The Supreme Court on Monday said that there can be no blanket ban on protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, Boat Club. It asked the Centre to frame guidelines to grant the necessary permission to hold such events.This decision was given by the bench of Justice AK Sikri and justice Ashok Bhushan who said there was a need to strike a balance between conflicting rights such as the right to protest and right of citizens to live peacefully.
This decision was a reaction to a bunch of petitions, including the one filed by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghtan, challenging the decision of the National Green Tribunal that banned all kinds of protests at these places.
The tribunal had banned all protests around the historic Jantar Mantar area in October last year, saying such activities violate environmental laws. Reasoning behind the decision of the NGT was the duty of the state to protect people from noise pollution and thus NGT had ordered the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to remove all make-shift structures along the stretch.
The main reason behind this decision of the Supreme Court was that in a democracy people are free to protest, it is a fundamental right so there cannot be a absolute restriction on it, but reasonable restrictions in form of guidelines may be imposed.