This story is from February 22, 2020

Protest is a right, says HC but allows Bhim Army meet only

Protest is a right, says HC but allows Bhim Army meet only
Nagpur: After asserting that protests make a safety valve for the society and are a fundamental right, the high court that rapped police for denying a permission to Dalit outfit Bhim Army to hold a meeting at Reshimbagh ground next to RSS’s Smruti Mandir campus has given it a go-ahead, but not for a protest. The permission comes with an express condition that there would be no protests at the site.
The court has mentioned that the ground will be available only for the purpose of a workers’ meet as mentioned by the Bhim Army in its application. The meet will be held on Saturday.
The Reshimbagh ground, located right outside Smruti Mandir boundary wall, has also been the site of RSS functions like annual Vijayadashami event when a public meet is held to mark the organization’s foundation day. The meet is addressed by RSS sarsanghchalak (chief). The ground comes under Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT).
The outfit’s petition against police’s denial to hold a meeting at Reshimbagh ground was heard by the division bench of Bombay high court’s Nagpur bench.
The court has now observed that the meet would be held between 2pm and 5pm, against the 10-hour permission sought by the organizers. The orders says, “The meet shall be for the avowed purpose of workers’ meet only as disclosed in the application. It shall not be converted into a public demonstration and protest.”
“The meet will not be used for political purposes. No inflammatory speeches or such speeches that would tend to incite violence or spread hatred among citizens or communal ill-feelings or which would lower down the dignity and reputation of citizens or prejudicially affect the integrity or sovereignty of the country shall be given in the meeting,” says the order.
Apart from internal issues, there was a possibility of raking up issues like opposition to National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) during the meet. The Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan has been in the midst of controversies over protests against NRC-CAA and was also prevented from entering Delhi. He will now have to give an undertaking to abide by the conditions laid down by the court.

Bhim Army perhaps would be the only non-RSS outfit to hold a mass meet that can be deemed to be of political nature at the Reshimbagh ground at least in recent past. The organizers have sought permission for a gathering of over 10,000 persons.
One of the grounds for which police had denied permission was that both RSS and Bhim Army profess contradicting ideologies due to which holding a programme at Reshimbagh ground could have led to a law and order situation. The reasoning was seriously condemned by the court saying mere location or any other organization’s office nearby cannot be the reason for denial of permission to hold a meet.
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