Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,1972
Parliament of India
  • An Act to enable certain special powers to be conferred upon members of the armed forces in disturbed areas in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
CitationAct No. 28 of 1958
Enacted byParliament of India
Enacted11 September 1958
Commenced11 September 1958
Status: In force

Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 is an act of the Parliament of India that grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces to maintain public order in "disturbed areas".[1] According to the Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1976 once declared 'disturbed', the area has to maintain status quo for a minimum of 3 months. One such act passed on 11 September 1958 was applicable to the Naga Hills, then part of Assam. In the following decades it spread, one by one, to the other Seven Sister States in India's northeast (at present, it is in force in the States of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur {excluding Imphal Municipal Council Area}, Changlang, Longding and Tirap districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and areas falling within the jurisdiction of the eight police stations of districts in Arunachal Pradesh bordering the State of Assam[2]).[3] Another one passed in 1983 and applicable to Punjab and Chandigarh was withdrawn in 1997, roughly 14 years after it came to force.[4] An act passed in 1990 was applied to Jammu and Kashmir and has been in force since.[5]

The acts have received criticism from several sections for alleged concerns about human rights violations in the regions of its enforcement alleged to have happened.[6][7] National Politicians like P. Chidambaram and Saifuddin Soz of Congress have advocated revocation of AFSPA, while some like Amarinder Singh are against its revocation.[8][9]

2022: Areas in the Northeast have seen scale down of forces. Since 1954, for the first time, no army unit of the size of brigade is being employed for the purpose of counter insurgency. Now, only one brigade looks after the same role. Though, some of the residual army units are moved to the border areas.[10]

  1. ^ "The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958" (PDF). indiacode.nic.in. Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  2. ^ "Repeal of AFSPA". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  3. ^ "India Code: Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958" (PDF). www.indiacode.nic.in. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference JaleelExplain was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Joshi, Sandeep (17 July 2013). "Court-appointed panel highlights misuse of AFSPA in Manipur". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  7. ^ Jeelani, Mehboob (2 July 2015). "Amnesty slams India on AFSPA; wants spl. rapporteur for probe on disappearances". The Hindu. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  8. ^ "After P Chidambaram, Congress leader Saifuddin Soz calls for revocation of AFSPA in Jammu-Kashmir". dna. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Congress divided over AFSPA, Amarinder Singh against repealing of the Act". IBNLive. Archived from the original on 18 November 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  10. ^ Philip, Snehesh Alex (22 September 2022). "Peace in Northeast after decades allows Army to finally pull out of counter-insurgency ops". ThePrint. Retrieved 30 September 2022.