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The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Government of India on a petition filed by an all-woman outfit from Kashmir, challenging the notification by the Central government, which declared it as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The order was passed by the Single-Judge Bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta on November 10.
The High Court directed the respondent (Union government) to file brief submissions within four weeks, with an advance copy to the Counsel for the petitioner and fixed December 15 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The petition, moved by Advocates Nisha Narayan and Shariq Iqbal on behalf of separatist leader and President of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) Asiya Andrabi, sought a copy of the UAPA notification and removal of the outfit’s name from the list of organisations mentioned in the first schedule of the Act.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Satish Tamata submitted that after coming to know for the first time that the petitioner has been declared as a banned organisation under the UAPA, one of the members of DeM filed an RTI application seeking details of the ban.
The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) replied on May 13, 2019 that the group had been added to the first Schedule of UAPA through the impugned notification, adding that no other information was available with them.
Tamata said the DeM moved an appeal against the reply of the CPIO, which was dismissed by the Joint Secretary, (CTCR) First Appellate Authority on July 19, 2019.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma questioned the maintainability of the writ petition, contending that the DeM was ‘feigning ignorance’ and ‘wrongly seeking’ the indulgence of the court on the basis of the RTI reply.
Noting that the Union government had banned the outfit on December 30, 2004 under Section 3 of UAPA, Sharma submitted that the plea cannot be entertained after a delay of about two decades, since the petitioner organisation stands duly reflected in the First Schedule of UAPA, 1967 at Serial No. 29.
He further said that the notification related to the petitioner organisation, which was a ‘terrorist organisation,’ was covered under Chapter VI of the UAPA, 1967 and that a reference to Chapter II had been wrongly made on behalf of the petitioner.
The ASG contended that no presumption could be made that the petitioner organisation was unaware of the Act of the Parliament.
The National Investigation Agency had arrested Asiya on July 6, 2018 under UAPA, for waging war against India. She is currently in judicial custody.
(Case title: Dukhtaran-E-Millat vs Union of India)