The Bombay High Court while granting permission to a few people to sit on an indefinite protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Beed district. It states peaceful protests against a particular law cannot be termed as traitors or anti-nationals.
The Aurangabad bench of High Court on Thursday noted that the petitioner and his companions only want to hold a peaceful agitation to show their protest.
A division bench of Justices TV Nalavade and MG Sewlikar heard a petition filed by one Iftekhar Shaikh challenging a January 31, 2020 order passed by a magistrate and a January 21, 2020 order of the police refusing protestors permission to sit on an indefinite protest at Old Idgah Maidan in Majalgaon in Beed district against the CAA.
“This court while hearing the petition say such persons cannot be called by the name of traitors, anti-nationals only because they want to oppose one law. It will be an act of protest and only against the government for the reason of CAA,” the court said in its order.
The bench noted the orders passed by the magistrate and police were only because the petitioner and his companions wanted to agitate against CAA.
It said, presently, such agitations were going on everywhere and there was no whisper of agitations of a different kind can be found in this region.
The bench stated in its order, “We must keep in mind we are a democratic republic country and our Constitution has given us rule of law and not the rule of the majority. When such act (CAA) is made, some people may be of a particular religion like Muslims may feel that it is against their interest and such an act needs to be opposed.”
A report in Live Law also states, “It is the dissent of people against the act made by the Government and the bureaucracy needs to be sensitive when it exercises powers given by law. Unfortunately, many laws which ought to have been scrapped after getting freedom are continued and the bureaucracy is exercising the powers given under those laws and now against the citizens of free India.”
