The Madras High Court, dismissing a contempt petition filed
by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), held that the act of police in
arresting RSS cadres during processions over their attire on November 9, seemed
at the most "an act of bad taste and bad faith on the part of
authorities" and cannot be taken as constituting contempt of Court.
Earlier, after being denied the permission by the authorities to conduct
procession on its Foundation Day on the ground that in view of the amendment to
Section 41-A of the Chennai City Police Act, the Commissioner of Police had the
power to prohibit any drill, training or assembly with arms, the RSS had
approached the High Court filing a writ petition, seeking a direction to the
police authorities to permit its annual foundation day procession in Chennai,
Karur, Coimbatore, Tuticorin, Thackalay, Thiruvarur and Tenkasi, in the state
of Tamil Nadu, on 9 November.
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| (File Picture: Swayamsevaks taking out procession. Picture courtesy: indiatvnews) |
The
petitioners contended that RSS is a patriotic, nationalistic and cultural
organization which is patronised by majority of the people in the country, and
that while the procession (route march) was being permitted by all state
governments, including Jammu and Kashmir, it was "unfortunate that only in Tamil Nadu the permission is
refused." Rejection of permission to hold the procession in the seven
places was discriminatory when such clearance was given to all political
parties, the petitions contended. Relying on various court orders, the
petitions said "while police had
power to control and regulate processions, they did not have power to forbid or
ban processions. The power to control does not include the power to
forbid."
The police authorities had also contended that the RSS
volunteers wore a uniform resembling that of the police force and also carried
lathis. Hence, permission could not be granted.
A learned Single Judge the Madras High Court, Justice V
Ramasubramanian, allowed the writ petition filed by the RSS holding that
fundamentally, the orders passed by the authorities were not as per the mandate
of Section 41-A of the Chennai City Police Act, 1888 . This was because this
provision had no application to holding of processions but only to drill,
training, assembly with arms or assembly in uniform. It was claimed that the
uniform of the volunteers was designed in 1920s. Therefore, the authorities
appeared to have raised a bogey as no member of the police force today wore
short-pants. They had taken recourse to a wrong provision of law. Hence, the
impugned orders were liable to be set aside. Accordingly, the learned Single
Judge had directed the police to grant permission to the RSS to take out a
procession and hold a public meeting at seven places in the State on November
9. (The observations regarding the uniform were however not incorporated in the
operative portion of the judgment of the learned Single Judge). Justice V Ramasubramanian permitted RSS processions (route
marches) in all the seven towns, saying participating cadres should not carry
any weapons or lathis and should not raise slogans hurting sentiments of
others.
Authorities in various districts, acting on the court order,
had permitted the RSS activists to take out processions, subject to certain conditions,
one of which was they should not wear uniform resembling that of the Armed
Forces or police. The action was based on the amendment to the Chennai City
Police Act, 1888, which empowered the police to prohibit training or assembly
by groups with arms or in uniform that resembles that of the armed forces or
the police. Most of the RSS workers were in the ‘khaki’ uniform. Under Section
41(A) of the Act, to ensure public peace and safety, the police may prohibit
any drill with arms by five or more persons at any place or carrying of arms in
any procession. The word ‘arms’ meant any type of offensive weapon and included
‘lathi’ or stick. This was however contrary to the observations in the order of
the learned Single Judge of the Madras High Court allowing the RSS to take out
procession at seven places in Tamil Nadu.
However, thousands of Swayamsevaks were later arrested
across Tamil Nadu when they defied police orders and tried to take out processions
to mark their foundation day.
It was in this context that the RSS had filed a contempt
petition before the High Court of Madras.
Considering the contempt petition, the Court held : "At
the most what has been made out is an act of bad taste and bad faith on the
part of the authorities. Something more is required to attract an action for
contempt of Court. Hence the contempt petition is dismissed. "Justice V.
Ramasubramanian further said, "Unfortunately
for the petitioners and fortunately for the authorities, the observations made
by me in the order relating to the uniform worn by RSS volunteers was not
incorporated in the operative portion of the order." The judge said a
clear case of wilful disobedience of an order can be made out without an iota
of doubt only where its operative portion has something which has been violated
by the authorities. The judge said that if authorities had misunderstood the
effect of his directions, it could at most be termed as something done in bad
taste and an ingenious method to overreach the order of the Court.
Accordingly, the contempt petition filed by the RSS was
dismissed by the Madras High Court.
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