New Delhi: The Supreme Court today stayed the decison of lifting ban from SIMI in India passed by a tribunal of Delhi High Court. The special tribunal had lifted the ban put on SIMI which was idetified for harming national harmony by Central government and was banned in the country. A bench headed by chief justice K G Balakrishnan, while admitting the petition, stayed the tribunal's decision till the matter is a subjugate before the court. The petition challenging tribunal's decison was filed by the Central Government which contended that SIMI is still encouraging anti-national activities and therfore the ban should not be uplifted.
On Tuesday, a special tribunal headed by Justice Geeta Mittal lifted the ban on SIMI, citing lack of any fresh evidence against the organisation.
Earlier today prominent politicians including Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Samajwadi Party cheif Mulayam Singh Yadav supported the decision of the special tribunal on lifting the ban on SIMI.
SIMI had challenged the two-year ban re-imposed on it by the central government on February 7, 2008. The tribunal was specially constituted to decide whether or not there was sufficient cause for declaring SIMI an unlawful association.
SIMI was first banned in 2001 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the ban has been renewed thrice since then. When it was outlawed, SIMI had 400 full-time cadres and 20,000 members. It claims a national presence with strong bases in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Assam.
SIMI was founded in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in 1977 by Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi as an offshoot to the Jamaat-e-Islami. The organisation advocates the 'liberation of India' and restoring Islamic rule. It witnessed slow growth even in Muslim dominated areas until December 1992 when the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya sparked one of the worst Hindu-Muslim violence in the country since independence in 1947.(with inputs from IANS)
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