PFI moves Supreme Court challenging UAPA tribunal's decision confirming Centre's five-year ban

The Popular Front of India (PFI) has moved the Supreme Court against an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) tribunal confirming the five-year ban imposed on it by the central government.

New Delhi: The Popular Front of India (PFI) has filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the central government’s decision to impose a five-year ban on the outfit and its eight affiliated organisations.

On Friday, a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi did not take up the hearing on the special leave petition in view of a letter for adjournment by the petitioner. The bench posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.

The plea also challenged validity of an order by the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act's Tribunal headed by Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma in March, this year upholding the ban.

The tribunal was set up on October 3, 2022.

The tribunal examined if there was sufficient cause or not for declaring these organisations as unlawful associations.

On September 28, 2022, the Centre banned the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts including Rehab India Foundation (RIF) Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO), National Women's Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala for five years.

The development came after years of investigations into the PFI and its affiliates for being involved in "several criminal and terror cases" and having links with terror outfits like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

There were also allegations that the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), besides PFI, had close links with many terrorist organisations.

The government order had said that some of PFI's founding members were the leaders of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and that PFI had linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), both of which are proscribed organisations.

On November 30, 2022, the Karnataka High Court had dismissed a plea against the Union government's decision to ban the Popular Front of India (PFI) and enforce the ban immediately.