Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea by State of Andhra Pradesh against stay on its order restraining conduct of public rallies

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by the Andhra Pradesh government against a High Court order which stayed a Government Order (GO) restricting the police from granting permissions for public meetings and rallies unless adequate and exceptional reasons were provided..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha directed the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Prashant Kumar Mishra to look into the matter personally on January 23."We are not enquiring into the merits of the vacation bench order. We request the High Court Division Bench to take up the writ appeal and hear it on January 23. All rights and contentions of parties are kept open.".During the hearing, CJI Chandrachud said that since the matter is listed before the High Court, the apex court would not interfere as of now. "We will ask the Chief Justice of High Court to look into it personally," he added..The Court was hearing a a special leave petition filed by the State government against an interim order passed on January 12 by the High Court.A vacation bench of the High Court had stayed the operation of a GO dated January 2, stating that prima facie, it was contrary to the procedure prescribed under Section 30 of the Police Act.In its plea, the State claimed that it has been plagued with a multitude of fatalities caused during political rallies and roadshows and therefore, the order which advised the Andhra Pradesh Police Department to refrain from granting permissions for such public meetings was the need of the hour..The plea further stated that the vacation bench ought not to have taken up the matter, because the notification of the High Court dated January 5, 2023 regarding listing of matters before the vacation bench clearly stated that "no policy and administrative matters shall be taken up during vacation.”Further, the GO is of a regulatory nature and is thus clearly an administrative and policy matter. Hence, any order passed by a vacation bench regarding the GO, let alone staying its operation, is without jurisdiction since it is passed by a coram non judice, the State submitted. .[Read Supreme Court order]

Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea by State of Andhra Pradesh against stay on its order restraining conduct of public rallies

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