Our Correspondent /
President Pranab Mukherjee Thursday returned the controversial Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill, 2015 to the Union Home Ministry, seeking clarifications on some of its provisions. The Bill passed by the Gujarat assembly has been turned down by two Presidents earlier.
On March 31, 2015, the Gujarat assembly passed the stringent GCTOC Bill, retaining controversial provisions that had thrice earlier led to previous such Bills being rejected by the President. Minor changes apart, it was more or less the same as the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) Bill, first introduced in 2003 by the then state government of Narendra Modi.
President has sought additional information on certain provisions of the Gujarat anti-terror Bill. A senior Home Ministry official said that the the Ministry will provide additional information to the President on the Bill after getting it from the Gujarat government.
The law, known as the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime, was passed by the Gujarat Assembly in March last year. The anti-terror 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.