Enemy Agents Ordinance:
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) said those found assisting militants in J&K should be tried by investigating agencies under the Enemy Agents Ordinance, 2005.
- The J&K Enemy Agents Ordinance was first issued in 1917 by the then Dogra Maharaja of J&K.
- It is referred to as an ‘ordinance’ since laws made during the Dogra rule were called ordinances.
- After Partition in 1947, the ordinance was incorporated as a law in the erstwhile state and was also amended.
- In 2019, when Article 370 of the Constitution was repealed, J&K’s legal framework also underwent several changes.
- According to the ordinance, “whosoever is an enemy agent or, with an intent to aid the enemy, conspires with any other person to any act which is designed or likely to give assistance to the enemy or to impede the military or air operations of Indian forces or to endanger life or is guilty of incendiarism shall be punishable with death or rigorous imprisonment for life or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine”.
- Trials are conducted by a special judge who is appointed by the “government in consultation with the High Court”.
- Under the ordinance, the accused cannot engage a lawyer to defend herself unless permitted by the court.
