The Madras high court on Friday directed the Coimbatore police to grant permission to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed four km roadshow in that city on March 18 with "reasonable conditions" and said the rejection of permission citing the proposed route is communally sensitive, was 'unsustainable.'
Justice N Anand Venkatesh gave the directive on a petition filed by J Ramesh Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party district president, Coimbatore, challenging an order of the assistant commissioner, RS Puram Range, denying permission to the saffron party's event.
Setting aside the order of the assistant commissioner of police, the judge directed the officer to grant the permission and provide necessary police protection, besides imposing reasonable conditions.
Such conditions shall include the route through which the roadshow will take place and the distance to be covered.
The judge said one such condition shall be that no flex boards will be allowed to be erected by the organisers during the event.
The petitioner shall comply with the conditions imposed by the assistant commissioner.
All concerned shall ensure that the the roadshow takes place in a smooth manner without giving rise to any law and order problem or cause any concerns to the safety and security of the Prime Minister, the judge added.
In his order, the judge further said the PM wants to meet the people and sensitise them about the various welfare measures/schemes provided by the office of the Prime Minister.
The roadshow was going to be held for four kilometers and during a short span of time, the PM wanted to meet/interact with as many people as possible and therefore the roadshow has been chosen as a medium to meet the public.
The stand taken by the assistant commissioner as if no permission has ever been granted for a roadshow to anyone, was on the face of it 'baseless'.
On many occasions, permission has been granted for roadshow for political leaders to meet the people. Therefore, this cannot be a ground for rejecting the permission, the judge added.
The judge said the meeting organised for any political leader to interact with the people and more particularly for those who were holding the position of the prime minister or the chief minister, was certainly going to cause some hindrance to the free movement of the general public.
However, that cannot be a ground to deny permission and the police will have to find alternative routes to ensure smooth movement of the general public and vehicles.
Ultimately, these leaders have been chosen by the people and hence, they should not be stopped from meeting those who elected them, the judge added.
The judge said in the instant case, the mode adopted for meeting people was to have a roadshow to ensure PM comes 'interface' with the maximum number of people in Coimbatore within a short time.
Hence, the hindrance to the general public due to his visit was unavoidable and that cannot be raised as a ground to deny permission, the judge added.
The judge said the roadshow was going to take place after 5 pm on some arterial road and therefore, there was no occasion to disturb the students studying for the examination. This reason assigned in the rejection order was unsustainable, the judge added.
The judge said in so far as the sensitivity of the place was concerned, the Prime Minister was provided with Special Protection Group (SPG) cover at all times and they generally take over the security arrangements to ensure that the visit of the Prime Minister goes on in a smooth manner by providing maximum security.
While undertaking this process, the Police belonging to the State will coordinate with the SPG and there was no reason to deny the permission only on the ground that the place was communally sensitive.
"Hence, the rejection of permission on the ground that the place where the roadshow was going to be held was communally sensitive, was also unsustainable," the judge added.
In his petition, Ramesh Kumar submitted he had applied for permission from the police on March 14 to permit him to conduct a road show for a span of four km via Mettupalayam road, Coimbatore for the purpose of enabling people to meet our Prime Minister.
The road show was to sensitize the people of Coimbatore about various PM welfare schemes and urge them to avail all such initiatives through Direct Benefit Transfer without any interference of touts and also promote the habit of saying no to drugs keeping in perspective the recent incidents hazardous drug trafficking in Tamil Nadu, he added.
