Mumbai, Jan 20: Recalling the Maratha reservation agitation held at Azad Maidan last year, the Bombay High Court on Monday rebuked protestors for overstaying, littering public spaces and “ruining” the city of Mumbai, while cautioning against granting permissions for agitations that eventually spiral out of control.
Court flags overstaying by protestors
A bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Abhay Mantri said the court was well aware that protestors often seek permission for a single day but then refuse to vacate the site.
“We remember the protests held last year by the Maratha community. One day… even they had sought permission, but they did not leave for six days,” the bench observed.
“They overstayed and ruined the city of Mumbai,” the court said.
Failure to clean Azad Maidan noted
The bench noted that despite clear directions to clean the areas occupied by them before vacating Azad Maidan, the protestors had left without doing so. “We had specifically asked them to clean the area. But they ran away without cleaning and the civic body had to clean up the mess,” Justice Ghuge remarked.
Plea for Dhangar reservation protest
The observations were made when an advocate mentioned a petition seeking permission to hold a one-day peaceful agitation at Azad Maidan on January 21 in support of reservation for the Dhangar community. The plea was moved after the Mumbai Police refused to grant permission.
While refusing to grant an urgent hearing, the court said that the proposed protest could be held on any other day and posted the petition for hearing on January 28.
The petition was filed by Deepak Borhade.
Background of last year’s agitation
Activist Manoj Jarange had launched a hunger strike at Azad Maidan on August 29 last year, demanding reservation for the Maratha community, drawing thousands of supporters to south Mumbai and bringing large parts of the city to a standstill.
Pursuant to the High Court’s intervention, Jarange called off the agitation on September 3 after a resolution was arrived at between the protestors and the Maharashtra government.
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The protest ended after the state issued a government resolution to constitute a committee to issue Kunbi caste certificates to eligible Maratha community members with documentary evidence of Kunbi ancestry, a caste recognised as an Other Backward Class (OBC) in Maharashtra.
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