Supreme Court directs High Courts to hear UAPA pleas

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a clutch of pleas, challenging the 2019 amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, directing high courts to hear the petitions first. The development took place during the resumed hearing of pleas challenging the amendments.

A bench headed by CJI Sanjiv Khanna observed the top court should not become the court of first instance, except in rare instances. Speaking for the bench, he orally observed a lot of problems arise if SC becomes the court of first instance.

"Sometimes issues are left by your side and sometimes by the other side; then we have to refer to a larger bench and it becomes an issue. We will have it before the high court," he said.


The bench clarified it would be open for high courts to proceed with the petitions pending before them. A batch of pleas challenging the UAPA provisions have been pending before the top court since 2019. The validity of sections 35 and 36 of UAPA, 2019, have been challenged by the petitioners.

The Act gives the Centre power to designate an individual a "terrorist". The petitioners had contended that such labelling will be violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.