RSS route march: Supreme Court reserves order on Tamil Nadu Govt plea against Madras High Court order

Supreme Court. File Pic

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved an order on Tamil Nadu Government's appeal against the Madras High Court order directing state police to allow Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) route marches in the state.

A bench of justices V Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal reserved the order after hearing the submission made by both parties. The court said that they will consider the plea.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Tamil Nadu govt stressed the issues concerning law and order and said that some balance should be maintained. He said that neither everything can be banned nor everything can be allowed.

Tamil Nadu Government in its plea said that there is no absolute right to hold a procession, which is subject to various restrictions.

"How can there be the direction that marches can be held wherever desired," the lawyer said.

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for RSS, said that the state is prohibiting the route marches saying that someone might come and attack.

He further stressed that due to someone else's specious conduct, fundamental rights cannot be regimented in this fashion.

"This has earlier passed off peacefully, no complaints were there," the lawyer said.

Senior Advocate Maneka Guruswamy, for RSS, questioned the status report that was filed by Tamil Nadu Government in the matter and said that can public order and reasonable restrictions be reduced to this sort of status report. She apprised the court of the status report which stated that RSS processions can be permitted only in an enclosed ground.

Earlier Tamil Nadu Government told the Supreme Court that they are not totally against the RSS route march but can't permit it in sensitive locations.

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The court was hearing the Tamil Nadu government's appeal against the Madras High Court order permitting RSS for its route march in the state.

On February 10, Madras High Court directed Tamil Nadu police to grant permission to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to take route marches in various districts across the state on public roads. Recently the Tamil Nadu Government has challenged two orders of the Madras High Court dated 22.9.2022 and 2.11.2022.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu Government had also said that they will have a dialogue with the RSS on proposed routes for the march as they are not totally opposed to it. The state government had apprised the court that the government denied holding route marches in the sensitive areas, which have faced PFI incidents and have border areas with disturbances. The lawyer said that the government had had some intelligence reports.

The lawyer for Tamil Nadu Govt had stressed that they are not fully opposed to the procession but to they are opposing the manner in which it is proposed to be done.

RSS lawyer replied that the ground the state government has mentioned is of the Popular Front of India (PFI) which was banned by the Central Govt and it is a threat to the organisation.

"They are not able to control terrorist organizations and that is why they want to ban the route march," the lawyer said.

Tamil Nadu Government moved the top court against the Madras High Court order permitting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to take out its route march in Tamil Nadu on rescheduled dates.

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