Unlawful assembly itself does not constitute offence: Madras HC

Chennai: Madras high court has asserted that unlawful assembly by itself would not amount to commission of offence. The court made the observation while quashing criminal cases registered against 15 RSS members for celebrating the organisation’s 100th anniversary without prior permission.

“In this case, there is no material to show that there was any promulgation of prohibitory orders which was communicated to the public and there was any disobedience by the petitioners. Further, in consequence to the unlawful assembly, the prosecution failed to show whether any trouble occurred,” Justice M Nirmal Kumar said on Wednesday.

Pointing out the judgement of high court in Jeevanandham case delivered in 2018, the court said, the apex court had clearly held that the right to protest be safeguarded and not to be termed as criminal offence.

The petitioners unlawfully assembled together to celebrate Vijayadasami festival and 100th year anniversary of their association formation. Admittedly, in this case, the occurrence took place in a public place, in public view, surprisingly no public or independent witness examined by the prosecution, which causes serious doubt on the veracity of the complaint. The witnesses cited by the prosecution are only passersby, the judge said.

“The Ambur Town police failed to follow the guidelines issued by this court in the Jeevanandham case. In several cases of this type, this court quashed the investigation against the accused on similar ground. In these circumstances, the continuation of trial in the case is wholly unsustainable and constitutes a clear abuse of the process of law, warranting interference of this court,” the judge said.