CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has reiterated that the police cannot deny permission to the RSS to hold route marches citing the presence of mosques and churches on the routes as a reason.
Justice V Lakshminarayanan made the remarks on Thursday while hearing a petition seeking directions to the authorities concerned, including the home secretary and the DGP, to permit the route marches on October 18, 25 and November 1.
The petition was filed by V G Jagadeesan, state secretary of RSS for North Tamil Nadu.
Citing the earlier orders of the high court, the Supreme Court and the guidelines framed by the court for handling the route march, the judge said, “Existence of mosques and churches cannot be the ground for denying permission to the route march.”
He said, “It is a matter of agony that the police are mentioning…minority community people are having issues in the RSS taking out the route marches.”
He directed the petitioner’s counsel to submit the details of the route, the participants and others to the police officials concerned regarding the marches to be held on October 25 in northern parts of the state and November 1 in the southern districts.
“The petitioner shall also give an undertaking that they will scrupulously adhere to the dos and don’ts imposed by the court,” Justice Lakshminarayanan said in the order.
He directed Advocate General (AG) Vijay Narayan to get instructions from the DGP as soon as the undertaking affidavit is submitted.
The judge noted that the discussion held between the counsel for the petitioner and the state public prosecutor did not reach an agreement on the matter.
Referring to the framing of the guidelines in 2024, he said both the RSS and the state have breached the guidelines.
During arguments, the AG noted that permission could not be given for the dates sought by the petitioner because of the Deepavali festivities and the need to provide security to the public in busy areas.
He also stated that the police have to deploy contingents from other districts for giving security to the RSS route march in a particular place.
The judge adjourned the hearing to Friday.