Chhattisgarh govt challenges validity of NIA Act in Supreme Court

The Congress government of Chhattisgarh has filed an original suit in the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the 2008 NIA Act, passed during the UPA I, was unconstitutional for taking away police power of a State.

It is against the federal spirit and violated State sovereignty and division of power, the state government said.

By creating the National Investigation Agency for probing the scheduled offences committed in any particular State, Parliament has effectively created a “national police” with overriding control over the state police and investigation, contrary to the scheme and intention of distribution of power as provided in Schedule – 7 of the Constitution, it said.
The law was passed to create a specialised agency to deal with terror and other cases.

The suit settled by Congress Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Vivek Tankha further contended that the NIA Act was ultra vires to the Constitution and was beyond the legislative competence of the Parliament.

The Act empowered the Union government to create an agency for "investigation", which was to be carried out by the State Police, being a subject matter of the State List.

It is clearly a breach of the division of power model set up by the Constitution, the plea said.

The Act also repudiated the idea of state sovereignty as envisaged under the Constitution of India.