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A Delhi court on May 25, 2022, sentenced Kashmir’s separatist leader Yasin Malik to life imprisonment in a terror funding case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Malik. Special Judge Praveen Singh awarded different terms for different offenses under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). All the sentences will run concurrently. Malik has been sentenced to life imprisonment for two offenses – IPC Section 121 (waging war against the Government of India) and UAPA Section 17 (UAPA) (raising funds for terrorist activities).

What is the UAPA Act?

UAPA stands for Unlawful Activities Prevention Act  The main function of the UAPA law is to stop terrorist activities. Under this law, the police identify such terrorists, criminals, or other people who are involved in terrorist activities, prepare people for this, or promote such activities. In this case, the NIA, i.e., the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has a lot of power. Even the Director-General of NIA, during the investigation of any case, can get the property of the person concerned to be attached and confiscated

The law came in 1967, further strengthened after its amendment in 2019.

The UAPA Act was passed in 1967. This law was brought in to impose reasonable limits on the basic freedoms granted under Article 19(1) of the Constitution. In the last few years, laws related to terrorist activities like POTA and TADA have been abolished, but the UAPA law still exists and is stronger than before. Its amendment bill was passed in Parliament only in August 2019, after which this law got the strength that any person can be declared a terrorist based on the investigation. Earlier, this power was only about an organization. That is, an organization was declared a terrorist organization under this act. On the objection of the opposition in the House, Home Minister Amit Shah said that eradicating terrorism from the root is the priority of the government, so this amendment is necessary. Under this law, a person can be declared a terrorist only because he is suspected. For this, it will not be necessary for that person to show any connection with any terrorist organization. To get the terrorist’s tag removed, instead of going to court, he will have to go to the review committee set up by the government. However, an appeal can be made to the court later.

The scope of this law is broad.

The scope of the provisions of the UAPA Act is huge. For this reason, apart from criminals, it can also be used on activists and agitators. Questioning the territorial integrity of India has also been included in illegal activities under Section 2(o) of the UAPA. However, activists have been pointing out how did it become illegal to ask more questions? Spreading ‘discontent against India’ is also an offense under this law. However, dissatisfaction has not been fully defined. 

Many sections of the law contain stringent provisions.

In UAPA, a case is registered under sections 18, 19, 20, 38, and 39. Section 38 is invoked when it comes to knowing that the accused is associated with a terrorist organization. Section 39 is imposed for providing help to terrorist organizations. Section 43D(2) of this Act provides for doubling the period of police custody of a person. Under this law, the police can get you into custody for 30 days. At the same time, judicial custody can also be up to 90 days. Please note that in other laws, the maximum period is only 60 days.

Anticipatory bail is not possible.

Experts say that if a person has been booked under UAPA, then he cannot get anticipatory bail. Even if he is released by the police, he cannot get anticipatory bail. In fact, according to section 43D (5) of the Act, the court cannot grant bail to a person if there is a prima facie case against him. There is a provision of severe punishment in this for the membership of illegal organizations, terrorist gangs, and organizations. If you are found to be a member of a terrorist organization declared by the government, you can get life imprisonment. But there is no clear definition of ‘membership’ in the law. Many activists have been booked under this law.