Bengal: Bill to prevent anti-social activities to be presented on June 29

Kolkata, June 25 (IANS) A new Bill to prevent anti-social activities in the state will be presented on the floor of the West Bengal Assembly on June 29.

The gazette notification for the Bill, titled “The West Bengal Public Safety & Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, 2026,” has already been issued, and it will be presented on the floor of the House on Monday for clearance.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had announced plans to introduce such a Bill earlier this week during a discussion on the ongoing budget session of the House.

The Bill, published in a special issue of the Calcutta Gazette, states that its aim is to ensure public safety, maintain law and order, and establish strict control over organised anti-social activities.

The Act is mainly distinguished from the various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, against anti-social activities in two main parts.

The first part is if a person is identified as a danger to public safety, this Bill, after being converted into an Act, would keep him under preventive arrest for up to one year.

The second part grants the state government the power to confiscate the property of a person involved in such an offence by invoking the appropriate section of the BNS.

In order to apply the first part, that is, for preventive arrest, an advisory board will be formed, which will decide whether the preventive arrest for a particular individual would be applicable or not.

This advisory board would judge how reasonable the preventive detention is. There, the detainee will be able to appoint a representative to defend himself.

The advisory board will be headed by a current or former judge of the Calcutta High Court. There will also be two other members who are qualified to be High Court judges.

The new law would also give the police the power to expel or ban a person from an area if they fear that person might cause unrest. The law would also include protection for police and government employees in its implementation.

–IANS

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