Don’t always attribute riots to religious processions, the Supreme Court advises

According to Live Law, the Supreme Court said on Friday that religious processions shouldn’t always be blamed for rioting.

The remark was made by a bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narsimha in response to a petition that asked for instructions to control such processions and give a standard operating procedure for organising them.

Why do we feel the need to portray religious holidays as riotous times? Chnadrachud asked a query. ‘Let’s examine the positive things that occur in the nation. Thousands of people converge in Maharashtra for Ganesh Puja, but there are no riots.’

Assuring law and order at religious processions is a state responsibility, the judges further found that the petition’s requests for directives are not judicially controllable.

‘ The problems varies from Kashmir to Kanyakumari…’ The judges questioned, ‘How can this court keep an eye on this?’

For the petitioner, Senior Advocate CU Singh made the case that only the Supreme Court could take action to stop violence at religious meetings.

According to Live Law, he claimed that ‘people are holding processions today flashing weapons, swords, and firearms’ and claimed that the authorities do not heed warnings made by the Union home ministry.

The judges emphasised that the court could not be involved in every law and order issue, though.