Section 144 CrPC orders cannot be issued at the drop of a hat: Calcutta High Court

Orders to restrict public movement and gathering under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) cannot be imposed at the drop of a hat, the Calcutta High Court said on Thursday while allowing an opposition party in West Bengal to hold a political rally at Purba Medinipur on August 26 [Rajib Samanta vs State of West Bengal]..Justice Jay Sengupta also reiterated that the State administration must provide a level playing field to all political parties to hold rallies and processions."Promulgation of an order under Section 144 of the CrPC cannot be done at the drop of a hat. It has to be done by exercising more care and circumspection and with a better reasoning. Afterall, we are dealing with rights of the citizens of India," the bench held..In view of this, the bench quashed one such order passed under Section 144(2) of the CrPC and allowed the opposition party member before the Court to conduct a political rally slated to be held on August 26."The duty of the Administration is to provide a level playing field to all political dispensations to hold rallies and processions. The law and order is a thing that the Administration would have to take care of," the judge added..Notably, the Court reiterated the observations made by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha in March this year, while allowing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally. The Court had emphasised at the time that there should be equal space for all political ideologies in West Bengal..In this case, the opposition party initially wanted to hold a rally on August 19. However, permission was denied by the local police authorities citing a 'law and order' situation in the area and the promulgation of an order under Section 144(2), CrPC.The rally was then rescheduled for August 26 but stalled again citing the order under Section 144 (2) of the CrPC.The party's mandal president Rajib Samanta (petitioner), therefore, approached the High Court for relief, contending that the State authorities were trying to curb the exercise of democratic rights. The petitioner pointed out that there had been violence in many places during the recent panchayat elections. However, none of these places were placed under a Section 144, CrPC order, the Court was told. As such, the petitioner asserted that the Section 144 order under challenge was malicious and only meant to prevent the opposition party from holding its rally. .The bench, in turn, allowed the petition after noting that a State report filed in the Court indicated that the situation in Khejuri, Purbi Medinipur, where the rally was sought to be held, appeared to be normal. "As it appears from the further report filed by the State, there is admittedly some normalcy in the situation. It also does not appear that from the date on which earlier meeting was cancelled till this day there had been any untoward incident in the locality. The circumstances do not appear to be such where a political rally or a meeting cannot be held," the bench found.The bench, therefore, ordered the authorities to permit the petitioners to hold its rally on August 26..Advocates Rajdeep Majumder, Moyukh Mukherjee and Sagnika Mukherjee appeared for the petitioner.Advocates Wasim Ahmed and Sk Md Masud represented the State..[Read Judgment]