The Tamil Nadu government challenged the order that allowed the RSS to conduct flag marches in different parts of the state.
Picture of an RSS route march. (Credit: Facebook/ RSS)
The Supreme Court on Friday, 3 November, listed the Tamil Nadu government’s petition challenging the order of the Madurai bench of Madras High Court permitting Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to conduct flag marches in the state.
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta ordered the listing of the matter on 6 November, following a mentioning of the plea by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, assisted by advocate Sabarish Subramanian.
The Tamil Nadu government moved the Supreme Court against the 18 October order of the high court allowing the RSS to conduct flag marches in different parts of the state.
The Tamil Nadu government said in its petition that the high court, while allowing the marches by the RSS, did not consider its history of violent incidents.
The state government said that the high court did not factor in the intelligence reports on the possible occurrence of incidents affecting the law-and-order situation, completely ignoring other religious congregations during the ongoing Navratri festival and Thevar Jayanti across Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu government’s petition also said that the respondents were representatives of the organisation named Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is neither a citizen of India nor a corporate body, and thus was not vested with the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution, which was available only to citizens.
The petition read: “That the Respondents without any rhyme or reason or necessary cause have sought permission before various Police and Administrative Authorities of Tamil Nadu for conducting Flag Marches and processions on 22.10.2023 and 29.10.2023. The route maps of said marches are passing through narrow roads and also passing through the areas where places of worship of minority communities are situated.”
It added: “While the Police Authorities are gathering information necessary for deciding the requests for permissions for the said marches, the respondents have filed numerous petitions before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court seeking directions for deciding the requests to carry out marches.”
The Tamil Nadu government also said that the state police refused to accord permission for carrying out marches after evaluating the situation, intelligence inputs, ongoing festival season, availability of police personnel, and the history of such marches across India.
It added that similar marches carried out in West Bengal recently had led to communal clashes.
The state government, pointing out the flaws in the high court order, said that the petition by the RSS representatives, who had no locus standi, was rendered infructuous after the denial of permission by the state police.
However, it added, the high court converted the matter into an appeal against the police order rejecting the request for permission and quashed the same and permitted the marches.
The state government contended that all these were contrary to the settled principles of law.
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