India: Invoking of extraordinary detention powers amid Delhi protests is an ‘affront to human rights’

Responding to the decision by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor to invoke powers under India’s National Security Act (NSA) that allow police to hold people in administrative detention without being informed of the grounds for their detention or given the chance to challenge it before an independent body. Responding, Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board of Amnesty International India, said:

“This deeply concerning move is an affront to human rights that risks enflaming the situation in Delhi even further. It grants the police a host of discretionary powers to detain people for entirely arbitrary reasons for up to 12 months. Fair trial rights guaranteed under international human rights law are essentially suspended, as detainees are denied legal representation and do not have to be informed of the grounds of their detention for up to 15 days.

“Despite the Delhi police’s claim that this is a purely routine administrative measure, we’ve seen Indian police abuse these powers in the context of protests before, from the anti-CAA protests in 2020 to the 2026 workers’ protests in Noida.

“Such powers have no place in policing – amid protests or otherwise. We urge the Delhi Police not to invoke the NSA against peaceful protesters or use administrative detention to bypass legal safeguards. Peaceful protest is a human right.”

About the National Security Act

For more context on the Delhi protests, see here.

Under the NSA, the authorities can detain a person based on suspicion or the mere belief that they might do something against public order or national security in the future and keep them detained without charge or trial. People detained under the law do not have the right to legal representation before the advisory board which is a three-member body of former judges that reviews the sufficiency of grounds for a detention order and can only ‘recommend’ release or confirmation of the order.

Amnesty opposes administrative detention as it constitutes a way to circumvent criminal proceedings. In the Indian context, the use of administrative detention amid mass protests violates the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as well as the right to be free from arbitrary detention.