Public meetings on road: Those who were on stage should also face consequences, says High Court

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has toughened its stance on the incidents in which traffic was disrupted by erecting stages in the middle of the roads for public meetings of political parties. The court said that both organisers of such programmes, as well as those who were on the stage, should have to face the consequences.

In the Vanchiyoor CPM area conference case, the police submitted a report containing the details of those present at the venue without naming them as accused. The police also informed the court that FIRs were registered against leaders of Congress and Joint Council in similar incidents. The court issued the warning against this backdrop.

Police have filed an FIR against 150 identifiable individuals in the Vanchiyoor case. In the report submitted to the court by SHO Shanif, a list of those present at the venue was included. This list mentioned CPM State Secretary MV Govindan, District Secretary V Joy, and others. However, only decoration workers have been arrested so far.

In the Congress-led protest in Kochi demanding the resignation of the Mayor, Central Police have named 20 leaders, including DCC President Mohammed Shiyas and MLA TJ Vinod, as prime accused.

Similarly, in the overnight protest organized by the Joint Council in front of the Secretariat, the Cantonment Police registered an FIR naming 10 officials, including organization leaders KP Gopakumar and Jayachandran Kallingal, as accused.

The court considered contempt petitions filed against all three of these protests. The Division Bench comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice S Muraleedharan observed that the matter would become more serious if roads were dug to erect stages.

The DGP explained that no permission had been granted for these activities and that cases were registered as soon as the violations came to notice. The petition seeking contempt proceedings was filed by Maradu resident N Prakash. The court will consider the case again tomorrow.