The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a plea by the Popular Front of India Islamic organisation challenging its five-year ban under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, reported Bar and Bench.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi said that the organisation should approach the concerned High Court first.

On September 28, 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Centre had designated the Popular Front of India as an “unlawful” organisation under the country’s anti-terror law.

The Centre had alleged last year that the Muslim organisation along with its eight affiliates or fronts were involved in “violent terrorist activities” with an intent to create a reign of terror in the country, thereby endangering the security and public order of the state.

In March, a UAPA tribunal headed by the Delhi High Court’s Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma had upheld the Centre’s decision.

The Popular Front of India was created in 2007 through the merger of three Muslim organisations in southern India. It describes itself as an organisation that works towards “the achievement of socio-economic, cultural and political empowerment of the deprived and the downtrodden and the nation at large”.

The ban had come after a nationwide crackdown on the organisation by the National Investigation Agency and the Enforcement Directorate.

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