Shaheen Bagh protest: SC says occupying public places for protests is not acceptable

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday said that public spaces and places can’t be occupied indefinitely whether in Shaheen Bagh or elsewhere. The administration must keep such spaces free from obstructions. Not wait to fire from court’s shoulder.

The Court said that the indefinite occupation of public places or roads by demonstrators, which can cause inconvenience to people and violate their rights, is not acceptable.

It further stated that the Delhi Police ought to have taken action to clear Shaheen Bagh area.

It also said that Democracy and dissent go hand in hand.

The bench had on September 21 reserved its order on a number of petitions seeking guidelines and other directions on the right to protest in wake of the Shaheen Bagh protest where a group of people had gathered for months to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) blocking a key road connecting Delhi and Noida.

The top court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by the petitioner and lawyers-in-persons Amit Sahni and Shashank Deo Sudhi against the protest, which had blocked a high-traffic road causing problems to the commuters, and seeking removal of the protestors.

Thousands of people, including a large number of Muslim women, had staged a sit-in protest at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area blocking a stretch of GD Birla Marg since mid-December last year against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

The top court had earlier appointed senior advocates — Sanjay Hedge, Sadhana Ramachandran and former bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah — as interlocutors to talk to the protestors and convince them to demonstrate at an alternate location.

The interlocutors had submitted their report in a sealed cover in February.

The petitions filed in the matter had 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.

(With inputs from Agency)