Kolkata:
A bill meant to address the law and order situation in the state by targeting anti-social elements will be tabled in the assembly on Monday. The new BJP government led by Suvendu Adhikari believes that existing laws are inadequate to deal with organised anti-social activities. The West Bengal Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, 2026, is essentially a preventive detention law, similar in structure to laws like the National Security Act.
Unlike the usual criminal law, this Bill is aimed at preventing future activities, not merely punishing past offences. Anyone can come within its ambit if their actions directly or indirectly cause or are likely to cause public fear, danger to life, disturbance of public order and even illegal mining, quarrying and sand extraction, while also including wildlife offences.
While defining the term “goonda”, the state said a person can be treated as a goonda if he or she habitually commits anti-social activities, leads or finances a syndicate or promotes or facilitates anti-social activities. Even a history sheeter will be counted as one.
The Bill empowers the government to detain a person if it believes detention is necessary to stop future anti-social activity.
With a report from an SP-rank officer or above, or at the discretion of the government, a person can be detained if he has been chargesheeted earlier under Section 111 of BNS for organised crimes.
The government may authorise District Magistrates or Commissioners of Police to exercise detention powers in notified areas, which will remain valid for 15 days unless approved by the state government. A person can be detained for upto one year.
To safeguard the rights of the person detained, the government has kept provisions where the detained person will be served a copy of detention order mentioning the grounds of detention within five days.
But information may be withheld if disclosure revealed confidential sources, or may affect public order, public safety, internal security or affect national security.
An advisory board will be formed where every detention case will be scrutinised within three weeks. The board will comprise a chairperson who is or has been a High Court Judge and two members qualified to become High Court judges. The advisory board will decide if a person remains in detention or has to be released.
The “externment ” clause resembles laws used in Maharashtra and Gujarat, where the state can as ask the detainee to remain outside the area and prohibit re-entry for up to one year.
They may also require periodic reporting to police.
