Police in Delhi can now detain people for up to 12 months without charge, legal representation, or notice of the grounds for their arrest, after the city’s lieutenant governor invoked Section 3(2) of India’s National Security Act on July 15 and extended the order through October 18. The move, which suspends ordinary due process protections amid mass youth protests over leaked exam papers, drew condemnation Friday from Amnesty International.
The protests, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), began in May after answers to India’s medical school entrance exam, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test–Undergraduate (NEET-UG), were leaked, forcing more than 2 million students to retake it.
Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India, said the order suspends fair trial rights guaranteed under international law. “This deeply concerning move is an affront to human rights that risks enflaming the situation in Delhi even further,” he said.
Delhi police claim that this a routine administrative measure, but Patel pointed to previous times Indian police have abused this power, such as during the anti-CAA protests in 2020 and the 2026 workers’ protests in Noida. The examination paper leaks have resulted in extreme distress among test-takers who had spent years preparing for the grueling exam, leading to at least 20 students committing suicide.
The CJP protests ultimately forced the government to accede to their demands, including a five-point exam reform charter and adequate compensation to the affected families. At the height of the protests on July 20, Delhi police used tear gas and batons against protestors as they attempted to march towards India’s parliament.
The movement emerged after the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, made derogatory remarks about student protesters, dismissing them as “unemployed youths…who attack the legal system,” and even going so far as to call them “cockroaches.”
The NSA permits detention on suspicion that a person may act against public order or national security, a preventive standard requiring no charge. Detainees have no right to counsel before the three-member Advisory Board that reviews the order
The NSA has been widely criticized as a contravention of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to liberty and security of person, as well as Article 14 of the ICCPR, which guarantees the right to fair trial.
