC wants exclusion of national liberation movements, especially in the context of Israel-Palestinian conflict. The US wanted the draft to exclude acts committed by military forces of states during peacetime.
By: Abhipedia ProfileResourcesReport error
Access to prime resources
New Courses