There is sharp division within the UPA Government over the grant of Presidential assent to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) Bill, 2003, forcing the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to place the matter before the Union Cabinet.

This would, however, not be the first time that the matter would be placed before the Union Cabinet. In 2006, the Cabinet returned the Bill to the MHA, asking it to hold consultations with the Ministry of Law and Justice in order to identify clauses in the proposed law that could be susceptible to misuse. While the MHA has categorically said it was not in favour of grant of assent to the proposed law, it would not be for the Union council of ministers to decide the fate of the proposed law, which is stuck with the MHA since 2004.

Sources say a powerful section within the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is in favour of the law being cleared. They feel that denying the law to the BJP-ruled Gujarat even as a similar law, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), is in force in the two Congress-ruled states, could put the Central Government in a fix with the Lok Sabha elections round the corner. Sources in the PMO say the MHA has already sent a detailed note for circulation among the Cabinet ministers. It states why the proposed law should not be recommended for grant of Presidential assent.

The MHA wants the Cabinet to ask the President to withhold assent of the proposed Bill indefinitely.

... contd.