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Journalism of Courage
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Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed the petition filed by MP Simranjeet Singh Mann that questioned POTA’s constitutional validity. The petition said POTA’s ‘‘draconian provisions infringed on basic rights of life and liberty of people…and as such the Act being ultra vires of Article 21 of the Constitution was null and void’’.
A division bench of Justice J.L. Gupta and Justice N.K. Sud delivered a 40-page verdict and said there was no constitutional or legal infirmity in the Act’s provisions. As the country’s prevailing circumstances posed a threat to its integrity and sovereignty, a law to protect people and their property was necessary, the bench said.
‘‘The sovereignty and integrity of the nation had to be preserved at all costs. Individual rights were subservient to the larger interests of society. Liberty does not mean license. It implies freedom to do what one ought to do. The terrorist causes terrible trauma to people. His actions disentitle him to claim parity of treatment with an ordinary criminal,’’ the verdict read. ‘‘The challenge based on guarantee of equality in Article 14 can’t be sustained.’’
