Amnesty International on Friday condemned the July 15th decision of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor to invoke Section 3(2) of India’s National Security Act (NSA), which effectively grants police the power to hold individuals in administrative detention without procedural guarantees.
The decision to invoke this section of the NSA comes amidst mass protests in India, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) who have demanded accountability over alleged examination paper leaks that affected millions of students. The protests began in May after the answers to India’s medical school entrance exam, known as the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test NEET (UG), were leaked, leading to more than 2 million students needing to retake the test.
Following the extension of the invocation of Section 3(2) of the NSA until October 18th, Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board of Amnesty International India, stated that:
“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.”
Delhi police have claimed that this a purely routine administrative measure, but Patel is concerned given the previous times Indian police have abused this power, such as the anti-CAA protests in 2020 and the 2026 workers’ protests in Noida. The examination paper leaks have resulted in extreme academic distress among test-takers who had spent years preparing for the grueling exam, leading to at least twenty students committing suicide.
The grief of the students’ families and friends spurred on the CJP to intensify their nationwide protests, ultimately forcing the government to accede to their demands, including a 5-point exam reform charter and provide adequate compensation to the affected families. At the height of the protests, Delhi police used tear gas and batons against protestors as they attempted to march towards India’s parliament.
Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant had made derogatory remarks about the protesters, calling them “unemployed youths and activists who attack the legal system”, even going so far as to call them “cockroaches”, a term that activists have said illustrates the authorities’ blatant disregard for the democratic right to exercise peaceful dissent.
Under the NSA, police can detain a person without charging or trying them based on the suspicion or belief that they might carry out an activity that directly undermines public order or national security. Once detained, the individual has no right to legal representation before the three-member Advisory Board which reviews the grounds on which their detention was ordered.
The NSA has been widely criticized as existing in contravention of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to liberty and security of person, along with Article 14 of the ICCPR which guarantees the right to fair trial.
