NEW DELHI: Bugged by the Supreme Court stricture on TADA detainees recently, the Center has written to all the chief ministers asking them 0 ensure that TADA provisions were not invoked against political dissenters, trade union leaders, journalists, former judges and civil servants.
The Center reminded the chief ministers that the Union Home Ministry had sent a number of communications on the subject to the states, both at official and ministerial levels. The matter was also discussed in Parliament when members from all parties felt the need to exercise utmost restraint in the applicability of the act.
The impression that had gained ground, however, was that the TADA was being used as an instrument of preventive detention against undesirable and anti-social elements. It was the responsibility of the chief ministers to ensure that the provisions of the TADA were not invoked when normal laws of the land were Sufficient.
The Center has further said that no police officer below the rank of an assistant commissioner of police in the metropolitan cities and deputy superintendents of police elsewhere should investigate any offence under TADA.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 5, 1994
