In a stinging observation, the Supreme Court today described the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) as a “secessionist movement”.

“You are a secessionist movement. You have not stopped your activities,” a Bench of Justice S B Sinha and Markandeya Katju observed while dealing with the special leave petition filed by SIMI challenging the ban imposed on it.

The Bench refused to agree with the submissions put forth by Kamini Jaiswal, counsel for SIMI, that there was no evidence to link SIMI to any anti-national activity after 2003.

The Bench then directed that the matter be tagged along with two other appeals filed earlier against previous notifications pending adjudication.

In the present SLP, SIMI challenged the judgment of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act Tribunal headed by Justice B N Chaturvedi of the Delhi High Court, which confirmed the ban imposed on the organisation by the Union Government on February 8, 2006.

The organisation claimed that the ban was violative of its Fundamental Rights of expression, right to assemble peacefully without arms and the rights to form associations enshrined in Article 19 (1) (a) (b) (c) of the Constitution; and Freedom of Religion as enshrined in Article 25.

Besides the ban imposed last year, SIMI was banned for its alleged anti-national activities by the Centre earlier on September 27, 2001 and September 27, 2003.