HC upholds police ban on Togadia's entry into City

The High Court on Friday upheld the police commissioner’s order banning the entry of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Praveen Togadia into Bengaluru for seven days from February 5 (Thursday). 

Justice S Abdul Nazeer refused to grant a stay on the order, holding that the ban was as per law. The VHP’s organising secretary, Keshav Hegde, had moved an interim prayer for a stay on the order. 

Passing the order, the bench stated that the police commissioner had the authority to impose a ban as he had the powers of an executive magistrate in a metropolitan city. The order, however, said that the VHP’s Virat Hindu Samajotsava could go ahead as scheduled on Sunday and the ban was only on one person. 

The bench stated that it had considered the submission by the government about Togadia’s speeches from 2002 to 2015 and how his speeches had disrupted communal harmony. It also stated that it had considered the petitioner’s contention that in the last two months, there had been no untoward incident following his speeches at different places.

The bench, however, stated that speeches made in the last two months were in smaller cities and Bengaluru was a metropolitan city where a larger crowd could gather for the event. It is right on the part of the police commissioner to impose a ban to maintain law and order in the City, it added. 

The bench cited an order of the Supreme Court in 2003, which imposed a similar ban on Togadia from entering Mangaluru. The High Court had allowed him to attend the event but refrained him from speaking there. The Supreme Court upheld that order.

Togadia was to attend the VHP’s Virat Hindu Samajotsava at the National College Grounds in Basavanagudi on Sunday. A large number of VHP, Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sena followers from Bengaluru Urban, Rural, Tumakuru, Kolar, Ramanagar and the surrounding areas are expected to attend the event.