Right to protest can’t include right to cause nuisance: Madras Hight Court

Chennai: Right to protest cannot include right to cause nuisance or harassment to the public, the Madras High Court has observed. The First Bench comprising the Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam before which a PIL filed by an advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam came up for hearing, said inculcating a social behaviour was difficult through judicial pronouncements.

Holding demonstration caused great inconvenience to the public at large and it infringed the rights of the persons concerned to live peacefully in their houses. Suryaprakasam filed the petition finding fault with the police for allowing a demonstration in front of Sathyamurthy Bhavan in the city by a caste-based group on December 12 last year. The protest was in front of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee headquarters, following remarks of Karti Chidambaram on Congress leader K. Kamaraj.

The petitioner alleged that though there were designated places in Chennai for holding protests, it was illegal on the part of police to have permitted the demonstration in front of TNCC headquarters on December 12. He prayed the court to direct the authorities to identify people behind the event and take action against them.

Disposing of the petition, the Bench said “the very concept of holding demonstrations propounding or rejecting a political and social philosophy would be questionable, especially when it is outside the residence of some people or in busy traffic areas”. The bench said “one would expect that the police authority would take immediate action where the residence of people are involved or traffic is obstructed”.