Delhi HC upholds ban on Zakri Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation

R Sedhuraman

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Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, March 16

The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the Centre’s ban on Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation with “immediate effect” as there was material to show that the organisation’s president Zakir Naik delivered speeches extolling terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and posted comments on the Internet against Hindu Gods and “claiming that Golden Temple may not be as sacred as Mecca and Medina.”

The government’s November 17, 2016 notification banning the foundation “records that the activities of the organisation and its president Zakir Naik are highly inflammatory in nature and prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between various religious groups and communities and there is every possibility of many youth being motivated and radicalised to commit terrorist acts,” Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva ruled.

Some of the arrested terrorists and ISIS sympathisers had confessed that they were inspired by the fundamentalist statements of Zakir Naik which was indicative of the subversive nature of his preachings and speeches, the HC noted.

The foundation had gone to the HC, challenging the “instant ban” under Section 3(1) and 3(3) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.

“The record that was made available by the central government clearly shows that there is material in possession of the central government which necessitated the declaration of the petitioner organisation as an unlawful association with immediate effect,” the HC held.

The notification clarified that by his speeches and statements Zakir Naik had been promoting enmity and hatred between different religious groups and inspiring Muslim youths and terrorists in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts, the court pointed out.

“Thus, it cannot be held that the impugned notification insofar as it relates to, the exercise of power under proviso to section 3(3) of the Act and the declaration of the petitioner association to be an unlawful association with immediate effect, is an arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of power,” the HC ruled while dismissing the foundation’s writ petition.