Jan
24
POTA Update–Powers of Central Review Committee
January 24, 2004 | Comments Off on POTA Update–Powers of Central Review Committee
The Central Review Committee established by the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) today rejected the arguments posed by Tamil Nadu in the ongoing case around the Committee’s powers. The Committee held that it has the power to intervene in the cases regarding the detention of a senior political leader and eight others:
The powers conferred on the committee under Sec. 60 of POTA were for the limited purpose of finding whether or not, in a given case, “there is prima facie case for proceeding against the accused under POTA. And for purposes of such review, the Review Committee would proceed to examine the material available to form an opinion. Such review would not be interfering with the proceedings pending in court. Rather, its opinion would become an input for purposes, inter alia of Sec. 33 of POTA and its role would be complementary in the cause of justice.”…
The committee noted that Parliament had enacted POTA to combat terrorism. The object of setting up of the Review Committee was to prevent the possibility of misuse of POTA. Though enforcement of the law had been entrusted to the State Governments, this did not absolve the Central Government of its duty to ensure that the law was enforced for achieving the intended objective of combating terrorism.
For more articles on POTA, check out the General section.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.