On 10th January 2001, the Rajasthan state government withdrew eight cases registered against 41 detenus under the now-defunct Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, or "TADA".  

Many of these cases had been pending before the Designated TADA Court for over ten years.  The government cited a lack of sound evidence as the reason to withdraw eight of the cases and ordered the release of all the detainees arrested for communal violence.  A few detenus arrested for possession of “incriminating material” were re-charged under the Explosive Act. 

What stands out in this development is that it took a decade to acknowledge that there was no case against the accused, even under a law as arbitrary and draconian as TADA.  TADA provided for detainees to be presumed guilty ex ante unless proven innocent, with trials held in camera (closed doors), where the identity of government witness can be kept secret, and whose verdict can only be appealed to the Supreme Court. 

More astounding is the fact that these undertrials, who were accused of being dangerous terrorists, were allowed to go scott-free by an executive decision of the chief minister,  and not because of any judicial intervention.  Lastly, news agencies report that the recent action was part of an election pledge by the current Congress(I) government to Muslim voters, who had established the Rajasthan TADA Relief Committee to agitate for the release of unjust TADA detenus.  The detenus had apparently been locked up under an earlier BJP government during the Ramjanambhoomi issue.

In other words, it is more or less openly admitted that TADA was used against innocent citizens to criminalize them for their religion, ideological or political persuasions.  Their release is similarly the exercise of a political tool as much as their arrest, with neither the subject of any judicial merit.

This news makes a mockery of the TADA cases currently pending against thousands of undertrials languishing in jails all across India four years after TADA’s lapse. Not very long ago, the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were ready to release scores of TADA detenus in exchange for the release of Kannada film actor Rajkumar from the hands of his kidnapper Veerapan, before the Indian Supreme Court intervened and stayed the release! 

In this case, it is not just the executive, but also the judiciary whose actions seem arbitrary.  It is, after all, the same supreme court that has given judicial sanction to TADA in the past.  Its actions in the Veerappan case appear in this light, as an effort to protect its  own credibility if TADA detenus can simply be bargained for release of hostages.

The reason so many thousands are being held endlessly under these special laws is most likely because they cannot be charged under the criminal justice system in the first place, and because there is likely no "sound evidence" against them. What these developments point to is the importance of raising the demand to release all prisoners held under TADA and other such arbitrary and black laws.