Ban on road shows not necessary

A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice A.R. Dave and Justice R. Subhash Reddy on Tuesday made it clear that its earlier interim orders prohibiting road shows were not necessary as the Director General of Police’s guidelines were now in place.

This means relief to political parties from the ban orders on road shows imposed by the court subject to the police norms. The Bench also observed that the political parties were free to challenge the validity of these guidelines. The court was hearing various miscellaneous petitions seeking ban on road shows and petitions filed by the political parties seeking the vacation of the interim orders.

The Bench heard the counsel in detail on Monday afternoon and delivered the orders on Tuesday.

In a brief four-page order, the Bench dealt at length the need for protection of citizens and balancing it with political activity. The Bench reminded that the freedom of a citizen comes to an end when it interferes with the rights of other citizens. The public streets, which are to be maintained by the State, are to be used by all the citizens and care should be taken not to cause undue hardship to the citizens.

The Bench felt that the guidelines issued by the DGP covered the field now. It may be recalled that a voluntary organisation, Abhipray, filed a writ petition seeking a direction to the authorities not to allow the road shows by the political parties in the State.

The Bench through an interim order on November 25, restrained nine political parties from conducting the road shows. The parties which were arrayed as respondents were Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, CPI, CPI (M), Majlis, Nava Telangana Party and Praja Rajyam.