Madras High Court okays 44 of 50 locations for RSS rally in Tamil Nadu: No permission in Coimbatore, 5 other places

With respect to the other 24 locations, the police denied permission in view of the intelligence reports warning of possible law-and-order issues, especially in the wake of the Coimbatore car blast incident.

The court, after perusing the intelligence reports submitted by the police in a sealed cover, found no adverse material apart from a few scattered law-and-order issues. Accordingly, permission was granted for the RSS procession in 44 places.

However, Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan, who was hearing the batch of contempt petitions filed by the RSS, temporarily denied permission for the rally in six locations — Coimbatore city, Mettupalayam, Pollachi, Palladam, Arumanai, and Nagercoil — after finding “some material” in the intelligence report submitted by the police.

It may be noted that the state police are on high alert over the Coimbatore car blast case, in which 29-year-old Jameesha Mubin was killed after his Maruti-800 car exploded outside the Kottai Eswaran temple in Ukkadam area. The police said that Mubin was radicalised, and was plotting a terror attack. Even though a week has passed since the incident, an uneasy calm still prevails in Coimbatore.

Also read: Coimbatore Muslims shocked, Hindus disturbed; but both want peace

As for the six locations, the court gave the saffron organisation the liberty to submit fresh applications to the police to seek permission for the route march after two months.

While granting permission for the RSS route march despite the objection from the state police, the court in its order said: “The concerned Commissioner of Police/ Superintendent of Police referred number of FIRs registered during the year 2008 to 2020 in the places where the petitioners (RSS) sought to conduct procession and public meeting…All the FIRs are very old and the reasons stated in the report cannot be accepted, since everywhere there are accused and against them there are FIRs. Therefore, mere pendency of the FIRs against the particular organisation cannot be a ground to reject the request made by the petitioners.”

Apart from directing the state police not to “precipitate the issue”, the court also warned the RSS of consequences if any untoward incident took place during the march.

The route march of the RSS, followed by a public meeting, was initially supposed to be held on 2 October in order to celebrate “75 years of Indian independence, the birth centenary of Dr BR Ambedkar and Vijayadashami”. It was also the founding day of the RSS.

However, despite a favourable order from the high court, albeit with conditions, the Tamil Nadu government denied permission for the event following the petrol bomb attacks and other violent incidents reported in the state after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs banned the Popular Front of India and its affiliate organisations.

The RSS then moved the court seeking to initiate contempt proceedings. However, taking into consideration the sensitive law-and-order situation which prevailed at the time, the court postponed the route march to 6 November.