NATIONAL SECURITY ACT

NATIONAL SECURITY ACT

Subject: Legislations

Context: Allahabad HC cancels 94 NSA cases lodged by UP govt, calls them misuse of law.

Concept:

About the National Security Act, 1980

• The NSA is a preventive detention law.
• The NSA empowers the Centre or a State government to detain a person to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to national security.
• The government can also detain a person to prevent him from disrupting public order or for maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community.

Period of Confinement: The maximum period for which one may be detained is 12 months. But the term can be extended if the government finds fresh evidence.

No Basic Rights to People Detained under the NSA, including:

• The right to be informed of the reason for the arrest (Section 50 of the Criminal Procedure Code -Cr.PC).
• Under the NSA, a person could be kept in the dark about the reasons for his arrest for up to five days, and in exceptional circumstances upto ten days.
• Even when providing the grounds for arrest, the government can withhold information which it considers to be against public interest to disclose.
• Sections 56 and 76 of the Cr. PC also provides that a person has to be produced before a court within 24 hours of arrest.
• Article 22(1) of the Constitution says an arrested person cannot be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a legal practitioner of his choice.
• Under the NSA, the arrested person is not entitled to the aid of any legal practitioner in any matter connected with the proceedings before an advisory board, which is constituted by the government for dealing with NSA cases.

Preventive Detention

• Preventive Detention involves the detainment (containment) of a person in order to keep him/her from committing future crimes and/or from escaping future prosecution.
• Article 22 (3) (b) of the Constitution allows for preventive detention and restriction on personal liberty for reasons of state security and public order.
• Further, Article 22(4) states that no law providing for preventive detention shall authorise the detention of a person for a longer period than three months unless:
• An Advisory Board reports sufficient cause for extended detention.
• The 44th Amendment Act of 1978 has reduced the period of detention without obtaining the opinion of an advisory board from three to two months. However, this provision has not yet been brought into force, hence, the original period of three months still continues.
• Such a person is detained in accordance with the provisions of any law made by the Parliament.