SC to hear Andhra Pradesh’s plea against HC stay order on roadside public meetings

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider Andhra Pradhesh Government’s plea challenging HCs interim stay on its Government Order (GO) that restricted public meetings on roadsides, on January 20. 

Andhra Pradhesh’s plea was mentioned by Advocate Mahfooz Nazki before a bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha. 

The GO was passed by the state on January 2, 2023 by which it refrained AP Police Department from granting permissions for such public meetings unless adequate and exceptional reasons were provided by the person seeking permission to conduct such a meeting. 

Contending that HCs interim stay dated January 12, 2023 was procedurally improper and erroneous on merits, the plea said, “The Impugned GO is of a regulatory nature and is thus clearly an administrative and policy matter. Thus, any order passed by a vacation bench regarding the Impugned GO, let alone staying its operation, is without jurisdiction since it is passed by coram non judice.” 

The plea further states that Impugned GO is merely a set of clarificatory guidelines regarding exercise of power by the police under Section 30 of the Police Act.

“It does not ban public assembly, either directly or indirectly. Instead, it merely reasonably regulates it. The recent instances of both fatalities and public inconvenience indicate that public safety and interest mandate that such meetings be avoided, unless in exceptional circumstances, and the Impugned GO merely advises the police to ideally act accordingly,” plea also stated. 

Seeking vacation of HC's order, AP further stated that if the stay on the Impugned GO is allowed to continue, there will be more fatalities at these unchecked and unregulated political rallies and it is the duty of the state to take measures to ameliorate these losses.