Hyderabad: High Court dismisses PIL seeking permission for Bonalu procession in Old City
TS High Court
Surprisingly, the petitioner himself does not belong to the majority community. I like to ask the petitioner how many times you have participated in the Bonalu procession, CJ questioned
Hyderabad: The High Court on Saturday dismissed the prayer urging the court to direct the State government to grant permission to conduct Bonalu procession in the Old City of Hyderabad on July 20. The PIL was filed by former president of BJP Minority Morcha Haneef Ali. The High Court Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy got irked by the plea and dismissed it as infructuous.
Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan pointed out that it is between the police authority and the petitioner. Your petition is highly misplaced and funny, in fact, this petition should be dismissed with a heavy cost.
Even an order has been passed by the Government saying that we prohibit the procession. You are not even challenged by an order passed from the government. Surprisingly the petitioner himself does not belong to the majority community. I like to ask the petitioner how many times you have participated in the Bonalu procession, CJ questioned.
This is a politically motivated PIL, it should be discouraged with the heaviest of the cost. Someone who does not even belong to the community and will observe that festival is coming before this court and saying please permit the majority community to follow the festival, the bench said. In fact, the petitioner should have also realised that there is a circular from the Central government which says no large gathering will be permitted except for the purpose of a funeral or a marriage. And even there the limitation is for marriage 50 people and for funeral 20 persons only allowed. It's neither a funeral nor a marriage. You should have not filed such a frivolous petition and the bench warned you not to file such a plea in future.
The Chief Justice Bench dismissed the plea as in fructuous.