Shillong, March 19: The proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) has decided to challenge the Centre’s decision to extend the ban against the outfit for a period of five years.
Informing this on Wednesday, HNLC representative and president of the Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF), Sadon K Blah, said that the outfit has appointed a legal counsel to represent its case for challenging the Centre’s decision to extend the ban before the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) Tribunal during the hearing to be held in Shillong on March 22.
Fernando Shangpliang has been appointed as the legal counsel of the HNLC on March 6.
It may be mentioned here that the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a notification on November 14, 2024 declaring the HNLC, along with all its factions, wings and front organisations as an unlawful association.
Asked, Blah said, “The reason that the HNLC would like to contest this subject matter legally because during the hectic period of the peace process, when the leaders of the HNLC are stationed in Shillong, we have put forward on many occasions during the meeting that the government should remove the ban and this tag as banned and illegal organization before the HNLC come forward for the peace process. But it seems that the political platform that the HNLC has tried to avail has failed because neither the state or central government could come clear that it would lift the tag declaring HNLC as a banned organization. Now it only appears and understood that the HNLC is very much serious with the peace process and that is why it is trying to challenge this extension of the ban as an illegal organization by taking recourse to the judicial platform.”
“I hope the judiciary, the state and central government will understand that the HNLC is still very much serious in coming forward with the peace process. It has failed in the political platform and now the organization is taking recourse in the judicial platform and hope things move positively,” he added.
 has decided to challenge the Centre’s decision to extend the ban against the outfit for a period of five years.){kind=link}