Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002
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The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) was an Act passed by the
Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...
in 2002, with the objective of strengthening
anti-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...
operations. The Act was enacted due to several terrorist attacks that were being carried out in India and especially in response to the attack on the
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. The Act replaced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) of 2001 and the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, commonly known as TADA, was an Indian anti-terrorism law which was in force between 1985 and 1995 (modified in 1987) under the background of the Punjab insurgency and was applied to whole of ...
(TADA) (1985–1995), and was supported by the governing
National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...
. The Act was
repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...
ed in 2004 by the
United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single party ...
coalition. The bill was defeated in the
Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
(the upper house) by a 113–98 vote, but was passed in a
joint session A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicame ...
(425 Ayes and 296 Noes), as the
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
(lower house) has more seats. It was only the third time that a bill was passed by a
joint session A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicame ...
of both houses of Parliament. The Act defined what constituted a "terrorist act" and who a "terrorist" was, and granted special powers to the investigating authorities described under the Act. In order to ensure that discretionary powers granted to the investigating agencies were not misused and human rights violations were not committed, specific safeguards were built into the Act.


Provisions compared to TADA

Similar to the provisions contained in
TADA Tada or TADA may refer to: Places * Tada, Nellore district, a village in Andhra Pradesh, India * Tada mandal, in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India * Tada Shrine, in Kawanishi, Hyōgo, Japan * Tada Station (disambiguation) *Tada, a Nupe town on the ...
, the law provided that a suspect could be detained for up to 180 days without the filing of a
chargesheet In policing on the Indian subcontinent, a chargesheet is prepared after First Information Reports (FIRs), and charges an individual for (some or all of) the crimes specified in those FIR(s). Once the charge sheet has been submitted to a court ...
in court. However, a very major change was introduced, in that unlike TADA, this act had no provision to allow preventive detention. Secondly, the matter of confessions made by the accused to the police. The general law in India does not recognise confessions made to police as evidence admissible in court, and permits a person to deny such confessions in court, but under POTA, confessions made to a police officer were admissible as evidence in court.Rediff.co
Its goodbye to POTA
Retrieved on 10 July 2007
POTA also allowed law enforcement agencies to withhold the identity of witnesses. Anti-Terrorism Day is celebrated on 21 May. However, the POTA law did have some safeguards. Any decision on bail petitions or the verdict of the special courts constituted under this Act could be appealed against, and the appeal would be heard by a division bench of the relevant High Court.


Review committee

The provisions in the Act mentioned the possibility of both state and central review committees, but offered few details as to their formation or use. As the Act began to be widely misused by the state governments, the central government finally established a review committee to hear individual cases related to this Act. At first, the committee functioned in a purely advisory capacity. In December 2003, by an overwhelming majority, India's legislature amended the Act with an ordinance designed to expand the scope of judicial review. The new ordinance gave review commissions the authority to review the prima facie case of an "aggrieved person" and issue orders binding on the state government and police. Though the amendment was an improvement on the purely advisory capacity of the initial review committee because it enhanced the power of judicial review, the central review committee remained largely impotent, as it could not initiate an investigation absent an initial complaint and lacked clearly delineated investigatory powers. Moreover, the review committee's resources were limited, and it operated under no regulated time-frame. Without sufficient autonomy, resources, or guidelines, the committee was an illusory safeguard. Given the review committee's limitations, only the grievances of those persons with political connections to the central government were likely to be heard. Further, even with political pressure from the central government and a favorable advisory opinion by the review committee, Tamil Nadu detained
Vaiko Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy, better known as Vaiko, is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra ...
for over four months without charge, and an additional fourteen months after charging him before granting bail.


Impact and repeal

Once the Act came into force, many reports surfaced of the law being grossly abused. POTA was alleged to have been arbitrarily used to target political opponents. Only four months after its enactment, state law enforcement officers had arrested 250 people nationwide under the Act, and the number was steadily increasing. A mere eight months later, seven states where POTA was in force, had arrested over 940 people, at least 560 of whom were languishing in jail. Several prominent persons like
Vaiko Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy, better known as Vaiko, is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra ...
were arrested under the act. The Act had a built-in expiry date three years after its commencement, vide section 1(6) of the Act. It had commenced on 24 October 2001, so was scheduled to expire on 24 October 2004. One month before its expiry, the Act was repealed on 21 September 2004 by the Prevention of Terrorism (Repeal) Ordinance, 2004, later substituted with the Prevention of Terrorism (Repeal) Act, 2004 (assented to on 21 December 2004). NDA asked UPA to introduce the Act again, but Congress criticized it and did not pass the Act.


Prominent POTA cases

*
Vaiko Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy, better known as Vaiko, is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra ...
, founder and general secretary of the
MDMK The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( 'Renaissance Dravidian Progressive Federation') is a political party active in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after he left the Dravida Munnetra K ...
, was controversially arrested and jailed for 19 months under the POTA for his support to the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
(LTTE). * S.A.R. Geelani, a lecturer at Delhi University, was sentenced to death by a special POTA court for his alleged role in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. He was later acquitted on appeal by the Delhi High Court on a legal technicality. *
Syed Ali Shah Geelani Syed Ali Shah Geelani (1929–2021) was an Islamist, pro-Pakistan, Sumantra BoseSyed Ali Shah Geelani: The man who fought for Kashmir’s freedom BBC News, 2 September 2021. "First, he made it clear that although a proud Kashmiri, he consider ...
, the leader of the
Jamaat-e-Islami Jamaat-e-Islami ( ur, ) () is an Islamic movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamic theologian and socio-political philosopher, Syed Abul Ala Maududi.van der Veer P. and Munshi S. (eds.''Media, War, and Terrorism: Responses fro ...
group was arrested under POTA. * Raghuraj Pratap Singh, a.k.a. Raja Bhaiya, a
Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...
from
Kunda, India Kunda is a town and a Tehsil in Pratapgarh district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Geography Kunda (कुंडा / कुंडाहरनामगंज) is located at . It has an average elevation of 9 metres (291 feet). Kunda is n ...
was arrested on the charges of threatening a dissident BJP MLA Puran Singh Bundela with dire concequences. He was got arrested the same night at wee hours of 3:00 AM on orders of then
chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...
,
Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She has served four separate terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social cha ...
. He was sent to jail under POTA.


See also

*
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an Indian law aimed at prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty o ...


References


External links


Ordinance to Repeal POTA


{{DEFAULTSORT:Prevention Of Terrorist Activities Act 2002 Terrorism laws in India Acts of the Parliament of India 2002 Repealed Indian legislation Counterterrorism in India Vajpayee administration initiatives