Whom had reportedly been released on bail by judges apparently concerned because the act was being used without discrimination or justification. The act appears to have been used in Gujarat to curb legitimate political activity, including protests by students against a rise in milk prices, by workers opposing the contract labour system and by farmers campaigning for a reduction in electricity charges. In Ahmadabad the act was used in August 1987 to detain six trade union officials who had led a strike for increased wages at Reliance Industries Ltd, a private textile manufacturing company. The six men originally charged with criminal offences when violence erupted between striking and non-striking workers. But later the police added a charge under the TADA and bail was denied. The judge ruled: “… none of the applicants can be released on bail at this stage only because of there being (an) offence under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act”. The detained workers have appealed to the Supreme Court but the outcome of the appeal is not known. In November the Gujarat Government said it had received many complaints about misuse of the act and announced a review of all the cases registered under it. That same month the Minister of State for Home Affairs of the central government instructed police officers not to misuse its provisions.
Complaints about misuse of the act have also come from Maharashtra, where many tribal people have been arrested under it on charges of assisting Nasalizes. The police have apparently not given details of these charges and those arrested have claimed that they were engaged solely in peaceful activities intended to protect their traditional means of livelihood, and that the police had used the act to extort bribes.
The act has also been used to detain alleged separatists in Jammu and Kashmir, alleged Naxalities in Andhra Pradesh and members of the Gurkha National Liberation Front; and it has been used in West Bengal, where the state government said that by December 1987, 95 arrests had been made under it. In Jammu and Kashmir
