News:The Chhattisgarh state government has moved the Supreme Court against the 2008 National Investigative Agency(NIA) Actnstating it is violative of the Constitution.
Facts:
About the NIA Act,2008:
- National Investigation Agency(NIA) is a central counter terrorism agency established by the Indian Government under the National Investigative Agency (NIA) Act,2008.
- The Act makes the NIA the only truly federal agency in the country along the lines of the FBI in the United States and more powerful than the CBI.
- It gives the NIA powers to take suo motu cognizance of terror activities in any part of India and register a case to enter any state without permission from the state government and to investigate and arrest people.
Chhattisgarh Government objections:
- The Chhattisgarh government has said that the Act is ultra vires of the Constitution and beyond the legislative competence of the Parliament.
- The Act allows the Centre to create an agency for investigation which is a function of the state police.‘Police’ is an entry in the State List of the Constitution’s 7th Schedule.
- The act also leave no room of coordination and pre-condition of consent, in any form whatsoever by the Centre from the State govt. which clearly repudiates the idea of state sovereignty as envisaged under the Constitution.
Additional information:
About NIA Amendment Bill,2019:
- Parliament has passed the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill,2019.
- The bill enable NIA to additionally investigate offences related to (a)human trafficking (b)counterfeit currency (c)manufacture or sale of prohibited arms (d)cyber-terrorism and (e)offences under the Explosive Substances Act,1908.
- It also gives NIA officers the power to investigate offences committed outside India.But the NIA’s jurisdiction will be subject to international treaties and domestic laws of other countries.
- Further,the bill also enables the Central government to designate sessions courts as special courts for such trials.
