The Supreme Court is all set to deliver its verdict on Wednesday on petitions against the anti-citizenship law protests that swept Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh earlier this year.
The apex court will decide if there can be “an indefinite period of protests in a common area (that) creates inconvenience for others”, or if there need to be limitations on the length and intensity of the protest. The SC has already noted that there cannot be a “universal policy” since circumstances may “vary” from case-tocase. A bench consisting of Justices S.K. Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari had reserved its verdict at the last hearing on 21 September. “We have to balance the right to protest and blocking of roads. In a parliamentary democracy, protests can happen in parliament and on roads. But on roads, it has to be peaceful,” the bench had observed.
Critics had accused the protesters of a conspiracy against the Modi government and claimed that they were disturbing traffic and normal life.
“We do understand that there is a problem,” the SC said in response to the pleas, asking: “Can you block a public route? One cannot block a public road and create inconvenience for others?” One of the lawyers for the protesters pointed out that citizens of the country had a “right to protest” and alleged that any inconvenience caused was by design of “a political party”.
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the centre, said the right to protest was not an absolute one. Hundreds of protesters, mainly women and children, camped out at Shaheen Bagh in south Delhi for over three months earlier this year to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and NPR (National Popular Register).
The Shaheen Bagh protesters were organised against the citizenship bill, which the government says enables citizenship for non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they escaped religious persecution and entered India before 2015.
With IANS inputs