The act provided the legal framework to strengthen administrative rights to fight terrorism within the country of India and was to be applied against any persons and acts covered by the provisions within the act. It was not meant as a substitute for action under ordinary criminal laws.
The act defined what a terrorist act and a terrorist is and grants special powers to the investigating authorities described under the act. To ensure certain powers were not misused and human rights violations would not take place, specific safeguards were built into the act. Under the new law detention of a suspect for up to 180 days without the filing of charges in court was permitted. It also allowed law enforcement agencies to withhold the identities of witnesses and treat a confession made to the police as an admission of guilt. Under regular Indian law, a person can deny such confessions in court, but not under POTA

Once the Act became law there surfaced many reports of the law being grossly ab ...more

POTA is a great act to prevent Terror Activity. It was basically closed becoz most of the bad elements of Sangh Pariwar & Bajrag Dal units are cought and order by Supreem couts to run under POTA.... But due to political pressure after Gugrat roits to release bad elements it was abolish....