By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: A special tribunal headed by Justice Geeta Mittal, a sitting Delhi High Court Judge heard the petition by SIMI challenging the two-year ban imposed on it by the central government on February 7, 2008, reserved its verdict last Friday.
While SIMI has become a synonym for terrorism in India as it is blamed for every terrorist attack or bombing, the government is at pains providing proof to the tribunal to justify ban on the organization.
Justice Geeta Mittal held in-camera proceedings in which she was briefed by the senior Home Ministry and intelligence officials, says a zeenews.com report.
The Judge had asked them to bring on record the facts on the basis of which the ban was imposed on the outfit.
Justice Mittal had said the government cannot extend the ban on the basis of earlier records against the organisation.
“What precluded the government from stating the facts? You have to satisfy the tribunal about the sufficiency of the reason behind issuing a fresh notification (on the ban),” Justice Mittal had said.
The government, on the other hand, justified the notification saying that it can ban such organisation even in anticipation.
Additional Solicitor General Kalyan Pathak said the government issued notification and then Malegaon blasts happened. SIMI still indulges in communal activities and it is a threat to the secular fabric of our society, he said.
The February 2008 notification says that the organisation was involved in unlawful activities in the country and was spreading communal hatred.