Mumbai, Oct 16 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Friday questioned the “locus standi” or authority of the petitioners while hearing petitions filed by the Congress and Communist Party of India (CPI) challenging the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act (MSPSA).
A bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna directed the petitioners to submit documents establishing their credentials and authority to represent the organisations.
The Congress, CPI and a few social activists had filed petitions in the HC against the validity of the Act, claiming that it would “suppress constitutionally protected peaceful and legitimate dissent.”
The Act seeks to prevent “unlawful activities” of Left Wing Extremist organisations or similar outfits. Among other things, it criminalises having membership of an unlawful organisation. Even a non-member can be punished for raising funds for such an organisation or assisting in its management.
It also empowers the state government to declare any suspected organisation as an “unlawful organisation”.
The court on Friday sought details of the petitioners and the organisations they represented. It asked them to provide registration certificates, the names of office-bearers and the organisations’ constitutions.
“We want to see who you are representing,” the Chief Justice said.
The bench indicated that without the necessary documents, it would not proceed to examine the merits of the petitions.
Senior advocate Navroz Seervai, appearing for one of the petitioners, argued that the term “urban Naxalism” was being used as a pretext to target legitimate democratic activities and dissent.
The Act’s provisions were drastic and could create fear among people seeking to organise meetings or express their views, he said.
“If a government, in its subjective satisfaction, believes that those holding a meeting are left-wing, then those people’s houses can be expropriated,” Seervai argued.
He also questioned the basis for identifying individuals or organisations as left-wing, pointing out that neither left-wing nor right-wing ideology is proscribed by the Constitution.
The court posted the matter for further hearing on October 22.
The petitions claimed that the Act confers “wide-ranging, arbitrary and excessive powers” on the executive to ban organisations and attach their properties based on vague and overbroad definitions of unlawful activity and unlawful organisation.
The petitions sought the HC to declare the Act as unconstitutional and violative of the fundamental rights.
They also sought an interim stay to the enforcement of the Act until the court decides the issue. PTI SP KRK
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