Kolkata, June 29 (IANS). The West Bengal Public Safety and Anti-Social Activities Control Bill, 2026 was passed with a majority in the West Bengal Assembly on Monday afternoon. The purpose of this bill is to stop corruption, anti-social and unruly activities in the state.
176 MLAs from the ruling BJP camp voted in favor of the bill. 41 MLAs voted against the bill, while the remaining 20 MLAs abstained from voting.
The specialty of this bill, which has been brought with the aim of ensuring public safety, maintaining law and order and keeping a strict control on organized anti-social activities, is that it is different in two main ways from the different provisions of the Indian Justice Code (BNS), 2023, dealing with anti-social activities.
The first thing is that if a person is considered a threat to public safety, then after becoming law, this bill will allow him to be kept in ‘preventive detention’ for up to one year.
Secondly, it empowers the State Government to confiscate the property of a person involved in such an offence, for which the relevant provisions of the BNS can be used.
An advisory board will be formed to implement the first provision i.e. ‘Preventive Detention’. This board will decide whether it is right to keep a particular person in custody or not.
The Advisory Board will examine the propriety of ‘preventive detention’. The detained person shall have the right to appoint a representative to present his case before the Board.
The head of the Advisory Board will be a sitting or former judge of the Calcutta High Court. There will also be two other members who are qualified to become High Court judges.
The new law will also give the police the right to expel a person from a particular area or stop him from coming there if they suspect that a person may create unrest. This law will also provide protection to policemen and government employees involved in its enforcement.
Talking about the need to bring such a stringent bill, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari mentioned in the House the incidents of hooliganism and violence that took place during the previous government led by Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.
He also addressed the concerns being raised about ‘preventive detention’ and said that this provision is not for ‘gentlemen’ but for those who have a criminal history.
–IANS
SCH/VC