Bombay High Court judge Justice Madhav Jamdar found himself under the spotlight this past week after his oral remarks during a politically charged hearing went viral online.
Justice Jamdar sharply criticised the action of Mumbai police to extern Chaudhary, a former Lok Sabha candidate, from Mumbai and adjoining areas for a period of one year.
In his judgment striking down the externment order, Justice Jamdar held that protesting against decisions of the government or raising slogans against it cannot constitute a valid ground for expulsion of a citizen from any area.
In a post on X, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee hailed Justice Jamdar for his courage to stand by constitutional freedoms and remind the country what judicial independence means.
During the hearing, Justice Jamdar also remarked that on the same day a ten-year-old child had died in a road accident, the State Assembly was busy debating the election of its presiding officer.
Bombay High Court judge Justice Madhav Jamdar found himself under the spotlight this past week after his oral remarks during a politically charged hearing went viral online.
The case dealt with an externment order (order banning/ expelling an individual from a locality/ district) passed by Mumbai Police against Saeed Ahmad Abdul Wahid Chaudhary, the Maharashtra State general secretary of the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
Justice Jamdar sharply criticised the action of Mumbai police to extern Chaudhary, a former Lok Sabha candidate, from Mumbai and adjoining areas for a period of one year.
The judge asked why slogans like ‘BJP government murdabad’ and ‘Amit Shah murdabad’ attracted the measure of externment passed by a deputy commissioner of Mumbai police. He also referred to the recent protests happening across the country over examination paper leaks and said that "citizens were being made slaves of the Indian Government".
The judge orally remarked that police officers are authorities answerable to the public and not functionaries of the ministers.
Justice Jamdar emphasised that citizens are entitled to protest and agitate against government decisions and the police could not pass externment orders to banish people from their own city merely for protesting or sloganeering.
In his judgment striking down the externment order, Justice Jamdar held that protesting against decisions of the government or raising slogans against it cannot constitute a valid ground for expulsion of a citizen from any area.
"Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India inter alia contemplates that not only the citizens have the freedom of speech and expression, but they also have the right to live with dignity. The action taken by State of Maharashtra of externing Chaudhary, merely for opposing certain decisions of the Government of India, affects the Petitioner's fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression and also right to live with dignity," the judgment read.
The judgment and more so, his oral remarks, quickly made the rounds on social media. Apart from netizens, political parties were also quick to comment on the judge's remarks.
In a post on X, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee hailed Justice Jamdar for his courage to stand by constitutional freedoms and remind the country what judicial independence means.
Even though the judgement is specific to the facts of Chaudhary's case, the judge's comments have been lauded as a reaffirmation of the constitutional right to protest at a moment when the use of externment, preventive detention and similar administrative powers against government critics has come under sustained public scrutiny.
During the hearing, Justice Jamdar also remarked that on the same day a ten-year-old child had died in a road accident, the State Assembly was busy debating the election of its presiding officer. In a lighter vein, he even suggested that Chaudhary could consider switching sides, since "horse-trading" was under way across the State of Maharashtra and that doing so would put his pending FIRs through the ruling party's proverbial "washing machine".
