New Delhi, April 22 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Centre on a petition challenging the validity of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act for violating the federal structure and Centre-state distribution of powers under the Constitution. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Kerala-based lawyer Mohammed Mubarak Ali who is also an accused in a case probed by NIA into alleged unlawful activities of the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). The petition questioned the arbitrary nature of the provisions contained in the 2008 Act which allows NIA to take over any case already probed by the state police under section 8 which allows NIA to take over a case "connected" with any scheduled offence under investigation. Moreover, the NIA does not require the consent of the state government unlike the prior sanction procedure followed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). "The NIA Act creates an unbridled parallel national police structure encroaching upon exclusive domain of the state," the petition said. A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, "We will hear this matter," and issued notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for filing a response in four weeks. The matter will be heard next on July 14....