VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed Tirupati police to give permission to separate public meetings proposed by the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi (APS) as well as the Rayalaseema Intellectuals Forum (RIF). The court, however, asked the APS to hold its public meeting on December 17, while the RIF was directed to conduct its meeting the next day.
Both the APS and RIF sought permission from the police for their meetings in the temple town on December 17. When the APS and RIF were denied permission for meetings, they filed separate petitions in the High Court. The APS took out Nyayasthanam to Devasthanam Padayatra from Amaravati to Tirupati demanding that Amaravati be the only capital of Andhra Pradesh. It proposed to end the padayatra with a public meeting in Tirupati.
APS counsel Posani Venkateswarlu informed the court that the police denied permission to the public meeting without giving any valid reasons. He said the petitioner did not violate any norms issued by the court while giving permission for its padayatra and the APS proposed to hold the public meeting at Damineedu, 6 km away from Tirupati.
‘Not correct to deny permission to one party citing another meeting’
He informed the court that holding a meeting is one of the fundamental rights of a citizen and the same was reiterated by the High Court as well as the Apex court in their verdicts.
Additional Advocate General P Sudhakar Reddy informed the court that the petitioner had violated the guidelines issued by the court during the padayatra. He said some APS members manhandled policemen during their padayatra on Tuesday and produced video and photo evidences of the same.
Sudhakar Reddy said political leaders joined the padayatra and made inflammatory speeches in violation of the guidelines set by the High Court. He said there is a possibility of law and order issues arising due to the proposed public meeting of the APS in Tirupati and the police are empowered to impose restrictions in such situations.
Justice C Manavendranath Roy, who examined the video and photo evidences submitted by the AAG, said denying permission for the meeting on the pretext of law and order problem is not right. It is not correct to deny permission to the APS citing that another group has also proposed to hold a meeting on the same day, he said.
The RIF too said it filed a petition seeking directions to the police to give permission to it to hold the public meeting in Tirupati on the same day.
Justice Manavendranath Roy said holding two meetings on the same day in the temple town would cause a problem to the police to maintain law and order effectively and directed the RIF to hold its public meeting on December 18.
While directing the police to grant permission for the two meetings, the court said the public meetings should be held between 1 and 6 pm and no inciting speeches should be made by speakers. It also stated that speakers should not make any derogatory comments against the government or officials.