Left parties deplore Bombay High Court linking protests with patriotism

The Mumbai Police had on 17 June, 2025 rejected an application filed by All India Peace and Solidarity Foundation (AIPSF) for permission to hold a peaceful protest in Mumbai's Azad Maidan - a designated site for protests and rallies.

On 25 July a division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad dismissed the petition filed by the CPI (Marxist) challenging the rejection of the AIPSF's application. The Bench noted that the petitioner had not applied for permission to Bombay Police and, therefore, had no locus to challenge the denial of permission.

Justice Ghuge in particular made several embarrassing observations questioning the need for a protest against what is happening in Gaza, thousands of kilometres away from India. It was not very patriotic, he felt, of the petitioners to ignore civic issues affecting citizens here in the country. He also wondered why the protest was being planned while the policy of the Government of India regarding Gaza was different. He advised the petitioners to let the external affairs ministry deal with international affairs.

Here are some of Justice Ghuge’s observations as reported by Live Law:  

·      Our country has several issues to deal with...We don't want anything like this. I am sorry to say, you are all short-sighted...You are looking at Gaza and Palestine... Why don't you do something for our own country... Be patriots... Speaking for Gaza and Palestine is not patriotism... Speak up for the causes in our own country... Practice what you preach... 

·      We are curious…you have no issue with respect to our own country...something productive for our own country... They are fighting 1000s of miles away and you are showing concern for Palestine, Gaza etc. You can take up social issues and local issues like flooding, drainages getting blocked... parking illegally... Why aren't you protesting against such issues? 

·      Where our own citizens or common man is not concerned why are you taking up that cause...Throwing garbage anywhere is not an issue? Do we have so much time to spend hearing such a matter when we have hundreds of cases of our own citizens listed? Are these not our constitutional issues? 

·      Whether to take a side for Palestine or Israel is their (Govt of India) work, why do you want to create such a situation that the country has to take sides on this? You don't know the dust it could kick up…It's obvious, going by the party you represent that you don't understand what this could do to the foreign affairs of the country" 

The judges were unimpressed by arguments offered by senior advocate Mihir Desai, who tried to tell the judges that the protest had nothing to do with Operation Sindoor or with India’s border relations with any neighbouring country.

"We want to just protest at the designated area in Azad Maidan. This petition is about our right to free speech and expression," he told the court. He also informed the court that the petitioners had taken up several causes that concerned Indian citizens in India and that the petition is also about the right of Indian citizens to hold a peaceful protest.

Instead, the judges felt that the right to freedom and free speech were being misused in the country and called upon the petitioners to show patriotism for the citizens of our own country first. The genocide in Gaza should be best left to the country's external affairs ministry, especially when the stance of the petitioners differs with the one by the Government of India.

The unusual verdict raised eyebrows. The Left parties were not amused. “Shocker of a verdict from the Bombay High Court dismissing the petition against the Mumbai police refusal to permit a protest rally against the genocide in Gaza. The court has asked petitioners to be patriotic and keep quiet about the world. Patriotism is not blind isolationism,” exclaimed Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the CPI(ML).

The Communist party of India also issued a statement deploring the ‘disturbing and politically prejudiced observations’.

“The rejection of the petition, based not on legal merit but on sweeping and anti-democratic comments, marks a serious erosion of constitutional values and internationalist solidarity. The bench’s remarks questioning our right to raise the Palestinian issue, and equating it with a lack of patriotism, strike at the very heart of India’s democratic ethos,” the statement went on to say.

Pointing out that Mahatma Gandhi and freedom fighters considered the struggle of Palestinians as our own, the statement said, “By mocking this tradition, the Bombay High Court has done disservice not just to the judiciary, but to the history and conscience of our republic.”