Supreme Court: In a petition filed by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah against the order passed by Karnataka High Court, wherein the Court refused to quash the criminal proceedings and imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 for a protest march organised on 14-02-2022 in Bengaluru, the division bench of Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra, JJ. has stayed the criminal proceedings against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others for a protest march.
Siddaramaiah submitted that, in a democracy, the right of freedom of speech and protest is paramount.
In 2022, the Congress had organised a protest over the suicide case of a contractor Santhosh Patil and had demanded the resignation of the former deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa. Due to the protest Bengaluru’s Racecourse Road saw a traffic jam of several kilometres, causing inconvenience to the public. Thereafter, the Karnataka police filed an FIR against the Congress leaders for blocking roads causing traffic jams and affecting the law-and-order system. The Karnataka High Court had observed that blocking the road because one is a representative of the people cannot be accepted.
Source: Press
Image Source: @siddaramaiah / Twitter.com
