"Right To Protest Cannot Be Anytime, Everywhere": Supreme Court

The right to protest & express dissent comes with certain duties & cannot be held "anytime & everywhere", the Apex Court said in an order, dismissing a review petition on the anti-citizenship law protests held in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh in 2019.

12 activists had filed a review plea on the 2020 ruling of the Top Court terming the anti-citizenship law protests held at Shaheen Bagh to be illegal.

"The right to protest cannot be anytime & everywhere. There may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting rights of others," the three-judge bench of Justices SK Kaul, Aniruddha Bose & Krishna Murari said while dismissing a plea by one Shaheen Bagh resident Kaniz Fatima & others seeking review of last year''s verdict of Oct 7. Though the review petition was decided on Feb 9, the order came late last night.

The 3-Judge bench reiterated that public places cannot be occupied for protests & that public protests must be "in designated areas alone".

"Dissent & democracy go hand in hand," the Supreme Court had observed in its Oct 2020 verdict, stressing that "protests like these are not acceptable".

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Delhi's Shaheen Bagh had emerged as the epicentre of anti-CAA protests in 2019 where the protesters- mostly women & children - sat for more than 3 months.

The Shaheen Bagh protests had received worldwide attention & the Time Magazine honoured 82-year-old Bilkis dadi, the face of the movement, as one of the 100 "most influential people of 2020".

Critics have said the contentious citizenship law - which the government says enables citizenship for non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh & Afghanistan if they escaped religious persecution & entered India before 2015 - is "anti-Muslim".

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A massive wave of protests had swept the nation against the CAA before the novel coronavirus pandemic forced a majority of population indoors & the government announced one of the world's strictest lockdowns in March 2020. 

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