Citizens protesting peacefully against a law cannot be called traitors or “anti-nationals”, the Bombay High Court said on Thursday in the c...
Citizens protesting peacefully against a law cannot be called traitors or “anti-nationals”, the Bombay High Court said on Thursday in the context of a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Beed district of Maharashtra.
In an order on January 21, police had refused to allow a group of protestors to sit on an indefinite protest in Majalgaon in Beed district. A magistrate also did not let them protest. The protestors had moved the High Court challenging the police and magistrate order.
The Aurangabad bench of the High Court observed that the petitioner, Iftekhar Shaikh, and his companions only wanted to hold a peaceful protest, PTI reported. The court granted them permission to go ahead with it.
“This court wants to express that such persons cannot be called as traitors, anti-nationals only because they want to oppose one law,” said a division bench of Justices TV Nalavade and MG Sewlikar. “It will be act of protest and only against the government for the reason of CAA.”
The court said a protest cannot be suppressed just because people are opposing the government, The Indian Express reported. The judges also asked the bureaucracy to keep in mind that citizens are bound to defend their rights if they believe that a particular law...
