By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: An advisory board comprising three sitting judges of the Delhi High Court has been constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to review the cases registered under the stringent National Security Act (NSA). Those persons charged under the Act can be detained for up to a year without any charge.
According to an official notification issued on Saturday, Justice Yogesh Khanna will be the chairman of the advisory board while justices Chandra Dhari Singh and Rajnish Bhatnagar will be members of the high-powered body. Such an advisory board is constituted under Section 9 of the 1980 Act.
The NSA empowers the government to detain a person for up to 12 months without a charge if it considers the individual a threat to national security or to prevent him or her from disrupting public order. The detained person can be held for 10 days without being told the charges against him or her.
As per the Act, the detainee can appeal only before the advisory board for relief but will not be allowed a lawyer during the trial.
“In the case of every NSA detainee, the government concerned shall, within three weeks from the date of detention, place before the advisory board the grounds on which the order has been made and the representation, if any, made by the detainee.”, reported an agency.
“The advisory board shall, after considering the materials placed before it and after hearing the detainee, submit its report to the government within seven weeks from the date of detention of the person concerned.” It added.
The report of the board shall specify as to whether or not there is sufficient cause for the detention. In cases where the advisory board has reported that there is, in its opinion, sufficient cause for the detention of the person concerned, the government may confirm the detention order and continue the detention for such period as it thinks fit.
The detainee against whom no sufficient cause for the detention will be found by the board, the government shall revoke the detention order and the detainee to be released forthwith.
The detention of the person can continue without obtaining the opinion of the advisory board for a period longer than three months, but not more than six months where “such person had been detained with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the defence of India.”
The same detention policy will be applicable if the person is detained to prevent from interfering with the government’s efforts in coping with the terrorist, the security of India or the maintenance of public order, or the maintenance of supplies.
It was during the Indira Gandhi government of 1980 that the NSA was enacted.
Going by the data of the persons detained under the NSA ACT provided by the government in parliament in 2020, nearly 1,200 people across the country were detained in 2017 and 2018.
Under the NSA Madhya Pradesh government detained the highest number of people followed by the Uttar Pradesh government. In Madhya Pradesh, 795 people were detained under the NSA in 2017 and 2018 while 466 were released by review boards and 329 were under custody.
In Uttar Pradesh, of the 338 people detained under the NSA in 2017 and 2018, 150 were released by review boards and 188 were under detention.
There is no official data available about NSA detainees since 2019.
