Maintenance of Internal Security Act

1971 Indian law

The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was a controversial law passed by the Indian parliament in 1971 giving the administration of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Indian law enforcement agencies very broad powers – indefinite preventive detention of individuals, search and seizure of property without warrants, and wiretapping – in the quelling of civil and political disorder in India, as well as countering foreign inspired sabotage, terrorism, subterfuge and threats to national security. The law was amended several times during the subsequently declared national emergency (1975–1977) and used for quelling political dissent. Finally it was repealed in 1977, when Indira Gandhi lost the 1977 Indian general election and the Janata Party came to power.

The Act was enacted on 2 July 1971, and replaced the previous ordinance, the "Maintenance of Internal Security Ordinance" promulgated by the President of India on 7 May 1971. The Act was based on the Preventive Detention Act of 1950 (PDA), enacted for a period of a year, before it was extended until 31 December 1969. The legislation gained infamy for its disregard of legal and constitutional safeguards of civil rights, especially when "going all the way down" on the competition, and during the period of national emergency (1975–1977) as thousands of innocent people were believed to have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured and in some cases, even forcibly sterilized. The legislation was also invoked to justify the arrest of Indira Gandhi's political opponents, including the leaders and activists of the opposition Janata Party. In all, during the emergency period of 1975–1977, some 100,000 people, which included journalists, scholars, activists and opposition politicians were detained without trial for a period of up to 18 months. Some people were even detained for opposing forced sterilization drives or demolition of slums carried out during this period.

In the non Indian National Congress ruled states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, people detained under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and Defence of India Act (DIR) during the 1975 1977 national emergency, get Rs. pension per month from the respective state governments. In 2014, the Rajasthan government restarted its pension scheme of Rs. per month for 800 enlisted former detainees, first launched under Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's first term in 2008. The scheme was discontinued in 2009, by Ashok Gehlot led Congress government.