NEW DELHI, November 12: The Supreme Court today upheld a Kerala High Court order declaring bandh as illegal but partially allowed the appeal by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on the limited question of whether the High Court was right in holding that a six-day notice was required for any political party, trade union or organisation for taking out processions and whether this should be substituted by ``notice of a reasonable period.''

On July 28, the Kerala High Court had struck down holding of processions and bandhs since it infringed upon the fundamental rights of citizens. The State Government, the CPM and other political parties who were respondents in the case, had opposed the petition by Ernakulam Chamber of Commerce and others contending that it was their fundamental right to call for bandhs as a mark of protest.

``We do not find any error in the reasoning of the High Court,'' a three-judge bench comprising the Chief Justice J S Verma, Justice B N Kirpal and Justice V N Khare said in its order. The Special Leave Petition (SLP) of CPM argued that calling for a bandh did not involve holding out of any threat to the citizens not to carry on their activities. In the High Court judgment, the judges had said that they were inclined to believe that the concept of bandh as one where people were not allowed to attend their work or travel or carry on trade with a threat, explicit or implied, that may attempt to go against the call for bandh would result in danger to oneself or to one's property.

Yet another contention of the CPM in its SLP was that calling for bandhs or protests was a fundamental right of every political party and any curbs on such right would amount to infringement of the fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) of the Constitution.

Moreover, when in a democratic society the right of a political party to call for non-cooperation or a general strike was accepted, the question would arise whether the complete ban of a bandh was consistent with the right of citizens to form an association as well as the citizens right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution.

The CPM said in its SLP that the High Court had failed to see the fact that there was no specific law to prevent calling of general strikes and that a writ did not lie against a political party and also stated that there were enough legal provisions to deal with any untoward incident during the bandh.

The HC had pointed out that the political parties for the purpose of getting registration under the Representation of People Act give a declaration that they would owe allegiance to the Constitution and abide by it and therefore had the responsibility to respect the fundamental rights of the citizens.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.