The Bengal State Prisoners Regulation (Bengal Regulation III), which allowed detention without trial, was passed in:

The Bengal State Prisoners Regulation, known as Bengal Regulation III of 1818, was a colonial law that allowed the government to detain persons without trial on grounds of state security.

Purpose of the regulation:

• It was passed by the East India Company to deal with threats to the security of its territories, such as rebellions by local rulers and groups.
• It allowed the government to detain "state prisoners" indefinitely without a judicial trial, on the basis of executive orders.
• Detained persons had no right to know the charges against them or to defend themselves in court.

Use against nationalists:

• The regulation was later used extensively against Indian nationalists and revolutionaries.
• In 1908, nine Bengali leaders, including Ashwini Kumar Dutt and Krishna Kumar Mitra, were deported under it.
• Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh were deported to Mandalay in Burma in 1907 under a similar regulation.
• Subhas Chandra Bose was detained under this regulation in the 1920s.

Similar regulations:

Madras Regulation II of 1819 and Bombay Regulation XXV of 1827 were similar laws in other presidencies.

Criticism:

• Nationalist leaders strongly opposed these regulations as arbitrary and against the principles of justice.
• Their repeal was a long-standing demand of the Indian National Congress.

Later preventive detention laws in British India:

• The Defence of India Act, 1915, during the First World War.
• The Rowlatt Act, 1919, which allowed detention without trial and led to the Rowlatt Satyagraha.
• The Defence of India Act, 1939, during the Second World War.

After independence:

• The Constitution allows preventive detention under Article 22, but with safeguards such as an Advisory Board.
• The Preventive Detention Act, 1950 was the first such law in independent India.

Repeal:

Bengal Regulation III of 1818 was finally repealed after independence.

Why not the other options?

• ✗1793 is the year of the Permanent Settlement and the Cornwallis Code.
• ✗1857 is the year of the Revolt.
• ✗1908 is the year of other repressive laws, such as the Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act.