The Andhra Pradesh police on Monday granted permission to Telugu Desam Party general secretary Nara Lokesh for his state-wide padayatra, even as the state high court refused to extend the stay on the implementation of government order (GO) restricting public rallies and roadside meetings.
Lokesh has announced to embark on a 4,000-km long padayatra, starting from Kuppam, the native assembly constituency of his father and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, from January 27. It will continue for 400 days and end at Ichapuram in Srikakulam district.
While granting permission, Chittoor superintendent of police Y Rishant Reddy, said Lokesh should strictly follow the restrictions imposed under the latest GO and should not make any provocative comments against the government or anybody. “If he violates any of these conditions, the police will take stringent action as per the law,” the SP said.
Meanwhile, a division bench of the state high court headed by chief justice Prashant Kumar Mishra refused to extend the interim stay on the controversial government order (GO No. 1) on restricting public rallies and roadside meetings.
The hearing into the case, based on a public interest litigation filed by Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary K Ramakrishna, was posted for Tuesday for further hearing.
The GO was issued following the death of 11 people in two separate incidents of stampede during the public meetings of Chandrababu Naidu at Kandukuru in Nellore district and Guntur town on December 28 and January 1 respectively.
Arguing on behalf of the state government, senior advocate Vaidyanathan said the GO was only a prohibitory measure to regulate public meetings and not any ban as was being alleged by the petitioners.
The high court bench found fault with the vacation bench and the petitioners as to what the urgency was in taking up a lunch motion into the case. “Going into the roots of the very proprietary of this case, it didn’t seem to be of such an urgent nature,” an official statement from the government, quoting the chief justice, read.
The chief justice asked whether the petitioner had staged any dharna or protest that they had to file a lunch motion before the vacation bench. “What was the urgency if the order has not endured to the benefit of the petitioner,” the court questioned.
The state argued that the government had issued the decision in clear balance of fundamental rights of the citizens and public interest. It said “no citizen is entitled to claim that he has a vested fundamental right to conduct a meeting on a public road”.
“The state government has not banned any public meetings on public roads. It has only regulated it with guidance on the parameters to be followed. There is no ban on processions and roadshows. The petitioner also has not contended that there is a ban on public processions and road shows,” the state government counsel argued.
It said the Supreme Court had also upheld the state’s power to regulate the subject matter in the interests of public safety and public order. “The state has already appointed a commission of inquiry into the subject matter. We are awaiting its report,” it said.
TDP spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhi said the state government had misled the court saying there was no ban on public rallies and meetings on roads.
“The GO clearly mentions that no permission should be given for meetings and rallies on roads, including state and national highways, which is against the fundamental rights of the people. We are hopeful that the high court CJ bench will look into it and give a favourable judgement,” he said.
