Gujarat Congress leaders on Monday met Governor O P Kohli on the issue of Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill, 2015 and requested him not to sign the controversial bill which was passed by a majority vote in the state assembly on March 31.
Congress leaders and MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela and newly appointed Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Bharatsinh Solanki handed over a memorandum to Kohli and requested him not to give his assent to the bill as well as prevent it from becoming a law.
In its memorandum addressed to Kohli, the Congress said that the earlier version of the bill called Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GujCOC) had been rejected twice by former presidents and once by a former Gujarat governor.
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"GujCOC had provisions which were completely opposite to existing laws like the Indian Evidence Act, which is why it was not only rejected by the UPA government, but also during the reign of the NDA government when L K Advani was Union Home Minister," the Congress memorandum stated.
The Congress said that there is no need to form a new law to fight terrorism, since the central government has already enacted the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, which has all the necessary provisions to fight terrorism.
The Congress memorandum alleged that the GCTOC bill would empower the police to intercept telephonic conversations of any citizen, which is in gross violation of fundamental rights, besides the fact that the bill treats confessions made before a senior police officer as evidence.
