NEWS ANALYSIS: Should we wait for crime, My Lord?
By Kartik Lokhande The question naturally comes to one’s mind after reading the media reports on a recent judgement of the Kerala High Court that ‘Being a Maoist is no crime.’ For, Maoists or the members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) are not into furthering the Constitutional goal of Parliamentary democracy, but are dead against it. As per the media reports, Justice A Muhamed Mustaque of Kerala High Court observed, “The police cannot detain a person merely because he is a Maoist, unless the police form a reasonable opinion that his activities are unlawful.” This implies that Maoists can roam around freely spewing venom against everything Indian and advocating trampling of every right enshrined in the Constitution. However, they cannot be arrested or booked till the time they physically execute any action that amounts to a crime or unlawful activity. The ‘observations’ made by the said judge force one to think if the judiciary is really aware of the Mao...