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The Supreme Court on Monday took note of the poor conviction rate in cases registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA), observing that over 90 per cent of such trials end in acquittals.

 

A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while granting bail to a Kupwara resident who had been in jail since June 2020, awaiting trial in connection with a narco-terrorism case.

 

The Court referred to official crime statistics to note that the pan-India conviction rate in UAPA cases between 2019 and 2023 was 2-6 per cent, meaning there was a 94-98 per cent chance that a UAPA accused would be acquitted at the end of his trial.

 

"We have quoted statistics from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). For the five years from 2019 to 2023, the all-India figures show that the rate of conviction minimum is 1.5% and the maximum is 4%, whereas in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the rate of conviction in 2019 was zero, and the maximum was in 2022 at 0.89%. Therefore, for the all-India figures, we have 2% to 6% convictions, meaning thereby that there is a 94% to 98% possibility of acquittal in such cases in the country," the Court said.

 

 

The annual conviction rate in Jammu and Kashmir was even less, being below 1 per cent, the Court further noted. This meant that, according to NCRB statistics, there was a 99 per cent chance that such an undertrial UAPA accused could be acquitted at the end of trial.

 

"So far as the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, the annual rate of conviction is always less than 1%. It means that at the end of the trial, there is a 99% possibility of acquittal in such cases," the Court observed.

 

The Supreme Court, while granting bail to a Jammu and Kashmir man accused in a narco-terror case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and incarcerated for over 5 years, noted that UAPA conviction rates across India ranged between 1.5% and 4% between 2019 and 2023, while conviction rates in Jammu and Kashmir remained below 1%.

 

Referring to NCRB data placed before Parliament by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, a bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that these statistics point to a high probability of acquittals in such cases at the end of trial.