The Delhi High Court on Monday (October 13) agreed to hear an appeal against the order of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) Tribunal that upheld the Centre's five-year ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI). A division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela held that such a challenge is maintainable, and that it can be adjudicated upon before the High Court. It issued notice to the Centre, asking it to respond within six weeks. The PFI will have two weeks after that to file its rejoinder. The matter has been posted for hearing on January 20 next year. PFI had moved the Delhi HC in December 2023, challenging the UAPA Tribunal’s order of March 21 that year, which upheld the Centre’s decision – announced in September 2022 – to ban the organisation for five years. The Centre had objected to the maintainability of the PFI’s plea before the HC, primarily on the ground that the Tribunal was headed by a sitting judge of the Delhi HC (Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma) and the HC, therefore, could not hear the appeal against the order. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju had submitted that such a petition would be maintainable before the Supreme Court. The PFI submitted that in the absence of a statutory provision for appeal against a decision made by the UAPA Tribunal, the High Court should exercise the power of an appellate court. The ban on the PFI was announced after leaders and offices of the organisation were raided by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in states across the country on September 22, 2022. A second round of nationwide searches followed on September 27, 2022 during which police in seven states detained or arrested more than 270 people with alleged links to the PFI. The ban, declaring the PFI and its various fronts as an “unlawful association” with “immediate effect”, was published in the gazette the following day. The raids and detentions were based on allegations that members of PFI are involved in organising terrorism camps and encouraging Muslim youth to take up terrorist activities. The notification said “the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts operate openly as socio-economic, educational and political organization but, they have been pursuing a secret agenda to radicalize a particular section of the society working towards undermining the concept of democracy and show sheer disrespect towards the constitutional authority and constitutional set up of the country”. Also, “the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been indulging in unlawful activities, which are prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country and have the potential of disturbing public peace and communal harmony of the country and supporting militancy in the country”, the notification, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), said. Besides the PFI, the notification imposed a ban on its associate organisations, including the Rehab India Foundation (RIF) and Campus Front of India, for five years.
