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student gives statement to police in sedition case
The Bombay high court (HC) has asked the central and state governments to inform the procedure that they would adopt to ban an extremist outfit.
The Bombay high court (HC) has asked the central and state governments to inform the procedure that they would adopt to ban an extremist outfit.
The directions were passed when the court was hearing a criminal public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on the right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha under section 3 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), as the organisation’s name had emerged in the murder probe of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, as well as for planting bombs in auditoriums in Thane and Vashi. The matter has been posted for hearing on March 4.
The division bench of justice Ranjit More and justice SP Tavade, while hearing the PIL filed by Arshad Ali Ansari, through advocate Rajesh Khobragade, was informed that the petitioner had made a representation to the central and state governments to ban the right- wing organisation. However as the governments had not decided on the ban yet, he had approached the HC seeking directions to ban the outfit.
On its part, additional public prosecutor for the state informed the court that deciding on the representation was the prerogative of the Union home ministry and thus, the state cannot implement the ban. However, the advocate for the Centre submitted that the home ministry would initiate proceedings only after receiving a report from the state regarding the outfit.
After hearing the submissions, the bench sought to know what was the usual procedure adopted while deciding on such representations to ban outfits that have alleged roles in criminal activities.
