New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a number of petitions seeking guidelines and other directions on the right to protest in wake of the Shaheen Bagh protest where a group of people had gathered for months to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) blocking a key road connecting Delhi and Noida.
The bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul remarked that there is a need to balance the right to protest with other people's right to mobility.
The petitioner had argued that the right to protest is absolute to which the center and the apex court, both did not agree.
Petitioner also contended that a universal policy is needed to which the court replied that it is difficult.
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Arguing against the petitioner's contention, the center submitted that the right to take out a procession is never an absolute right and that people can't simply go and stop a vehicular movement at their whims and fancy.
The petitions filed in the matter had sought directions to the respondents, including the Centre, for laying down “detailed, comprehensive and exhaustive guidelines relating to outright restrictions for holding protest/agitation” leading to obstruction of the public space.
The matter was listed today after almost seven months.
Thousands of people, including a large number of Muslim women, had staged a sit-in protest at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area blocking a stretch of GD Birla Marg since mid-December last year against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens.
(With inputs from agencies.)
