Supreme Court stays coercive action in Tripura case

The Supreme Court has stayed any coercive action against journalists and lawyers who flagged anti-Muslim violence in Tripura and were slapped with the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for it.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana issued notices to Tripura Police on a plea seeking quashing of charges against the accused. The Tripura Police had also slapped them with Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code, asking them to explain their social media posts and ordering them to take them down.

Advocates Mukesh, Ansarul Haq Ansari and journalist Shyam Meera Singh had challenged the Tripura Police move to slap the UAPA. Their lawyer Prashant Bhushan pointed this out to the court and sought a stay on any coercive action.


Bhushan told the court that they had challenged some widely misused provisions of UAPA. Some petitions challenging UAPA are already pending before the top court. The top court has issued notices on petitions challenging UAPA on September 6, 2019. The trio have also challenged Sections 2(1)(o) read with Section 13 of UAPA and the provision relating to bail under Section 43 (d)(5) of UAPA.