Madras High Court Bars Protests Targeting Judges and Orders Online Monitoring

The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu police to deny permission for public meetings or marches that aim to personally target, defame or intimidate sitting judges. The court also ordered officers to immediately end any permitted assembly that turns into a personal attack and take appropriate legal action.

The ruling came from a division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan in a public interest litigation filed by R Karthikeyan. The case followed protests against a June 25 judgment of the Madurai Bench passed by Justices GR Swaminathan and PB Balaji.

“Citizens have an undeniable right to disagree with a judgment. However, there is a clear legal line between criticizing a legal conclusion and attacking the individual judge who authored it.”

The court held that citizens retain the right to criticise judicial decisions, but coordinated campaigns using abusive, defamatory or caste-based language against judges fall outside constitutional free speech protections. It cited reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2) of the Indian Constitution.

The bench added that a complete ban on public discussions of court rulings would infringe legitimate democratic expression. However, the state must ensure public spaces and digital networks are not used to threaten the safety and integrity of judicial institutions.

The court directed the state police Cyber Crime Division to maintain active surveillance over digital platforms and initiate swift legal action against online content that amounts to criminal intimidation of sitting judges. Applications for protests on judicial matters will be evaluated case by case under BNSS and local police Acts.

The court warned that if any public gathering turns into a personal attack on a judge, the event must be ended immediately and legal action taken.