The President has returned a Bill that was passed by the Gujarat Assembly, seeking further inputs.
The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organized Crime (GCTOC) Bill, 2015, passed by the Gujarat Assembly but twice rejected by the previous UPA government, was again returned by President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday.
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 Centre 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 authorization of interception of telephone conversations and their admissibility as evidence before a court of law.
One fails to understand why intercepted conversations cannot be produced as evidence in court.
For example, if a terrorist plot is foiled and the culprits taken into custody, then can their telephonic conversation not be admitted in a court of law and considered as evidence if it is proved that the tapes are authentic?
Kasab who was caught red-handed was pampered in Indian jails for over a year at the tax payer’s expense. Now if such bills are not allowed to be passed, we might as well issue tourist visas to all terrorists across the globe.
By Kiran Sharma
