Author: Debajit Jha

The West Bengal Assembly recently passed the Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, 2026, also popularly known as the “Goonda Bill”. It allows preventive detention for up to a year, empowers authorities to extern individuals from specified areas and extends its ambit to crimes such as illegal mining, sand extraction and organised criminal activities. Predictably, the bill has triggered an intense debate on the issues of preventive detention and possible violation of civil liberties. The government, on the other hand, has tried to defend the legislation as a necessary response to organised extortion networks such as syndicates. Amidst…