CHENNAI: Holding that state authorities must act in a manner to uphold the fundamental right to freedom of speech, expression, and assembly as they are envisaged as sacrosanct and inviolable rights under the constitution, a division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu police to grant permission for RSS to conduct route marches.
A bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq allowed the letter of patent appeals filed by RSS functionaries who challenged an earlier order of a single judge restricting the event within ‘compounded premises’. “The state’s approach towards citizens’ rights can never be adversarial in a welfare state and it must be considered for granting permission for peaceful rallies, protest, processions or meeting so as to maintain a healthy democracy,” the court said.
Govt’s decisions must be in public interest: Court
The bench set aside a single judge’s order dated November 4, 2022, restricting the route marches within compounded premises and restored the judge’s order dated September 22, 2022, permitting the rally. The bench told the appellants to approach state authorities with three different dates of their choice for holding the procession and directed the authorities to grant permission for holding the march on one of those dates.
The court also directed the RSS to ensure “strict discipline” and said that there shall be “no provocation or incitement”. Referring to the right to hold peaceful processions/ meetings, the court said, “The state under the guise of new intelligence inputs cannot seek to impose any condition perpetually banning or infringing upon the fundamental rights of the organisation citing law and order problem after the order passed in the writ petitions, which has attained finality.”
Just because there are other outfits that have a different ideology, the permission sought cannot be denied. The decisions of the state must be in public interest rather than on ideology, political understanding and affiliation, the high court said. Challenging the single judge’s order restricting the event to compounded premises, the RSS functionaries blamed the state government of depriving them of their right to expression and free speech.