947 GS Bajpai Vice-chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab Criminalising protests in a constitutional democracy is a matter of grave concern. The Delhi High Court order granting bail to Asif Tanha, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal is a scathing critique of the manner in which the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is misapplied to curb protests and suppress dissent. Persuaded by alarmist arguments, the Supreme Court (SC) seems to have blunted the value of the Delhi High Court order as judicial precedents while refraining from staying the order itself. The SC’s observations, terming the order as ‘troubling’, are unsurprising insofar as they merely resonate from a dominant judicial consideration of the national security objective as paramount.