To strike a balance between the democratic right to protest and the need to prevent people from suffering the inconvenience resulting from the blockades, a bench of judges Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari said that organizing protests is a constitutional right and emphasized that a subject that is sub-judice could not be an impediment to agitation in it. She said that the processing of petitions challenging the CAA before the Supreme Court would not take away the right of citizens to protest against its enactment.
However, he also stressed that in an autonomous democracy, it is not possible to resort to blocking public spaces and roads, a popular means of protest against colonial rulers, since the Constitution, although it confers certain rights, also obliges everyone to fulfill fundamental duties .
“Democracy and dissent go hand in hand, but then the demonstrations that express dissent have to be only in designated places. The present case was not even one of protests that took place in an undesignated area, but was the blocking of a public road that caused serious inconvenience to travelers. We cannot accept the petitioners’ claim that an undetermined number of people can gather as long as they decide to protest, “he said.
In drafting the ruling for the court, Judge Kaul said: “This type of occupation of public roads, whether at the site in question or elsewhere, for protests is not acceptable and the administration must take steps to maintain the areas free of invasions or obstructions. … We hope that such a situation does not arise in the future and that the protests are subject to the legal position stated above, with some sympathy and dialogue, but they are not allowed to get out of control ”.
Referring to the blockage of an arterial line near Delhi Shaheen bagh by anti-CAA protesters for months, the bank said that while God’s hand in the nature of the Covid pandemic led to the dispersal of protesters, authorities should act promptly in the future.
The blockade of the Kalindi Kunj section of a busy highway continued from December 15 to March 24, when police cleared the site after the outbreak. Quoting the words of Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Lippmann: “In a democracy, opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional, but must be maintained because it is indispensable,” the court said it respects the right of citizens to peaceful protest against a legislation, but made it clear. that “roads and public spaces cannot be occupied in that way and that too indefinitely.”
The bank observed: “We live in the age of technology in which social movements have rapidly integrated digital connectivity into their set of tools, be it for organizing, advertising or effective communication.”
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