CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has quashed an order issued by the Chennai city police to freeze the bank account of a trust under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly funding the “unlawful” activities of the banned outfit - Popular Front of India (PFI).
A division bench of Justices MS Ramesh and Sunder Mohan passed the orders to de-freeze the bank account of Tamil Nadu Development Foundation Trust, which runs institutions in the name of ‘Arivagam’ in Theni and Tirunelveli districts.
The assistant commissioner of police, Vepery, had issued the orders to freeze the bank account on November 4, 2022 under section 7 of UAPA after the centre delegated the powers to take such action against organisations funding the banned outfit.
The trust’s managing trustee M Mohammed Ismail filed the writ petition seeking to quash the order.
Advocate I Abdul Basith, appearing for the petitioner, submitted the trust neither has any nexus with PFI nor transferred funds to it. He contended the bank account was frozen in violation of the principles of natural justice without giving any opportunity to submit objections.
The bench, in the recent order, said, “When Section 7(1) mandates an inquiry to be conducted before passing of a prohibitory order, which admittedly has not been conducted in the present case, the consequential order would be in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, apart from violating the principles of natural justice. On this sole ground, the impugned order cannot be legally sustainable.”
The bench also noted that as per section 7 (1) of the UAPA, the central government can pass orders to prohibit a person from funding a banned organisation after “subjective satisfaction” and the copy of the order shall be served upon the person so prohibited.
Highlighting that the provisions of UAPA paves way for the petitioner to seek alternative remedies, which are available in the district court, the high court pointed out that for seeking such remedy, a copy of the order was necessary. Hence, the failure to serve the copy of the order would also amount to violation of the principles of natural justice.
Quashing the impugned order of freezing the account, the bench ordered the account stands de-frozen and the trust is at liberty to operate it on furnishing a copy of the order.
However, it stated, that the present order shall not stand as an impediment for the appropriate authority to pass orders on the issue in accordance with the law.