PIL demands policy on protest marches, demonstrations

The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra government to file reply to a public interest litigation seeking regulation of 'morchas' (protest marches), and measures to address traffic jams and overcrowding caused by such events in Azad Maidan area of south Mumbai.
A division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade, hearing a petition filed by Nariman Point-Churchgate Citizens Association, asked the government to frame a policy and sort out the traffic jams and other problems faced by citizens due to protests at Azad Maidan and elsewhere in the city.
The next hearing would be on February 7, 2017.
In 1997, the high court had passed an order saying that all protest marches should end at the Azad Maidan instead of heading further for the state secretariat.

S C Naidu, the petitioner's lawyer, today said the state government was yet to frame a proper policy on regulation of demonstrations or morchas.
The government set up a committee of additional chief secretary (home), police commissioner and municipal commissioner in 2011 to look into the issue but this committee has not met even once, he said.
Naidu made it clear that the petitioners did not want a ban on the protest. "People have the right to take out morchas or organise protests but the citizens should not be put to hardship," he said.