NEW DELHI: Observing it couldn’t be a court of “first instance”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear pleas against the amendments in UAPA provisions empowering the state to designate individuals as terrorists and seize properties.A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan asked the Delhi High Court to hear the matter.”We cannot be the court of first instance. A lot of problems arise, sometimes issues are left by your side (petitioner), sometimes by their side (Union), then we have to refer to a larger bench. Let it be first decided by the high court,” it said.The top court on September 6, 2019 issued notice to the Centre on the pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the 2019 Amendment to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).The bench said other high courts could also examine fresh petitions against the UAPA amendments.The court was hearing the pleas filed by Sajal Awasthi, Association for Protection Of Civil Rights (APCR) and Amitabha Pande.The CJI said complex legal issues often arose in such cases, and it would be appropriate for high courts to examine it first.Senior advocate C U Singh, appearing for one of the petitioners, had urged the top court to hear the matter saying it issued notices five years ago.The senior lawyer said instead of disposing of the petitions, the matter could be transferred to the Delhi High Court as there were logistical difficulties for the petitioners, many of whom, he said, were retired bureaucrats.”In our case, we are all retired eminent bureaucrats. We filed before the Supreme Court, and we would find it inconvenient to get representation before multiple high courts,” said Singh.Allowing the submission, the CJI said the pleas would be listed before the Delhi High Court.
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