Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa on Friday expressed her “strong opposition” to Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011.
Terming the legislation “undemocratic and fascist,” Ms. Jayalalithaa, in a statement, said that it was “against and totally repugnant” to the basic principles of the Constitution.
“It is a wholly undesirable piece of legislation that is being introduced with vested motives by a Central regime that is not only running out of steam but also of ideas for survival. It is the sacred duty of all those who believe in democracy to oppose this Bill in toto and take every step to throw this Bill out lock, stock, and barrel at the introduction stage itself.”
Subjective interpretation
Reacting to media reports that the Centre was planning to introduce the Bill in the ensuing session of Parliament, Ms. Jayalalithaa said, “Many of the offences sought to be covered by this proposed law are left to the subjective interpretation of the authorities concerned and are open to gross misuse, particularly considering the sweeping powers vested under the Bill.”
The legislation sought to give overriding powers to the Centre to the total exclusion of the States in handling instances of communal and targeted violence. “This vitiates the norms for Centre-State relations envisaged by the Justice [R.S.] Sarkaria Commission. The Bill appears to be a new ruse to side-step the judicial constraints imposed on the indiscriminate use of Article 356 of the Constitution against opposition-ruled States by an antagonistic Centre.”
Adverting to Section 20 of the Bill, she said that as it stated that the occurrence of organised communal and targeted violence would constitute “internal disturbance,” within the meaning of Article 355 of the Constitution, this would always hang like the Sword of Damocles, threatening State governments. It particularly gave the impression that it was only the Centre which was greatly concerned about organised communal and targeted violence while the State governments abetted such crimes.
Talking about Chapter VII of the proposed Bill, she said that it cast the responsibility on the State governments for providing relief, reparation, restitution and compensation to the victims, which were their “normal functions” in the maintenance of law and order and communal violence situations.
“The Bill only seems to point out that the Government of India is arrogating to itself the normal powers of the State government [s] and is putting itself in an overbearing and supervisory role.” She said the Bill, “under the garb of preventing communal and targeted violence, is yet another blatant attempt to totally bypass the State governments and concentrate all powers in the Central government,” rendering the States absolutely powerless and totally at the mercy of the Centre.
It was aimed at keeping the States “under the constant threat of dismissal,” perhaps because of the Central Government's limited capability to use Article 356 of the Constitution in view of the “Bommai Judgment” of the Supreme Court.
