Published Mar 17, 2023 | 7:36 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 17, 2023 | 7:36 PM
In the absence of any proposal by the Tamil Nadu government to find some solution to the issue, the matter was posted for hearing on 27 March. (Supplied)
On Friday, 17 March, the Supreme Court was informed that the Tamil Nadu government has filed another petition challenging the 2 November and 22 September 2022 Madras High Court orders relating to the RSS programme wanting to take out a route march — presently on hold — across the state.
At the outset of the hearing today, a bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal was informed by the lawyers appearing for a Chennai-based RSS functionary that the Tamil Nadu government has filed another petition in the matter.
At this time, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government, clarified that that was on other aspects of the matter arising from two previous high court orders.
The apex court pointed out that during the last hearing of the matter on 3 March, the Tamil Nadu government had offered to make some proposals to find a solution to the issue but, so far, none has come.
Rohatgi said that he had sent the request to the state government to send a proposal, but due to the migrant-related issue that the state has been dealing with this last fortnight, the government was otherwise engaged.
In its response to Rohatgi’s statement, the bench observed that the issue being referred to had been resolved nearly ten days ago.
In the absence of any proposal by the Tamil Nadu government to find some solution to the issue and with Rohatgi telling the court that he was not advancing his arguments today, the matter was posted for hearing on 27 March.
In the last hearing of the matter on 3 March, the Tamil Nadu government had told the Supreme Court that it was not entirely opposed to the RSS conducting its programmes, including route marches, but insisted that certain conditions and prohibition be followed in sensitive areas in the wake of the ban on the People Front of India (PFI) and bomb blasts.
“We have not opposed the RSS route march and meetings, but it cannot happen on every street and mohalla (locality) in the state,” Rohatgi had told the court.
Sticking to the position that the RSS route march and meetings will have to be coupled with restrictions, senior advocate Rohatgi had offered to give a proposal to senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for G Subramanian, the RSS functionary who had applied for police permission to hold route march in Chennai.
On 10 February, the Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu police to grant permission to the RSS to take route marches in various districts across the state on public roads.
