Latest Articles
Back
What is the National Security Act being slapped on Covidiots?
The Indore district administration on Friday (3rd April) invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against four men involved in the alleged attack on health workers. The act has also been imposed by the Yogi Adityanath Government against the Jamaati members for misbehaviour as well as against people in Indore for stone pelting health workers.
This Act has often been controversial in nature because it is known to provide the police with unprecedented powers over citizens. The NSA, when imposed on a person, community or an entire city/state, empowers the government to detain them if the authorities, at their discretion are satisfied that the said person(s) is a threat to national security or to prevent them from disrupting public order. In layman terms, the Act authorizes the police to be able to detain for months if they find a person to be a threat to national security. An individual arrested under the NSA does not have to be informed about the grounds for arrest for up to 15 days, depending on the case. The Act has often been referred as draconian in nature and unexpectedly applied to situations leading to an alleged misuse of power. Surprisingly enough, the National Crime Records Bureau does not publicly list the number of people booked under the Act and therefore, there is no data available on the number of people.
The Act was previously imposed in Delhi against Citizenship (Amendment) Act protestors which was a controversial situation but the present imposition of the Act amidst the coronavirus global pandemic deems necessary.
The Act is concise in nature and contains 18 sections. In case of a person being detained for 2 or more grounds under Section 3 of the Act, it extends the power of the government by stating that the detention order is not deemed to be invalid or inoperative merely because one or some of the grounds are vague, non-existent, non-relevant, not proximately connected to the detained person or invalid for any other reason. The government or officer making the order of detention is presumed to be satisfied that the subject was a national threat and can not be held responsible or challenged by the detainee. The authorities are to communicate the reasons for detention to the detainee within 5 days and in exceptional cases, within 15 days but it also provides the government the power to not disclose the grounds if it is deemed to be in public interest. In cases where the person against whom a detention order has been served has absconded without proving that he was unable to comply with the order for specific reasons, he can be punished with imprisonment for up to a year along with fine. The maximum period of detention, as per Section 13 of the Act is up to 12 months. A detainee might be temporarily released with specified conditions and if he/she does not comply with such conditions, they are liable to pay a penalty and if the said person does not surrender himself after having passed a detention order, he can be punished with imprisonment of up to 2 years along with a fine.
Typically in case of a person being arrested, they are restored with certain rights bestowed by the Constitution of India and by the Code of Criminal Procedure which includes being informed about the reasons for being arrested, right to seek legal advice, being produces before a court within 24 hours but NSA has been referred to as arbitrary in nature.
