Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Guidelines To Curb Violence During Religious Processions

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed as withdrawn a plea seeking all-India guidelines to curb clashes/violence during religious processions.

The petitioner decided to withdraw the plea after a Bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Aravind Kumar expressed disinclination to entertain the matter. 

“Let us not make this such a big issue. We cannot get into legislation. You can withdraw", the bench orally told the petitioner.

The petitioner Advocate Vishal Tiwari, appearing as party-in-person brought to notice the unfortunate trend of violence during religious processions happening, year after year. 

The PIL petition was filed by referring to the violence which erupted during the religious processions held during the recent Ram Navami celebrations.

Despite the occurrence of similar incidents every year, Respondent authorities have never taken any action and the law enforcement isn’t “strict” enough, the plea claimed.

“The present situation prevailing at various places of the country due to the political and communal tensions orchestrated by unregulated powers of the society with no action from the government pertaining to prevention of such incident. Ram Navami celebrations in India like the last year saw the similar fate witnessed similar repercussions and violence all over the country this year, the festival was marked by violence across several states.”, the plea said.

In December 2022, a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud had refused to entertain a similar petition filed by the NGO 'Citizens for Justice and Peace' seeking guidelines to regulate religious processions. CJP had filed the petition referring to the instances of violence during the Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions held during April 2022.

Case Title: Vishal Tiwari v. UoI And Ors. WP(C) No. 492/2023 PIL

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