Madras High Court Directs Tamil Nadu Police Over RSS Route March
In a significant legal development, the Madras High Court has cleared the path for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to conduct its annual route march across 128 locations in Tamil Nadu. The events are scheduled to take place on October 25 and November 1. Justice V. Lakshminarayanan strongly criticized the state police department for repeatedly denying permissions on grounds that have already been declared invalid by previous judicial pronouncements.
The court's decision comes after a series of legal battles where the police had blocked permissions citing traffic concerns, proximity to places of worship belonging to other communities, and potential law and order issues. The bench firmly rejected these arguments, emphasizing that public roads are secular spaces accessible to every citizen regardless of religion, caste, or ideology, and peaceful assemblies cannot be arbitrarily restricted.
Court Rejects Repeated Grounds and Criticizes Administrative Hurdle
During the proceedings, the court noted that the state police used the exact same reasoning to reject applications that had already been quashed by the judiciary in past years. The bench remarked that while the police showed consistency in denying applications, they failed to present any novel or justifiable legal ground. The court directed both the local authorities and the RSS organizers to sit together and finalize the routes and timings peacefully.
The state advocate general informed the court that the administration is prepared to facilitate the marches on the revised dates provided that local law enforcement agencies coordinate the security arrangements and minor route adjustments if deemed necessary. With this clarification, the court disposed of the petition while hoping that such routine events would not require judicial intervention in the future.
