Gandhinagar, Mar 25 (PTI) The Gujarat legislative assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill for amending an existing law to drop terrorism-related provisions from it so that they do not overlap with the Centre’s new criminal code.
The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced by minister Arjun Modhwadia on behalf of Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, and it was supported by the opposition Congress.
It amends the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Act, 2015 – called as GUJCTOC – restricting its scope exclusively to organised crime.
Explaining the rationale while piloting the legislation, Modhwadia said the amendment was necessitated after the enactment of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, which now contains a comprehensive and explicit definition of terrorist acts along with stringent punishments.
The state law earlier covered both terrorism and organised crime as the Indian Penal Code (IPC) did not have a clearly defined framework for terrorism. With the BNS now addressing this gap, there is no need for parallel provisions, he said.
Modhwadia told the House that the overlap between provisions of GUJCTOC and the BNS created ambiguity regarding the applicable legal framework in terrorism-related cases.
Now, section 113 of the BNS defines terrorism. This would overlap with our Act, and it was sometimes unclear under which provision action should be taken, he said.
Modhwadia pointed out that most terrorism cases are tried in designated courts, such as those under the National Investigation Agency (NIA), whereas GUJCTOC provides for separate courts for organised crime.
“To remove this ambiguity, it has been decided through this bill to remove the word ‘terrorism’ from this Act,” he added.
As per the amendment, all references to ‘terrorist act’ have been deleted across the principal Act, including from its ‘long title’ (not the main title), definitions and penal provisions. The law will now deal solely with organised crime syndicates and related offences.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons notes that the 2015 Act was originally enacted to curb both terrorism and organised crime.
However, with the repeal of the IPC and the introduction of the BNS incorporating terrorism-related offences, the state government decided to eliminate duplication in investigation and prosecution.
The amendment makes extensive textual changes, removing the term “terrorism” from multiple sections, including those dealing with definitions, punishments and procedures. Section 3 of the Act will now apply only to organised crime and related preparatory acts.
Similarly, provisions relating to harbouring offenders, possession of proceeds of crime and presumption clauses have been modified to exclude references to terrorism.
The bill also replaces references to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) with the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, aligning the state law with the updated national criminal procedure framework.
Participating in the debate, Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar said the opposition had earlier raised concerns when the original law was brought in 2015. He said the inclusion of terrorism provisions at that time had led to overlap with central laws.
“The state government has the right to bring any bill, but it should not be inconsistent with the central laws. If there is a central law, we cannot legislate over it,” Parmar said.
Recalling earlier discussions in the assembly, he said the opposition had pointed out similar issues when the legislation was debated in the past, but those concerns were not accepted then.
“An amendment means a mistake was made. The mistake we pointed out earlier is now being corrected,” he said.
Parmar, however, extended support to the amendment.
“Since the minister has brought this amendment in accordance with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, we support it. But in the future, the state government should avoid bringing laws that override central legislation,” he added.
BJP MLA CJ Chavda supported the bill, saying the original 2015 law was brought in to tackle both organised crime and terrorist activities with a ‘zero-tolerance policy’.
He said earlier legal frameworks, including provisions under the IPC, were insufficient to curb such crimes effectively.
“Even with preventive measures, criminal activities were not adequately controlled, which necessitated a stronger law like GUJCTOC,” he said.
He said the amendment was a “prudent step” to avoid duplication and ensure clarity in enforcement.
“By removing references to terrorism, the state government has ensured there is no duplication of offences, procedures or sections,” he added. PTI PJT PD NP
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.