2022-09-19
The Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) (Amendment) Bill, a bill to amend the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979 (PTA) has been gazetted by the order of the Foreign Minister. The proposed amendment still leaves much that has been criticised as dangerous in the PTA which is a threat to the security of persons and leaves the door open for severe abuses of power by the Executive. Above all, these proposed amendments continue to undermine the role of the Judiciary for the protection of the people.
The amendments leave the powers of detention under the detention orders by the Ministry of Defence Secretary virtually beyond the challenge of courts under the normally operative criminal justice system. The administration of justice has been arranged by way of the definition of offences in terms of the penal code or a relevant statute or by the code of criminal procedure which has laid down a very precise and comprehensive system of the administration of arrest, detention and investigation into crime under the control of the whole process through the Judiciary.
Thereby, the administration of justice conforms to the basic principles of the rule of law which gives the ultimate power of the administration of all matters relating to justice to the hands of the Judiciary. The PTA, including the amendment, takes away this overall power of the Judiciary to control the processes of the administration of justice and places it in the hands of the Executive by handing it over to the Ministry of Defence. The impact of this is that the Ministry of Defence Secretary is placed above the Judiciary. This violates the basic norms of democracy where on matters of the administration of justice, the Judiciary is the ultimate authority and not the Executive.