Criminalizing words : Speeches that do not instigate violence should not be deemed unlawful activity
- The grant of sanction to prosecute writer-activist Arundhati Roy and academician Sheikh Showkat Hussain for alleged “unlawful activity” in a case dating back to 2010 is unwarranted.
Key highlights
- Delhi Lieutenant Governor, who had accorded sanction in October 2023 to prosecute the Booker Prize-winning writer and the former Kashmir University professor,
- respectively, for allegedly divisive speeches and imputations against national unity, has now given his nod for invoking Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for the same set of speeches.
- The earlier sanction order was in his capacity as the appropriate authority on behalf of the Delhi government under Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
- The recent one is, presumably, on behalf of the Central government, the appropriate authority to sanction prosecution for offences under Chapter III of the UAPA, under which Section 13 falls.
- The resurrection of this old case is an unfortunate instance of ill-motivated prosecution.
- The only possible explanation for the revival of this case, registered on a magistrate court’s order in 2010, is that the present regime has found it expedient only now to do so, as part of its continuing crackdown on dissenters and outspoken critics.
Prelims takeaway
- UAPA