Update on the Gujarat anti-terror bill. The President has returned the bill seeking additional information.

The controversial Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill, 2015 was withdrawn by the Centre today. The bill which was to become law as the home ministry had cleared it had been sent it to the President for approval in September 2015.

The GUJCOC Bill, which was on the lines of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, was rejected in 2004 and 2008 by then President AJP Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil respectively.

The Bill, passed by the Gujarat Assembly, was twice rejected by the previous UPA government.

It was first introduced in the Assembly in 2003 when PM Narendra Modi was the Gujarat chief minister.

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.


Read more on the anti-terror bill here.