New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday announced that public places cannot be blocked for protest. It said that public roads and spaces can’t be occupied in an indefinite manner for protests, causing inconvenience to the people; as such demonstrations must be organized at designated places only. The court also exclaimed that our constitution allows the right to protest and express dissent, but with an obligation towards certain duties.
A three-judge bench consisting Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul in its judgement on Shaheen Bagh protests organized against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, blocking a prominent road connecting Delhi and Noida pointed out “Democracy and dissent go hand in hand, but then the demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone”. The court reminded the protesters who occupied public places not only in Delhi but several prominent cities across the country.
The right guaranteed by the Constitution gives power to every citizen to come together peacefully and protest against any decision or actions of the State. This must be respected and encouraged for the strength of democracy, the court, however, added bench.
In the December 2019, a protest started predominantly by women and children at the Shaheen Bagh to oppose the CAA-NPR-NRC, was replicated across the country. The sit-in was lifted after about 100 days as “the hand of God subsequently intervened and overtook the situation” in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. The court noted that the protesters were in dissent with the CAA whose validity of law was already pending, while the details of the National Register of Citizens were yet to be propounded.
The present case was not even one of the protests taking place in an undesignated area, but was a blockage of a public way which caused grave inconvenience to commuters, the court said. The top court pointed out Delhi High Court should have monitored the matter, rather than asking the administration to take suitable action as per law.
Thettwo interlocutors senior advocates Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran were appointed as an “out of the box solution” to talk to the protesters during the hearing. However, the move was not fruitful.