ABSTRACT The constitutional and legal–institutional design of the federal system and process in India, when examined from the lens of national security, shows a distinct trajectory towards centralization. Centralization of power was implicit in the establishment of parliamentary supremacy by the Constituent Assembly of India, which stressed the need for a strong Central Government to address the numerous crises confronting the Indian state. The enactment of a series of preventive detention laws and extraordinary laws to address the crime of terror has led to the accumulation of exceptional powers in the executive at both the centre and in the states. In the competition for exceptional executive power, however, it is the centre that supersedes the states in concurrence with the judiciary. The process of normalization of extraordinary powers has deepened with the establishment of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as a federal investigation agency, which coincided with the strengthening of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a permanent law to counter terrorism.