Madras High Court grants permission to RSS for route march in Tamil Nadu

The Madras High Court Monday allowed a batch of petitions filed by local and State-level members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) seeking directions to the Tamil Nadu police to permit it to hold “route marches” across 35 locations in the State on October 22 and 29 this year..Justice G Jayachandran passed a common order on a batch of petitions and directed the police to grant permission at least three to five days ahead of the scheduled date for such march..While the Court rejected the State police’s objections to the pleas, it allowed the police to impose “reasonable restrictions” to ensure law and order is maintained during such route march..Senior Counsel G Karthikeyan and advocate Rabu Manohar appeared for the petitioners..The same issue had come up before the Court in October last year when the RSS sought the Tamil Nadu government's permission to carry out its march and public meetings at several locations across the State to mark Gandhi Jayanti and 75 years of India’s independence.However, the State government had refused permission citing intelligence reports anticipating law and order problems. The RSS had then approached the Madras High Court.On November 4 that year, a single-judge had given the RSS permission to conduct the march subject to certain conditions like restricting the march indoors or in enclosed spaces.On February 10, a division bench of the High Court had lifted these restrictions and emphasised the importance of protests in a healthy democracy..It had also directed the RSS to approach the police with three fresh dates on which they planned to conduct the route march.However, the Tamil Nadu government had challenged such order before the Supreme Court but the Supreme Court too had upheld the order granting permission to the RSS for its route march.Subsequently, in April 2022, route marches were organised by the RSS at 45 places across the State.