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dated December 11, 1957: Safeguard measures

The need for continuing the Preventive Detention Act as a safeguard against threats to security of the state or serious menace to law and order, especially in respect of incidents like the sabotage activities in Kashmir, communal riots in Ramanathapuram, actions like the burning of the Constitution by the Dravida Kazhagam in the South and occurrences in the Punjab following the Hindi agitation, was stressed by the Union Home Minister, Pandit G.B. Pant, in the Lok Sabha on December 9. The Home Minister, who was moving for consideration of the Preventive Detention (Continuance) Bill, which seeks to extend the life of the Act, which expires on December 31 this year, for a period of three more years, said that the powers under the Act, used with great caution, had served a useful purpose in ensuring peaceful existence to the vast population of the country against mischievous elements. The fact that the number of detections under the Act had decreased from 10,962 in 1950 to 205 only this year was the best argument for the retention of this sort of a reserve power, the Home Minister said. While members of different parties in the Opposition utilised the opportunity to attack the Government for all kinds of omissions and commissions on their part, including the setting up of the Bilingual Bombay, the Communist being the most vociferous, there were also a few speakers from the Congress benches, who urged the need for using the measure with the greatest possible care and caution, so as not to give the impression of trespassing on individual liberty.

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