Delhi Police commissioner gets NSA detention powers for three months

New Delhi: Delhi’s lieutenant governor, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, has authorized the Delhi Police commissioner, Anurag Kumar, to act as a detaining authority under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980. The authorization covers a three-month period, from July 19 to October 18.

The order was issued under Section 3(3), read with Section 2(e), of the NSA. It empowers Kumar to exercise the powers of a detaining authority under Section 3(2) of the act during this period.

The NSA allows for preventive detention, a legal mechanism distinct from ordinary criminal law. Under normal criminal procedure, a person is investigated and charged after an alleged offence. Preventive detention works differently. Authorities can detain someone they believe may act in ways prejudicial to specified public interests, before any offence occurs.

Under the act, detention can relate to concerns such as India’s defence or security, the security of the state, maintenance of public order, or the maintenance of essential supplies and services. Individuals can be detained without formal charges for a period ranging from 12 days up to 12 months, depending on the case.

This authorization does not apply the NSA across all of Delhi, nor does it introduce any new restrictions on the public. It simply designates the police commissioner as someone who can issue such detention orders in individual cases, where the legal requirements under the act are met.

The order drew attention amid ongoing protests in Delhi by students and supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), raising questions over whether the two developments were linked. Delhi Police issued a clarification rejecting such claims.

It added that the renewal was a “routine, quarterly extension” that is conventionally issued every three months, and that it predated the current protests in the city. Police further said that no specific request for these powers had been made in connection with recent events, describing the renewal as a standard administrative procedure.

The NSA has previously been invoked in Delhi through comparable delegation orders. In September 2025, activist Sonam Wangchuk was detained under the act by the district magistrate in Leh, to maintain public order, and was released after 170 days of detention.

Under the NSA’s framework, the appropriate government can designate senior officials, such as police commissioners or district magistrates, as detaining authorities to help maintain public order. This is the specific mechanism used in the current order.