Justice G Illagovan, who heard a batch of petitions seeking direction to police and Tamil Nadu Government, permitted RSS to take out its annual route march. The judge directed the authorities to grant permission for the route march in places in Tenkasi ,Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Theni, Dindigul, Kanyakuari, Virudhunagar, Pudukottai, Karur, Trichy and Thanjavur districts on October 22 by imposing a series of conditions.
The state government submitted that on account of Navarathri , Muthuramalinga Thevar Jayanthi and Martuthu Pandiyar Jayanthi, a large number of police personnel had to be deployed in Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts to ensure smooth conduct of the events. It would not be possible to grant police protection in these three districts. Taking note of this, the judge disallowed route marches in these three districts with liberty to the petitioners to revive their representations seeking permissions after October 30th. He also directed concerned authorities to consider the representations favourably and grant permission.
Two days ago Madras High Court, after hearing a batch of 33 writ petitions when police refused to permit RSS route marches for the second consecutive year in the state, allowed RSS permission to conduct route marches in Tamil Nadu on October 22 and 29. The court directed Tamil Nadu government to provide the necessary security to conduct the marches. In his detailed order Justice G Jayachandran extensively quoted the earlier cases and orders issued by Supreme and High Courts in this regard. He said “It is also pertinent to note that, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India while considering the appeal preferred by the State been abreast of the attitude of the State, while considering the request of the Organization seeking permission to conduct rally, weighted the right of the individuals/Organisations vis-a-vis the responsibilities of the State in protecting the right conferred under Part-III of the Constitution, observed that, the main objection raised by the State before the High Court was that after the imposition of ban order on another organization, law and order problems cropped up in certain places and the same led to several cases being registered were knocked at the instances of the petitioners or its organizations. The chart provided by the State Government shows that the members of the respondents organisation were the victims in many of those cases and certainly they were not the perpetrators”
The justice said “ It is pertinent to repeat that the application seeking permission to conduct rally been received by the respondent about a month ago. Till filing of this Writ Petition, they did not pass any order. Therefore, it was specifically alleged that this is the conduct of the State keeping the applications pending till the eleventh hour and rejecting it only after Writ Petitions are filed.
He pointed out “ The reasons stated in their rejection order is not pertinent to the inconvenience of the State to provide protection particular date or time but on the general reasons which will always be in existence at all point in the entire 365 days of the year. Writ Petitions, this Court finds the Organizers of RSS from the Southern District had sought permission to conduct Procession/meeting only on 22.10.2023, which is about 8 days earlier to the Devar Jayanthi. Hence, this reason is not appeared to be genuine or reasonable”.
Justice Jayachandran said “in all the rejection orders, District Administration has quoted the existence of Mosques and Churches in the procession route. As per Section 180-A of the District Municipalities Act 1920, roads or streets should be used as access to the people irrespective of their religion, caste or creed. Merely because one religious group is dominating in a particular locality, it cannot be a ground to prohibit from celebrating religious festivals or taking processions of other religious groups through those roads. If it is to be accepted, then a day will come when a particular religious group which is predominantly occupying the area, will not the people belonging to other religious groups even to use the roads even for movement, transportation or the normal access. Even the marriage processions and funeral processions would be prohibited/prevented which is not good for our society.”
He said “ the tenure of the rejection order certainly not in tune with Secular or democratic way of governance. It is neither in obedience or compliance of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India dictum. By citing the existence of the structures, place of worship of other religion or office of some organizations, which do not share the same ideology of RSS, the request of RSS to conduct procession and public meeting is rejected. This order is contrary to the principle of Secularism which is the foundation of our Constitution of India”.
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