NEW DELHI; The National Commission for Minorities a statutory body has called for the repeal of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act which it says is being misused and abused to a large extent.
The commission in a recent resolution has recommended to the government that as there was a total absence of fool-proof safeguards in the application of the act it may consider immediate repeal of the act.
The commission in a recent resolution has recommended to the government that as there was a total absence of fool-proof safeguards in the application of the act it may consider immediate repeal of the act.
The commission noticed that the act popularly known as TADA was no longer serving exclusively the original purpose for which it was conceived. It has been brought to the notice of the commission that TADA has also been very often used as a Weapon against thé minorities the commission said. The commission had received complaints that even women and children have been picked up under TADA and this has consequently led to grave apprehensions and disquietude in the minds of minorities ‘The commission said it had approached two states where the situation appeared to be bad and this had resulted in prompt discharge of many of the TADA detainees.
The commission said there is total absence of fool proof safeguards in the application of the act to ensure that citizens are not unfairly arbitrarily and indiscriminately proceeded against under the act.
According to the resolution various civic minded groups and concemed individuals have drawn the attention of the commission in the. recent past ‘particularly last year to the extremely large number of arrests and detentions under the act and the grievances that the act which was primarily conceived as an instrument of effective action against terrorism is to a large ex tend being misused.
Even offenders who have allegedly violated specific provisions of other existing criminal statutes are being increasingly brought within the ambit of the act. According to the resolution the number of cases which have been finalized is low number of pending investigations high and number of convictions abysmally Tow’ but the number of detainees under TADA still continues to be high the resolution said
Article extracted from this publication >> June 17, 1994
