Human Rights Defenders Data Information Knowledge Solidarity

https://cjp.org.in/dissent-note-the-alarming-scope-of-maharashtras-special-public-safety-bill-2024/ 

Key concerns raised by opposition members, civil society, and constitutional experts have been ignored or side-stepped. The Joint Committee has made only three formal amendments to the earlier format of the MSPS bill, which are:

    Rewording the objective clause to target “radical Left-wing organisations or similar organisations”;
    Recasting the composition of the Advisory Board;
    Raising the investigating officer’s rank from Sub-Inspector to Deputy Superintendent of Police.

The final bill still:

    Grants the executive the power to brand organisations as “unlawful” without fair process;
    Criminalises routine dissent under vague definitions of “unlawful activity”;
    Enables property seizure, eviction, and financial ruin through non-judicial mechanisms;
    Excludes lower courts from jurisdiction, effectively cutting off accessible judicial remedies;
    Provides blanket immunity to state officials acting “in good faith”;
    Lays the ground for an ideologically driven crackdown on opposition groups, activists, and movements.

 Scrap the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, PUCL Maharashtra https://pucl.org/manage-press-stateme/scrap-the-maharashtra-special-public-security-bill-2024-pucl-maharashtra/  Jul 13, 2024  PUCL Maharashtra strongly objects to the repressive and unconstitutional Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill 2024;..Given that there is already in existence an extremely harsh law for unlawful activities and terrorism in the country – namely The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA) amended as recently as in 2019 (also draconian in nature); and a stringent State Act – The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 to tackle organised crime; the present move of the State Government and its timing seems to be aimed not at dealing with violent or terrorist activities; but in reality to suppress political opponents, public protests, people’s movements, and civil society and human rights activists, journalists and lawyers.

The Bill contains an unacceptably broad and vague definition of “unlawful activity”

any action taken by an individual or organisation whether by committing an act or by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise’, could constitute an “unlawful activity” under the Bill.

the Government can name as an “organisation” any group of people it aims to target – even if no such “organisation” per se exists, for instance a group of so-called urban naxals! This means that the government has the power to bring an entirely fictitious organisation into existence by naming a group of people as belonging to such an organisation.

The notification that the government issues regarding declaration of unlawful organisation requires only the grounds to be stated (which is likely to be vague terms around danger to public order), but the Bill provides that the disclosure of any fact can be dispensed with by the Government in public interest, making the entire process non-transparent and making it easy for the Government to outlaw an organisation and target its members, without even providing reasons. 

There is no burden of proof whatsoever that is required to be borne by the government in declaring any persons or group and their activities as unlawful.

PUCL Maharashtra urges the State Government to protect democratic principles, uphold constitutional values, and remove all embargo to peaceful protest and free expression in the State, with a view to ensure a healthy and vibrant democracy.

The question has been posed by HR activiist .. while reacting to this report https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/maharashtra/naxalism-will-soon-be-eradicated-from-maharashtra-fadnavis/article69050947.ece/amp/   CM Fandavis said that in the last four to five years, there had not been any fresh recruitment of the Maoist cadres in the district and that many dreaded Naxals were either neutralised or arrested in the past years. “Several Naxal commanders have surrendered and disassociated themselves from the movement as they have come to a realisation that Naxalism is just a hollow ideology, and this step has broken the backbone of the outlawed movement. They are convinced that they will get justice only through the constitutional institutions.”