Supreme Court Stops Misuse Of NSA
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-12-18 11:05:21
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
View all posts by this Author
The Supreme Court has rightly upheld the order of the Allahabad High Court terming the arrest of Dr Kafeel Khan as "illegal". It dismissed the UP government's appeal against the said order. Dr Khan was arrested under the National Security Act (NSA) for making what the state government called an "inflammatory" speech at the gates of the Aligarh Muslim University in January this year. Delivering the verdict, the apex court was of the view that there was nothing in Dr Khan's speech that proved that he was trying to spread hatred, enmity or violence.
The UP government had charged Dr Khan with trying to disturb public order and creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity for making a speech criticizing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The NSA mandates that people can be arrested for "disrupting public order, endangering the security of India or its ties with foreign countries". The stress here should be on national security. But it is often seen that the government uses it as a tool to silence critics of its policies.
BJP-run governments, both at the Centre and in the states, are often 'confusing' national security with criticism of the government and the real purpose of the NSA is being increasingly bypassed to arrest those who criticize government policy or go against the government for any reason whatsoever on the specious reason that they are trying to disturb public order. The government is thus trying to say that "public order" means accepting all its policy decisions without demur and with bowed heads.
Thankfully, the courts do not believe that the public good is furthered or the law is upheld by equating criticism of government policy with endangering the security of India. The ruling dispensation and the nation are two completely different things. One can go against the former as one is entitled to have his or her own views and use the right of free speech as long as it does not fall in the realm of libel. Only when one goes against the nation can one be arrested under NSA. The earlier the government understands this, the better for democracy in India.
