The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court recently quashed a First Information Report (FIR) against a lawyer who had staged an agitation in front of the agriculture minister’s convoy, noting that every citizen has a right to protest, although not unfettered.
On March 22, 2023, Minister for Agriculture Abdul Sattar was on his way from Amalner to Erandol, when advocate Sharad Mali and 12 other persons stopped his convoy and threw cotton and empty curtains, raised slogans, thereby creating chaos. They shouted the slogan “Pannas Khoke, Ekdum Okay” (Fifty Crores, everything is okay).
The slogan was coined by Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray faction after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and 40 MLAs of the undivided Shiv Sena rebelled and formed a coalition government with the BJP and NCP (Ajit Pawar).
The police had booked Mali and others under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Maharashtra Police Act, including for unlawful assembly charge against the protestors.
The court noted that the protestors have a right to agitate when there are expectations from the government, however, the same right is not unfettered. “The important point to be noted is that, every citizen has a right to agitate. Of course, this right is not the unfettered right but some times, when there are expectations from the Government, then, obvious reactions would be there,” a bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Santosh Chapalgaonkar said on October 16.
When it is said that cotton was thrown it is stated that Mali, along with other farmers, was agitating in respect of price offered. “There could not have been then an intention or common object,” the court noted.
After the protesters stopped the convoy, the minister spoke to their representatives. “The Honourable Minister had heard the representatives of the persons agitating there and therefore, it could not be said that there was any wrongful restraint,” the bench underlined.
The judges noted that the police had issued prohibitory orders to maintain peace in the area. “Though prohibitory orders were issued to maintain public peace, but every agitation can not be taken as disturbing the public peace,” the bench added while quashing the FIR against Mali.
