Supreme Court Allows RSS Route Marches In Tamil Nadu

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta on Monday (6 November), allowed route marches by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Tamil Nadu.

It asked the state government to allow the marches either on 19 November or 26 November and gave it the liberty to decide the route of the march. The RSS was asked to follow the conditions stipulated by the Madras High Court.

The Tamil Nadu government had filed special leave petitions against orders of the High Court allowing the route marches.

According to a report by The Hindu, the RSS was asked to submit the proposed route by 9 November and the state government has been asked to notify the route by 15 November.

The state government was represented by Additional Advocate General Amit Anand Tiwari and Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi.

Sibal contended that the routes proposed by the RSS were to pass near several mosques and that the government did not want any clashes in the state.

Rohatgi said that the RSS wanted to have three rallies in each district. He asked the Court to restrict it to one rally per district.

However, Justice Datta said that restricting it to one rally per district would be "too much indulgence" and he did not see any issue as the organisation had already undertaken to follow the conditions mentioned by the High Court and the route approved by the state government, reported LiveLaw.

Earlier, on 1 November, Justice G Jayachandran of the Madras High Court had summoned the Home Secretary, Director General of Police (DGP) and other officials on a contempt petition filed by the RSS.

Sibal requested the Court to suspend the contempt proceedings in the High Court. The Court refused to do and asked them to produce its latest order and apprise the judge of the situation, stated the report.