EC defends integrity of EVMs in SC, asserts it can’t be manipulated
The Election Commission of India (ECI) defended the integrity of the electronic voting system, asserting that it was not prone to any external interference or manipulations.
The Supreme Court in a ruling on Wednesday said that protesters cannot occupy public places indefinitely, with reference to Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh where hundreds of anti-citizenship law protesters had taken up places for more than three months.
The hugely popular and controversial protest was held to campaign against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The CAA was cleared by the parliament last year.
Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh had emerged as the epicentre of anti-CAA protests late last year where the protesters, mostly women and children, sat for more than three months.
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“Dissent and democracy go hand in hand,” the SC observed, stressing that “protests like these are not acceptable”.
“We have to make it clear that public places cannot be occupied indefinitely whether in Shaheen Bagh (in Delhi) or elsewhere. These sort of protests (like Shaheen Bagh) are not acceptable and (the) authorities should act… they must keep such spaces free from obstruction,” the apex court said adding the “administration cannot wait for orders from court to clear” the protest sites.
“We appreciate the right to peacefully protest and it can be (held) at designated places only,” the court stressed.
The judgment was delivered by a three-judge bench of Justices SK Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari on a batch of petitions that called for a decision if there can be “an indefinite period of protests in a common area (that) creates inconvenience for others”.
The bench had reserved its verdict on September 21 after observing that the right to protest has to be balanced with the right of the people to use a public road. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that though Right to Protest is a fundamental right, it is subject to reasonable restrictions.
“We have to balance the right to protest and blocking of roads. In a parliamentary democracy, protests can happen in parliament and on roads. But on roads, it has to be peaceful,” the bench had said at the time.
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