Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002

Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002
Parliament of India
Long title An Act to make provisions for the prevention of, and for dealing with, the terrorist activities and for matters connected therewith.[1]
Citation	Act No. 15 of 2002
Territorial extent	India
Passed by	Joint session of Parliament
Passed	26 March 2002
Assented to	28 March 2002[1]
Repealed	21 September 2004
Repeals
Prevention of Terrorism (Repeal) Act, 2004 (Act No. 26 of 2004)
Amended by
Prevention of Terrorism (Amendment) Act, 2003 (Act No. 4 of 2004)[2]
Status: Repealed

This article is part of a series about Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India Early political career Honours Electoral record Eponym Good Governance Day Electoral history Premiership General elections 1996 1998 1999 2004 India Shining Union Council of Ministers First Second Third Lok Sabha Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth National policy Legislations POTA TADA NHDP Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Treaties and accords Agra summit Lahore Declaration Missions and agencies Pokhran-II Controversies Barak Missile scandal Wars and attacks Kargil War 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video
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The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) was an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2002, with the objective of strengthening anti-terrorism operations. The Act was enacted due to several terrorist attacks that were being carried out in India and especially in response to the attack on the Parliament. The Act replaced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) of 2001 and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) (1985–1995), and was supported by the governing National Democratic Alliance. The Act was repealed in 2004 by the United Progressive Alliance coalition.

The bill was defeated in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house) by a 113–98 vote,^[3] but was passed in a joint session (425 Ayes and 296 Noes), as the Lok Sabha (lower house) has more seats. It was only the third time that a bill was passed by a joint session of both houses of Indian Parliament.^[4][5][6]

The Act defined what constituted a "terrorist act" and who a "terrorist" was, and granted special powers to the investigating authorities described under the Act. In order to ensure that discretionary powers granted to the investigating agencies were not misused and human rights violations were not committed, specific safeguards were built into the Act.^[7]