MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by a man seeking permission to conduct an indefinite protest against the ongoing war in West Asia at a busy public junction in Periyakulam. Castigating him for refusing to accept alternative locations and making disparaging remarks against two great leaders, the court also imposed Rs 50,000 cost on him.
Justice L Victoria Gowri observed that the court cannot be converted into a mechanism to enforce personal obstinacy in the guise of constitutional liberty. The right to protest cannot be elevated into a right to occupy any place, at any time, for any duration, solely at the will of the person asserting it, she added.
Though the police suggested two alternative places near the statues of BR Ambedkar or Muthuramalinga Thevar in Periyakulam, respectively, the petitioner refused, stating that both the leaders have become icons of casteism and he did not wish to conduct his protest in the vicinity of their statues, she noted.
Observing that both leaders are historical figures of public importance, the judge criticised that such remarks, made in the course of a judicial proceeding, are wholly unwarranted and the litigant cannot be permitted to justify his refusal by making disparaging generalisations about them.