Security law

Operating Procedures (SOPS) mandated by law, the accountability of each administrative wing of the government, and including stakeholders in the legislature, municipal and local bodies, corporations, and state boards.

No internal security SOP is currently mandated by law — a bunch of them is spread across different departments, with no unified command, and laying down no specific accountability.

The new draft — a much lighter 16 pages — was released on August 21. A six-member governing body led by the home minister is mandated to define the guidelines for internal security, examine emerging intelligence inputs, and summon any official of any department or local authority for a briefing.

The biggest takeaways from the first version were the inclusion of key security shortcomings noticed during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, as officially recorded in the Ram Pradhan Committee report, and a special emphasis on a state government-designed Witness Protection Scheme.

Based on learnings from the ground and a study of measures taken in western countries, the draft Bill included aspects like a two-year watch on the activities of terrorists after release from incarceration.

What the new draft calls State Internal Security Committee — the top decisionmaking body — the original draft had called the State Security Advisory Board (SSAB), with the chief minister as its chairman.

Section 1 in Chapter II of the draft — ‘Constitution of State Security Advisory Board’ — said the new body would be independent of the existing State Security Commission, and would include among its 11 members the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha, Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Parishad, the deputy CM, home minister, finance minister, chief secretary, additional chief secretary (Home), the state DGP, Mumbai Police commissioner, and the commissioner, State Intelligence Department.

The current draft, by contrast, has done away with five of the 11 suggested posts in the apex body — and has the home minister, chief secretary, additional chief secretary (Home), DGP and Mumbai Police commissioner as members, and the commissioner, SID, as member secretary. The Home portfolio is currently with Chief Minister Fadnavis.

At a press meet last week, responding to a question on why the opposition was not included in the working of an intelligence and security-related Act, K P Bakshi, ACS (Home) had said, “Nowhere is the opposition updated on intelligence alerts or any such sensitive subjects.” On Saturday, the Chief Minister, responding to the outcry over “draconian clauses” and police restrictions, said the government would rework the draft Bill.

According to officials, the drafting committee had submitted the first draft to Fadnavis in November 2014, who had asked the Home department to put it up for discussion among various stakeholders. Officials said the file was put up, after a second reminder, in January 2015, and meetings were called from February. The various stakeholders, overseen by the Home and Judiciary departments, included officials from the Education (there was special emphasis on building resilience against attacks right from