Tribunal upholds ban on LTTE

The Justice V K Jain-headed Unlawful Activities Prevention Tribunal constituted by the Centre has confirmed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

“There is enough, cogent and relevant material before the Central government giving rise to sufficient cause for declaring the LTTE to be an ‘unlawful association’ within the meaning of Section 2(p) of the (above) Act,” Justice Jain said in his recent order, upholding the Centre’s May 2012 notification.

The issue was referred to the tribunal to see whether or not there was sufficient cause for declaring the LTTE as an “unlawful association.” The outfit has been declared a “terrorist organisation” in India and the ban on it is extended every two years since former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu in May 1991.

Justice Jain’s latest order, published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette is significant amid clamour by pro-LTTE groups and parties in the State seeking a revocation of the ban in the wake of Sri Lanka’s claim to have “decimated” the LTTE in the final military action in May 2009 which culminated in the killing of the Tamil outfit’s chief V Prabhakaran.

The judge said the LTTE had “not come forward to declare before the tribunal that it does not want secession of any part of India or secession of a part of Indian territory from the Union; and the earlier tribunals have not accepted its contention that ‘Tamil Eelam’ is confined only to certain Tamil-speaking areas in Sri Lanka.”