UDR and other civil rights organisations ‘have time and again attempted to chronicle the immense human suffering that the earlier TADA inflicted on hundreds of ordinary men and women detained under it. This suffering was not an outcome of ‘stray cases of abuse’ but built into the very structure of draconian laws. Widespread protests and struggles of people all over India finally bore fruit as TADA was finally allowed to lapse in 1995, but even the ghost of this act was never laid to rest. Till today people are languishing in jails under this ‘dead’ act.
And now we are faced with a new law on the same lines as TADA with even more severe provisions. This report is a critique of the proposed legislation. It sets out the reasons why we oppose this bill and demand its immediate and complete withdrawal.
We present this report in the hope that this might spark some debate, and contribute in some way to the building of an opinion against this new terrorist law and demanding its unconditional withdrawal. Or else a perverse legislation, with the power to affect millions of lives, to to tear apart the social fabric of civil society, to overturn the fundamental premises of the constitution, shall once again slip quietly into our midst.
To download the report, click below:
Not Another Terrorist Law Please: A Critique of the Proposed Criminal Law Amendment Bill
For the Hindi version of the report, click below:
एक और टाडा नहीं: प्रस्तावित प्रिवेनशन आफ टैरोरिस्म बिल की आलोचना
