The Supreme Court on Wednesday has announced its verdict on right to protest and has said no person or group of persons can block the public places to express dissent.
Notably, the SC verdict was announced on the number of petitions which sought guidelines and other directions on the right to protest in the wake of the Shaheen Bagh protest where a group of people had gathered to express resentment against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The protests, however, led to the blocking of a key road connecting Delhi and Noida.
"Protest should be at designated places. Authorities should remove protests which are not being staged at designated places," the apex court said.
The SC bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul along-with Justices Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari said, "Occupation of public places or roads by demonstrations, which cause inconvenience to a large number of people and violate their rights, is not permissible under law."
In last year's mid December, the protest against CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens grew agitated in Shaheen Bagh and thousands of people especially a large number of Muslims joined the anti-movement and blocked a stretch of GD Birla Marg.
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Earlier, the apex court had appointed senior advocates including Sanjay Hedge, Sadhana Ramachandran, and former bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah as interlocutors to talk to the protestors and convince them to express dissent at another location. Later in February, the interlocutors then submitted their report to the SC in a sealed cover.
The petitions filed in the SC sought directions to the respondents, including the Centre, for laying down "detailed, comprehensive and exhaustive guidelines relating to outright restrictions for holding protest/agitation" leading to obstruction of the public space.