KARNATAKA HC REFUSES TO QUASH CENTRE’S BAN ON PFI

The Karnataka high court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the Centre’s September 28 notification banning the Popular Front of India (PFI) under section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for five years.

A plea filed by PFI activist Nasir Pasha, currently in judicial custody, argued that under UAPA it was obligatory to record “separate and distinct” reasons to bring the ban into force with “immediate effect,” which the Centre had not done.

Dismissing the plea, justice M Nagaprasanna said a “perusal of the notification under challenge would indicate that reasons are present in the notification itself” and that it did not find any “warrant that would entail interference at the hands of this court.”