Site of Protest: Open Jail or Closed?
The Supreme Court has recently opined that “while appreciating the existence of the right to peaceful protest against a legislation ….. we have to make it unequivocally clear that public ways and public spaces cannot be occupied in such a manner and that too indefinitely.”
Does this mean that the right to protest against a policy decision of the government or some other weighty reason (other than a legislation) is permissible on public ways and public spaces and that too indefinitely? I don’t think the Supreme Court meant its views to be construed so narrowly.
In other words, there is no way that you can now protest in public in Delhi. Colonial and post-independence methods of protest have been rendered ineffective in free India through the use of colonial laws by the state to allegedly maintain public order and protect the Constitution.
But, there is still one (deemed designated) place where a protest can be held – in Burari on the…