Editorial 1: In the name of Security
Recent Context:
- “A major problem of human society is to combine that degree of liberty without which law is tyranny with that degree of law without which liberty becomes license.” — Heraclitus of Ephesus
- Recently, the decision by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that that mere membership of a banned association is sufficient to constitute an offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, is a severe blow to principles of fundamental justice.
- The verdict has done away with the distinction between active and passive membership of proscribed organisations, which has been the basis of court rulings since 2011.
The potential misuse of the provision
- The judgment is fraught with the risk of making it legal for agencies to act lawlessly while claiming to fight terrorism and preserve the State’s security.
- Unless there is a specific intent to enhance the material abilities of a terrorist or unlawful organisation, permitting the conviction of a person as a member is abhorrent to the rule of law. The verdict also suffers from substantive contradictions in its reasoning.
Past ruling of the courts related to it
- The Court has struck down three of its previous rulings from 2011: Arup Bhuyan vs State of Assam, Sri Indra Das vs State of Assam and State of Kerala vs Raneef.
- While the Raneef judgment had put a narrow construction on Section 10(a)(i) of UAPA
- Section 10(a)(i) punishes membership of unlawful organisations with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.
- The Court accepted the argument by the Union government and State of Assam that Section 10(a)(i) does not require any further overt act or mens rea on the part of a member of a banned outfit.
- However, both the Centre and State of Assam argued, “that in case of a terrorist organisation, mere membership is not sufficient but there has to be an act with intention to further the activities of the terrorist organisation which is not the case under Section 10 with an unlawful association.” (page 31, 32 of the judgment). The Court has set aside the reading down of both Section 10(a)(i), UAPA,
Jyoti Babasaheb Chorge vs State of Maharashtra (2012)
- The judgment demonstrated that how innocent young men and women can get ensnared as members of unlawful/terrorist organisations merely by association.
- In that case, as many as 15 people, all young tribal women and men, were charged as members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a “terrorist organisation”, for possessing Maoist propaganda literature like books, articles and pamphlets.
- There was no accusation against them of being involved in any terrorist act or act of violence, organising a terrorist camp, recruiting or sheltering people or raising finance for terrorist acts.
- The Bombay High Court ruled Section 20, UAPA, making membership of a terrorist organisation punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to imprisonment for life, was “widely worded”. The Court relied on Arup Bhuyan and Raneef rulings (2011) that such membership cannot be passive.
- Arup Bhuyan was convicted under section 3(5) of TADA for being a member of a terrorist organisation. The Supreme Court ruled that “mere membership of a banned organisation will not incriminate a person unless he resorts to violence or incites people to violence or does an act intended to create disorder.”
Criticism against definitions of terrorist and unlawful organisations in UAPA:
- The definitions of terrorist and unlawful organisations in UAPA are circular and vague.
- The Act merely states that they are organisations involved in “terrorist”/” unlawful activities” and notified as such. The central government has so far notified 42 organisations as terrorist and 13 as unlawful organisations.
- In Maoist-affected, often semi-literate, on charges of possessing Maoist literature or being sympathisers of Maoist ideology. Often, there is no evidence of these youth indulging in any violent or unlawful activity or of being a party to any conspiracy for committing any crime. They are booked as offenders simply because they come in contact with the members of banned organisations.
- Aa a result States worldwide sometimes inappropriately labelled groups as as “terrorists,” and to curtail the abuse of counterterrorism powers.
- Mislabelling dilutes efforts to combat actual terrorism. It undermines democratic values and institutions and the gravitas of the security threat terror groups pose.
Conclusion
- Instead of being outliers, the three previous rulings (Arup Bhuyan, Indra Das and Raneef) are in accordance with strict judicial interpretations in every liberal democracy of what constitutes terrorist/unlawful activity or being a member of a terrorist/unlawful group.
- The effect of this heightened mens rea is to exempt those who may unwittingly come in contact with terrorists or groups for example, in social or professional interactions. With Friday’s ruling, the Supreme Court has done away with the mens rea requirement.
- In countries like the US, UK and Canada, the pushback to the aggressive assertion of executive power to unlawfully detain, interrogate, and falsely label and prosecute people as terrorists have often come from the legislature and judiciary
- Therefore, Indian parliament need to bring reform and change in act in order to protect the protect individual liberties while sovereignty and security of nation is not compromised.
Editorial 2: ISRO’s successful LVM-3 launch
Recent Context:
- Recently, the second commercial launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s LVM-3 saw 36 OneWeb satellites placed in orbit.
- This was also the second launch that ISRO performed for OneWeb and sixth launch for India’s heaviest rocket LVM-3 which includes the launch of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 – and the second one where it demonstrated the capability of launching multiple satellites in low earth orbit (LEO).
About LVM-3
- The Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3previously referred as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk3) is a three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- Three stages as two solid strap-on motors (S200), one liquid core stage (L110) and a high thrust cryogenic upper stage (C25).
- Technical Specification
- capable of placing the 4 tonne class satellites of the GSAT series into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits.
- 8,000 kg The powerful cryogenic stage of GSLV Mk III enables it to place heavy payloads into Low Earth Orbits of 600 km altitude.
About OneWeb:
- “OneWeb’s high-speed, low-latency solutions will assist in connecting communities, bsusinesses, and governments worldwide, demonstrating the unparalleled potential of LEO (low earth orbit) connectivity,”
- It is supported by the UK government and India’s Bharti Enterprises.
- The company intends to use 588 active satellites in its first-generation constellation to provide global connectivity at high speed and low latency.
- And it is expected to help India’s “towns, villages, municipalities, and schools, including the hardest-to-reach areas across the country.”
How ISRO’s OneWeb launch happened
- India has been concentrating on increasing its share of the global commercial space market ever since the country decided to open the space sector to private players in 2020.
- It is one of the world’s major space-faring nations, but it only has 2% of the commercial market at the moment. With 36 OneWeb satellites launched in October 2022, the heavy launch vehicle entered the commercial market.
- OneWeb was initially supposed to launch its satellites through the Russian space agency.
- It cancelled the plan after the agency halted the launch amid the Russia-Ukraine war, seeking an assurance from the UK government-backed company that the satellites wouldn’t be used against them and that the British government would sell its stake.
India’s plans to increase commercial launches
- The launches not only established LVM3 as a commercial vehicle propelling ISRO’s entry into the commercial heavier launch market, but it also earned the agency upwards of Rs 1,000 crore.
- The service provided to OneWeb, for which the space agency had to move around a few of its missions, ended up earning it one of the highest revenues. And, over the years, there has been an increase in funds that the space agency has generated.
- The government plans to increase India’s 2% share in the commercial market to 10% by 2030 through commercial launches by ISRO and launches offered by private companies like Skyroot and Agnikul, which are in the process of developing their own launch vehicles.
- Keeping the commercial sector in mind, ISRO has also developed the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), which is meant to provide on-demand launch services commercially.
- It has a low turn-around time of days and costs much less than the current workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Two development flights of the SSLV have been completed – one successful, one partially successful – and it has been inducted into the ISRO fleet.
Commercial launching helps in generating revenue and technological demonstration of ISRO (Conclusion)
- A report of the parliamentary standing committee on the budget of the space agency said that there has been an increase in the revenue generated by ISRO’s commercial arm New Space India Limited, created in 2019.
- As per the report, revenue generated by NSIL has increased from Rs 1,731 crores in 2021-22 to a projected Rs 3,509 crores in 2023-24.
- This was an increase of 100% and the report added, “The Committee appreciates the achievements of NSIL in such a short period of time and recommends the Department to provide all support to NSIL to enable it to act as an agency of international character and quality.”
- But it is not just the commercial arm, the revenue generated by the department has also increased. The committee noted that the revenue generated by the Department of Space increased from Rs 929 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 2,780 in 2022-23.
- Therefore, Department is transitioning from a research based institution to a more commercially oriented agency with buoyant internal revenues.