Section 2State of Kerala Act

Section 2: Definitions

Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007

Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,--

(a)

'anti-social activity' means acting in such manner as to cause or is likely to cause, directly or indirectly, any feeling of insecurity, danger or fear among the general public or any section thereof, or any danger to the safety of individuals, safety of public, public health or the ecological system or any loss or damage to public exchequer or to any public or private property or indulges in any activities referred in clauses (c), (e), (g), (h), (i), (l), (m),(n),(q), (4b) and (s) of this section;

(aa)

"advisory board" means an advisory board constituted under section 8 by the Government;

(b)

'authorised officer' means any officer authorised by the Government under sub-section (2) of section 3;

(c)

'bootlegger' means a person who distils, manufactures, stores, transports or takes away, imports, exports, sells or distributes any liquor, intoxicating drug or other intoxicating substances in contravention of the Abkari Act (1 of 1077) and the Rules and Orders issued thereunder or any of the provisions contained in any other law for the time being in force, or knowingly spent or utilises money or give support or give aid to do any of the matters mentioned above, by any person or through any person by providing any animal, vehicle, vessel other conveyances or any tank, any other articles whatever it may be, or the person who abets to do any such matter in any manner;

(d)

'close relative' means spouse, parent, children or sibling and first degree blood-relatives of such spouse, parent or sibling and includes the children or spouses of such persons;

(e)

'counterfeiter' means any person who knowingly and wilfully makes, stocks or distributes counterfeit coins or currency or valuable security defined in section 30 of the Indian Penal Code (Central Act 45 of 1860) and includes a person who knowingly abets any such activities;

(f)

'detention order' means an order made under section 3;

(g)

'depredator of environment' means a person who, by any direct act by which he derives pecuniary or commercial benefit, commits an offence under any law relating to protection of environment or rivers or under any law relating to sand mining from any place or under any law relating to quarrying or mining, or who commits or abets the commission of offences punishable under any law relating to conservation of forests or wild life;

(h)

'digital data and copyright pirate' means any person who knowingly and deliberately violates, for commercial purposes, any copyright law in relation to any book, music, film, software, artistic or scientific work and includes any person who illegally enters through the identity of the user and illegally uses any computer or digital network for any illegal personal profit by deceiving any person or any computer system;

(i)

'drug-offender' means a person who illegally cultivates, manufactures, stocks, transports, sells or distributes any drug in contravention of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (Central Act 61 of 1985) or in contravention of any other law for the time being in force, or who knowingly does anything abetting or facilitating any such activity;

(j)

'goonda' means a person who indulges in any anti-social activity or promotes or abets any illegal activity which are harmful for the maintenance of the public order directly or indirectly and includes a bootlegger, a counterfeiter, a depredator of environment, a digital data and copy right pirate, a drug offender, a hawala racketeer, a hired ruffian, rowdy, an immoral traffic offender, a loan shark, a money Chain offender or a property grabber;

(k)

'Government' means the Government of Kerala;

(l)

'hawala racketeer' means a person who, on his own motion m as a member of any organized group which illegally buys, sells or deals with Indian currency or foreign currency, engages in such illegal activity;

(m)

'hired ruffian' means any person who receives pecuniary consideration in cash or kind for use of unlawful force either by himself or through any person for causing injury to any person or for criminally intimidating any person or for damaging any property belonging to any other person or for illegally dispossessing any person from any movable or immovable property in his possession;

(n)

'immoral traffic offender' means a person who commits or abets the commission of any offence under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (Central Act 104 of 1956);

(o)

'known goonda' means a goonda who had been, for acts done within the previous seven years as calculated from the date of the order imposing any restriction or detention under this Act,--

(i)found guilty, by a competent court or authority at least once for an offence within the meaning of the term 'goonda' as defined in clause (j) of section 2; or

(ii)found in any investigation or enquiry by a competent police officer, or other authority or competent court on complaints initiated by persons other than police officers, in two separate instances not forming part of the same transaction, to have committed any act within the meaning of the term 'goonda' as defined in clause (j) of section 2.

Provided that an offence in respect of which a report was filed by a police officer before a lawful authority consequent to the seizure, in the presence of witnesses, of alcohol, spirit, counterfeit notes, sand, forest produce, articles violating copyright, narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or currency involved in hawala racketeering may be included for consideration though the report had resulted from an action initiated by a police officer.Explanation:- An instance of an offence involving a person, which satisfies the conditions specified in the definition of known rowdy referred to in clause (p) of section 2 can also be taken into consideration as an instance, along with other cases, for deciding whether the person is a known goonda or not.

(p)

'known rowdy' means any person, who had been, by reason of acts done within the previous seven years as calculated from the date of the order imposing any restriction or detention under this Act,-

(i)made guilty, by a competent court at least once for an offence of the nature under item (i) of clause (t) of section 2 or any offence notified as such under the said clause; or

(ii)made guilty, by a competent court at least twice for any offence of the nature mentioned under item (ii) of clause (t) of section 2 or any offence notified as such under the said clause; or

(iii)found on investigation or enquiry by a competent police officer or other authority, on complaints initiated by persons other than police officers, in three separate instances not forming part of the same transaction to have committed any offence mentioned in clause (t) of section 2:

Provided that any offence committed by a person,-

(i)by virtue of his involvement as a member of the family or a close relative of the family in an incident which took place by reason of a family dispute or quarrel involving family members of close relatives on either side; or

(ii)

by virtue of his involvement as a neighbour or as a close relative of the neighbour in an incident which occurred due to a dispute between immediate neighbours; or

(iii)

by virtue of his involvement as an employee of any establishment in an incident which occurred in connection with a dispute between himself and the establishment with regard to the conditions of service; or

(iv)

as a member of the student community in a recognised educational institution, by virtue of his involvement, merely by his presence but without any overt act constituting the offence mentioned in clause (t) of section 2 without being involved in any criminal conspiracy facilitating the same, in an incident which occurred due to the general involvement of students of the institution in that particular incident; or

(v)

as a member of a recognised political party, by virtue of his involvement merely by his presence, but without any overt act constituting the offence mentioned in clause (t) of section 2 without being involved in any criminal conspiracy facilitating the same, in an incident which occurred due to the general involvement of the workers of that party in an agitation or protest or programme organised by the party with prior information given to the police officer or magistrate having jurisdiction; or

(vi)

by virtue of his involvement in a criminal act committed by him before he had attained the age of eighteen years, shall be omitted from the computation of the number of offences taken into account for deciding whether a person is a known rowdy;

(q)

'loan shark' means a person who lends money for exorbitant interest in contravention of the provisions of the Kerala Money Lenders Act, 1958 (35 of 1958), the Kerala Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2012 (2 of 2013) or of any other law for the time being in force, a money lender or any person engaged, by the money lender or someone acting on his behalf, who uses or threatens to use physical violence, directly or otherwise or through any person against any person for the purpose of collecting any part of the loan so given for exorbitant interest or interest thereon or any instalment thereof or for taking any movable or immovable property connected with the loan transaction or the realization of whole or part of the loan amount or interest thereon;

(qa)

"material object" means any movable or immovable property, including any object, vessel, vehicle or animal, used by any person, directly or otherwise, for committing or attempting to commit, or abetting the commission of, any anti-social activity;

(qb)

"money chain offender" means a person who conducts money circulation scheme or prize chits punishable under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 (Central Act 43 of 1978);

(r)

'money lender' means an individual money lender or any money lending institution of any type;

(s)

'property grabber' means a person who illegally takes possession, either for himself or on behalf of others, of any movable or immovable property belonging to Government or Government owned institutions or of any person and includes a person who creates illegal tenancies or lease or licence agreements or any other agreements, express or implied, in respect of such properties, or who knowingly gives financial aid to any person for taking illegal possession of such properties or construction of unauthorised structures thereon or who attempts to collect from any possessors of such properties, rent, compensation or other charges by criminal intimidation or who evicts or attempts to evict any such possessor by force without resorting the lawful procedure or who abets in any manner or doing of any of the above mentioned acts;

(t)

'rowdy' means and includes a person who either by himself or as a member of a gang commits or attempts to commit, or abets the commission of any offences under sections 153A and 153B of Chapter VIII and Chapters XV, XVI, XVII, & ; XXII of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Central Act 45 of 1860), or any offences under the provisions of the Arms Act, 1959 (Central Act 54 of 1959), or the Explosives Substances Act, 1908 (Central Act 6 of 1908),--

(i)punishable with five or more years of imprisonment of any type, or;

(ii)with less than five years of imprisonment of any type, except those punishable with less than one year of imprisonment; or

(iii)such offences under any other law for the time being in force, coming under item (i) or (ii), as may be notified by the Government, from time to time.

(u)

'Secretary, Home Department' means the Home Secretary to the Government of Kerala and includes any Government Secretary, Principal Secretary or Additional Chief Secretary appointed by the Government to discharge the duties of the Home Secretary.

Sec 1 — Short title and commencement

Sec 3 — Power to make orders for detaining Known Goondas and Known Rowdies

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