PFI’s petition against ban maintainable: Delhi HC
Government has declared the PFI and its associates, affiliates & fronts "unlawful associations"
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The Delhi High Court on Monday held as maintainable a plea by the Popular Front of India (PFI) against a tribunal order upholding the Centre's five-year ban on the group.
A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued notice to the Centre, asking it to respond to the PFI's plea within six weeks.
The Centre banned the PFI for five years for its alleged links with global terrorist organisations, such as ISIS, and for trying to spread communal hatred in the country.
The court on Monday also granted two weeks to the PFI to file its rejoinder thereafter and listed the matter for further hearing on January 20, 2026.
"In view of the aforesaid, we hold that this court has the jurisdiction to entertain and maintain a writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution against an order of the tribunal passed under Section 4 of the UAPA Act... we thus hold the instant petition to be maintainable," the bench said while pronouncing its order.
The detailed order copy is awaited.
On August 28, the high court reserved its order on the issue of maintainability of the PFI's plea.
The PFI challenged the March 21, 2024, verdict of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act tribunal confirming the Centre's ban order dated September 27, 2022.
During the earlier hearing, the Centre had argued that the petition was not maintainable as the UAPA tribunal was headed by a sitting high court judge and therefore the order could not be challenged under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
The Centre's counsel had added, "The tribunal was manned by a sitting judge of this high court and a high court judge is not subordinate to this court".
The counsel for PFI had submitted that the writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution was maintainable against the order of the UAPA tribunal comprising a sitting high court judge.
"There is a provision to the expenses under the UAPA so the high court's funds do not go to the tribunal. A separate expense has to be provided to the tribunal. The tribunal is able to regulate its own procedure, so the Delhi High Court Rules do not apply to the tribunal," the counsel had said.
He had added, "The powers of the tribunal are also specifically provided under the various provisions of the UAPA law." The PFI had argued that when the high court judge was acting as a tribunal, he was the tribunal and not a high court judge.
"Thus, the orders passed by the tribunal are amenable to the jurisdiction of this court. This PFI tribunal travels all over India. The court would not travel and go to different jurisdictions. This court has limited jurisdiction. The tribunal does not have jurisdictional confines," the PFI counsel had said.
The government has declared the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts, including Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women's Front, the Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala, as "unlawful associations".
The notification proscribing the organisation said the Centre is of the firm opinion that it is necessary to declare the PFI and its associates, affiliates or fronts "unlawful associations" with immediate effect under the UAPA.
More than 150 people allegedly linked to the PFI were detained or arrested in raids and a pan-India crackdown by law enforcement agencies in September 2022.
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