Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978
The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA) is a preventive detention law under which a person is taken into custody to prevent them from acting harmfully against "the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order" in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (now a union territory). Whereas PSA applies only to Jammu and Kashmir, it is very similar to the National Security Act that is used by the central and other state governments of India for preventive detention.

It was introduced by the then-Chief Minister, Sheikh Abdullah, in 1978 to ostensibly stop the smuggling of timber. However, the political motives behind the law became clearer when Sheikh Abdullah used it for the first time against political rivals. Since its usage in the late 1970s, it is still being used today for "the security of the state". Following the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, PSA was one of the state laws which was retained under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019.

In 2015, the government made public the figure of 16,329 persons having been detained under the act since 1988, nearly all from Kashmir. National Crime Records Bureau records only 16 women detentions in the period 1995-2008. In February 2020, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court of India by Bhim Singh of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party terming PSA "as dead and "ultra vires"".
Q10354054
preventive detention
Concept
Q668
India
LOC
Q131541
state
Concept
Q1180
Jammu and Kashmir
LOC
Q467745
union territory
Concept
Q6978318
National Security Act
UNK
Q2767140
governments of India
ORG
Q825536
Chief Minister
UNK
Q983328
Sheikh Abdullah
PER
Q17146877
smuggling of timber
UNK
Q66240948
Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019
LOC
Q6971999
National Crime Records Bureau
ORG
Q213380
Supreme Court of India
MEDIA
Q4901743
Bhim Singh
PER
Q6744995
Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party
ORG
Q138203
ultra vires
Concept
Q85770742
Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978
UNK
1978-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1978
DATE
1978-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1978
DATE
1970-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1970
DATE
2019-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2019
DATE
2019-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2019
DATE
2015-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2015
DATE
1988-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1988
DATE
1995-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1995
DATE
2020-02-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
February 2020
DATE
+16^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
16
NUMBER
-2008^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-2008
NUMBER
located in the administrative territorial entity
country
country
subclass of