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Stay on order lifting SIMI ban extended

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has extended by six weeks its stay of a tribunal order quashing the Centre’s February 7, 2008 notification, which banned the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

On August 6, the court, acting on the Centre’s special leave petition, stayed the tribunal order for three weeks.

On Monday, a Bench, consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam, extended the stay after hearing counsel. The Chief Justice said: “The matter is important. We are ready to hear it. What we are concerned [with] are the documents and records relevant on the date of the ban notification.”

The Bench, while posting the matter to September 24, asked the Centre to file a synopsis of submissions and other documents. When Kamini Jaiswal said she was appearing for the former SIMI president Shahid Badr, the Chief Justice said any member of the organisation could file response on its behalf.

Pressing for continuance of the interim stay, Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam said an additional affidavit had been filed on the alleged involvement of the SIMI in subversive and anti-national activities including the recent blasts in Ahmedabad. He said the Special Tribunal, set up under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, failed to appreciate the voluminous evidence including depositions by witnesses, the ‘background note’, the ‘Cabinet note’ and ‘intelligence reports’ before arriving at its decision.

Ms. Jaiswal pointed out that the tribunal had gone into all documents and held that the averments were not supported by evidence and depositions of government witnesses. She said the background note of the February 7 notification extending the ban till 2010, which was submitted to the tribunal in a sealed cover, spoke of nine cases involving SIMI members who were already acquitted after facing trial in courts. Technically the tribunal found the notification invalid, she said.

In its affidavit, the Centre said the confessional statements of some of the accused revealed that the cadres had held secret meetings to mobilise Muslim youth to spread jihad in the entire Indian subcontinent, especially in Gujarat, and that they had planned to wage a war against India by indoctrinating and training Muslim youth in the use of arms and ammunition.

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