The Madras High Court on Friday, October 20, 2023 directed Tamil Nadu police department to consider the representations to be made by Communist Party of India (Marxist) for conducting rallies across the State, between October 21 and 30 this year, as part of its propaganda campaign against religious polarisation and the pro-corporate policies of the Centre.
Justice G. Jayachandran issued the direction while disposing of a writ petition filed by K. Balakrishnan, State secretary of CPI(M), seeking a direction to the Director General of Police (DGP) to grant permission for the party’s propaganda campaign as well as the rallies by considering a representation made by him on October 10 this year.
A government counsel brought it to the notice of the court that the DGP had issued proceedings on October 17 requesting the writ petitioner to make individual representations to the respective town or district police heads seeking permission for the rallies since they would have to be considered depending upon the local law and order situation in those jurisdictions.
The DGP had also marked copies of his proceedings to the Inspectors General of Police of all four zones in the State as well as the Commissioners of Police in order to take an appropriate decision as and when individual representations were received seeking permission for the CPI(M) campaign and the rallies, the government advocate told the judge.
After recording his submission, the judge asked advocate N.G.R. Prasad, representing the writ petitioner, to ensure that individual representations were made forthwith to the local police heads mentioning the date, time and place of the rallies and ordered that such representations must be considered in the light of the instructions issued by the DGP.
CPI(M) foundation day rally
In his affidavit, Mr. Balakrishnan told the court that CPI(M) was formed at the seventh congress of the Communist Party of India held in Kolkata from October 31 to November 7 in 1964. Since then, the party had been celebrating its formation day every year by conducting various programmes to achieve its aim of socialism and communism.
This year, the State unit of CPI(M) had decided to hold a propaganda campaign across Tamil Nadu between October 21 and 30 to expose the political agenda of religious fanaticism practised by the Centre, its anti-poor and anti-working class policies, the anti-constitutional activities and the polarisation of the masses on grounds of religion, he said.
Though a representation was given to the DGP on October 10 seeking permission for the campaign, as well as the rallies to be taken out as part of it, the petitioner feared that there was a chance of the permission being denied to his party by citing permission to be given to other political parties or organisations for similar rallies.
