The Madras High Court on Thursday (October 25, 2026) pulled up the Tamil Nadu Police for refusing to allow a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) march to pass through a route with a mosque and an Eidgah. A Single Bench of Justice V. Lakshminarayanan made strong remarks against the state police for denying permission for the march during the hearing of a plea filed by the State Secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), North Tamil Nadu, against the decision.
Marches cannot be denied for “lame” reasons
Justice V. Lakshminarayanan cited the High Court’s guidelines on route marches and said peaceful marches cannot be denied permission for “lame” reasons such as the presence of mosques and churches, the possibility of traffic congestion, or the presence of an organisation with a different ideology. The High Court reprimanded the state police for not complying with the guidelines, which were issued so that the court’s time is not wasted on deciding litigation arising from such matters.
“Before framing guidelines, the judge had concluded that the reasons that there are mosques and churches, possibility of traffic congestion, presence of organisations with different ideologies, should not be taken as a reason for rejection. In fact, he had termed these reasons as lame. It was the fervent hope of the Supreme Court and this court that after the guidelines, such unnecessary and frivolous litigation would be avoided. Alas, it was not to be,” the High Court sternly remarked.
“The reasons which this court had found lame had been yet again given by the police…The purpose for which the guidelines have been framed has been breached by the petitioner and the State. It was expected that the parties would cooperate. This faith has been entirely misplaced. This matter has been heard at length and time has been spent on a litigation that should not have arisen at all,” the court added.
Citizens can’t surrender their rights to the “whims” of the police
Furthermore, the High Court asserted that citizens cannot be made to surrender their rights to the “whims and fancies of the police”. “The problem is you (State) are surrendering everything to the police. Citizens’ rights cannot be surrendered to the whims and fancies of the police…God forbid I surrender the rights of the citizens to the Director General of Police,” the court remarked.
During the hearing of the petition yesterday, the High Court had questioned the Tamil Nadu police for denying permission for a route march in the state while the organisation was permitted to hold marches even in Jammu and Kashmir, which is a terrorist infested area. The court had told the RSS counsel and the State Public Prosecutor John Sathyan to find a solution, but it could not happen.
The High Court issued directions to the petitioner and the Advocate General. It sought from the petitioner details of the person in charge, and details of participants, etc in the form of an affidavit, along with an undertaking to the effect that the organisation would abide by the conditions given by the court. The court directed the Advocate General to get instructions from the Director General of Police with respect to granting permission upon filing of such affidavit.
The High Court’s previous stance on religious exclusivism
This is not the first time that such an issue relating to passing of processions or marches through some specific areas has come up before the court. In 2021, a similar matter came up before the court where the Muslim community in V. Kalathur village, Veppanthattai Taluk, Perambalur District opposed Hindu religious celebrations and processions. As a result of the opposition from the Muslim minority, the local administration had imposed certain conditions on Hindu religious festivities not to offend the Muslims’ sentiments.
A Division Bench of Justices N Kirubakarn and P Velmurugan upheld the Hindu community’s right to take out religious processions and stated that a religious procession passing through a public street cannot be prohibited merely for the reason that another community living in the area is opposing it.
The High Court noted that the villages had several Hindu temples, which had existed there for decades. It also pointed out that the Hindu religious processions had been passing through the streets of the villages as part of an old custom and that the local Muslims started opposing them since 2012.
“The temples have been there for decades together. Merely because a religious group got settled in a locality and has become vociferous, they cannot object to the custom of taking the temple’s procession through all the streets in the village, and consequent upon their objections, the customary and traditional practices cannot be prevented or prohibited,” the High Court stated.
The High Court made it clear that the presence of a place of worship cannot be a reason to prohibit other religious groups from exercising their religious rights. “The presence of religious structures/places of worship cannot take away the right of other religious groups who have been enjoying all the rights, including the conduct of religious processions for the past many years,” the High Court noted in its judgment.
The court cautioned that if the unfair resistance displayed by one community towards the religious celebrations of the other community is reciprocated, there would be “chaos, riots, religious fights causing loss of lives and destruction of properties” and the secular fabric of the country would be destroyed.
