From 50 Years Ago: Towards More Arbitrary Detention?

It seems fairly certain that the Preventive Detention Act of 1950, which has been regularly extended at three-yearly intervals, will lapse at the end of this year. This is not so much because Government has at last realised the drastic nature of the measure as because it does not command the necessary majority to steer it through Parliament.

The Constitution gives powers to the Union and State Governments to pass laws permitting preventive detention. The Union is given the exclusive power to enact laws relating to reventive detention for reasons of defence, foreign affairs, or the security of India. Preventive detention for the security of a State, maintenance of public order, or the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community, is part of the concurrent list on which both the States and the Union can legislate.