The Maharashtra Assembly has passed the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill (Mh SPSB) 2024, exactly a year after its initial tabling. Projected as a measure to curb the spread of Naxalism in urban areas, the Bill grants sweeping powers to the government to ban organisations and penalise individuals for affiliations. Despite significant overlaps with existing laws, it marks yet another addition to India’s expanding arsenal of legislations that restrict associational freedoms. The Bill now awaits the Governor’s assent.
PUDR’s report examines why, despite the existence of expansive legislations such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which empowers the Centre to ban organisations, and the Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLA), which enables states to do the same, the Maharashtra government has chosen to enact yet another law with substantively similar powers. The answer, the report argues, lies in administrative convenience in executing bans. The Mh SPSB is not a legal innovation but a duplication, one that nonetheless, expands the ambit of criminality, lowers procedural barriers, and facilitates localized control.
In tracing the social history and political economy of Public Security Acts, the report demonstrates how the Mh SPSB builds upon earlier models. It examines the overlapping provisions across the broader landscape of banning laws to identify what, if anything, is substantively new in the present context. Through a comparative analysis of procedures and powers, the report reveals how successive legislations have steadily lowered the threshold for imposing bans, thereby expanding the state’s discretionary authority. The Maharashtra Bill is situated within this evolving architecture, where the intent behind its enactment is closely tied to Maharashtra’s current political landscape evidenced in the Bill’s ‘Objects and Reasons’. In doing so, the report sheds light on why associational freedoms are feared by those in power, and how that fear translates into more and more laws that ban.
For the full report click below
Insecurity By Law
