With 162 state legislations, including controversial Gujarat anti-terror bill, yet to get Presidential nod, Union Home Minister Rajnath today decided to write to all Chief Ministers for expeditious process of such bills for their logical conclusion.
At a high-level meeting, the Home Minister reviewed the status of state legislations, bills and ordinances which the state governments sent to the Home Ministry for obtaining assent of the President.
The Home Minister was apprised about the status of each bill and he has decided to write to the Chief Ministers to expedite the state legislations referred back to the state governments by the Union Home Ministry.
The Home Minister is requesting for the personal attention of the Chief Ministers for expeditious response so that the Home Ministry could take a final decision on the matter, an official statement said.
As on June 1, 2014, about 100 such bills and legislations were pending. Another fresh 62 bills and legislations were received since June 1, 2014, making the total as 162.
The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has sent back the controversial Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill, 2015 to the state government after certain objections were raised by the Ministry of Information and Technology (IT).
The IT Ministry has objected to a provision in the Bill which allows authorisation of interception of telephone conversations and their admissibility as evidence before a court of law. The Home Ministry had sent the Bill to the IT ministry as part of inter-ministerial consultation.
The Gujarat Assembly in March had passed the stringent Bill retaining controversial provisions that had twice earlier led to a previous such Bill being rejected by the President.
The Gujarat government, at the time led by Narendra Modi, first introduced the GUJCOC Bill in 2003, with stringent clauses, including increasing the period to file charge sheet from 90 to 180 days, and laying down strict conditions for bail to be given to the accused.
The Bill was first rejected by then President A P J Abdul Kalam in 2004, demanding that the clause relating to interception of communication be removed. The NDA was in power at the time. It was again rejected when Pratibha Patil was the President and UPA was in power.
