Jasleen Bedi, B.A.LLB., University School of Law and Legal Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
ABSTRACT
India has time and again enacted robust legislations to combat terrorism. This paper seeks to critically examine the trajectory and explain the kaleidoscopic aspects including the prevailing legal lacunas of myriads of anti-terrorism laws such as AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act), UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act), TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act), MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) and POTA (The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002) promulgated with an objective to mitigate terrorism. Moreover, it also scrutinizes the existing impediments in their implementation, their weakening legality and the eventual erosion of constitutionally granted rights along with civil liberties inhering in these legislations.
The paper seeks to decipher the ways to resolve such tensions in these laws which have often been termed as ‘draconian’ and ‘stringent’. Often India has experienced a swindling effort to uphold the ideals of directive principles of state policy and thereby, the ethos of basic fundamental rights have been kept on stake under the guise of ‘national security’. At times, such laws have been used as a weapon to quell the dissent, resulting in the urgent desideratum to have strong safeguards. The present research also highlights as to how the promulgation of powerful nationwide anti-terrorism laws without sufficient safeguards to constrain misuse and ensure national uniformity in their implementation has led to human rights abuses and disparate patterns of enforcement throughout the country. Lastly, it seeks to plug the legal loopholes and give suggestions to improve the status quo in order to achieve the utopian ideal of anti-terrorism laws in the country.
