MUMBAI, Sept. 4 -- Civil society groups in Maharashtra are preparing to launch fresh protests against the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, calling it "draconian" and an attempt to suppress dissent against the state. Human rights activists and lawyers met on Saturday to discuss protests in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra, on September 10 and October 2. Social activist Ulka Mahajan said the protests would be held at multiple venues in Mumbai on September 10 under the Jansuraksha Kayda Virodhak Sangharsh Samiti. The venues are yet to be finalised. The bill was passed in both houses of the state legislature in July and awaits the governor's assent. A day after the bill was passed in the assembly, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said, "This (the bill) is not against any democratic processes. It will not take away anybody's right to protest. It will only ban the frontal organisations associated with Naxalite and Maoist movements. Four other states have already accepted such a law." Senior advocate Mihir Desai summed up the heart of the opposition to the bill, saying the intended violation as described in the bill was legally problematic. "They can arrest you not because you caused a riot somewhere but because they think you might do it." The definition of "organisation", civil society says, is vague. "With the passage of this law, nobody should assume they are safe. One mustn't think, 'I have not taken any arms training so I need not worry.' You may or may not have arms training, you may never have seen a pistol in your life, but it doesn't matter. They can ban you the day they want to ban you. This is a very serious encroachment on fundamental rights and any kind of dissent. Civil society needs to rise up and oppose this," Desai said at an online event on Saturday. Mens rea, the intention or the knowledge of committing an offence, which is an important ingredient in a criminal offence, was missing in a similar law passed in Chhattisgarh, said lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj, at the same webinar on August 30. Bharadwaj, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in December 2021. She has worked in Chhattisgarh for 30 years as a trade unionist and human rights defender. Bharadwaj said that although the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act was enacted in 2005, it caught attention after the 2007 arrest of Dr Binayak Sen, a paediatrician and human rights activist accused of aiding a jailed Maoist. Sen was released on bail by the Apex Court in 2011. Bharadwaj cited examples of people who came to be booked under the special legislation: sellers of camouflage print cloth used by both Naxalites and security forces, tailors who stitched the uniform, a doctor whose medical prescription was found in the bag of a Naxalite killed in an encounter, lawyers and human rights defenders. "These are not violent or terrorist activities but any kind of activity that you cannot bring under any other law. You have then created a grey area to mop them up," Bharadwaj said. Fadnavis has claimed the special bill has checks and balances in place and would not infringe on anybody's right to protest. He said six organisations banned by other states were in operation in Maharashtra and there were 64 such organisations in all. The legislation was aimed at giving the government the power to act against such organisations, he maintains. "Unless there is a terror element, UAPA cannot be applied. MCOCA is not for such cases, it is a law that can be used against a person but not against an organisation. This is the first law under which the permission of an advisory board will be sought before registering an offence. A DIG-level officer will carry out the investigation but they will have to go before the board, which will have a high court judge, a district judge and a public prosecutor. Ours is a more progressive law compared to one in the other four states. No other state law has given so much leeway," he said....