Holding protest to voice dissent a fundamental right: Delhi court

NEW DELHI: A protest for voicing a dissenting opinion "is not only the hallmark of democracy but also a fundamental right" guaranteed under the Constitution, a Delhi court on Thursday said.

The observation was made by additional chief judicial magistrate Neha Mittal while discharging 10 TMC functionaries, including MPs Derek O'Brien, Sagarika Ghose and Saket Gokhale, in a case registered against them for their protest in April last year outside the ECI, despite prohibitory orders being in place under section 144 of CrPC.

The ACJM said the question was whether the accused persons violated the prohibitory orders, which was a reasonable restriction on the said fundamental rights. There was nothing on record to show that the accused persons knew of the order issued by the ACP concerned, the court said.

'None of videos of stir show any obstruction was done by accused'
The Delhi court order was pronounced on Thursday, but a copy was made available on Friday. The other TMC members named in the matter were Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Vivek Gupta, Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Sudip Raha.

The court said the prosecution could not establish that the gathering of the accused persons was an unlawful assembly, nor could it prove they were commanded to disperse because of prohibitory orders being promulgated. The police complaint, based on which the FIR was registered, did not state that any obstruction, annoyance, injury or danger to human life, health or safety was likely to take place because of the acts of the accused.

"None of the videos of the protest show that any obstruction was indeed caused because of the acts of the accused persons," the court said, adding there was no disruption to traffic, nor the entry to the ECI building was blocked.