Tamil Nadu Police Grant Permission For Holding RSS Route March On April 16

Tamil Nadu government earlier denied permission for conducting RSS route marches in the state on October 2. 

The Tamil Nadu police granted permission to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to conduct a route march on April 16 in the state. The permission comes after Supreme Court dismissed Tamil Nadu government's appeal on Tuesday against the Madras High Court order allowing the route march in the state. 

According to IANS, RSS will be conducting marches in 45 places across Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu government earlier denied permission to RSS for conducting route marches on October 2 in the state. 

However, Madras HC on February 10 permitted RSS to hold a route march. The court also stated that "protests are essential for a healthy democracy".

Recently, the Supreme Court while allowing the RSS to conduct a route march across Tamil Nadu had noted that the law and order cases cited by the Tamil Nadu government showed that in many instances, RSS members were the victims, instead of perpetrators.

"The chart provided by the state government shows that the members of the respondent organisation (RSS) were the victims in many of those cases and that they were not the perpetrators. Therefore, it is not possible for us to find fault with the order passed by the learned judge either in the main writ petitions or in the review applications. Hence all the special leave petitions are liable to be dismissed," said the SC bench.

Meanwhile, the police have been denying permission by stating that the situation in the state was not conducive to carry out the march after the NIA raids at the premises of Islamist organisation, the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the arrest of a few of the activists of that organisation.

(With IANS inputs)