Advocate Mihir Desai - The Problem of Preventive Detention in India
Channel: KG Kannabiran Lectures
Date: 22/11/2020

Keywords: preventive detention, anti-terror laws, rule of law; fair trial, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, right to bail

Title: The Problem of Preventive Detention in India

Description:Preventive detention laws and special legislations like UAPA --  anti-terror laws as they are called  allow the state to carve out exception for its own lawlessness.  These are the laws which permit the state to claim that we are governed by the rule of law and on the other hand pass such legislations which violate the rule of law altogether. These are the laws which go against the basic tenets of the constitution, such as freedom, equality, right to life, liberty etc.   While they are within the framework of the rule of law, are actually in violation of the rule of law.  It therefore becomes important to look at these laws which gives an exceptional power to the state over citizens -- to arrest them, to detain them, to charge them with offences which otherwise they may not be able to charge them with, keep them behind bars for years together, and also for ensuring that dissent in all forms is crushed.