The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967

What it does

The Act is Act No. 37 of 1967. It began as a law to deal with unlawful associations and activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India, and Parliament later added chapters on terrorism. It lets the Central Government declare an association unlawful, subject to confirmation by a Tribunal, and it creates offences of terrorist activity, of raising funds for terrorism, of conspiracy and of membership of a terrorist organisation.

It also makes procedural departures from the ordinary criminal law. Section 43D extends the period of detention before a charge sheet to as much as one hundred and eighty days, on a report of the Public Prosecutor, and for offences under Chapters IV and VI it restricts bail: the court is not to release an accused on bail if, on a perusal of the case diary or the report, it is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing the accusation is prima facie true. The prosecution requires sanction under section 45.

Who it binds

Individuals, associations and companies. The Act reaches a person who commits or supports a terrorist act, and it reaches a company and its officers through its provision on offences by companies. It applies to Indian citizens outside India and to others in specified circumstances. Because the Act's offences are scheduled offences under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, investigation may be taken over by the National Investigation Agency and the trial held before a Special Court.

What has changed, and when

The Act was amended in 2004, when the chapters on terrorism were added, and again in 2008, 2012 and 2019. The 2019 amendment empowered the Central Government to designate an individual, and not only an organisation, as a terrorist, and it widened the officers who may investigate, so that an officer of the National Investigation Agency of the rank of inspector or above may do so. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 has since added its own offences of terrorism and organised crime, as the site's note on the new criminal codes records, so a set of facts may now be charged under both statutes.

What turns on it in practice

The site names the Act in its notes on criminal and sensitive litigation and on corporate and commercial law. In practice the bail test is the centre of the case. In National Investigation Agency v Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali (2019), the Supreme Court read the test in section 43D(5) as one under which the court looks at the case record at face value and does not weigh the evidence in detail. In Union of India v K A Najeeb (2021), it held that a long period of undertrial detention can justify bail even under the statute, since the constitutional right to a speedy trial is not displaced by the statutory bar. The two decisions are the framework within which an application is made.

A business may meet the Act through an allegation that a payment, a supply or a shareholding has funded or supported an organisation, or that an officer was in a company that did. The first questions are whether the offence alleged is made out on the facts, whether the sanction was validly given, and whether the investigation was by an officer competent to conduct it.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 supplies the general procedure, and the Act displaces it wherever the two differ. The special statute is read first and the general procedure second, and the custody period, the bail test and the forum are each decided that way.