Articles by Ujjwal Kumar Singh

In the context of the stand taken by the National Human Rights Commission of India on the Rohingya refugees, this article probes its location as an “inside–outside” institution. As an institution of “internal restraint” to exercise vigilance over the state, the commission is both constrained and empowered by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, which brought about its existence, as well as its location within the domain of the state, which often reduces it to performing a legitimisation function. Yet, over a period of time, though unevenly and sometimes ineffectively, it has carved out triumphal moments that have opened up state actions to judicial and public scrutiny.

The manner in which successive governments in Uttar Pradesh have made use of the extraordinary powers of initiation and dropping of proceedings granted to the executive under the Prevention of Terrorism Act is brought out in the case involving Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya. The entire episode also brings out the way in which caste is ubiquitously embedded in the political grid of the country.

Debates surrounding POTA have focused largely on its abuse and misuse. The manner in which POTA has unfolded, however, shows another trend that needs to be examined. Surreptitiously but surely, POTA is figuring in centre-state relations as a centralising force. While from a civil rights perspective it is immaterial whether citizens suffer at the hands of the central or state governments, it is important to see this process of centralisation as a tendency that is counterproductive in a polity that sees federalism as a manifestation of democratic decentralisation and a means to preserve political/ideological and cultural plurality.

Despite a parliamentary ordinance in October that ostensibly conferred quasi-judicial powers to the POTA review committee, situations of conflict have arisen between governments at the centre and the states over exclusive initiative in the matter. Other areas, especially those pertaining to the relative powers of the review committee and the special POTA courts, too remain ill-defined. The exact relationship between the special POTA courts and the review committee now depends on the course of a show cause notice issued by the committee to the Tamil Nadu government on the question of Vaiko's arrest.