LG Saxena proposes Centre for stringent Gujarat law of detention in Delhi

The proposal has been forwarded to the union ministry of home affairs (MHA), which will take a final decision on its implementation, officials said.

Lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena on Sunday recommended to the Union home ministry that a Gujarat law with tough sections allowing preventive detentions for public order be extended to Delhi, according to a statement by the LG office.

An LG secretariat official said that before recommending the extension of the Pasa Act to Delhi, lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena also examined a similar law in Telangana. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

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The move came on a proposal the Delhi home department to extend the Gujarat Prevention of Anti-social Activities (Pasa) Act, 1985, which contains sections allowing police to detain “bootleggers, dangerous persons, drug offenders, immoral traffic offenders and property grabbers” as a preventive measure.

The proposal has been forwarded to the union ministry of home affairs (MHA), which will take a final decision on its implementation, officials said.

An LG secretariat official said, “Delhi’s home department on June 27 submitted the proposal to the Delhi LG for notification under Section 2 of the Union Territories (Laws) Act. The law department vetted the draft notification with the observation that the draft notification be sent to the MHA for extension of the said Act to the Capital.”

The development comes several months after the Delhi Police in October 2022 sent to the home department a proposal that the Pasa Act or a similar Telangana law be implemented in Delhi. The proposal was forwarded to the LG office, which sent it to the law department for vetting.

Both laws have been criticised by the high courts and the Supreme Court for being draconian. The Gujarat high court, after its various benches criticised it at least thrice in the last three years, finally ordered the state government to put in some safeguards to prevent its abuse by law enforcement.

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HT reached out to the Delhi government, but officials did not comment on the development.

The plan to extend the law to the Capital is concerning. Existing laws give police the powers to make preventive detentions but the Gujarat law expands the grounds on which it can be done, with many of the definitions being too broad or vague. At the very least, Delhi’s version of this law should have the same protections that the Gujarat government was forced to bring in via rules in May, especially to avoid those without a criminal history being picked up and put behind bars without adequate basis.

Section 2 of the Union Territories (Laws) Act, 1950 deals with the power to extend enactments to certain Union Territories. It says, “the Central Government may, by notification in the official gazette, extend to the Union Territory of Delhi or any part of such territory, with such restrictions and modifications as it thinks fit, any enactment which is in force in a State at the date of the notification”.

Delhi Police spokesperson Kumar Gyanesh said, “Once notified, the law will be effectively and judiciously used to tackle crimes and criminals in Delhi. It will certainly help in keeping the criminals under check.”

A second LG secretariat official said that before recommending the extension of the Pasa Act to Delhi, Saxena also examined a similar law in Telangana.

“LG agreed to the proposal that the Gujarat law may be forwarded to the MHA for considering its extension to the national capital after taking note of the observation that between the Telangana and Gujarat laws, the Gujarat law is more reasonable and better,” the official said, declining to be named.

The official did not share why the Gujarat law was “better” than the Telangana law.

The LG office, in a statement issued on Sunday, said the implementation of the Pasa Act will “provide for preventive detention of bootleggers, dangerous persons, drug offenders, immoral traffic offenders and property grabbers for preventing their anti-social and dangerous activities prejudicial to the maintenance of public order in the Capital”.

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Siddharth Luthra, senior advocate at the Supreme Court and a former additional solicitor general of India, said, “There are enough legislative devices available with the police. According to me, the reach of criminal law enforcement is increasing at the Central and state level. Delhi Police is an effective force and as we have effective an police, is it really necessary to have such stringent laws in the Capital?”