On November 17, 2016, India's Union Home Ministry issued a notification declaring the Islamic Research Foundation an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The ministry's own stated rationale, quoted in Indian news reporting at the time, described the organization's activities as "prejudicial to the security of the country" and carrying "the potential of disturbing the peace and communal harmony." The declaration came roughly four months after a July 2016 attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which investigators reported one of the attackers had followed Naik's social media presence, a connection Bangladesh cited separately in banning Peace TV that same July.
The organization challenged the ban in court. The Delhi High Court dismissed the Islamic Research Foundation's legal challenge, and the statutory tribunal established under the UAPA to review such bans confirmed the government's order. The ban has since been extended by the central government rather than allowed to lapse, most recently for a further five years announced in November 2021, keeping it in force through November 2026 as of that extension. India's National Investigation Agency filed criminal charges connected to the matter in October 2017, and the government revoked Naik's Indian passport in July 2017 on the agency's recommendation.
This entry records what is a matter of settled government notification and court record: the ban was issued, on a stated date, citing a stated legal basis, reviewed and upheld through India's own tribunal and court process, and extended on a stated schedule. The underlying criminal allegations against the foundation and its founder remain, as of this writing, a separate and ongoing legal matter rather than a concluded one, and this entry does not take a position on their merits.