Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has observed that the Right to Protest given under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution does not give authority to the public to cause any difficulty to the public at large.

A division bench of Justices Augustine George Masih and Justice Vikram Aggarwal directs Haryana Police to remove blockades put up on roads as part of the protests against the BJP-JJP government by Sarpanches in Haryana.

The Court also ordered the Police authorities to clear the road connecting Panchkula and Chandigarh, where the Sarpanches had been staging a protest by blocking the entire road since March 2, resulting in inconvenience to citizens, especially those commuting between the two cities for work purposes.

"Protest by the unions or associations or people is permitted but at the places which have been earmarked for the same. This does not give them a licence to put the general public inconvenience and cause not only difficult for the people at large but virtually harassing them in a way leading to putting pressure and forcing the Government to accept their demands," the Court observed in the March 4 order.

The bench mentioned that every citizen has a right to communicate from one place to another to perform their duties, whether it be as students, as doctors going to hospitals or clinics, or as teachers going to schools.

A PIL petition was filed by the doctor in which she mentioned that due to the ongoing protests, she was unable to reach the hospital on time. The petition further mentioned that the roadblock amounted to virtually harassing citizens as it was causing traffic jams not only on the main road but even on ancillary roads.

Soon after the High Court's order on Saturday, the police had resorted to lathi charge to clear the road blocked by the protesting Sarpanches. However, after a while, the protesters returned to the site.

Case Tittle - Neetu Bajaj vs State of Haryana