SC seeks Centre’s response to petition challenging NIA Act

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on a public interest litigation challenging the validity of the 2008 National Investigation Agency Act, Live Law reported.

The Act set up the National Investigation Agency in 2008 and contains a list of scheduled offences that it has the power to investigate. Under the legislation, state governments forward all cases relating to these scheduled offences to the Centre, which then determines whether the NIA should investigate them.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought responses from the Centre, the NIA and others on the petition that described the Act as arbitrary, lacking in legislative competence and an encroachment on state power.

The petition against the NIA Act was filed by an advocate based in Kerala who had been booked in connection with the activities of the banned organisation Popular Front of India. The NIA had filed the first information report in 2022 under sections of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Arms Act on the orders of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

The petitioner was arrested in relation to the case and had been in custody for a year before being granted bail by the Kerala High Court, Live Law reported.

The petition also referred to a another case filed by...

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