The Hindu : National : Supreme Court calls for steps to curb terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

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National

Supreme Court calls for steps to curb terrorism

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 6 .The Supreme Court has come down heavily on terrorism and said it was one of the manifestations of increased lawlessness and cult of violence in the country. "Violence and crime constituted a threat to an established order and are a revolt against a civilised and orderly society," the Court said and called for stem steps to deal with terrorism.

A Bench, comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat, said a terrorist activity did not merely arise by causing disturbance of law and order or public order. "The fallout of the intended activity is to be one that it travels beyond the capacity of the ordinary law enforcement agencies to tackle it under the ordinary penal law. It is in essence a deliberate and systematic use of coercive intimidation."

Upholding the punishment of life imprisonment awarded by a TADA court in Bihar to 20 persons, the Bench observed: "It is a common feature that hardened criminals today take advantage of the situation and by wearing the cloak of terrorism, aim to achieve acceptability and respectability in the society; because in different parts of the country affected by militancy, a terrorist is projected as a hero by a group and often unfortunately even by many misguided youth."

It further observed: "If the core of war crimes — deliberate attacks on civilians, hostage taking and the killing of prisoners — is extended to peacetime, we could simply define acts of terrorism veritably as `peacetime equivalents of war crimes'."

The Bench, after analysing several international conventions and protocols, said finding a definition of "terrorism" had haunted countries for decades. "The United Nations member-states still have no agreed-upon definition apparently on account of what at times reveal to be state-sponsored terrorism, both at national and international levels," the Bench said.

It noted that lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism had been a major obstacle to meaningful international counter-measures. Even the United States Government had not agreed on one single definition of terrorism, the Bench pointed out and said "the old adage `one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter' is still alive."

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