President returns Gujarat anti-terror bill, seeks more inputs

New Delhi

Anti-terror bill, passed by the Gujarat assembly was returned by President Pranab Mukherjee seeking additional information.

The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill, 2015, a new version of earlier GUCOC bill which has been hanging fire since Narendra Modi, as Gujarat Chief Minister first introduced it in 2003, was returned by the President to the Home Ministry as he sought more inputs related to certain provisions of the bill.

“Home Ministry will provide the additional inputs to the President after obtaining the same from the Gujarat government,” a Home Ministry official said.

The Home Ministry has informed the President after his communication that it was withdrawing the bill and will submit a re-worked bill for his consent.

The bill was sent to the President in September 2015 for his assent.

The bill provides for admissibility of evidence collected through interception of mobile calls of an accused or through confessions made before an investigating officer, in a court of law.

In July last year, the Modi government at the Centre had sent back the bill to the state government asking it to clarify on certain issues raised by the Ministry of Information and Technology (IT).

The IT Ministry had objected to the provision in the bill which allows authorisation of interception of telephone conversations and their admissibility as evidence before a court of law.

The Gujarat government had strongly rebutted the objections raised by the IT Ministry. In its reply, the Gujarat government cited the subjects mentioned in the ‘concurrent list’ under which the Centre and the state share the responsibility of formulating criminal law and criminal procedure.

The central government has given its consent to the provision of extensions of time limit for filing of charge sheet from 90 days to 180 days after consultation with other central ministries.

The Gujarat Assembly in March 2015 had passed the stringent bill retaining provisions that had twice earlier led to a previous similar bill being rejected by the President.

The bill in its earlier GUJCOC form was first rejected by then President A P J Abdul Kalam in 2004, demanding that the clause relating to interception of communication be removed. It was again rejected when Pratibha Patil was the President.

On both the occasions, the then UPA government recommended to the President for rejection of the bill, saying several provisions of the GCTOC were not in conformity of the Central law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. PTI