A 2-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy, today (31 August 2015) dismissed the SLP filed by Pramod Muthalik, chief of Sri Ram Sene, against the State of Goa for lifting the ban on his entry in Goa. This SLP (Crl) No. 6958 of 2015 had been filed by him against the Bombay high court (Goa bench) order dated 2nd July 2015. It may be pointed out that the entry of Pramod Muthalik has been banned in Goa. In his SLP against the said order, he sought the stay of the ban imposed on his entry in Goa and described the ban order as “oppressive, repressive, unjust, unfair, arbitrary and clearly an abuse of process of law for extraneous and political reasons”.
The Supreme Court censured Sri Ram Sene headed by Pramod Muthalik for moral policing and assaulting women in its name and observed that ban on his entry in Goa was justified in view of his previous activities of moral policing and beating up women in the name of moral policing and that such ban was for maintaining peace. The court also observed that Pramod Muthalik must remain outside Goa for at least six months. It is noteworthy that Muthalik came into prominence in 2009 when he led a group of people to attack women visiting a Mangalore pub.
In his appeal, Muthalik had said that repeated prohibitory orders issued against him since last year violated his fundamental rights and that he wanted to visit Goa for religious purposes. He also said that when leaders like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi and Binayak Sen had not been banned from entering Goa, the ban on his entry was unjustified. However, the Supreme Court rejected his plea.
It is pertinent to point out that Article 19(1)(d) of the Constitution of India guarantees a fundamental right to all citizens to move freely throughout the territory of India. However, Article 19(5) permits a law which imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of this right either in the interests of the general public or for the protection of the interests of any Scheduled Tribe.
