Bombay High Court wants policy on regulating protests

The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to formulate a policy on regulating protests in Mumbai so that traffic remained unaffected and the general public was not inconvenienced.

A division bench of Justices A.S. Oka and A.A. Sayed was hearing a petition filed by the Nariman Point-Churchgate Citizens’ Association and others who had been at the receiving end of morchas.

On December 8, 1997, the high court, in an interim order, had directed that all morchas terminate at Azad Maidan near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST). Accordingly, till date, all morchas and dharnas are terminated at Azad Maidan.

The petitioners’ lawyer, S.C. Naidu, argued that though the procedure for terminating protests at Azad Maidan was based on the HC’s interim order, the government was yet to come out with a proper policy.

In 2011, the government had set up a committee comprising additional chief secretary (home), police commissioner, and commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which would look into the matter and come up with a policy. However, the committee had not even met once since, the court was informed.

After hearing the arguments, the bench directed the three officials to meet within a month’s time and take a decision on the policy.

Advocate Naidu told the court that a policy decision would mean providing facilities at Azad Maidan and regulating the traffic in such a manner that it would not inconvenience others.