THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-June 3, 2017- Topic 2
Gross misuse: on States
using 'Goondas Act'
Preventive
detention laws in the country have come to be associated with frequent misuse.
Such laws confer extraordinary discretionary powers on the executive to detain
persons without bail for a period that may extend to one year and courts tend
to review them on the touchstone of strict adherence to the prescribed
procedure. Sometimes they question the invocation of the draconian power when
sufficient provisions are available in the ordinary laws of the land.
Several
States have a law popularly known as the ‘Goondas Act’ aimed at preventing the
dangerous activities of specified kinds of offenders. In a recent order, the
Supreme Court has questioned the use of words such as “goonda” and “prejudicial
to the maintenance of public order” as a “rhetorical incantation” solely to
justify an arbitrary detention order. It struck down the detention of a man who
had allegedly sold spurious chilli seeds in Telangana, holding that the grounds
of detention were extraneous to the Act. This detention order has captured what
is wrong with the frequent resort to preventive detention laws. It stated that
recourse to normal legal procedure would be time-consuming and would not be an
effective deterrent against the sale of spurious seeds. Therefore, it claimed,
there was no option but to invoke the preventive detention law to insulate
society from the person’s evil deeds. The court rightly termed this as a gross
abuse of statutory powers.
The
Goondas Act is meant to be invoked against habitual offenders, but in practice
it is often used for a host of extraneous reasons. The police tend to use it to
buy themselves more time to investigate offences and file a charge sheet. At
times, it is used merely to send out a “tough message”. For instance, four
persons seen in video footage of women being molested in Rampur in Uttar
Pradesh were detained under the Act even though it was not clear if they were
habitual offenders. And there are times when preventive detention is overtly
political. The recent detention of four political activists in Chennai under
the Goondas Act is a direct result of a pathological tendency in Tamil Nadu to
crack down on any kind of political activity even remotely linked to the Sri
Lankan Tamils issue. The detention of Thirumurugan Gandhi, leader of the ‘May
17 Movement’, a pro-Tamil Eelam group, and three of his associates under the
Goondas Act is a brazen violation of their fundamental rights and another
instance of abuse of the law. The case involved nothing more than violation of
prohibitory orders to hold a candle-light vigil in memory of Sri Lankan Tamils
who died in the last phase of the civil war in 2009. Those who authorise such
preventive detention for flimsy reasons should understand that prevention of
crime needs an efficient system of investigation and trial, and not draconian
laws.
Vocabulary
Discretionary: available
for use at the discretion of the user.
Example: Rules are
inevitably less flexible than a discretionary policy
Synonyms: optional, voluntary, at one's
discretion, elective
Detain: keep
someone in official custody, typically for questioning about a crime or in
politically sensitive situations.
Example: She was
detained without trial for two years
Synonyms: hold, take into custody, take
in, confine, imprison
Tend: regularly
or frequently behave in a particular way or have a certain characteristic.
Example: Written
language tends to be formal
Synonyms: be inclined, be apt, be
disposed, be prone, be liable
Adherence: the action
or process of adhering to a surface or object.
Example: The
adhesion of the Scotch tape to the paper
Synonyms: sticking, adhesion
Rhetorical: of,
relating to, or concerned with the art of rhetoric.
Example: Repetition
is a common rhetorical device
Synonyms: stylistic, oratorical, linguistic, verbal
Incantation: a series
of words said as a magic spell or charm.
Example: An
incantation to raise the dead
Spurious: not being
what it purports to be.
Example: Separating
authentic and spurious claims
Synonyms: bogus, fake, false, counterfeit, forged, fraudulent, sham
Extraneous: irrelevant
or unrelated to the subject being dealt with.
Example: One is
obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material
Synonyms: irrelevant, immaterial, beside
the point, unrelated
Extraneous: irrelevant
or unrelated to the subject being dealt with.
Example: One is
obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material
Synonyms: irrelevant, immaterial, beside
the point, unrelated
Tendency: an
inclination toward a particular characteristic or type of behavior.
Example: For
students, there is a tendency to socialize in the evenings
Synonyms: propensity, proclivity, proneness, aptness, likelihood
Flimsy: comparatively
light and insubstantial; easily damaged.
Example: Voyagers
who crossed the sea in flimsy boats
Synonyms: insubstantial, fragile, breakable, frail, shaky
Draconian: excessively
harsh and severe.
Example: The
penalty imposed by law is not draconian, and serves more as a reminder to
perform a common sense action.
Synonyms: harsh, severe, strict, extreme, drastic
