Press Release,18 May 2019,New Delhi:The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has set aside the police order that rejected permission to hold Unity March (volunteer parade) on Feb 17, 2019 Popular Front Day.
Popular Front of India has been celebrating its foundation day on 17th February since many years. The Unity March with the volunteers parade would be the highlight of the celebration in the three southern states. “Defeat Politics of Hate” was the theme of the Unity March 2019.
Despite the governments of Kerala and Karnataka allowing the programmes, the Tamil Nadu Police denied the permission at the last moment. A Writ Petition was filed before the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court by J. Mohamed Ali, the district president of Popular Front of India to quash the impugned order (rejection) as illegal and consequently to permit the organization to conduct the procession of Route March (Unity March) and public meeting.
Senior Advocate T. Lajapathy and advocates N.M. Shajahan, S.A.S. Alaudeen and M.M. Abbas appeared for the petitioner.
The Hon’ble Madras High Court said “This court does not find merit in the submission of the Government Advocate appearing for the respondents.”
In a free country such as ours, it is important that free speech is protected though with reasonable regulations. Necessarily, the respondent has to be granted permission. This follows that the impugned (rejection) order should be quashed, the order stated.
While welcoming the order of the high court General Secretary of the Popular Front of India M Mohammed Ali Jinnah said: “The freedoms of association, speech and expression, guaranteed by the Constitution of India to its citizens have been upheld by the Hon’ble Madras High Court. It is a heavy blow on the face of state police that frequently tries to block programmes of minority organisations under compulsion from their political masters.”
