In the decision submitted late Tuesday, Judge Geeta Mittal refused a state petition to extend a seven-year ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India, saying the government had been unable to supply any new evidence of illegal activities by SIMI.
SIMI has been banned since 2001 and the government has repeatedly linked them to a wave of bombing attacks that have rocked India in the last three years, killing hundreds, saying that SIMI activists were working together with foreign Islamic groups.
But Indian police have made little progress in cracking the cases and the evidence they did have was insufficient for the courts.
“The material given by the Home Ministry is insufficient, so the ban cannot be continued,” Geeta wrote.
The government said it would appeal the decision.
“The ministry will examine the order in detail and take remedial action on a priority basis,” a Home Ministry statement said.
The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, already critical of the government’s handling of the attacks, called on the prime minister to fire Home Minister Shivraj Patil.
“The incompetence of the government has been completely exposed,” BJP spokesman Rajeev Pratap Rudy told reporters.
Founded in 1977 in northern India, SIMI advocates working to transform India into an Islamic society and freeing the country of Western influences.
Muslims make up about 14 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people and lag far behind the Hindu majority in almost every social indicator, from household income to literacy.
SIMI’s lawyer Trideep Pais welcomed the order, telling the Press Trust of India news agency that justice had been done.