Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Coimbatore police to grant permission to the BJP to take out a rally carrying the national flag on August 18 to commemorate the 80th Independence Day.
Justice V Lakshminarayanan gave the directive while disposing of a petition filed by J Ramesh, Coimbatore District President of BJP, challenging the police order rejecting his application, seeking permission to conduct a rally on August 13.
When the petition came up for hearing, advocate A Kumaraguru submitted that the BJP wanted to celebrate Independence Day by carrying the national flag across the State. Hence, the petitioner submitted an application, seeking permission. But Coimbatore police refused to grant permission. Therefore, the petitioner filed the present petition, he said.
Additional Public Prosecutor Arun Anbumani submitted that the police were not against taking out a rally. But, the route they wanted to conduct the rally was a crowded place. It would disturb the public, and a law and order problem was likely to arise. If they wanted to take out the rally in the routes specified in the Government Order pursuant to SOP, the police will grant permission, he added.
In his order, the judge said the purpose of the SOP was to protect the rights of the citizen in a regulated manner but not in an unregulated manner.
The SOP was applicable where the participants exceeded 5,000. When the application filed by the petitioner does not say that more than 5,000 persons were going to assemble to respect the national flag, the police overestimated the strength and said the SOP would apply.
Kumaraguru said 500 to 1000 persons will participate in the rally.
Additional Public Prosecutor suggested that the petitioner can choose the route identified by the District Collector and the police will grant permission.
Both sides submitted that the route from Mettupalayam road to North Kovai Chinthamani junction was acceptable, the judge added.
The judge directed the police to grant permission to take out the rally between 4 pm and 7 pm on August 18.
