The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that membership of an unlawful organisation by itself would constitute an offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
A three-judge bench of Justices M R Shah, C T Ravikumar and Sanjay Karol overruled Supreme Court judgments which held that “mere membership of a banned organisation will not make a person a criminal unless he resorts to violence or incites people to violence or creates public disorder by violence or incitement to violence”.
On Friday, the Supreme Court also upheld Section 10(a)(i) of the Act, which was read down by the court in 2011. The provision makes membership of an association, which has been declared to be unlawful, to be an offence.
It said that Section 10(a)(i) is in consonance with 19(1)(a) and 19(2) of the Constitution and accordingly, it is also in consonance with the objectives of the UAPA.
The three-judge bench said that the Union of India was not heard before the provision was read down. “When a parliamentary legislation is read down in the absence of the Union, enormous harm would be caused to State if they are not heard,” the Supreme Court said.
It also pointed out that the matter in which the court read down the provision was one seeking bail and the constitutionality of the said provision was not under challenge.
In the 2011 ruling in Arup Bhuyan vs State of Assam, the Supreme Court had said “mere membership of a banned organisation will not make a person a criminal unless he resorts to violence or incites people to violence or creates public disorder by violence or incitement to violence”.
This view was followed by the court in two other cases too.
On appeal by the Centre and the state of Assam, a two-judge bench of the court in August 2014 said that given that it is an “important issue…we think it appropriate that the matter should be considered by a larger bench”.
