Judiciary to the rescue again: hauls up Govt. for permitting rallies

HC: Govt will be made accountable for rallies
Says Protest Area Should Be Outside City
The Times of India

Bangalore: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday observed that the government should seek ways and means to prevent the menace of public rallies and hartals which paralyse city life. It is a constitutional objective before the government to do so.

Hearing a public interest litigation, Chief Justice N.K. Sodhi and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer directed government advocate M.N. Sheshadri to furnish details of the political parties and their addresses to the court within two days so as to enable the court to pass a common order as to how such demonstrations could be held and at the same time not disturb public life.

Sodhi observed that the government needs to earmark an area where these rallies can be staged without affecting the general life of the people. The location should be outside the town in an extreme corner.

All party hartals, bandhs should not pass through the streets in the city. All districts too should earmark space so that normal life of people in the district towns is not disturbed. Let all hartals, bandhs, protest meetings culminate there.

Justice Sodhi said: “The court will take the government to task in future holding it responsible for such disturbance. The government is responsible for law and order. The court will make the government responsible for law and order.’’

That workers can call a bandh in Bangalore and in Karnataka and paralyse life is a matter of shame. The court said such errant workers should be removed from service. “There are so many in the queue waiting to take their job. The government needs to have the expertise, strength and courage to prevent lawlessness that prevails during a bandh, protest or hartal,’’ Sodhi observed.

Petitioners A.V. Amarnathan and B. Krishna Bhat filed a public interest litigation seeking a direction to the government and the police to implement the ruling of the Supreme Court which has declared that holding of bandhs and other demonstrations did not form part of the fundamental right for speech and expression as enshrined in the Constitution. They sought a direction to restrain anyone from holding a rally, hartal or protest that could paralyse life in the city. The law-enforcing authorities were not prohibiting such rallies and demonstrations which were causing pain, suffering and mental anxiety to the common man. Justice Sodhi said no matter which political party is planning such protests, they will not be allowed to enter the precincts of the town.

Every time a party gives a call for a rally or a bandh, that party has to give a week’s time to the government on their plan. This will be made a uniform rule, Sodhi said. However, in some extraordinary cases where bandh calls are given overnight to protest, this would not be possible.

Order, order
Govt must earmark areas for hartals, bandhs, protests; location should be outside town in a corner. Normal life should not be affected. A political party planning rally should give a week’s notice to govt. Workers calling bandh should be removed from service. Govt will be rapped if life disrupted. Flashback on rallies

Rallies and protests in recent past that affected life in Bangalore.
April 30: Daridranarayana rally called by JD (S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda. Traffic snarls across the city for several hours. January 7: Karnataka Pradesh Kurubara Sangha rally organised by Siddaramaiah. Traffic jam across the city for 3-4 hours. Sept. 2004: Seven-Day satyagraha by BJP in protest against Uma Bharati’s arrest at Town Hall. Traffic came to a standstill.
Nov. 2004: Kannada film industry protest. Damage to vehicles, property.
July 2004: Bangalore Chalo by anganwadi workers. Led to traffic chaos.