The Supreme Court on Friday junked a plea challenging the imposition of the National Security Act (NSA) in few states and New Delhi during anti-CAA protests.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee asked the petitioner Advocate ML Sharma that it can’t pass an order on the imposition of the NSA by observing that it was not proper to restrain the authorities when large-scale arson is being reported in the ongoing protests.

The bench said: “These are law and order issues. How can we intervene?

The court further directed Sharma withdraw the plea and suggested him to approach them in individual cases of misuse of the NSA by filing a fresh plea or an interim application in pending pleas on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) before the apex court referring particular information on the cases of breaches of NSA.

“How can we execute that? Rescind the plea and we give you authorization to approach the court pointing out individual cases of misuse of authority but not like this…,” said the bench.

NSA allows police to detain a person for months if it feels that he/she is a threat to national security.

—India Legal Bureau