File picture of the Supreme Court of India.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Months before violence broke out throughout Ram Navami celebrations, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition highlighting how religious processions are being “weaponised” with members brandishing arms in public and sometimes unleashing mayhem.
In December 2022, a petition by NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), represented by senior advocate C.U. Singh, sought, amongst different reliefs, a path to the state to develop a normal working process for granting permission to take out religious processions.
“These festivals are becoming a source of riots, without blaming one side or the other. If we don’t avoid them by putting down guidelines, conflagrations will happen again and again. Authorities are abdicating their duty entirely. The court must step in,” Mr. Singh and advocate Aparna Bhat urged.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud orally drew the legal professionals’ consideration to religious events which weren’t marred by violence.
“We have in Maharashtra where lakhs of people congregate during the Ganesha festival… Why do you have to always portray that religious festivals are a source of riots? Let us look at the good things that happen in this country as well,” the court docket noticed orally.
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Mr. Singh responded through the transient listening to that the court docket can’t “close its eyes to the reality of how these processions are weaponised at these crucial times in the year”.
In a three-page order on December 9, the Bench stated the reliefs sought have been “not capable of being dealt with by the application of judicially manageable standards”.
It stated the petitioner was searching for a “roving writ of mandamus by this court”. The court docket stated each public order and the police have been State topics.
“State officials would be aware of the interplay of various factors which are specific to the local landscape and which must be considered while dealing with such issues,” the court docket reasoned.
State Governments might both problem rules or reply on a case-by-case foundation whereas granting permissions for religious processions, it noticed.
The court docket additionally discovered it pointless to problem instructions to make sure that processions have been unarmed and carried out in accordance with the permissions. “Directions to this effect are not required to be issued because the Union of India/State governments are required to act in accordance with their obligations under the relevant laws even in the absence of any directions from this court,” the court docket stated in its order.
The NGO had moved the highest court docket in May 2022, shortly after violence erupted in reference to religious events.
The CJP drew consideration to the Supreme Court’s determination in Karnataka versus Dr. Praveen Bhai Thogadia, by which it noticed that “communal harmony should not be made to suffer and be made dependent upon the will of an individual or a group of individuals, whatever be their religion be it of minority or that of the majority. Persons belonging to different religions must feel assured that they can live in peace with persons belonging to other religions”.
