Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has forwarded a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) seeking extension of ‘The Gujarat Prevention of Anti-social Activities Act, 1985’ to the national capital, Raj Niwas officials said on Sunday.
The Gujarat Prevention of Anti-social Activities Act, 1985, provides for preventive detention of bootleggers, dangerous persons, drug offenders, immoral traffic offenders, and property grabbers to prevent their dangerous activities from prejudicially affecting the maintenance of public order, they added.
On June 27, Delhi’s Home Department submitted a proposal to the LG for the issuance of a notification under Section 2 of the Union Territories (Laws) Act for extending the Gujarat law to the NCT of Delhi.
The Law Department of the Delhi government has vetted the draft notification with the observation that the Administrative Department must ensure compliance with the provisions of the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2021, read with the GNCTD (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, and the provisions of Transaction of Business Rules (TBR), 1993, which entail that the draft notification be sent to the Union Home Ministry for extension of the said Act to the national capital.
An identical law from Telangana (The Telangana Prevention of Dangerous Activities of bootleggers, property offenders, etc Act, 1986) was also examined, and it was found that the Gujarat law is more reasonable and better.
LG Saxena also agreed to the proposal that the Gujarat law may be forwarded to the MHA for consideration of its extension to the national capital after taking note of the observation that between Telangana and Gujarat law, “the Gujarat law is more reasonable and better”, the officials said.
In March this year, Saxena accorded approval to the proposal of the Home Department that Delhi Police should effectively use The National Security Act of 1980, whose purpose is “to provide for preventive detention in certain cases and for matters connected therewith”.