Supreme Court refers SIMI ban issue to larger bench

New Delhi, Oct 13 : The Supreme Court has referred the matter related to ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) on Monday to a larger bench.

The ban on SIMI was lifted in August by a special tribunal whose order was subsequently stayed by the apex court.

The reference was made by a two-judge bench of Justices S B Sinha and Cyriac Joseph in view of the fact that a larger bench of three judges of the apex court was already hearing the ban imposed on the SIMI by the government in 2001.

The tribunal headed by Delhi High Court judge Justice Geeta Mittal on August 5 had lifted the ban on SIMI, saying no new evidence was placed against the organisation to justify the ban.

However, a day later, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan stayed the tribunal's order and issued notice to SIMI while asking the Centre to place before it all documents pertaining to the justification of the ban.

The apex court's stay was opposed by Dr Shahid Badr, who was the President of the outfit till September 27, 2001 when the Centre had come out with its first notification to declare it as a proscribed organisation.

The Centre had been extending the ban every two years since 2001 on the ground that SIMI was continuing with its anti-national activities and Badr had earlier challenged the original ban before the apex court.

Justifying the ban, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that SIMI was involved in subversive and anti-national activities including the recent blasts in Ahmedabad.

ANI