KOCHI: The High Court has announced that it will take suo motu action to regulate public events that disrupt traffic on roads, citing the government's inability to control such occurrences.
The Division Bench directed the High Court Registrar to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the organizers of the 'Jwala Vanitha Junction' program held in Balaramapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, on January 3. The event caused significant traffic disruptions by blocking roads. The court further warned that similar incidents in the future would also face suo motu contempt proceedings.
Highlighting the blatant public violations of law under the government's watch, the court stressed that the administration, entrusted with ensuring public safety, had failed in its duty. It vowed to closely monitor such incidents and take stringent action.
In the Balaramapuram case, the court has made the State Police Chief, Chief Secretary, Secretaries of the Home and Local Self-Government Departments, Transport Commissioner, and Village Panchayat Secretary parties to the proceedings. The bench, comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice S Murali Krishna, also issued a directive to produce video evidence of the event.
The court noted that local self-government secretaries have the authority to remove obstructions without prior notice. It emphasized that its intervention was necessitated by the government’s failure to enforce the law effectively. The case has been adjourned to Thursday.
The issue came to the court’s attention through a supplementary petition filed by N Prakash, while the court was already hearing his plea related to the road blockade in Vanchiyoor during a CPM area conference.