The State of Karnataka has amended the Goonda Act to bring “habitual offenders” concerning cybercrimes and copyright under the legislation. The Goonda Act is an extremely regressive piece of legislation stemming from the colonial Criminal Tribes Act wherein people were deemed criminal merely because they belonged to a certain social group. These amendments which then bring a larger sphere under the Goonda Act’s scope, are no better. We provide here a copy of these amendments. And here is an article by Gautam Bhatia which will help put these amendments into better perspective by showing how they are prima facie unconstitutional.
Areas of Work: Criminal Law