STAGING a peaceful protest is every Indian citizen’s democratic right, as repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court and various high courts. Can the police be justified in slapping FIRs on a protester and debarring him from entering a city merely for criticising the government and the ruling party? The Bombay High Court’s answer is an unequivocal “no”. Setting aside the Mumbai Police’s externment order against a political activist, the HC has observed that a morcha or a protest against decisions of the BJP-led Centre cannot by itself be a ground for drastic action that impacts the person’s fundamental rights. Justice Madhav J Jamdar’s sharp observation that “citizens cannot be made slaves of the government” is set to have reverberations far beyond Maharashtra.
Dissent is not a crime; it is a form of expression protected under Article 19 of the Constitution. Treating it as a threat to public order without credible evidence of violence or danger erodes the very freedom that distinguishes a democracy from an authoritarian state. The HC rightly noted that the FIRs registered against the petitioner largely related to alleged violations of prohibitory orders during protests, punishable by relatively minor provisions of the law. Such allegations fall far short of justifying the severe restriction of banishing him from his city for a whole year.
Justice Jamdar’s assertion that the police are “public servants” and not servants of political leaders is equally significant. His suggestion, made in a lighter vein, that the petitioner should consider switching parties to get the FIRs quashed through the government’s “washing machine” sums up the sorry state of affairs in the season of defections. The ruling serves as a timely reminder that citizens are not subjects to be silenced — they are the sovereign voice of the Republic.
