Bombay High Court judge dismisses police action for ‘BJP Murdabad’ slogan

Saeed Ahmad Abdul Wahid Chaudhary (49), general secretary of the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI), had organised protests against the Union government — including amendments to the Citizenship Act and the Gyanvapi Masjid controversy since 2019. However, the externment order from Mumbai for a year was issued in December 2025 after five FIRs were mysteriously lodged against him in police stations. He was accused of raising and leading slogans such as ‘BJP Government Muradabad’ and ‘Amit Shah Muradabad’.

Why cannot citizens raise such slogans, asked justice Jamdar orally and added that it is the right of the citizens to protest. The judge also orally observed, reported Live Law, that "Police isn't the servant of the chief minister or the prime minister they are public servants... I am going to impose hefty costs on your officers...". Externing a citizen for opposing decisions of the government affected the citizen’s fundamental right to speech and dignity, the order read while quashing the externment order under Maharashtra Police Act. 

The single judge bench disposed of the victim’s plea and set aside the 3 December 2025 and 27 March 2026, orders passed by the deputy commissioner of police (Zone 6) and divisional commissioner, Konkan Division, respectively. The petitioner claimed that a show cause notice was served on him in October 2025 for multiple FIRs allegedly registered against him between 2019 and 2024. The externment orders effectively kept him away from Mumbai during civic elections, he pointed out. It amounted to stifling “legitimate democratic dissent, the petition claimed.”

All the FIRs were registered against the petitioner under IPC Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) for protests he organised or participated including those related to the government’s decisions on the CAA and NRC, the issue of the Babri Masjid, and the sealing at the Gyanvapi mosque, the court was informed. None of the petitioner’s actions could attract Section 56 of the Maharashtra Police Act empowering the police to pass an externment order against a person about to commit an offence of causing danger, injury to person or property.

Justice Jamdar noted that there was “no material on record to show that the movements or acts of the petitioner were causing or were calculated to cause alarm, danger or harm to person or property”. The judge also noted that the allegations related to an offence under Section 188 of the IPC, punishable with a maximum of a one-month jail term. The settled legal position is that an order of externment deprives a citizen of his fundamental right of free movement throughout the territory of India and is an extraordinary measure taken in exceptional circumstances, the order recorded.