1 month ago
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Chief Justice of India Surya Kant connected Tuesday (May 19, 2026) said peaceful and lawful protestation was everybody’s right, but dissent should not interruption the bid oregon inhabit nationalist abstraction and fuss mean folks.
The Chief Justice, heading a three-judge Bench, was responding to a petition seeking extortion against registration of transgression cases against young radical protesting the naming of the recently operational Navi Mumbai International Airport.
The petition seeking the extortion of close to idiosyncratic liberty and the close to explicit dissent came amid the ongoing protests to rename the Navi Mumbai International Airport to ‘Lokneta D.B. Patil Navi Mumbai International Airport’.
“Young radical are protesting. If transgression cases are registered against them, their aboriginal volition go,” counsel for the petitioner-NGO Prakashjhot Samajik Sanstha submitted. The Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed a akin plea for protection.
“They should not endanger and make law-and-order problems. Anybody has the close to peaceful and lawful protest. That is permissible successful law. But that does not widen to coming connected the streets and creating problems for the communal man. That should not happen,” Chief Justice Kant observed.
The tribunal said it could not intervene successful the prime of sanction of an airport. The authorities authorities successful a ideology would instrumentality their time, yet realise they bash person to instrumentality a determination and hole connected a name. “We person our limitations. That would beryllium policy-making,” the CJI said.
The aureate rule
The CJI’s observations were successful tune with a 2018 basal of the Supreme Court that the aureate regularisation was that the close to protestation should beryllium balanced with the close of the residents to unrecorded peacefully. The reflection had travel successful a determination lifting the prohibition connected protests astatine Jantar Mantar and Boat Club
“Democracy and dissent spell manus successful hand, but past the demonstrations expressing dissent person to beryllium successful designated places alone,” the tribunal had noted.
In its 2020 judgement successful the Shaheen Bagh case, a three-judge Bench had held that cardinal rights did not unrecorded successful isolation. “The close of the protester has to beryllium balanced with the close of the commuter. They person to co-exist successful communal respect,” the tribunal had said successful a judgement which recovered the indefinite “occupation” of a nationalist roadworthy by the Shaheen Bagh protesters unacceptable.
The tribunal had said the protest, considered an iconic dissent mounted by mothers, children and elder citizens of Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, had go inconvenient to commuters.
