Author Name:   sauravrmlnlu

A new legislation has been passed but, is it necessary that it should be there this type of legislation and what about those provision which are already given in other statue....

NIA, the full name of this bill is National Investigation Agency bill which has been passed by the government of India in 2008. NIA is an anti- terrorism law which is passed to depress the terrorism in India. Now a question comes in the mind of common person that in spite of having few provision in its[1] own land law under chapter VI (offences against state), what need is here to legislate more laws regarding terrorism. If we don’t waste our time in legislating novel law but we use our energy and power in full implementation with vigilance of these elite provisions which are given in chapter VI(sec 121 to 130) of Indian penal code,1860. Then there would be no need to inoculate any other law to society. These provisions cover every illegal activity against state. This chapter describes crimes like waging war against government of India, or any other country where in, India having friendly relationship, sedition etc. by which terrorism might be eradicate but government of India introduced first anti-terror law named ‘The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Section 15[2] of this act tells the definition of terrorism. Later in the case of M.Q.M.sheikh v state of Maharastra[3] Supreme court tried to explain what terrorism is? l This act was not enacted to counter terrorism it was enacted to counter syndicate or very well organized crimes like under world. It was aimed to declared such association illegal

In this act legislature defined some unlawful association and many other penalties regarding this. Chiefly some associations were questioned with concerning to security and integrity purpose of the country. The conclusion of parliamentary debate was limitation of a fundamental right which is given under Art 19(1)[4]. So a general question arise that is it possible to violate fundamental right by this act? In this way whether the violation of Art 20[5] of constitution of India is possible? Moreover after two decade a very new statute passed by the legislation of India, named Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA) this was also an anti-terror law. This act got much success than last act and this helped in solving the cases related to terrorism. TADA was most successfully used against Tamil and Sikh militants and some important cases also like Rajiv Gandhi murder case solved with the help of this. TADA was good but as it is said that “However good a Act may be, it is sure to turn out to bad because those who r called to work it happened to b bad lot, however bad an act may be, it may turn out to be good if those who called to work it happened to be a good lot.” The same thing applied here. After some time few MUSLIMS opposed this act very much in the period of congress and requested to repeal this act. This action of congress came in the light and BJP government opposed their decision but in spite of this huge effort of BJP, this act was repealed by the government because not only Muslims but some pseudo-secular and human right organization also requested to repeal the following act with the argument that by this law Muslims are getting affected very much and due to this human right are also violating of them. If India is a secular and democratic country then there should not be violation of any rights of anyone which are granted to the persons by our capital constitution. However, in the case of kartar singh v state of panjab[6], constitutional validity of TADA was challenged But with certain condition and guidelines Supreme court found it constitutional. But after all, Muslim’s quest was accepted.

Impression of National Investigation Agency:
So, further this act got some more success than the provision of the land law, so by this it has been proved that if there is specific law with regard to any particular area then that would be more successive than usual or there could be two view of a new law for terrorism. First is that proper implementation of the land law will suffice to fight against terrorism and other view is our law is for ordinary crime i.e. crime known to society ages but terrorism is all together different things that’s why we required a specific law. But it doesn’t mean that this concept should apply everywhere. TADA has abused also many times and by many people. Moreover, after congress when BJP again came in the power then BJP bring out a new creation of legislation named Prevention of Terrorism Act,2002 (POTA). This act was the similar version of TADA. Only very minor difference was between them.

This POTA was introduced by the government of national democratic alliance to get the best remedy in the cases of terrorism. After some major attack in India like September 11 this act was came into force. POTA lap over the TADA and both were alike. With this act A.B.Vajpeyee government commented[7] that POTA was India's boldest initiative to fight terrorism, disband terrorist outfits, and choke terror funding. And yes, POTA got some success also but not as expected by that. It was abused also by the some politician Once Jharkhand state government claims[8] that POTA has been widely used in many parts of Jharkhand to curb the Naxalite menace. But human rights activists say POTA has been misused in Jharkhand against poor, low-caste, tribal people and farmers and villagers who support Naxal groups.

Under this act many of the organization has been banned by the government. Moreover so many cases which were given to deal with POTA, by this no terrorist was arrested but Tamil Nadu C.M ‘J. Jayalalitha’ and one or two high profile person were arrested for making a public speech in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Pseudo-seculars are now claiming[9] that ‘POTA was ineffective because terrorism like Akshardham and Parliament attack happened even after POTA. This is a fallacy because there is an important difference. The attacks that time were committed by ISI sponsored terrorists who would come from across the border on a suicide mission. Attacks like that are difficult to stop. At the same because of POTA we had managed to infiltrate local terrorist organizations and their activity was heavily subsided.POTA helped convict terrorists and their sympathizers and as a result created fear among terrorists and their supporters even in Kashmir.’ Now POTA has been repealed by the united progressive alliance government. It is very controversial point that why this act repealed? and why this repealition process started as soon as UPA government came in to power.? Not only this but in the case of PUCL v union of India[10] Regarding to this point UPA said that they will announce a new anti terror law and that would be more applicable and successive also.

In 2008, a fresh anti terrorism law came in the form of NIA. The crimes, related to security and integrity of country will treat as tackle because the new bill which has been passed by the government of India named National Investigation Agency Bill, 2008. NIA is an agency something like Central Bureau Investigation(CBI) but NIA has some compulsory & mandatory jurisdiction(sec[11] 6 and sec[12] 7) but CBI has no mandatory jurisdiction. In NIA no request is required but for CBI request should be made by state.

According to this enactment “the offence against the state” which are prescribed in chapter VI (sec 121-130) of land law, will directly treat NIA not local police. Not only this, offences related to Counterfeiting currency-notes or bank-notes (sec 489A-489E) also will be treating by this agency but it doesn’t mean that in this march there in no role of local police. When any FIR is lodging with glimpse of eight scheduled[13] offences in any police station then the duty officer will investigate that and send report to state government and they will forward to central and central govt. will decide, how to treat case?

Government ironically by this act very much and gave steering of ant- terrorism in the hand of this. For this purpose, NIA officers will be given the magisterial powers to justify recording of confession before police as valid evidence against the accused. These are the crucial feature of this bill and these features are too beneficial to protect Indian security and this is examined by the some cases which have handed over to NIA. The reaction of home ministry[14] was also positive with this as saying that, “Home Ministry sources say the proposed agency will be much more powerful than even the Federal Agency of the United States. They said a separate Bill will be moved in Parliament to amend the National Security Act of 1080 to constitute a National Security Authority that will supervise NIA investigations and permit prosecution of the culprits it nabs. The authority will have a senior IPS officer as security commissioner in each state for coordination of NIA with the state police”

I would like to say that in spite of having these great and draconian acts, is we are able to control terrorism? I think no. because so many cases have been handed over to deal with anti terrorism laws but no one still shown any dazzle result. See the case of Mumbai terror, nothing special thing happened. What about Kasab? Everyone know that he is convict but he is still enjoying full freedom and everything. So I would like to say that what’s new in this act? I think there is still need of proper implementation of these act in spite of having these effectual acts but it doesn’t mean that NIA is not working, it is working and get success also but something more is required. Yes! In the case of Kozhikode twin blast case NIA had worked bully as much as expected. NIA is much closed to mastermind of this act. Many other cases also are here in which this agency had worked very nice.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Indian penal code, 1860, chapter VI.
[2]
[3] 1998 4 scc 494
[4] Constitution of India, article 19(1), right to freedom of association.
[5] Protection in respect of conviction for offences.—(1) No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence.
(2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.
(3) No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself
[6] 1994 crilj 3139
[7] http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/sep/18spec1.htm
[8] http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/sep/18spec1.htm
[9] http://www.sanghparivar.org/blog/diler-dogra/tada-pota-and-terrorism
[10] AIR 2004 SC 456
[11] Section 6 of National Investigation Agency Bill,2008
[12] section 7. While investigating any offence under this Act, the Agency, having regard to the gravity of the offence and other relevant factors, may—
(a) if it is expedient to do so, request the State Government to associate itself with the investigation; or
(b) with the previous approval of the Central Government transfer the case to the State Government for investigation and trial of the offence.
[13] In re national investigation agency bill,2008.schedul of offences.
[14] http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/12mumterror-nia-will-have-more-teeth-to-tackle-terror.htm

The  author can be reached at: sauravrmlnlu@legalserviceindia.com

Follow the Procedure Below To Submit Your Articles

Submit your Article by using our online form Click here
Note* we only accept Original Articles, we will not accept Articles Already Published in other websites.
For Further Details Contact: editor@legalserviceindia.com

File Your Copyright - Right Now!