National Security Act

The national security act of 1980 also known as “Rasuka”  is an act of parliament that came into existence on 23rd September 1980 under the leadership of prime minister Indira Gandhi for the country’s security. This act consisted of 18 sections and was imposed all over India. The main purpose of imposition of this act is to prevent anyone seems to disrupt public orders. According to this act, a person in question can be imprisoned for as long as 12 months or even expel him/her from the country just on the basis of the doubt without proven of any charges. A person can be conducted by the authorities enabled under the law and order system of the Nation under the charges of showing any kind of prejudice against the security of the nation, hampering or trying to influence the foreign relations of the country with other nations, disobeying public orders or impeding the supply of essential commodities and services. This law also empowers the government to detain foreign nationals so as to verify their presence or to expel them from the country. But in the year 1993, as per the data suggested, out of 3783 people who were detained under this act, 73. 2% of them were later released because of the lack of pieces of evidence to hold them guilty for which they were detained. 

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Thus the major key points that fell under the national security act were:-

1. This act allows a long preventive detention period of months (as long as 12 months).

2. State, as well as central, has the right to detain anyone who is under doubt of acting prejudiced against the national security and public orders.

3. The act was justified as a measure to strictly assure the proper functioning of the law and order system without any compromises.

4. This act is especially invoked for the people who are a supposed threat to the international relations of the country and proves to be a potential threat to the external affairs of the country.

5. This is an act of its kind that even powers the central or the state legislature to detain any foreigner if under doubt in order to regulate his presence or else to expel from the country. 

6. All the provisions that are enlisted under the defensive detention act are under re-notification every quarter round the year.    

This entire topic deals with what is the national security act and when it is imposed along with the provision of NSA.  

History of National Security Act

The national act was the first of its kind that has its root deepened in the British ruling period in India. The Defence of India Act of 1915 was first introduced by the British government during the time of the first world as a defensive tool to detain people who were rising voices and revolting against British rule in India. After the first world war as the Rowlatt committee was officially approved by the British government, the committee proposed in favor of the repressive and harsh provisions set under the Defence of India Act of 1915. It proposed to keep the Act intact with all its provisions as a law of British rule. The most autocratic provision of this act was that any person is eligible for detention without being informed of the reason for the detention and he/she was not eligible to be represented by any lawyer in defense or even to move to the court to appeal innocence. The Jallianwala Bagh protest was the result of the direct impact of this act being implemented. 

In the year 1935, the central government under the Government of India Act,935 have given the right to the state governments as well to exercise its power to detain anyone on the basis of security grounds like defense, external affairs or protection of the function of the crown in close association with states as well. Later with the establishment of the constitution of India, the state legislatures were also given the right to form their laws in the interest of protecting and maintaining the public law and order system. Also in Article 21 of the constitution of India, provides the right of life and liberty and cannot be detained someone without abiding by the procedures set by the law on the country.

Another article was later introduced in the constitution of India and was named article 22. Under this article, some of the provisions were set under which the preventive detention law can function. Thus till the year 1971, the preventive detention act 1950 was implied and continued to be an active law to be on the status book of the country. Finally, when the Maintainance of Internal security Act in 1971 was established, the preventive detention act took a backseat. Gain in the year 1977, the Maintainance of Internal Security Act of 1971 was revoked. It was only with the revoking of the MISA in the year 1977 that the Indian Republic for the first time has witnessed no preventive detention act that continued for the next three years from 1977 to 1980 when the government of Indira Gandhi again promulgated the law in the parliament in the year 1980.   

Scope and Provision of NSA

The major scope of Imprisonment under the NSA is it enables the government to keep a close look on the potential figures within the society and bring them under the law and order framework if they are suspect of public order violations, the threat to the law and order system, damaging the international relationships of the country along with disrupting the flow of essential commodities and services within the country. It enables both the state as well as the central government to detain any suspect for 12 months without providing any legal aid of representing himself/herself with the defense layer or to appeal their case to the court. The maximum duration of the detention without any evidence is 12 months but if in the course of the duration of imprisonment if the officials find any evidence against the detainee, the duration of the jail can be extended.

But under the National Security Act, if an official upon arresting any individual, must submit a complete report on the reasons and the potential suspicions on the detainee to the central or the state government or in some cases both to seek permission to detain. The permission needs to be granted within 12 days for detention from the day of arrest. To capture a person under the National Security Act, the official can be permitted by the Commissioner of police and the district magistrate as both of them are eligible to issue arrest orders.

Thus, the provision under the national security act is as follows:

1. If a person jeopardizes the law and order system of the country, appears as a threat to the public orders of the country, attack any police personnel on duty, try to deliberately harm the relation of India with other countries, or restrict the distribution of essential goods and services to earn his/her own benefits can be detained under this law.

2. In recent times, in many of the latest cases, the state government have implemented more stringent measures under the NSA to withheld the citizen under questionable activities.

3. Under NSA provision, the officer in charge of the case can detain a person for 5 days on basis of suspicion without pressing any charges against the person. In some special circumstances, this detention period can extend up to a maximum of 10 to 12 days but after that, the officials need to report the case and the reason for detention to the state government and must be issued a permit from the latter to carry on the detention further. 

4. This act gives power to the central to expel any foreigner or detain any foreigner to regulate his/her purpose of visit or stay in order to control the activities as per the law and order system of the country.

5. Recently many of people are held under NSA for misbehaving with doctors on duty, for deliberately spreading corona infection to others and also attacking police personals in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.    

Criticism of NSA

There is no definite data on the number of cases that fall under the NSA as there haven’t been many FIRs launched by the police officials before arresting any suspect under the National Security Act. thus there is no accurate data present with the NCRB on NSA cases. The suspect who is detained under NSA is not eligible to have any information regarding his/her arrest and is also not allowed with any legal aid like hiring a defense layer or to appeal his/her case to the court. Therefore many of the experts and the reformers of the modern age have criticized the NSA by comparing it with the Roulette’s Act of the British era. According to many experts, this NSA has been treated as an extra-judicial power by the state government. NSA was highly criticized all over the country as the law was hugely mistreated by the officials for their own benefits. Thus this has been even termed as an “anachronism” even during peacetime.