The Madras High Court on Monday upheld a notification issued by the Centre in 2010 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention (UAP) Act, which banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
A bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M Venugopal, said that there was every justification in the notification issued by the Centre and the order of a Tribunal under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act that upheld the notification.
“Though the object for which the LTTE had been floated was highly laudable, with the passage of time, it had taken an ugly path, leading to many heinous crimes in our land also,” the judgement said.
Significantly, in a sort of reply to arguments of MDMK General Secretary Vaiko and Advocate M Radhakrishnan, the petitioners, that the object of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was to create a separate Eelam for SL Tamils and it did not involve the territory of India, the judges said in the order that it was not only the object of any association for which it was established, but the way it sought to achieve its objects should also be pure.
“This has to be considered while branding any association illegal,” the bench said. Also, voluminous material containing sensitive information, produced by the government side proved the involvement of the LTTE in various crimes in Indian land, including the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The petitions challenged the notification issued in 2010 and the subsequent order of the Tribunal that upheld the banning of the LTTE.
However, the 2010 order lapsed in two years and it was again renewed in 2012 by a fresh notification. The case filed by Vaiko and others was restricted to the 2010 notification.
The judges, in the present order, also concurred with the submissions of the Additional Solicitor General, M Ravindran, that the Madras High Court had no jurisdiction on the issue as the UAP Tribunal was constituted under the Delhi High Court.
Further, there was no locus standi as far as the petitioners were concerned as they were not members of the banned organisation.