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Tribunal order lifting ban on SIMI stayed

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a tribunal order quashing the Centre’s February 7 notification declaring the Students Islamic Movement of India an unlawful organisation.

The Special Tribunal has been set up under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

A Bench stayed the order on a mention made by Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam about the Centre filing a special leave petition against the lifting of the ban.

The Bench, consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice A.K. Mathur, ordered notice to the SIMI seeking its response in three weeks.

Mr. Subramaniam said the tribunal, in its 264-page order passed on Tuesday, did not express anything on the merits of the case though the government had provided Intelligence Bureau reports pointing to the involvement of SIMI members in terrorist activities. He said the tribunal had done something above the law and if the order was not stayed, it would result in serious consequences.

The Centre said that “being a group of students and youth, the SIMI is easily influenced by hardcore Muslim terrorist organisations operating from Jammu and Kashmir. The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and the Lashker-e-Taiba have successfully penetrated into SIMI cadre to achieve their goals.”

It said the SIMI had launched a country-wide campaign since November 1996 to mobilise support for Muslims and a caliphate for the community. The SIMI was against Indian nationalism and worked to replace it with an international Islamic order. The organisation had been active in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Referring to the tribunal’s finding that the notification did not specify the reason for declaring the SIMI an unlawful association, the SLP said it had failed to take into consideration voluminous oral and documentary evidence justifying the ban. It was brought to tribunal’s notice that the draft notification was attached to a Cabinet note, which was presented in a sealed cover.

The Centre said it was clearly mentioned in the notification that if the SIMI’s unlawful activities were not curbed immediately, it would continue with its subversive activities and reorganise its activists, who were still absconding; destroy the secular fabric of the country, polluting the minds of the people by creating communal disharmony; propagate anti-national sentiments and escalate secessionism by supporting militancy.

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