Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 18: The case filed by the State of Andhra Pradesh challenging the High Court order restraining the Govt order restricting public meetings on roadsides will be heard by the Supreme Court tomorrow, the court decided on Wednesday.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud decided to put the matter for urgent listing tomorrow after State’s attorney Advocate Mahfooz Nazki raised it. The bench was informed by attorney Amit Pai, who was representing the respondent under caveat, that the stay will expire on Monday.
The issue at stake is GO No. 1, which the State Government issued to limit public gatherings following two stampedes that claimed 11 lives while N Chandrababu Naidu, the leader of the TDP, was speaking.
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K Ramakrishna, the state secretary of the CPI, had challenged GO 1 in the High Court, arguing that it amounted to a ‘blanket ban’ on public gatherings, infringing on peoples’ freedom of expression.
The High Court’s Division Bench, which was made up of Justices Battu Devanand and V.R.K. Krupa Sagar, halted the G.O.’s implementation until January 23. The State appealed the High Court’s decision to the Supreme Court in a Special Leave Petition, arguing that regulatory action was required to prevent deaths from stampede-like incidents. The State argued that the GO simply instructed the police to be cautious about issuing authorization for public gatherings on public roads and road edges, unless there are specific exceptions, and denied that there was a blanket ban.
