PROTECTION OF THE STATE FROM...

It is especially noteworthy that the legislative regime at present in force, the PTA, contains no provision whatever for the issuance of proscription orders.

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This purpose could be accomplished only by having recourse to regulations made under section 27(1) of the Act. Incorporation of this power in the substance of the principal Act itself was proposed in the draft legislation of 2023, which could not be enacted because of vehement resistance. The current proposal, curiously enough, sanctifies as part of the substantive Act, a dangerously fraught procedure which can, as of now, be resorted to only through subordinate legislation. The present draft, then, operates as a travesty rather than a palliative by pushing the law backwards. This hardly amounts to delivery on a promise that underpinned the yearlong process which culminated in publication of the current proposal.

(c) Declarations Designating Prohibited Places

The bizarre reality, here again, is that the present proposal, far from expunging excrescences from the current law, actually adds further objectionable provisions which do not exist in the body of terrorist legislation today.