HC upholds ban on PFI

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the recent ban imposed by the Central government on the Popular Front of India (PFI) for its involvement in anti-national activities.

A single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna on Wednesday pronounced the judgment. The ban was challenged by Nasir Ali, a resident of Bengaluru and the state president of the proscribed outfit.

Centre had issued an order banning the organisation and its allied outfits for a period of five years with immediate effect on September 28. It took this action after raids on the offices of PFI and the residences of its members across the country.

It came in the wake of allegations that the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) besides PFI have close links with many terrorist organisations.

The government order had said that some of Popular Front of India's founding members are the leaders of SIMI and PFI has linkages with JMB, both of which are proscribed organisations.

Senior advocate Jayakumar Patil, who argued for PFI, had submitted that declaring it as illegal was an anti-constitutional move. He said that the order did not specify reasons for declaring it as an illegal organisation.