Right to protest fundamental but blocking of road a concern: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday said although right to protest is a fundamental right but blocking of the road at Shaheen Bagh here was a cause for concern since it might spur such actions by other groups, leading to chaos.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph asked senior advocate Sanjay Hegde to talk to the Shaheen Bagh protesters to persuade them to shift to some other venue from the important road connecting Delhi and Noida.

"Reasons must prevail upon them, as we are concerned about the blocking of the road," the bench said.

The top court put the petitions for a direction to Delhi police to remove road blockade at Shaheen Bagh, where hundreds of women and children launched their sit in since December 15, for further consideration on February 24.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi police contended that let the message not go that every institution has been kneeling and praying to the protesters.

"For some reasons, you have not gone there. If nothing works out, we will leave it to you," the bench told Mehta, who maintained that talks were held with welfare and market associations to lift restrictions on road.

Taking up the petitions by advocate Amit Sahni and BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg, the bench said the protesters are aggrieved by a particular legislation (the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019), the petitions against which were pending before the court.

"They may get favourable or unfavourable judgement....our intrinsic concern is if everybody starts blocking road or public area. The question is where to protest. It should not be on street," the bench said.

The court sought help of Hegde as interocutor and asked him to take along help of former CIC Wajahat Habibullah and advocate Sadhana Ramachandran. Habibullah has along with Bhim Army Chief Chandra Shekhar Azad filed an intervention application in the matter.