Untitled

Abstract

To examine the role of law in perpetrating state violence, this paper analyses the legacy of certain antiterror laws in India i.e., the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) and its antecedents Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1985 (TADA). Central to the analysis will be the discourse on creation of 'exceptions' both within the legal procedures i.e., relaxation of rules of evidence or allowing preventive detention and in terms of relegation of certain communities as "suspect communities" (Ujjwal Singh, 2007) thereby treating certain religions/ideologies as an exception. Given India's territorial length and breadth along with a history of various separatist and peasant movements (based on inter alia identity, territory, and ideology), the politics of subjugation of movements through creation of legal 'exception' or 'extraordinary situation' has been played out time and again. This paper begins by looking at the colonial legacies of the Indian legal system and then analyse the colonial continuations in the specified anti-terror legislations. Further, using a case study, I inquire if 'extraordinary' situations/communities are manufactured through the operation of law, while simultaneously rendering the non-extraordinary as the norm. This will be done through examining the theories of 'state of exception' and the 'annihilation of exception'.