Delhi HC admits PFI plea challenging ban by UAPA tribunal, issues notice to Centre

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday admitted a plea filed by the Popular Front of India (PFI) challenging a tribunal’s decision that upheld the Centre’s five-year ban on the organisation. A bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued a notice to the Centre, directing it to submit its response within six weeks.

The court also allowed the PFI two weeks to file its rejoinder and scheduled the next hearing for January 20, 2026.

"In view of the aforesaid, we hold that this court has the jurisdiction to entertain and maintain a writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution against an order of the tribunal passed under Section 4 of the UAPA Act... we thus hold the instant petition to be maintainable," the bench said while pronouncing its order.

On August 28, the high court reserved its order on the issue of maintainability of the PFI's plea.

The PFI challenged the March 21, 2024, verdict of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act tribunal confirming the Centre's ban order dated September 27, 2022.

The Centre said the petition was not maintainable as the UAPA tribunal was headed by a sitting high court judge and therefore the order could not be challenged under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

The Centre banned the PFI for five years for its alleged links with global terrorist organisations, such as ISIS, and for trying to spread communal hatred in the country.

The government declared as "unlawful associations" the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts, including Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women's Front, the Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.

The notification proscribing the organisation stated that the Centre is firmly of the opinion that it is necessary to declare the PFI and its associates, affiliates, or fronts as "unlawful associations" with immediate effect under the UAPA.

More than 150 people allegedly linked to the PFI were detained or arrested in raids and a pan-India crackdown by law enforcement agencies in September 2022.