HC dismisses petition to ban protests in Delhi

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition accusing the government and its agencies of adopting a pick-and-choose policy in allowing dharnas and protests in the heart of Delhi , including the on-going fast at Ramlila Maidan by Anna Hazare.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition accusing the government and its agencies of adopting a pick-and-choose policy in allowing dharnas and protests in the heart of Delhi , including the on-going fast at Ramlila Maidan by Anna Hazare.

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The PIL had sought a direction demarcating a place on the outskirts of the Capital for holding such protests and rallies to maintain hassle-free traffic. The high court said the petition was unclear about the relief sought.

“The pleadings, assertions and the prayer sought in a writ petition, especially in a public interest litigation has to be clear, manifest, purposefully demonstrable… making out a case that is relevant to public interest,” said a bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and justice Sanjiv Khanna.

It said, “The petitioner, who has preferred this public interest litigation, is embedded to play with words and usher in a sense of contradiction, irreconcilability and dichotomy. One may, in a different sphere of life, pronounce with heroics that he contradicts himself every moment and, therefore, he grows but, a significant one, the same has no allowance in the field of law.”

“On one hand, a collective grievance is agitated keeping in view the basic conception enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution and on the other hand, the inequality shown to various groups to carry out demonstrations under the anvil of Article 14 of the Constitution has been pyramided,” it said.