Chennai: The Madras high court has dismissed the contempt petitions filed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which sought to punish the state home secretary, DGP and city police commissioner for willful disobedience of the order of the court, which directed them to permit members of the RSS to take out processions on November 9.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian dismissed a batch of contempt petitions from Durai Sankar and six other local office-bearers of the RSS of Chennai, Mannargudi, Thoothukudi, Karur, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari.
“A clear and doubtless case of contempt of court is not made out. At the most what has been made out is an act of bad taste and bad faith on the part of the authorities. Hence, the contempt petitions are dismissed,” said Justice Ramasubramanian.
The judge had, on November 7, directed police to grant permission to the members of RSS to take out processions on November 9 and hold public meetings. However, when RSS members tried to do so, the police first arrested and later released them. The police said the RSS uniform - khaki shorts and white shirts looked similar to that of police personnel and, hence, they were prevented from taking out processions.
This led to the filing of the present contempt petitions.
Petitioners’ counsel B. Rabu Manohar contended that once the objection relating to the uniform had been overruled by the court, the police could not have incorporated a condition which directly went against the tenor of the court’s order. The judge said unfortunately for the petitioners, and fortunately for the police, the observations made by him relating to the uniform worn by RSS volunteers was not incorporated in the operative portion of the order.
Hence, he could not entertain the contempt petitions for the simple reason that the correctness of the order was in question before a division bench.
