New Delhi, August 6
The Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended an anti-terror tribunal ruling that had lifted the ban on the Students' Islamic Movement of India which has been designated a terror organisation by the government.
A bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice A K Mathur suspended the tribunal's ruling on an urgent plea by the government, which said: “Irrecoverable damage will be done” to the country's steps against terrorist activities if the ruling was not suspended.
Justice Geeta Mittal of the Delhi High Court who heads the anti-terror tribunal constituted under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act had on Tuesday lifted the ban on SIMI activities.
"The material given by the home ministry is insufficient, so the ban cannot be continued," Mittal had said in her 267-page order that was given to Home Ministry late Tuesday in a sealed cover.
The lifting of the ban had sent shock waves among the intelligence and police officials in the country.
The issue of continuance of ban on controversial SIMI saw divergence of view in UPA with Congress advocating ban on the outfit while its allies RJD and Samajwadi Party opposing the curb on it.
Congress did not agree with RJD chief Lalu Prasad and SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav's contention of ‘no ban’ on SIMI and pointed out that the organisation was not only unlawful but also terror outfit.
AICC spokesman Manish Tewari said there was no question of revoking the ban in wake of a special tribunal's decision to lift the ban in view of the fact that SIMI was also a terrorist organisation.
On the other hand, Lalu and Mulayam made a strong pitch against the ban with the RJD supremo saying ‘there should have been no ban on SIMI’ while Yadav claiming that SIMI was not involved in any unalwful incident in Uttar Pradesh and there is no need to proscribe it.
Main Opposition BJP sought to make a political capital out of the issue by alleging that the revocation of the ban on SIMI was part of the UPA Govt's ‘deal’ for the support provided by Samajwadi Party to it during the trust vote.
The saffron party also demanded sacking of Home Minister Shivraj Patil on the issue and accused the UPA of appeasement politics.
Congress party spokesman and minister of state of Home Shakeel Ahmad denied suggestions that the tribunal's order was a setback for the government while Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said the court order appears to be based on technical grounds. CPI national secretary D. Raja said organisations like SIMI should be dealt politically and ideologically and not legally.
— PTI
