RSS route march case | Supreme Court exempts appearance of Home Secretary, DGP before Madras High Court
The Hindu
Supreme Court exempts TN Home Secy, DGP/HoPF from HC contempt proceedings in RSS route march case.
The Supreme Court has exempted Tamil Nadu Home Secretary P. Amudha and Director General of Police/Head of Police Force Shankar Jiwal and other officials from appearing in person before the Madras High Court in contempt of court proceedings, related to an RSS route march case.
In an affidavit filed before Justice G. Jayachandran who had issued statutory notices requiring the presence of the officials on the contempt plea, the DGP/HoPF said, the judge had passed an order on October 16, 2023, directing the police to grant permission for the route marches.
However, the order copy was made available to the police department only on October 18, 2023 and it filed an appeal before the Supreme Court on October 19, 2023. The appeal was numbered on October 20, 2023 and listed for hearing before the apex court on November 3, 2023.
On November 6, the Supreme Court directed the police to grant permission for the route marches. The order was complied with and the marches were conducted across the State on November 19. The development was also reported to the apex court on November 20, 2023.
In the meantime, some of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) office-bearers filed a contempt of court petition against the Home Secretary, DGP/HoPF and other police officials before the High Court and it ordered statutory notices to those officers on October 30, 2023.
On being informed about the contempt proceedings, the Supreme Court on November 20, 2023 granted liberty to the officials to apprise the High Court about them having availed of their legal remedy of an filing appeal immediately after the receipt of the order on October 19, 2023.
Further, to find a permanent solution to the granting of permission for RSS route marches in the future, the apex court directed the State police to submit a proposal before the High Court listing out the conditions under which they would permit the marches from next year onwards.