Centre constitutes “The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal”

On December 12, the Central Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 5 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), constituted “The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal”.

The Tribunal consists of Hon’ble Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, Judge, Delhi High Court, for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause of declaring the Meitei Extremist Organizations of Manipur, viz, the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) and its political wing, the Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF); the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its armed wing, the Manipur Peoples’ Army (MPA); the Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and its armed wing, the Red Army; the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and its armed wing, also called the “Red Army”; the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), Coordination Committee (CorCom), and Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK) along with all their factions, wings, and front organizations as ‘Unlawful Associations’.

Born on June 20, 1958 at Chandigarh, Justice Sangita, topper of her batch of 1984 Delhi Judicial Services (DJS), joined DJS on July 26, 1985. She served as Sub-Judge (From 1985 to 1987), Metropolitan Magistrate, and also Secretary of Legal Aid and Advise Committee (From 1987 to 1995), Competent Authority, Slums, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and Joint Director/Mobilisation Committee Development (From 1995 to 1997) and was promoted as Addl. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in 1997 and exclusively dealt with Customs and FERA Act cases.

Justice Sangita worked as Additional Sessions Judge in the year 2000. She worked as Additional Sessions Judge-cum-Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (From 2000 to 2003), and being the only Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in the whole of Delhi, she looked after the entire administrative work pertaining to all Magistrates of Tis Hazari, Patiala House, and Karkardooma courts and supervised functions of the entire Magistracy due to bifurcation of Delhi into five zones. During this tenure till June 23, 2003, she was vested with the exclusive powers to deal with cases of Official Secrets Act. For the first time, Special Courts were organized in Tihar Jail and cases of undertrials languishing in Tihar Jail for long and involved in petty offences were dealt with.

Justice Sangita worked as Secretary, Press Council of India (From 2003 to 2004). Thereafter, she worked as Member Secretary, Delhi Legal Services Authority (From 2004 to 2008), and on March 08, 2006, for the first time, Delhi Legal Services Authority launched Mobile Legal Services, on March 10, 2006, Summer and Winter Internship Programme for Law Interns of various Law Universities were started and also opened a 24-Hour Permanent Legal Services Clinic.

Justice Sangita was posted as Additional District Judge (From 2008 to 2010) and Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) (From 2010 to 2013). She worked as District & Sessions Judge in the year 2013 and dealt with different cases of Public Premises Act, Essential Services Maintenance Act, Essential Commodities Act, and RCT besides doing various administrative duties pertaining to Saket District. She remained Registrar General, High Court of Delhi, from April 2013 to December 2014 and also worked as Registrar (Vigilance).

Justice Sangita was elevated to the Bench of High Court of Delhi as "Additional Judge" on December 15, 2014 and became a Permanent Judge on June 3, 2016.

In addition, Justice Sangita was a member of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) implemented by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which aimed to strengthen access to justice particularly for women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and minorities. She is also a Member of the Juvenile Justice Board as well as a Presiding Officer of The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (Islamic Research Foundation).