RSS gets permission to hold march in TN on April 16

Chennai: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been given the permission by the Tamil Nadu Police to conduct its route march on April 16 in the state.

This is following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of Tamil Nadu government’s appeal on Tuesday against a Madras High Court order allowing RSS to conduct the march. The Madras High Court had on February 10 permitted the RSS to hold the march stating that “protests are essential for a healthy democracy”.

The RSS will be conducting the marches in 45 places in the state.

It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu Police had rejected permission to the RSS to conduct a route march followed by a public programme on October 2 in the state.

The police had then stated that the situation in the state was not conducive to carry out the march after the NIA raids at the premises of Islamist organisation, the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the arrest of a few of the activists of that organisation.

The Supreme Court while allowing the RSS to conduct a route march across Tamil Nadu had noted that the law and order cases cited by the Tamil Nadu government showed that in many instances, RSS members were the victims, instead of perpetrators.

“The chart provided by the state government shows that the members of the respondent organisation (RSS) were the victims in many of those cases and that they were not the perpetrators. Therefore, it is not possible for us to find fault with the order passed by the learned judge either in the main writ petitions or in the review applications. Hence all the special leave petitions are liable to be dismissed,” said the SC bench.
IANS