Centre released a data of number of UAPA cases registered and number of undertrials, convicted and acquitted during 2016-2020, on 20 July, 2022.
UAPA cases data given by Centre
But according to the NCRB report, the NDA government has used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act increasingly. Surprisingly, the UAPA was enacted in 1967 but was used very sparingly or almost zero by all the previous governments.
However, amendments were made in 2019. The most recent one was of Section 35 in the UAPA. According to this amendment, the government can even categorise individuals involved in terrorism and not just organisation. These recent amendments were challenged in the Supreme Court.
Most of the people of the country feel that the UAPA is being misused by the present NDA government. The most recent report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), says that there were no cases registered under the UAPA before 2014. Furthermore, the report is given from 2010 to 2018.
According to the NCRB, there is a rise in the use of the UAPA. The total number of cases filed under the UAPA increased a lot. It was 897 in 2014, 976 in 2015, 922 in 2016, 901 in 2017 and 1182 in 2018.
From the NCRB report, we can understand that wherever BJP wanted to come into power, it has used UAPA to suppress the voices of the people. Moreover, it is seen that the UAPA cases are filed only in the states ruled by BJP government.
According to the 2018 NCRB report, 3920 UAPA cases are pending investigation from previous years. In addition to this, 1182 fresh cases were added. This makes a total of 5107 pending cases.
It is also observed that if any person is once accused are charged under the UAPA, the bail is rarely granted. Furthermore, the trials take years to complete. Tragically, the case from 2014 have not yet completed trial.
Observing the data given by NCRB, it is understood that the constitutional rights of the accused can ever be guaranteed.
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