Vizhinjam Protests: High Court Directs Kerala Police To Ensure Law & Order At Adani Port's Construction Site

The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the State Police to ensure that the law and order situation is maintained at the Vizhinjam International Seaport construction site.

The direction was made while adjourning till Monday the petitions filed by M/S Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd and its contracting company Howe Engineering Projects, seeking protection for their employees and property from those protesting against the project.

Justice Anu Sivaraman issued notices to the Respondents and observed that no private person should take the legal machinery into their hands. Thereby, the bench ordered that the concerned Station House Officer as well as the Commissioner of Police to see that law and order is maintained. 

The Petitioners have approached the High Court in light of ongoing protests by local fishermen under the leadership of Catholic Archdiocese of Trivandrum, seeking relief of free ingress and egress to the port site, apart from police protection for their life and property.

It is the Petitioners' averment that while the project (sanctioned in 2015) was finally nearing its completion, from August 16 onwards hundreds of people under the leadership of Catholic Archdiocese of Trivandrum (Respondents 11 to 25) and Latin Arch Diocese of Thiruvananthapuram started agitation in front of the project site which turned in to a day and night affair by blocking access to the port entry which resulted in stalling the following major ongoing works in the port.

When the matter was taken up today, the counsel for the petitioners argued that the Project was a prestigious one and had all the requisite clearances, and there was no requirement for the same to be stalled.

On 19.08.2022, the agitators allegedly breached the barricades installed by the Police and hundreds of them entered the project site which is a High Security Zone. Although the Petitioners had sought police protection, no effective protection was granted and Police has remained a "mute spectator", it is alleged.

It was in this light that the Court directed the Police to ensure the law and order situation and posted the matter for further consideration on Monday, August 29.

Case Title: M/S Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd & 2 Ors v. State of Kerala & 27 Ors. and Howe Engineering Projects (I) Pvt. Ltd. & 3 Ors. v. State of Kerala & 27 Ors.