Word 'Anti-National' Not Defined in Statutes, Inserted During Emergency: Govt

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai was answering a question by Asaduddin Owaisi in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The term "anti-national' was not defined in the statutes or the Constitution but was inserted in the latter during the Emergency in 1976, and was omitted the next year, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 21 December.

(Photo: The Quint)

The term "anti-national' was not defined in the statutes or the Constitution but was inserted in the latter during the Emergency in 1976, and was omitted the next year, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 21 December.

The word was introduced into the Constitution by the then Congress regime in 1976 through a Constitutional amendment, he said.

Rai was replying to a question by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who had asked whether the government has defined the meaning of "anti-national" under any legislation or rules or any other legal enactment that is enforced in the country.

He had also asked whether the Supreme Court has prescribed any guidelines to deal with crimes relating to "anti-national" activity.

"The word 'anti-national' has not been defined in statutes. However, there are criminal legislation and various judicial pronouncements to sternly deal with unlawful and subversive activities which are detrimental to the unity and integrity of the country," Rai said in the written reply.

The minister of state further added that the word was inserted in the Constitution through the Forty-Second Amendment, 1976 as Article 31D to define "anti-national activity".

Rai also said that Article 31D was removed from the Constitution by the Forty-Third Amendment in 1977.