NIA amendment bill infringes upon state authority, must be reconsidered

It appears that the Union government has encroached upon the rights of states to conduct investigations into a class of cases which may affect public order. This goes against the notion of Indian federalism which guarantees states autonomy within a national framework.

The Bill to amend the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, 2008, has been passed by both Houses of Parliament and awaits the Presidential assent and notification prior to becoming law. It seeks to widen the authority of the NIA in terms of the crimes that it can investigate irrespective of the place of occurrence of the crime. The NIA was created as a special investigative agency under the control of the Union government which was meant to investigate crimes which affect the national security of the country, and those against institutions that were under national, as opposed to state government, control. Terror offences, offences against atomic and nuclear facilities, and offences such as waging war against the country, amongst others, were included in this list of offences. Though this may appear to be a technical point, it was clear that the agency was created to investigate crimes against the country, as opposed to ordinary criminal offences.