Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition seeking to declare the police action against those booked for waving black flags at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers illegal and unconstitutional.
The decision to dismiss the pleas was taken by a division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Murali Purushothaman. The demand in the petition was that compensation should be given to those who faced black flag protests and the information of such cases registered during the past three years should be made available.
The petitioner is Sam Joseph, a native of Perumbavoor.
The detailed order giving reasons for dismissing the plea is not yet available, advocate Rajesh Vijayan, who appeared for the petitioner, said.
The matter assumes significance as many Youth Congress workers were arrested or put in preventive detention in the last few days for waving black flags at the Kerala CM, or allegedly planning to do so, while he was in Kozhikode and other districts of the state.
The petition was related to the detention of transgenders while participating in the Kochi Metro program, The police detained them for wearing black clothes.
The transgenders had claimed they were on their way to the metro station but the police took them into custody as they were wearing a black dress and the CM was attending a programme nearby.
The police on the other hand had contended that the duo were BJP workers, who had arrived there to protest.
The Congress and the BJP had staged widespread protests and waved black flags at Vijayan at various places last year after the disclosures made by Swapna Suresh, an accused in the gold-smuggling through diplomatic bags case.
Black flag protests meet CM in Kannur
Mewanwhile, black flags were waved at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's convoy here again today by the activists of the Kerala Students Union (KSU).
The protest was staged at Anjarakandi as the CM was on his way to the Kannur International Airport to fly back to Thiruvananthapuram. Last night too, similar protests were staged at Taliparamba and Pariyaram, both in Kannur district.
The CM reached Thiruvananthapuram by 11 am and later headed to the Cliff House, his official residence. From there he travelled to the Kerala Arts and Crafts Village at Vellar for an event organised by the Malayalam Mission at 12 noon. He will also be taking part in the programme at Ayyankali Hall, where the renewed ration cards will be distributed.
Manorama News reported that it's not sure whether the same level of security measures for CM, followed in the past few days, will be in place on Tuesday as well in the State Capital.
