New Delhi, Jun 14 : A Delhi High Court tribunal has served a notice on the LTTE, the terror group responsible for former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, to submit if it has any objection to it being continued as a banned organisation for five more years
The notice was uploaded on the Home Ministry’s website and published in two newspapers — one English and one in a regional language.
The tribunal, headed by Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, has also directed to affix the notice along with the gazette notification of May 14, 2019, extending the ban for five more years “at some conspicuous part of the offices of the LTTE, if any, in India and Sri Lanka”.
“…You are hereby called upon to show cause in writing within 30 days from the date of service of this notice as to why you Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) be not adjudicated for declaring as an unlawful association and why an order confirming such declaration be not made under section 4 (3) of the Act (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act),” the notice quoted the order of the tribunal dated June 11.
The tribunal was constituted as per the UAPA and normally no individual shows up to defend any organisation which is declared as an outlawed and when a tribunal is set up to confirm the order.
India had banned the LTTE after the assassination of Gandhi in 1991. The LTTE, a terror outfit based in Sri Lanka but having its supporters, sympathisers and agents in India, came up in 1976.
Its objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, and amounts to cession and secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union and thus falls within the ambit of unlawful activities, the government order banning it said.
The LTTE’s continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India, it said.
“The group continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture and also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals,” order said.
